Smart Buildings, sustainability, and the workforce to make it happen.

Today "Smart Buildings" communicate with each other, sharing information, and buildings of similar shape and size can compare notes and learn from each other. The idea of buildings talking to each other might sound silly, but this is happening right now.

The level of integration needed to make an intelligent building demands knowledgeable workers with new skills and experience. Traditionally trades, people maintained and operated building systems. Upgrading to intelligent buildings requires the addition of another member to the team who knows data networking, modelling building systems, programming, data strategy and energy management. This person can be a tradesperson who has received additional education or an engineering or data professional who receives additional education in building systems. The result is a professional who can integrate the various building systems, manage the vast amounts of data those systems produce and make the data available openly and transparently for accountability and compliance.

Governments are rolling out more and more stringent emissions standards for buildings. At the same time, since the pandemic, air quality standards have been updated to reflect the reality of airborne viruses. These initiatives are spawning new industries and disrupting new players in the Smart Buildings ecosystem.

The main obstacle to the transition to realizing intelligent buildings' sustainability goals is simply a lack of human resources. Like all other professions and trades, this sector has many unfilled job postings.

Speakers :

Andrew Huddleston - Algonquin College

Sudhir Tiwari - Algonquin College

Laurna Strikwerda - Workforce 2030