Transparency in Buildings. Why It Matters Transparency has become a strategic lever enabling organizations to achieve broader business agendas, achieve improved business and operational outcomes and create new levels of value.

Marc Petock, Chief Communications Officer, Vice President, Marketing Lynxspring & Connexx Energy Contributing Editor

The commercial building market was once about acquiring and managing buildings. Today, we are beginning to hear about transparency and its importance in managing and operating buildings.  Transparency has become a strategic lever enabling organizations to achieve broader business agendas, achieve improved business and operational outcomes and create new levels of value.

This month’s theme is about transparency transformation. While transparency has not been top of mind in the past, we are now beginning to experience the early days of it. It has been said that transparency, involves openness, communication, and accountability.  As this transformation continues, we need to look at it from the perspective of how it is beginning to take place within our building environments.

Transparency within buildings and facilities is accelerating because of the push in technology transformation. After years of being over-shadowed, building technology is taking its turn in the spotlight. Commercial building owners are feeling the pressure to embrace technology and invest in intelligent building solutions that provide a better level of transparency as well as access to real-time data for operations, productivity, comfort, and sustainability.

With facilities operations being a major cost for any organization (some say it is the 4th or 5th highest cost), owners and operators are looking at transparency to help best utilize and create the additional value of these assets and increase the well-being of all its operations.

While there are many factors contributing to transparency within the building environment, there is a combination of certain principals that play significant roles as base drivers. These are the push for open; the arrival and importance of intelligent data and analytics; the digital movement; continued movement away from proprietary; the influence of choice; OT and IT forming stronger relationships; the change in service delivery expectations and finally, value--more accurate decision making and better business outcomes.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Transparency helps deliver a prioritized overview of potential improvement measures. Transparency is an important element in extending value. This added value manifests itself in lower operating costs through greater efficiencies as well as in many cases, legal and regulatory requirements.

Transparency should be viewed as a major opportunity. The benefits will build an enormous momentum in commercial buildings and a prerequisite for the realization of optimal building performance. While buildings are on the path to transparency, they have aways to go. Is transparency the new thread that connects it all together?