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April's members-only SME Workshop was a master class in showing how a roadmap to Net Zero includes operational technologies. Speakers Lee Hodgkinson and Nicholas Dumoulin outlined Dream's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions across their portfolio of owned and managed properties by 2050. The presentation explains that this commitment includes both direct and indirect emissions from the properties, and will require the implementation of various strategies and technologies to achieve.
Dream is an asset manager, owner and developer of real estate. Founded in 1994 with a vision to revolutionize theway people live and work, Dream has become one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, with over $22 billion inassets under management amongst our five publicly listed entities, private funds and institutional partnerships.
Dream’s purpose is to Build Better Communities. ESG and Impact are ingrained in how we manage our buildings andrun our business. Our commitment to sustainability aligns with our values and guides how we think, live and work.
“When you see a commitment, we believe that there's got to be five elements to that commitment for you to really say, Okay, this is a credible commitment.”
“Step one is really this identify baseline and missions piece. Where are your emissions coming from? Understanding that and technology is going to play big role in that. So, you know, whether that's, you know, utility bill collection and analysis software. So, you know, grabbing energy and water, and other things from these utility bills and converting that into GHG emissions.
You know, we used to do that with spreadsheets, we used to do that really manually. Now, there's excellent software's available that, you know, can do is much faster, you know, using OCR to scrape, you know, scrape data from PDFs, but also, API's to the utility companies themselves. These are, you know, really reducing the roadblocks on this data collection and analysis piece.
Not to mention, there's a tenant piece to this too, which is maybe we don't as the landlord get access to all the bills. So what are we going to do that that's been a real big pain point in the industry, for sure. And software is playing a big role with that. Another one I'll highlight is real time metering. So, you know, maybe we don't have great, you know, utility data coverage, like maybe we get a bill once a quarter once every other month, things like that, well, we still need to do stuff at the site. And we still need that data to understand our emissions, and how do we troubleshoot them?”
“Net Zero roadmaps for us are pretty straightforward. We break it down down this: if we're gonna build something, it's got to be as efficient as we can get it. Second, we need to conserve energy. And as much as we can on the sites, then we need to retrofit for energy efficiency, then we need to select a low carbon fuel, and then whatever is left, energy wise, we need to try to generate renewable power, in order to make sure that power, that energy is clean, or we need to buy offsets.
And so we're committed to only a maximum of 10% offsets, that's again, something that you should kind of ask people about when you hear about their mission, their commitments as well. And that, you know, this is kind of an example of what that visually looks like, which is, you know, getting from that baseline, that first column, if you will, all the way down to zero, which is the last column.”
“The last piece of our, you know, let's say delivery strategy, and how we hold ourselves accountable, is establishing that governance and transparency. So I think it's important for everyone to also be aware of these, you know, very prominent organizations, whether it's un PRI, or net zero asset managers.
There's many of them these days that large companies like ours are committing to, and those organizations are starting to provide software tools to report progress. Other examples would be science based targets initiative, SBTI, as well as GRESB, and CREM. So those tools are going to be used by asset managers.
And so companies like yourselves that are out there in this technology space, you know, think about what you want to replace them with, or how you should be instead of replacing them connecting to them and leveraging them and, and some of the things that we can use these tools for us dynamically tracking, changes in these variables that affect our decisions, such as the grid, carbon intensity, utility costs, actual building consumption, or even just the simple thing of acquisitions and dispositions and how that affects our data.”
“A lot of our assets, especially in the office space, where I spend a lot of my time, still have pneumatic controls, because the assets are actually quite old. Some of them are historic buildings, quite architecturally beautiful.
But they also have these hairy legacy control components. So we really need to bring them up to modern control standard, so that we have the flexibility to change our control strategies. And we get visibility on all those sensors and data in order for us to feed into some of the more advanced software like advanced supervisory control and fault detection diagnostics.”
“We want to ensure that the fixtures we're putting in place are dimmable and controllable. And so we're you know, we are upgrading fixtures, but also the controls. So we're putting in occupancy sensors, and daylight harvesting sensors as well to pair into this so that we can run our lighting as efficiently as possible. And then that's kind of the hardware component.
But then we also once again, utilizing the data. So we're taking the sensor data, and we tend to funnel it into a lot of our software applications. So once again, supervisory control, fault detection and diagnostics, or FDD, in our energy management platforms, so that all our teams or operation teams get visibility on this information, we're able to troubleshoot issues more effectively and optimize the system as we go along.
The other component is tenant engagement. So one of one of the key components is we don't have full control over all of the energy consumed in a building, we have to really work with the tenants that occupy the space to, you know, try to get them to change their behavior. And they're only going to change your behavior if they understand how their behavior affects that energy consumption. So we're also using these systems and the data. So in this particular case, we're sharing energy data from the lighting system toward the tenant engagement app, or platform so that tenants also have visibility on the energy consumption that they control.”
“Metering also plays a very important key component here. So I would put this into two buckets, utility meters. So these are typically your whole building or whole complex meter, where you only have a few for a property. So these ones are kind of key to help validate the billing and to get a little bit more live data coming in versus waiting for those the wave of utility bills coming in.
So this once again we feed into our software application gives our operations team live information and recommendations on how to optimize the systems and know Hey, oh, we have a fluctuation here that we weren't expecting. We're going to troubleshoot that now and saying, instead of waiting one or two months for the bill to come in and scratching our heads pay, what actually caused this spike and consumption right there, they're gonna get information right away. So we, we've already put a big push on the utility meters. And then the next bucket that we are starting to deploy, where it makes sense, it's submeters. So I, once again, split this out into two main buckets, key base building load. So these are, you know, equipment that are big energy hogs, your chillers, certain HVAC equipment, sometimes elevators, whatever, in a building that are really the big energy hog, we want to make sure we understand what they're actually consuming at any given time.
And then feed that in once again, to our, our software, or application layer, to, to analyze, and, and optimize. And we're going to connect that with the tenant engagement application, so that they can visibly see how they're affecting the consumption of the building. And hopefully, they can change their behavior, or that allows us to start dialogues with them on ‘Hey, this is something that you can do, that will actually, you know, save you cost, and also help decarbonize and be part of the success story here’.”
“Once again, I'd put this into two main buckets, just knowing whether a space is occupied or vacant, so on off, someone's in the room or not. A lot of times, we're trying to pull this data from the lighting system, because they're already the sensors are already there, installed in the system, it's just about making sure we have lighting systems that are open, allowing us to share that data with other systems.
So from that, we can pump that into our our applications once again. And you use this as another way that we can refine and optimize.
The next more advanced level, that is people counting. So generally, we are doing this one with IoT sensors, of different sorts. So there's a lot of different technologies, whether it be camera based, vision based, you know, thermal, or ultrasonic are some of the more popular version. And these are also starting to be used so that not only do we have an understanding of what there's someone in the room, but we want to understand how many people are in the space, so that we can actually adjust our loads dynamically, especially when it comes to HVAC control.”
—
Watch the full recording, hear the Q&A and discussion with other members, and get the full transcript on Nexus Connect.
“Net Zero roadmaps for us are pretty straightforward. We break it down down this: if we're gonna build something, it's got to be as efficient as we can get it. Second, we need to conserve energy. And as much as we can on the sites, then we need to retrofit for energy efficiency, then we need to select a low carbon fuel, and then whatever is left, energy wise, we need to try to generate renewable power, in order to make sure that power, that energy is clean, or we need to buy offsets.
And so we're committed to only a maximum of 10% offsets, that's again, something that you should kind of ask people about when you hear about their mission, their commitments as well. And that, you know, this is kind of an example of what that visually looks like, which is, you know, getting from that baseline, that first column, if you will, all the way down to zero, which is the last column.”
“The last piece of our, you know, let's say delivery strategy, and how we hold ourselves accountable, is establishing that governance and transparency. So I think it's important for everyone to also be aware of these, you know, very prominent organizations, whether it's un PRI, or net zero asset managers.
There's many of them these days that large companies like ours are committing to, and those organizations are starting to provide software tools to report progress. Other examples would be science based targets initiative, SBTI, as well as GRESB, and CREM. So those tools are going to be used by asset managers.
And so companies like yourselves that are out there in this technology space, you know, think about what you want to replace them with, or how you should be instead of replacing them connecting to them and leveraging them and, and some of the things that we can use these tools for us dynamically tracking, changes in these variables that affect our decisions, such as the grid, carbon intensity, utility costs, actual building consumption, or even just the simple thing of acquisitions and dispositions and how that affects our data.”
“A lot of our assets, especially in the office space, where I spend a lot of my time, still have pneumatic controls, because the assets are actually quite old. Some of them are historic buildings, quite architecturally beautiful.
But they also have these hairy legacy control components. So we really need to bring them up to modern control standard, so that we have the flexibility to change our control strategies. And we get visibility on all those sensors and data in order for us to feed into some of the more advanced software like advanced supervisory control and fault detection diagnostics.”
“We want to ensure that the fixtures we're putting in place are dimmable and controllable. And so we're you know, we are upgrading fixtures, but also the controls. So we're putting in occupancy sensors, and daylight harvesting sensors as well to pair into this so that we can run our lighting as efficiently as possible. And then that's kind of the hardware component.
But then we also once again, utilizing the data. So we're taking the sensor data, and we tend to funnel it into a lot of our software applications. So once again, supervisory control, fault detection and diagnostics, or FDD, in our energy management platforms, so that all our teams or operation teams get visibility on this information, we're able to troubleshoot issues more effectively and optimize the system as we go along.
The other component is tenant engagement. So one of one of the key components is we don't have full control over all of the energy consumed in a building, we have to really work with the tenants that occupy the space to, you know, try to get them to change their behavior. And they're only going to change your behavior if they understand how their behavior affects that energy consumption. So we're also using these systems and the data. So in this particular case, we're sharing energy data from the lighting system toward the tenant engagement app, or platform so that tenants also have visibility on the energy consumption that they control.”
“Metering also plays a very important key component here. So I would put this into two buckets, utility meters. So these are typically your whole building or whole complex meter, where you only have a few for a property. So these ones are kind of key to help validate the billing and to get a little bit more live data coming in versus waiting for those the wave of utility bills coming in.
So this once again we feed into our software application gives our operations team live information and recommendations on how to optimize the systems and know Hey, oh, we have a fluctuation here that we weren't expecting. We're going to troubleshoot that now and saying, instead of waiting one or two months for the bill to come in and scratching our heads pay, what actually caused this spike and consumption right there, they're gonna get information right away. So we, we've already put a big push on the utility meters. And then the next bucket that we are starting to deploy, where it makes sense, it's submeters. So I, once again, split this out into two main buckets, key base building load. So these are, you know, equipment that are big energy hogs, your chillers, certain HVAC equipment, sometimes elevators, whatever, in a building that are really the big energy hog, we want to make sure we understand what they're actually consuming at any given time.
And then feed that in once again, to our, our software, or application layer, to, to analyze, and, and optimize. And we're going to connect that with the tenant engagement application, so that they can visibly see how they're affecting the consumption of the building. And hopefully, they can change their behavior, or that allows us to start dialogues with them on ‘Hey, this is something that you can do, that will actually, you know, save you cost, and also help decarbonize and be part of the success story here’.”
“Once again, I'd put this into two main buckets, just knowing whether a space is occupied or vacant, so on off, someone's in the room or not. A lot of times, we're trying to pull this data from the lighting system, because they're already the sensors are already there, installed in the system, it's just about making sure we have lighting systems that are open, allowing us to share that data with other systems.
So from that, we can pump that into our our applications once again. And you use this as another way that we can refine and optimize.
The next more advanced level, that is people counting. So generally, we are doing this one with IoT sensors, of different sorts. So there's a lot of different technologies, whether it be camera based, vision based, you know, thermal, or ultrasonic are some of the more popular version. And these are also starting to be used so that not only do we have an understanding of what there's someone in the room, but we want to understand how many people are in the space, so that we can actually adjust our loads dynamically, especially when it comes to HVAC control.”
—
Watch the full recording, hear the Q&A and discussion with other members, and get the full transcript on Nexus Connect.
“Net Zero roadmaps for us are pretty straightforward. We break it down down this: if we're gonna build something, it's got to be as efficient as we can get it. Second, we need to conserve energy. And as much as we can on the sites, then we need to retrofit for energy efficiency, then we need to select a low carbon fuel, and then whatever is left, energy wise, we need to try to generate renewable power, in order to make sure that power, that energy is clean, or we need to buy offsets.
And so we're committed to only a maximum of 10% offsets, that's again, something that you should kind of ask people about when you hear about their mission, their commitments as well. And that, you know, this is kind of an example of what that visually looks like, which is, you know, getting from that baseline, that first column, if you will, all the way down to zero, which is the last column.”
“The last piece of our, you know, let's say delivery strategy, and how we hold ourselves accountable, is establishing that governance and transparency. So I think it's important for everyone to also be aware of these, you know, very prominent organizations, whether it's un PRI, or net zero asset managers.
There's many of them these days that large companies like ours are committing to, and those organizations are starting to provide software tools to report progress. Other examples would be science based targets initiative, SBTI, as well as GRESB, and CREM. So those tools are going to be used by asset managers.
And so companies like yourselves that are out there in this technology space, you know, think about what you want to replace them with, or how you should be instead of replacing them connecting to them and leveraging them and, and some of the things that we can use these tools for us dynamically tracking, changes in these variables that affect our decisions, such as the grid, carbon intensity, utility costs, actual building consumption, or even just the simple thing of acquisitions and dispositions and how that affects our data.”
“A lot of our assets, especially in the office space, where I spend a lot of my time, still have pneumatic controls, because the assets are actually quite old. Some of them are historic buildings, quite architecturally beautiful.
But they also have these hairy legacy control components. So we really need to bring them up to modern control standard, so that we have the flexibility to change our control strategies. And we get visibility on all those sensors and data in order for us to feed into some of the more advanced software like advanced supervisory control and fault detection diagnostics.”
“We want to ensure that the fixtures we're putting in place are dimmable and controllable. And so we're you know, we are upgrading fixtures, but also the controls. So we're putting in occupancy sensors, and daylight harvesting sensors as well to pair into this so that we can run our lighting as efficiently as possible. And then that's kind of the hardware component.
But then we also once again, utilizing the data. So we're taking the sensor data, and we tend to funnel it into a lot of our software applications. So once again, supervisory control, fault detection and diagnostics, or FDD, in our energy management platforms, so that all our teams or operation teams get visibility on this information, we're able to troubleshoot issues more effectively and optimize the system as we go along.
The other component is tenant engagement. So one of one of the key components is we don't have full control over all of the energy consumed in a building, we have to really work with the tenants that occupy the space to, you know, try to get them to change their behavior. And they're only going to change your behavior if they understand how their behavior affects that energy consumption. So we're also using these systems and the data. So in this particular case, we're sharing energy data from the lighting system toward the tenant engagement app, or platform so that tenants also have visibility on the energy consumption that they control.”
“Metering also plays a very important key component here. So I would put this into two buckets, utility meters. So these are typically your whole building or whole complex meter, where you only have a few for a property. So these ones are kind of key to help validate the billing and to get a little bit more live data coming in versus waiting for those the wave of utility bills coming in.
So this once again we feed into our software application gives our operations team live information and recommendations on how to optimize the systems and know Hey, oh, we have a fluctuation here that we weren't expecting. We're going to troubleshoot that now and saying, instead of waiting one or two months for the bill to come in and scratching our heads pay, what actually caused this spike and consumption right there, they're gonna get information right away. So we, we've already put a big push on the utility meters. And then the next bucket that we are starting to deploy, where it makes sense, it's submeters. So I, once again, split this out into two main buckets, key base building load. So these are, you know, equipment that are big energy hogs, your chillers, certain HVAC equipment, sometimes elevators, whatever, in a building that are really the big energy hog, we want to make sure we understand what they're actually consuming at any given time.
And then feed that in once again, to our, our software, or application layer, to, to analyze, and, and optimize. And we're going to connect that with the tenant engagement application, so that they can visibly see how they're affecting the consumption of the building. And hopefully, they can change their behavior, or that allows us to start dialogues with them on ‘Hey, this is something that you can do, that will actually, you know, save you cost, and also help decarbonize and be part of the success story here’.”
“Once again, I'd put this into two main buckets, just knowing whether a space is occupied or vacant, so on off, someone's in the room or not. A lot of times, we're trying to pull this data from the lighting system, because they're already the sensors are already there, installed in the system, it's just about making sure we have lighting systems that are open, allowing us to share that data with other systems.
So from that, we can pump that into our our applications once again. And you use this as another way that we can refine and optimize.
The next more advanced level, that is people counting. So generally, we are doing this one with IoT sensors, of different sorts. So there's a lot of different technologies, whether it be camera based, vision based, you know, thermal, or ultrasonic are some of the more popular version. And these are also starting to be used so that not only do we have an understanding of what there's someone in the room, but we want to understand how many people are in the space, so that we can actually adjust our loads dynamically, especially when it comes to HVAC control.”
—
Watch the full recording, hear the Q&A and discussion with other members, and get the full transcript on Nexus Connect.
April's members-only SME Workshop was a master class in showing how a roadmap to Net Zero includes operational technologies. Speakers Lee Hodgkinson and Nicholas Dumoulin outlined Dream's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions across their portfolio of owned and managed properties by 2050. The presentation explains that this commitment includes both direct and indirect emissions from the properties, and will require the implementation of various strategies and technologies to achieve.
Dream is an asset manager, owner and developer of real estate. Founded in 1994 with a vision to revolutionize theway people live and work, Dream has become one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, with over $22 billion inassets under management amongst our five publicly listed entities, private funds and institutional partnerships.
Dream’s purpose is to Build Better Communities. ESG and Impact are ingrained in how we manage our buildings andrun our business. Our commitment to sustainability aligns with our values and guides how we think, live and work.
“When you see a commitment, we believe that there's got to be five elements to that commitment for you to really say, Okay, this is a credible commitment.”
“Step one is really this identify baseline and missions piece. Where are your emissions coming from? Understanding that and technology is going to play big role in that. So, you know, whether that's, you know, utility bill collection and analysis software. So, you know, grabbing energy and water, and other things from these utility bills and converting that into GHG emissions.
You know, we used to do that with spreadsheets, we used to do that really manually. Now, there's excellent software's available that, you know, can do is much faster, you know, using OCR to scrape, you know, scrape data from PDFs, but also, API's to the utility companies themselves. These are, you know, really reducing the roadblocks on this data collection and analysis piece.
Not to mention, there's a tenant piece to this too, which is maybe we don't as the landlord get access to all the bills. So what are we going to do that that's been a real big pain point in the industry, for sure. And software is playing a big role with that. Another one I'll highlight is real time metering. So, you know, maybe we don't have great, you know, utility data coverage, like maybe we get a bill once a quarter once every other month, things like that, well, we still need to do stuff at the site. And we still need that data to understand our emissions, and how do we troubleshoot them?”
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