GreenTouchscreen Reveals Sustainability Concepts and Their Relation to Energy Use in Buildings

In its raw form building energy consumption data is not likely to reveal much to building owners, occupants or others about its impact on the environment. Connecting the dots from energy use in buildings to more sophisticated ideas like sustainability require analytical skills that not everyone possesses. To help more people understand and apply these concepts, Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. now offers a powerful interactive tool that analyzes building energy consumption data in real time.

Through sophisticated integration to Siemens APOGEE® building automation system, the GreenTouchscreen® from Quality Attributes Software, Inc., (QAS) translates numerical building operational data into visual information that helps even the casual observer understand a variety of energy and sustainability related concepts.

By presenting building energy consumption data on an interactive touchscreen housed in a kiosk in a building’s foyer or mounted on an accessible wall in a public space, Siemens can reveal the impact of energy efficiency measures and behavioral changes to anyone encountering the interface. Similarly, the interface can be transmitted via the web making it available in classrooms or other learning environments. The immediacy and accessibility of this information can help people understand the role they can play in saving energy in the spaces where they work, live, play or learn. With this kind of information people are better equipped to understand the relevance of their choices and change their behavior.

"Most organizations, whether they are public or private, want to provide stakeholders with better information on their sustainability and green efforts,” said Siemens Building Technologies’ Richard Walker, senior national manager – Environmental Solutions. “GreenTouchscreen offers us the ability to not only provide information on energy use and climate implications, but also on a broad variety of internal initiatives,” he added.

GreenTouchscreen® technology, developed by QAS illustrates sustainability concepts by showing how much energy a building is currently using, how much it has saved over time and what that savings means in greenhouse gasses kept from the atmosphere, pounds of coal left unburned or even hours of playing X-Box.

The GreenTouchscreen will also play a key role in Siemens’ Building Education program (an initiative that, among other things, is introducing green engineering and sustainability curricula to schools across the country). Siemens has plans to install these screens in schools to help expose students and educators to this exciting information and use it to inform themselves about their school’s energy use and its impact on their local environment. Next fall for example, students attending the Henry Ford Learning Academy’s Power House High (now currently under construction) will be able to attend classes with instruction guided by Siemens curricula and supported by the GreenTouchscreen displays.