Of all the sustainably generated energy in the Netherlands, about 50% is wasted by buildings. Because 70% of the climate systems are incorrectly adjusted, buildings, for example, have the heating on in summer, or are being cooled or lit while no one is in the building. Sustainable buildings with energy label A can therefore still have the consumption of a G label. This is why ING is introducing the Energy Robot.
Automatic waste detection
The energy robot uses algorithms and data from smart building energy meters and fully automatically compares that data throughout the day and night with an exact benchmark of the specific building. This identifies up to 15% of energy saving opportunities, which is half of the total sustainably generated energy in the Netherlands.
Although detecting and preventing energy waste in buildings is by far the cheapest measure to reduce CO2 emissions, the issue is often not a priority, partly because the waste is also not very visible. This is why ING offers the Energy Robot to all customers of the real estate branch ING Real Estate Finance (ING REF).
Avoiding unnecessary CO2 emissions
Administrators, installers, energy companies and users know how to improve energy management in their buildings quickly and inexpensively. As a result, less energy and maintenance is required, installations age less quickly and unnecessary CO2 emissions are avoided. The Energy Robot also helps meet the legal requirement for many buildings to have an energy monitoring system in place since 1 January.
Major impact
For the real estate portfolio financed by ING REF, this has the potential to save €30 million in energy costs and 92,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, without the need for additional investments at ING customers. Peter Göbel, director ING Real Estate Finance Netherlands: "In practice, many buildings consume considerably more energy than might be expected based on their energy label. To gain insight into the causes of the still widespread energy waste in buildings and to do something about it, ING is introducing the Energy Robot for its real estate customers. As market leader in real estate financing in the Netherlands, ING sees it as its task to help owners and users of real estate to make their properties sustainable and to use them sustainably, respectively."
Partnership
The ING Energy Robot was developed in collaboration with sustainability consultancy CFP Green Buildings. Bram Adema, director of CFP: "Until now, tackling energy waste in buildings has been time-consuming. There are also not enough energy consultants to monitor the more than 500,000 buildings in the Netherlands. So we designed a robot that can do this fully automatically 24/7. Because the robot has already done the most time-consuming work, installers and energy consultants can work more efficiently and have greater impact."
Sustainable property portfolio
The ING Energy Robot is a new development that follows the digital online sustainability scan tool launched by ING two years ago, which ING REF then also made available to all its customers in partnership with CFP Green Buildings. That was one of the biggest sustainability initiatives in the Dutch real estate market, as ING REF finances around 30,000 buildings in the Netherlands with a total of more than 17 million square metres of real estate. In the process, ING paid for the provision of the energy label for the preserved building.
"In practice, many buildings consume considerably more energy than might be expected based on their energy label," says Peter Göbel , director ING Real Estate Finance Netherlands. "In order to gain insight into the causes of the still widespread energy wastage in buildings and to do something about it, ING is introducing the Energy Robot for its real estate customers. As market leader in real estate finance in the Netherlands, ING sees it as its task to help owners and users of real estate to make their properties sustainable and to use them sustainably, respectively."
"Until now, tackling energy waste in buildings has been time-consuming," says Bram Adema , director of CFP. "There are also not enough energy consultants to monitor the more than 500,000 buildings in the Netherlands. That's why we designed a robot that can do this fully automatically 24/7. Because the robot has already done the most time-consuming work, installers and energy consultants can work more efficiently and have greater impact."
Source + photo: ING
