Automated Shading is Vital to Achieving Carbon Net Zero by 2050
In 2019, the UK committed to cutting 78% of carbon emissions by 2035, and became the world’s first major economy to set a target of reaching Net Zero by 2050.
Since then, research by Schneider Electric’s Powering Change report found that to achieve these goals, 9 in 10 buildings in the UK must be digitally retrofitted. This report noted that ‘decarbonising’ buildings, especially older ones, can be complicated and that only 32.9% of businesses have adopted energy-efficient solutions in the workplace.
Other key findings from this report found that:
- Nearly a third (30%) of energy in buildings is wasted
- A tenth (11%) of total building CO2 emissions are linked to construction materials such as steel, cement, and glass – and a tenth of this ends up going to waste
- One in five (20%) of respondents have only just started measuring energy consumption and aren’t even aware of the level of waste
- Almost half (42.8%) said they had increased their adoption of digital automation, but only a small proportion (17.4%) have installed a building management system, key to transforming existing buildings into healthy and sustainable workplaces of the future
Why is achieving Net Zero important?
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the warmest 20 years on record have been in the last 22 years. Global temperatures are now 1 degree higher than in the pre-industrial era. Experts have concluded that if we fail to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we will reach a tipping point that we cannot recover from.
According to NASA, Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.
Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea-level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.
This change has been triggered by higher levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is warming the Earth’s surface and the air above it. Reducing our carbon emissions is key to reducing global warming and the consequences.
How can automated shading reduce carbon emissions?
Relying on manual operation of your blinds to control temperatures or light levels only has very limited effectiveness. In a large office building, staff will close the blind when the glare is too much to cope with, but they will rarely open them again when the glare reduces.
In fact, on average, office blinds are only moved twice a week! And only 12% of people operate their blinds every day.
An automated shading solution is the most effective way to improve light and heat levels in a building as it means the blinds can react and operate in response to sunlight levels and temperature in real-time. It also eliminates the need for manual operation so you can ensure the office blinds are always in the correct position, even when there’s no one in the office.
When your shades are static, it forces heating and air-conditioning systems to work longer and harder to maintain a consistent internal environment.
It’s also important to choose a high-quality manufacturer that uses mostly aluminium components in their systems. According to The International Aluminium Institute, 75% of aluminium ever produced (almost 1 billion tonnes) is still in productive use. The recycling of post-consumer aluminium products saves over 90 million tonnes of CO2, and over 100,000 GWh of electrical energy. That’s equivalent to the annual power consumption of the Netherlands!
For the blinds industry, this means we don’t have to be concerned that with every new blind produced we are causing an irreparable amount of damage to the planet. At the end of a blind’s life cycle, we can be safe in the knowledge that most of the components can be recycled and used again.
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