Johnson Controls has announced a one-stop shop for companies looking to achieve net zero carbon and renewable energy goals in their buildings.

The OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings as a service. offering recognises the need for assistance in making these goals easier to plan, execute, track and achieve.

“The need for making net zero leadership easier to achieve is immediate and greater than ever,” said George Oliver, CEO of Johnson Controls. “Buildings represent about 40% of global emissions and Johnson Controls is uniquely positioned to help customers around the world pursue their net zero carbon goals. Our proprietary research echoes the demand, prioritisation and urgency for support that businesses, governments and global leaders are calling for. Our as-a-service model looks to provide our customers with guaranteed outcomes and risk management models to achieve emission reduction commitments that ultimately lead to healthier buildings, people, places and the planet.”

To ensure alignment with the needs of its customers and prospects, in May Johnson Controls commissioned a survey of 1046 North American professionals responsible for building operations, facilities management, and energy and sustainability management across various industry verticals and building types.

Over 90% of respondents have goals to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption by 2030 or beyond with over 60% of respondents targeting a 50% or greater reduction. Goals include increasing building performance and value, positively impacting the surrounding community, and talent attraction and retention.

The OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings as a service portfolio includes sustainability offerings tailored to schools, campuses, data centres, healthcare facilities, and commercial and industry players. Understanding the market trends, industry requirements and investment pitfalls is important in making large sustainability decisions.

Johnson Controls says it is helping companies stay abreast of important trends and technology innovations that feed into a customised roadmap highlighting opportunities and managing risks and uncertainties against a rapidly changing regulatory environment.

Additional results from the survey revealed that respondents’ top five pathways and their drivers for sustainability and net zero lean into as-a-service capabilities, including improving energy efficiency, integrating onsite renewables, electrifying buildings, incorporating offsite renewables and adding grid interactive capabilities. However, almost all respondents are facing challenges across these pathways while also feeling pressure to move quickly.

Over 90% of respondents plan to pursue a Leed certification and yet run into problems with measuring emissions, the largest being how to aggregate data from multiple sources. Digital technology is needed to solve this and other measurement problems.

Supporting this, Johnson Controls has created OpenBlue Net Zero Advisor. This can deliver real-time, AI-driven tracking and reporting of sustainability metrics, helping facilities managers ensure and prove the net zero carbon reduction and renewable energy impact of their buildings.

Based on criteria such as Leed certification, the technology automatically gathers and analyses data about energy, water, materials and greenhouse gas emissions involved in every phase of a building`s lifecycle and proves CO₂ reductions, renewable energy and efficiency gains. This can generate energy and environmental outcomes to improve building operations.

The Irish firm’s suite of connected sustainability services is offered through flexible risk sharing models that enable tailored deal structures where end users pay for expected outcomes rather than assets. Through options for simple, fixed-fee models, Johnson Controls takes on the responsibility for upfront capital decisions, design and construction, and decarbonisation goal achievement and reporting.

“The need and demand for a 360-degree net zero carbon solution is clear,” said Katie McGinty, vice president at Johnson Controls. “Businesses, governments and global coalitions have all set ambitious sustainability goals over the next two decades, with many aspiring for decarbonisation by 2030. We offer a unique service and partnership model that allows customers to focus on their industry core competencies and revenue-generating activities while we drive customised steps for planning, execution and reporting that flex to the specific needs of each sustainability journey.”

The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) headquarters will be the tallest, largest and smartest net zero energy government building in the world. Dewa partnered with Johnson Controls and Microsoft to implement digital twin technologies, IoT, cyber security, artificial intelligence and smart building management. The total energy used in the building during a year will be equal to or less than the energy produced on-site. It is expected to use up to 50% less water than comparable buildings.

The Powerhouse Alliance, a ten-year old Norwegian collaboration for innovation in energy, wanted to build a net zero energy smart building that would serve as an example for the northern hemisphere. Johnson Controls helped design a complete energy system that harvests twice the energy of the building’s annual consumption and draws heating and cooling energy from the ocean while sharing it with the building and other surrounding structures. All systems are tracked on a digital dashboard that details occupancy, comfort and sustainability in given zones. The building in Trondheim produces more electricity than it consumes daily and supplies renewable energy to itself, neighbouring buildings, electric buses, cars and boats through a local microgrid.

Colorado State University (CSU) Pueblo is the first 100% solar-powered battery storage university in Colorado. It achieves net zero electric efficiency, which means the solar panels will provide 100% net solar production for academic buildings on the campus. Johnson Controls installed a 23-acre solar farm with battery storage that supplies twelve million kilowatt hours of electricity.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Johnson Controls formed a collaboration on smart buildings research. Researchers at the NUS School of Design & Environment leveraged the Johnson Controls OpenBlue innovation centre on the campus to drive machine learning research to accelerate the conversion of IoT data into the Brick Schema, a standard model for data labels in buildings. This open-source schema describes smart buildings and their subsystems in a format that enables software to connect more easily and quickly into a larger number of buildings. As a result, a consistent schema across buildings supports better understanding of metadata usage across all building types, improving sustainability and operational efficiency. This paves the way for more use of AI in building management and autonomous buildings.