It was once a sacrilege to even talk about tearing down Yankee Stadium, the
house that Ruth built, and building a new and better version.
But that’s exactly what the Yankees did in 2009, joining scores of other
owners and city governments to rebuild stadiums to improve the fan
experience and increase revenue – and also targeting longer-term
sustainability goals.
One of Yankee Stadium’s ecologically intelligent measures
is the natural cooling and ventilation in the stadium’s great hall entryway,
controlled by automation technologies designed to identify and eliminate
wasted or inefficient energy use.
How digital transformation initiatives can impact ESG objectives
CIOs seek opportunities for investing in digital transformations by
identifying ways to develop new digital services, improve customer
experiences, develop analytics as competitive competencies, and establish a
future of work. Enterprises in media, entertainment, and retail industries
had to invest in digital capabilities early or face disruption from faster
competitors or startups.
But businesses in building services, facility management, data centers,
manufacturing, industrials, and utilities didn’t have the same urgencies.
In a recent
S&P Market Intelligence Report commissioned by Eaton, only 50% of executives from these industries
said they are in the execution phase of digital transformation. The other
47% are in consideration, and 3% acknowledge they don’t have a digital
strategy.
The race to
industry 4.0
is just starting. Leaders looking to justify investments in smart buildings,
advanced factories, and highly efficient data centers have a new way to show
financial returns and align with strategic goals.
The intersection of digital transformation and the energy
transition report shows that the digital transformation of over 40% of respondents
includes addressing energy efficiency and supporting ESG business
priorities. These companies hope to reduce electrical consumption from the
grid, from 47% today to 35% in the future, while they increase renewable
sources from 25 to 53 percent.
CIOs can use these goals and benchmarks to justify investments and digital
transformation initiatives. Let’s consider three questions IT leaders can
explore where digital investments can yield cost savings, power transition,
and other sustainability benefits.
How are you monitoring power consumption?
CIOs can start with the basics. IT operations have monitoring tools that
track system utilization, alert on issues, capture costs, and report
consumption trends.
What about the facility management team? Do they have an
electrical power monitoring system
(EPMS), and if they do, is it modernized to support today’s business
needs?
The U.S. Energy Information shares
energy consumption benchmarks
by floorspace, building type, year constructed, U.S region, climate zone,
and several other dimensions. While you can get gross consumption metrics
from a utility bill, an EPMS provides more granular energy reporting and
ways to reduce costs.
Monitoring consumption can lead to enabling more sustainable and reliable
power plans. With the right tools and data, facility managers can compare
actual utilization against benchmarks and seek improvements in the areas
with the greatest opportunities.
The report shares
other smart building use cases, including transitioning to renewable energy sources (40%) and developing
in-building microgrids (33%).
How are you optimizing power consumption in your data centers?
According to one recent survey,
80% are optimizing hybrid cloud,
and many organizations operate legacy data centers. Another survey reports
that 54% of organizations are either utilizing or
>planning to utilize edge computing technologies within 12 months, with another 30% having plans to evaluate edge deployments over the next
12 to 24 months.
The notion of green data centers isn’t new, and many IT teams have
transitioned to lower energy-consuming infrastructure. There are
opportunities for greater energy and cooling optimizations by becoming more
data-driven and investing in a
data center infrastructure management
platform. This platform helps with capacity planning, environmental
monitoring, and asset management.
Where will digital twins provide business agility?
How can a utility company
double the amount of carbon-free electricity supplied to the grid
to 80% by 2030?
How can a manufacturer create an immersive and on-demand training experience
with a
70% higher long-term retention rate
while improving efficiency by double-digit percentages?
The underlying systems delivering these outcomes include digital twins and
AR/VR experiences.
McKinsey reports
that 70% of C-suite technology executives at large enterprises are exploring
and investing in digital twins.
Any company connecting the physical and digital worlds can benefit from
developing a digital twin, and they are used to simulate real-world
conditions and model changes. One use case is modeling energy consumption
and testing new heating and cooling scenarios in hospitals, schools, and
office buildings.
A digital twin is a force-multiplying investment as it can pay off in
multiple ways, including meeting power reduction, power transition, and
other sustainability goals.
Whether deploying a digital twin, reducing power consumption, or shifting to
sustainable energy sources, CIOs have growing opportunities to use
sustainability and ESG objectives to drive digital transformation in their
organizations.
For more information, download the latest report from Eaton Corporation
and 451 Research on “The intersection of digital transformation and the energy transition.”
This blog is sponsored by Eaton Corporation.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do
not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Eaton.
