Johnson Controls has introduced an all-in-one application to empower building operators to track sustainability, health and wellness metrics while reducing energy use, water use, waste and carbon footprint.

The OpenBlue Performance Advisor application expands on the capabilities of Johnson’s OpenBlue Enterprise Manager, supporting organisations seeking to achieve clean air and sustainability targets through data tracking software, artificial intelligence and intuitive dashboards that follow indoor air quality and energy consumption and deliver clean air and decarbonisation recommendations in one clear, comprehensive view.

The intelligent software also supports the management of employee health, productivity and tenant experiences while helping improve indoor air quality and comfort.

OpenBlue Enterprise Manager helps facilities managers optimise building portfolio performance through data analytics and artificial intelligence. This is a suite of applications used to monitor and improve indoor air quality, energy efficiency, tenant satisfaction, asset performance, maintenance operations, space performance and the comfort of occupants. It supports smart building capabilities for property portfolios ranging across commercial offices, healthcare, mixed use high-end, transportation, retail and K-12 school systems.

The Performance Advisor application follows the single pane of glass approach, bringing together various sources of data into one view that makes it simple to monitor and act on various factors at the same time.

Analytics and AI have historically focused on solving one problem at a time – clean air, energy/carbon, wellness, asset health, comfort, experience, space use and so on. However, the Performance Advisor application gives users control over making integrated choices traversing data silos, rather than following static standard operating procedures.

The proprietary algorithm measures parameters such as zone size, occupancy, mask usage and weather forecasts and predicts chances of infection spread. It provides recommendations to facilities managers that improve the building performance, ranging from maximum disinfection to energy reduction, depending on the given needs of a space at a specific moment. A key element of this is the OpenBlue Infection Risk Score, providing additional information to improve decision making.

“Supporting healthy and sustainable buildings is at the core of Johnson Controls priorities and the services we bring to market,” said Mike Ellis, executive vice president at Johnson Controls. “Helping our planet heal and reducing the impact of climate change is part of being a good global citizen and a key moral imperative that drives our business. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors continue to grow in importance for building owners and facilities managers in attracting additional investment and tenants. An all-in-one solution that supports elevation of ESG goals while also ensuring occupant safety and comfort addresses the priority needs of our customers in a single, elegant solution.”

One example of customer value is in right-sizing automated energy efficiency. The algorithms use historical operating data and space characteristics to build a dynamic model of each room in a structure, to predict future temperature, air quality and airflow. Models are then used to optimise the desired performance criteria such as energy cost or infection risk.

Performance Advisor also optimises space use. The application leverages occupancy tracking data and recommends movement of people to alternate spaces. This approach supports the movement of people and resources from over-used to under-used spaces while suggesting adjustments to HVAC and lighting systems.

To validate the effectiveness of the application, Johnson Controls collaborated with Martin Bazant, professor of chemical engineering and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the accuracy of infection transmission and air flow models, which are core underlying mathematical models for Performance Advisor.

“These models are the first to predict the risk of airborne disease transmission in realistic building simulations, thus allowing HVAC systems to be optimised for public health, as well as comfort and energy efficiency,” said Bazant.