Introducing Metrikus’ new Energy and Building Sustainability team

Here at Metrikus, everything we do centers around helping companies to make their buildings more efficient in every way – benefitting both people and the planet.

In an exciting step, we’ve now set up a whole team dedicated to ‘Energy and Building Sustainability’.

Headed up by James Palmer (JP), the department will focus on maximising the benefit our customers can get from their energy and building management system (BMS) data.

For this blog post, we thought we’d interview JP to get all the need-to-know information, including why the department has been set up, what it will be focusing on, and how it can help you.

Why has the new department been created?

When I started working in building services nearly 30 years ago, energy prices were low and stable, and companies were not that interested in finding ways to reduce their usage.

But now, with rocketing prices and the rise of ESG, businesses are finally interested in making their spaces more efficient and sustainable.

And lucky for them, the Metrikus Energy and Building Sustainability department is here to help them to do just that.

Why are buildings often so inefficient?

People who construct and fit out buildings are working on ever-tightening margins, ridiculous timelines, and can get massively penalised for going over budget or deadline.

Ultimately, contractual requirements end up motivating them to deliver the minimum spec compliant system possible in order for them to have any chance of making a profit.

The tenants are rarely considered, but they’re the ones that end up having to deal with the systems they inherit.

What does this mean in practical terms? 

All of this means that sensors or features that are seen as nice-to-haves end up getting value engineered out of the project. 

BMS engineers are under such big time and financial constraints that they can’t afford to do the great job they want to do. For example, instead of implementing a beautifully optimized control strategy for the heating system, they just have to make sure the heating actually comes on in the morning.

At the end of the day, no one gets rewarded for doing a great job of control. You only get rewarded if you come in under budget and on time, and  you can only win the job in the first place if you sabotage yourself on price!

So how can we make buildings more efficient?

Following on from my last point, BMS systems can be configured to respond to the way our buildings are used, but they rarely are.

Some modern contracts and specs now call for this, so times are changing, but we need to focus on optimizing legacy systems in existing buildings, too.

Luckily, we’ve got the perfect solution to fix this problem. By adding sensors into buildings, Metrikus provides workplace teams with all the data they need to optimize their BMS and drive building efficiency.

What will the department be focusing on?

As the name suggests, our team will be covering all things energy and building sustainability. 

A couple of specific examples would be helping customers to integrate live data back into their BMS or HVAC  systems so they respond to actual usage, and providing data-driven insights, visualizations and specifications to reduce energy consumption.

We will also be working on creating specifications for bespoke projects to deliver a quick return on investment for our customers.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

At this point, I’m just excited to get cracking and help as many customers as possible to get the most from their energy and BMS data.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, or you can get in touch with the Metrikus team via our website.