Johnson Controls Develops Industry-first AI Driven Digital Solution to Manage Clean Air, Energy, Sustainability, Comfort and Cost in Buildings

CORK, Ireland, Oct. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, today introduced an all-in-one solution that empowers building operators to track sustainability, health and wellness metrics while also reducing energy use, water use, waste, and carbon footprint.

The new OpenBlue Performance Advisor application expands on the rich capabilities of Johnson Controls OpenBlue Enterprise Manager solution, supporting organizations seeking to achieve clean air and sustainability targets through data tracking software, artificial intelligence and intuitive dashboards that follow indoor air quality and energy consumption and deliver clean air and decarbonization recommendations in one clear, comprehensive view. The intelligent software also supports the management of employee health, productivity and tenant experiences while helping to improve indoor air quality and comfort.

Johnson Controls OpenBlue Enterprise Manager solution helps facilities managers optimize building portfolio performance through advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence. The solution is a comprehensive suite of applications from Johnson Controls used to monitor and improve indoor air quality, energy efficiency, tenant satisfaction, asset performance, maintenance operations, space performance and the comfort of all occupants. OpenBlue Enterprise Manager supports smart building capabilities for property portfolios ranging across commercial offices, healthcare, mixed use high-end, transportation, retail and K-12 school systems.

The new OpenBlue Enterprise Manager Performance Advisor application follows Johnson Controls single pane of glass approach, bringing together various sources of data into a single view that makes it simple to monitor and act on a variety of factors at the same time. Analytics and AI solutions have historically focused on solving for one goal at a time – clean air, energy/carbon, wellness, asset health, comfort, experience, space utilization, etc. However, the OpenBlue Enterprise Manager Performance Advisor application gives users control over making integrated choices traversing data silos, rather than following static standard operating procedures.

Johnson Controls proprietary algorithm measures a variety of parameters such as zone size, occupancy, mask usage and weather forecasts and predicts chances of infection spread. It provides recommendations to facilities managers that improve the building performance, ranging from maximum disinfection to energy minimization, depending on the given needs of a space at a specific moment in time. A key element of this solution is the OpenBlue Infection Risk Score, providing additional information to enable best decision making.

"Supporting healthy and sustainable buildings is at the core of Johnson Controls priorities and the solutions and services we bring to market. Helping our planet heal and reducing the impact of climate change is part of being a good global citizen and a key moral imperative that drives our business," said Mike Ellis, executive vice president and chief customer & digital officer at Johnson Controls. "Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors continue to grow in importance for building owners and facilities managers in attracting additional investment and tenants. An all-in-one solution that supports elevation of ESG goals while also ensuring occupant safety and comfort addresses the priority needs of our customers in a single, elegant solution."

One example of customer value is in right-sizing automated energy efficiency. The solution's algorithms use historical operating data and space characteristics to build a dynamic model of each room in a structure, to predict future temperature, air quality and airflow. Models are then used to optimize the desired performance criteria such as energy cost or infection risk.

The Performance Advisor application also optimizes space utilization. The application leverages occupancy tracking data and recommends movement of people to alternate spaces. This approach supports the movement of people and resources from over-utilized spaces to under-utilized spaces while also suggesting adjustments to HVAC and lighting systems.

To validate the effectiveness of the Performance Advisor application, Johnson Controls collaborated with Martin Z. Bazant, professor of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  on the accuracy of infection transmission and air flow models, which are core underlying mathematical models for the Performance Advisor solution.  "These models are the first to predict the risk of airborne disease transmission in realistic building simulations, thus allowing HVAC systems to be optimized for public health, as well as comfort and energy efficiency," said Bazant.

To learn more about OpenBlue Enterprise Manager, visit:
https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/openblue/openblue-enterprise-manager 

To download supporting technical papers published in journals related to this product, visit:
Energy and Buildings.
"Modeling and Multiobjective Optimization of Indoor Airborne Disease Transmission Risk and Associated Energy Consumption for Building HVAC Systems": https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111497.111497

Science and Technology for the Built Environment 
 "Quantifying the Tradeoff Between Energy Consumption and the Risk of Airborne Disease: https://doi.org/10.1080/23744731.2021.1984171.1984171

To read more about Johnson Controls POV on why companies benefit from a single strategy for sustainability and digitalization, visit: https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/insights/2021/white-paper/the-case-for-unifying-sustainability-and-digitalization-strategies

About Johnson Controls:
At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet. 

With a history of more than 135 years of innovation, Johnson Controls delivers the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through its comprehensive digital offering, OpenBlue. With a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world's largest portfolio of building technology, software as well as service solutions with some of the most trusted names in the industry. For more information, visit www.johnsoncontrols.com or follow us @johnsoncontrols on Twitter.

SOURCE Johnson Controls International plc

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