How autonomous buildings solve a significant portion of global emissions

Does the intro of the article sound too good to be true? It’s certainly not! In fact, at Healthy Workers, we're already hard at work to make this a reality. By making buildings autonomous, we're solving a significant portion of the global emission problem – and we can't do it quickly enough. 

Just think: if we were to make all buildings on the planet perform to their full capacity using existing control technology tomorrow, we'd solve 5 to 10 percent of the emission problem. And that's without additional sustainability investments. This means owners could save up to 50 percent on energy costs – a win-win situation.

Sustainability for both new and old buildings

Because our software seamlessly integrates with any Building Management System (BMS), it doesn't matter if your building is old or new – no excuses. This means we can also make buildings that have been around for many years more sustainable. And you don't even have to make expensive investments. 

We're pragmatic in our approach. Together we discover how to optimize the building as-is, preferably without additional hardware investments. In the worst-case scenario, this means a minimal set of sensors to obtain the missing and necessary data to optimize a building.

This doesn't mean there's such a thing as “one AI”. Algorithms that work best vary from building to building and are trained per building using machine learning. And we do this with a dedicated team of specialists. 

Our machine learning algorithm even reached the state-of-the-art level. We developed our product entirely in-house, collaborating with the Vrije Universiteit – something to be proud of.

How Healthy Workers uses machine learning 

We develop and test various machine learning models ourselves. This way, we arrive at the best combinations. Soon, our platform will have an AI playground. Meaning, we predict specific components that can also be used directly in practice. This demonstrates the power of AI without immediately taking over all the tasks of the installer.

Moving towards autonomous buildings

Ultimately, autonomous buildings are the goal. So, as time goes by, we'll offer more and more full automations. Of course, we'll always continue to collaborate with managers and installers. 

Healthy Workers is a tech company but also a service organization. The battle between man and machine is unfair. Software is simply better at managing a building management system.

But that doesn't make people redundant. On the contrary, it's essential to see where we can strengthen each other and which repetitive tasks Healthy Workers, for example, can take over. 

This makes the entire market more efficient. Especially because we're gradually involving all stakeholders in our approach by informing and training them well. This prepares them to transition to the digital regulation of building management systems.

Conquering the Netherlands with collaborations and knowledge

Of course, this is just the beginning. We're making great strides – poised to conquer the Netherlands – and we're far from done. The plan? Establish even more valuable collaborations with market parties and knowledge institutions. 

And that’s not it. We want to train and retrain personnel to keep up with the rapid pace of the transition. Finally, we'll continue to share our knowledge and successes with you.

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In the AI in real estate blog series, we’ll take you along in the rapid developments of AI and machine learning in the coming period. We will explain how it is changing the real estate world forever, what our vision is, and tell you about our AI developments concerning autonomously managed buildings.