Cisco, Honeywell Smart Building Partnership Touts Energy Efficiency, Carbon Reduction Opportunities

Cisco Systems and Honeywell have reinforced their smart building partnership to help customers improve energy efficiency while reducing carbon emissions.

The latest effort involves Cisco Spaces and Honeywell Forge Sustainability+ for Buildings. The two companies say:

1. Cisco Spaces connects Cisco networking, sensors and collaboration products into a single, cloud platform that makes buildings smart.
2. Cisco Spaces collects occupancy and environmental data from Cisco network infrastructure, environmental sensors, collaboration devices and third-party IoT devices without the need to add additional hardware.
3. Honeywell Forge Sustainability+ for Buildings then uses this information to help improve energy efficiency and provide insights on building utilization.
4. Room temperatures, lighting and ventilation are autonomously adjusted based on where people are in the building and customer selected controls.

Sustainable IT Services, Smart Buildings and More

Both Cisco and Honeywell believe sustainability is a growing business and partner opportunity. As a result, Cisco's partner program has various tools to help participants build sustainability business practices. True believers include Logicalis, which was Cisco's first sustainable partner of the year in 2023.

Meanwhile, Honeywell expects its Sustainable Technology Business to generate $1 billion in revenues "in the next few years," CEO Vimal Kapur told Wall Street analysts during a February 2024 earnings call.

Among the potential business drivers: Cities and countries worldwide are launching regulations that may force building owners and real estate investors to decarbonize their commercial and residential assets.

Examples include:

• Boston's Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO);
• New York Local Law 97;
• a large buildings emissions law in Seattle, Washington; and a
• Future Homes Standard in the United Kingdom.

Also of note: Demand for building energy management systems appears steady to strong, depending on which market forecast you potentially believe. For instance:

• The global building automation and control system market will reach $168.8 billion by 2031, up from $87.3 billion in 2022, Transparency Market Research forecast. That's a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, the firm said.
• Spending on building management systems is expected to reach $19.25 billion in 2023, up from $6.65 billion in 2016. That's a 16.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the forecast period, according to MarketsAndMarkets. 

The U.S. government also is assisting the market. For instance, the federal government plans to spend $250 million to help federal agencies implement net-zero building projects.

Honeywell and Cisco Partnership: Executive Perspectives

In a prepared statement, Greg Turner, chief technology officer of Honeywell's Building Automation segment, said: "Buildings have historically been a substantial contributor to overall carbon emissions, but with the rise of hybrid work, operators now have the opportunity to take a fresh look at addressing their environmental impact by moving their HVAC systems away from consistent 9-to-5 schedules. By tapping into a building's existing technology infrastructure and harnessing the power of AI to fine-tune heating and cooling according to zone occupancy levels, our collaboration with Cisco empowers building owners to gain control of their environment and significantly curb emissions."

Added Wes Sylvester, VP of Cisco's Industry Solutions Group: "The convergence of IT and OT infrastructures, seamlessly interoperable with leading building management system (BMS) platforms, ushers in an era of real-time data insights that can optimize energy usage, regardless of building age or retrofit status. By working closely with Honeywell, we're enabling building operators with enhanced visibility and control over operational data, setting a new standard for energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact." 

Cisco Partner Summit 2024: Next Sustainability Moves?

So what's next? Keep an eye on Cisco Partner Summit 2024, which is scheduled for October 28-30 in Los Angeles. The annual conference typically includes various sustainable IT partner announcements.