Honeywell recently announced the launch of Honeywell Forge for Buildings, a comprehensive approach to building systems operations and management that can be used at a single site or with an entire portfolio. Unveiled at Honeywell Connect 2023, Honeywell Forge for Buildings features software, hardware and services that deliver on key outcomes to help building owners and operators achieve sustainability, operational efficiency, occupant experience, compliance, safety and security, and resilience goals.
“Building operations is evolving at a rapid pace as many customers work to digitalize their facilities. This means they need better integration and enablement capabilities of their smart building applications and solutions,” said Kevin Dehoff, President and Chief Executive Officer, Honeywell Connected Enterprise. “We are integrating our purpose-built products that support multiple assets in a building with the SaaS capabilities of Honeywell Forge to create a singular approach to building operations. The goal is to make it simpler for our customers to address business-critical outcomes.”
One key outcome building owners and operators are looking to address is sustainability. Featured in the launch are expanded capabilities of the Honeywell Forge Sustainability+ for buildings, carbon and energy management application.
Building owners and managers face increasing pressure to accelerate their digital sustainability transformation plans as well as improve indoor air quality (IAQ). Data from the World Economic Forum suggests that approximately 80% of today’s buildings will still be standing in 2050 – which means the challenge of controlling escalating energy use, particularly in older buildings, to meet carbon reduction targets will only increase.
Carbon and Energy Management is a ready-now, cloud-based application. It helps assist building owners and operators optimize IAQ, help reduce energy use and support their carbon reduction goals. The Carbon and Energy Management Optimize package enables zone-specific optimization of energy consumption and IAQ parameters based on real-time occupancy levels and space use. It uses sensor data and ML algorithms to continuously monitor and automatically adjust building controls at the zone level.
The vendor-agnostic solution connects to a building management system (BMS) and can work across many types of assets, such as HVAC and lighting operations, to help building owners to continuously optimize operations and reduce energy consumption. It adjusts the setpoints in near real-time based on actual demand, occupancy, time and weather to determine the most optimal energy savings strategy without impacting the comfort of the building occupants.
“Carbon and Energy Management effectively disproves the misconception that improved indoor air quality has to come at the expense of energy efficiency,” said Billal Hammoud, president and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell Building Technologies. “Our solution will enable building owners and facility managers to support their occupants’ well-being while also managing energy costs and carbon impact. They no longer need to operate on the assumption that these two imperatives are mutually exclusive.”
