City sustainability requires immediate actions

Diversified industrial group thyssenkrupp is calling for more energy efficient design in our urban landscapes, having analysed that energy savings in our buildings need to be implemented now in order to achieve meaningful levels in 15 years. Today buildings account for 40 percent of global energy consumption. New solutions that improve the mobility of people inside buildings and in short distances cities are essential.

At the Smart City Word Expo and Congress 2015, the world’s leading forum on smart cities that counted with over 10.000 participants from more than 40 countries, Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO, thyssenkrupp Elevator, said, “Buildings in our cities today are being “locked in” to poor energy patterns by inefficient building services which have an average lifespan of 15 years. Facilities such as elevators, heating, ventilation and refrigeration are not running at their most efficient levels, so it is of upmost importance we address this now and upgrade facilities more resourcefully; else we run the risk of low energy performances until 2030.”

Every single commercial building that is built today locks in an average of 12,000 MWh of electricity consumption for the next 15 years. In the US alone, every year, more than 150,000 buildings are constructed, resulting in locked in electricity consumption of 120 TWh per year, the equivalent of the Netherlands' total annual electricity consumption. Reducing this by only 10 percent now would save the equivalent of 180 TWh over the next 15 years, equaling reduced carbon emissions of up to 180 Million tons of CO2, equivalent to reducing the number of cars on the street by two million per year or three billion trees planted and grown over the same period.

The energy production versus consumption debate is nothing new, but rapidly increasing urbanization across the world today is accelerating the conversation and more urgently demanding the creation of a more energy efficient environment. By 2030, up to 60 percent of the global population will live in cities, and energy consumption in these urban areas will increase by around a quarter. As a result, today’s energy inefficient buildings will simply not be able to accommodate the rising energy demand, making it imperative for urban development decisions made today for future cities to be forward-thinking and focused on sustainability for generations to come.

Accounting for the largest share of global energy usage today (40 percent), buildings are at the very heart of the energy efficiency debate. In cities, the upward trend of buildings revolves the conversation around how to make high-rise buildings run more smartly; minimizing consumption and reducing the urban energy footprint. With buildings getting taller, elevators are one of the most integral energy-using facilities in our cities and are thus a key area for address when seeking to improve urban energy efficiency.

Innovations for sustainable cities 
Shape the best ever cities to live doesn’t depend on energy efficiency only, game-changing solutions for improving mobility for people in building and in short distances are also crucial. Some of these new technologies have been staged at the Smart City World Expo, such as the innovative rope-less elevator technology, the new transportation system that accelerate commuters in short distances and the new cloud-based machine learning predictive maintenance solution, the first of its kind in the elevator industry worldwide.

thyssenkrupp eliminated the ropes and placed linear motors in elevator cabins, transforming conventional elevator transportation in vertical metro systems. MULTI elevator technology increases transport capacities and efficiency while reducing the elevator footprint and peak loads from the power supply in buildings. Several cabins in the same shaft moving vertically and horizontally will permit buildings to adopt different heights, shapes, and purposes.

The ACCEL travelator system facilitates the building of passenger feeders to existing metro stations, making them easily accessible even to commuters who do not usually use the metro due to its distance from their locations. Metro system capacities can now be maximised with new access points, and by increasing the connectivity of current metro networks, the new transportation system could capture 30 percent additional passengers. Implementing ACCEL works as an alternative to building expensive additional stations or carving complex underground connections, and results in a significant decrease in the number of road transport vehicles in use.

Additionally to this product innovations, thyssenkrupp recently launched MAX, a game-changing predictive and pre-emptive service solution that extends remote monitoring capabilities to dramatically increase current availability levels of existing and new elevators. With MAX, data collected in real time from millions of connected elevators is sent to Microsoft’s trusted Azure cloud platform, where an algorithm calculates the remaining lifetime of key systems and components in each elevator. Now, thyssenkrupp’s team of over 20,000 global service engineers and technicians will be able to rely on MAX as their wingman, making it possible to inform building owners in advance when key systems or components will need to be repaired or replaced, programme interventions, and thereby avoid out-of-service signs on elevator doors. In a MAX-connected building, people will wait less time for elevators, resulting in decreased stress and more quality time.

The need for sustainable urbanization is something we can no longer ignore, and with a number of clear and tangible benefits, energy-efficient solutions are at the core of delivering truly sustainable cities of the future. The time to integrate these systems into buildings is now. The expertise and products already exist; the challenge is speeding up the integration process to upgrade our building stock more quickly.

Do you want to know which is the Smartest City?  Find it out reading here the Urban Hub

Corporate image reflecting the company’s transformation

From now on, thyssenkrupp will use one common brand the world over. The redevelopment of the brand reflects the transformation of the German technology company to a diversified industrial group, also focused on applying its unique engineering capabilities in making cities the best ever places to live. The new slogan “engineering. tomorrow. Together.” condenses the new brand promise.