Smart-Ready Buildings for People and Resource Flow in Sharing Cities
Introduction
Schedule: 1 March 2022–31 December 2024
Budget: 900 000 €
Finance: Business Finland funding for leading companies and ecosystems ("Veturi Roadmap"). Leading company, KONE “The Flow of Urban Life”
Industry Partners: KONE, BoostBrothers, Newsec, OP Property Management, Siemens, Sello, Aalto University Campus & Real Estate, Siemens, Spacent.
Summary: The research project is looking for a solution for the sustainable and smooth adaptation of billions of new city dwellers in line with the objectives of KONE’s "The flow of urban life" ecosystem. Through the project, a practical model is developed to increase the buildings readiness for urbanization. The model is developed by utilizing the already existing EU-driven framework, i.e., smart readiness indicator for buildings (SRI).
This project has two primary objectives:
- to explore, by utilizing concrete real-life cases, how commercially viable "smart readiness" can be defined in buildings and cities in such a way that it supports the flexible utilization of the resources in urban and energy networks.
- to define from the customer’s point of view the central drivers, which motivate the users to deploy the smart ready services and to improve the resource efficiency in buildings and cities and eventually improve customer experience and create new business opportunities.
Project contents
The central aim of the project is to conceptualize smartness for real estate in a way that supports:
- smart people and resource flow (energy, facilities, services) in buildings and cities
- economic efficiency of properties
- green shift in real estate
Why do we need the SRI?
Buildings are undergoing a digital transformation. Buildings stand at the forefront of the energy transition, as they consume most of the energy produced. At the same time, ongoing energy crises and climate change challenge the real estate sector to become more energy efficient. Smart technologies have been proposed as a potential solution to the issue, as well-implemented smart building technologies can achieve an average of 30 % energy savings, and improve the well-being of its occupants.
The SRI is being developed as a common means to rate the smart readiness of buildings in the EU. The European commission has identified the potential of smart technologies, not just in regard to energy efficiency and well-being, but also energy distribution and demand side response. They thus feature centrally in key sustainability programmes, and in the 2018 revision of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)
How is the SRI score calculated?
The SRI measures how "smart-ready" a certain building is, by evaluating its ability to perform 3 key functionalities:
- Energy efficiency
- Adapt to the needs of the occupant
- Adapt to signals from the outside smart grid
The SRI assessment matrix is based upon the assessment of individual smart technologies, or smart-ready services. The full service catalogue of 57 scores are grouped into 9 technical domains. The smart-ready services are assessed against 7 impact criteria. The assessed scores are then further aggregated in order to reach final scores for the three key functionalities of smart buildings (according to the SRI), those being energy efficiency, user response and grid response
SRI initialization
With the emphasis placed on smart buildings in the revised 2018 version of the EPBD, SRI implementation is currently undergoing test phases in 6 European countries. The official test phases will help provide feedback on the gradual implementation of the SRI on an international scale. The SRI test phase in Finland is led by the Ministry of the Environment and executed by Motiva. Motiva is a partly state-owned company promoting sustainable development. SRI assessors will receive training from Motiva, and the suitability of the SRI scheme in Finnish conditions will be evaluated during the two-year test phase.
Read more about the SRI from the official EC website, and about the Finnish test phase from Motiva.
The project is divided into 5 work packages. The project started in March 2022, and is expected to end during the second quarter of 2024. The schedule of the work packages is detailed in the table below.
| WP1 | Q1/2022 - Q3/2022 |
| WP2 | Q3/2022 - Q3/2023 |
| WP3 | Q2/2023 - Q4/2023 |
| WP4 | Q4/2023 - Q2/2024 |
| WP5 | Q1/2024 - Q2/2024 |
During the project, SRI assessments are performed on buildings all around Finland. Below you will find basic information on the 3 most recent cases.
| Case A | Case B | Case C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Helsinki, Finland | Espoo, Finland | Espoo, Finland |
| Year of construction | 2020 | 2018 | 2003 |
| Floor area | 64 000 m2 | 43 000 m2 | 100 000 m2 |
| Green certificates | LEED Platinum | - | LEED Platinum |
| Energy class | - | A & B | - |
| Indoor climate class | - | S2 | s2 |
| Renovated | - | - | 2019 |
| SRI score | 42 % | 64 % | 97 % |
|
55 % 64 % 6 % |
67 % 68 % 59 % |
93 % 99 % 98 % |
News & Blog
Is the Finnish residential sector ready to utilize the Smart readiness indicator?
Adopting the smart readiness indicator (SRI) might become mandatory in the European Union in the coming years. Are Finnish real estate owners ready to adapt smartness in their rental residential portfolio?
Smartness is a comparatively new concept, and definitional issues continue to confuse stakeholders across the globe. Would a more interactive, less technically-inclined approach to smart building definiton help the concept become more widespread?
Publications
Blockchain’s Grand Promise for the Real Estate Sector: A Systematic Review
The contribution of smart buildings to low-carbon built environment
Measuring smartness: Mapping out smart maturity in modern commercial buildings
The adoption of the Smart readiness indicator in the Finnish residential rental property market
Research team
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