Last September, Hurricane Helene caused $53 billion in damage in North Carolina, making it one of the costliest storms in that state’s history. Damage from tropical cyclones is not unheard of in a state that’s taken direct hits from 84 of them since 1851.
What sets Helene apart is the fact that the bulk of that damage occurred 300 miles from the coast and 400 miles from where Helene came ashore in Florida, dispelling the notion that dangerous and damaging impacts from tropical cyclones are just a coastal concern.
Hurricane season has always been an anxious time for owners and occupiers of real estate assets along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. But over the past 20 years, warming ocean waters have made these storms more intense and destructive. Bigger, stronger storms tend to take longer to dissipate after landfall, causing even inland cities like Charlotte, Nashville and Pittsburgh to experience more hurricane-related flooding and wind damage. Helene, for example, dumped enough rain on Atlanta to break a two-day rainfall record that had stood for almost 140 years.
With unpredictable external factors like these storms comes an opportunity to be better prepared and ultimately enable growth and differentiation for your business. Businesses can put smart building and workplace management technology to work to minimize the disruption storms cause. The competitive advantage doesn’t end there – cutting costs can also come with reducing downtime, unexpected maintenance and even emissions. For example, Stanford University’s smart building strategy reduced emissions by 68% and achieved $500,000 in annual savings – wins that organizations in areas threatened by storms can leverage as well.
Workplace management and smart building solutions combine connected sensors, real-time data analytics and centralized control systems to help organizations monitor, manage, and optimize building performance. While these tools are often deployed to improve space efficiency, they’re now becoming core to resilience planning and risk mitigation strategies, helping organizations minimize disruptions, lower operating costs and reassure both employees and investors that assets are protected – and are being leveraged to enable companies to grow. The recent OpenBlue Total Economic Impact study conducted with Forrester showed organizations that adopt smart building platforms can cut energy costs by up to 10% across their portfolios — money that can be reinvested to help achieve other business goals.
Smart building platforms reduce waste, but they can also be an investment in your employees. Organizations use environmental sensors to monitor factors that may impact indoor air quality, like noise, temperature and humidity. This information helps facility managers maintain a healthier and more comfortable workplace, supporting employee well-being, morale and productivity.
Optimizing workplaces with smart building technology can also help stakeholders prepare for, withstand and recover from severe weather events through:
Facility managers use connected sensors and meters to detect leaks, unusual vibrations and abnormal equipment temperatures. These solutions provide early warning of issues that require attention and that, if left unaddressed, could lead to costly and disruptive repairs or even endanger occupants.
During a hurricane, these sensors enable real-time, remote monitoring of critical building systems and trigger automated alerts to flag emerging problems. Armed with this information, facility managers can develop and refine a damage mitigation plan during the storm to be executed as soon as it is safe to do so, minimizing damage and getting facilities back up and running more quickly. Less downtime is a key competitive advantage, boosting productivity and reducing waiting time.
Workplace management and smart building platforms feature centralized control systems that enable facility managers to remotely shut down equipment in the event an issue is detected, preventing further damage to the equipment or facility. Implementing one of these platforms at Kent State University allowed the team to monitor over 150 controls decisions every 15 minutes – enabling continuous monitoring of 1,000 inputs over 900 acres to ensure smooth operations and plan for energy usage. That kind of real-time, actionable insight can be invaluable to organizations trying to minimize the impacts of severe weather on their facilities.
In extreme weather conditions, this capability builds on the benefits of real-time monitoring and automated alerts, empowering facility managers to take immediate, informed action the moment they detect damage to building systems. Rather than having to wait until they’re able to regain access to the facility, teams can respond in real time, minimizing disruption, risk and costs. And when sites are empty due to inclement weather, facility managers can reduce energy usage from afar to help support the bottom line. When these same tools leverage AI, these solutions can even do so automatically.
Real estate and facilities teams use the occupancy, utilization and maintenance data they collect every day to optimize their space, make better-informed decisions about expenditures and support relocation and renovation plans. For example, a global pharmaceutical company cut energy and operational costs for its headquarters by $100,000 by analyzing data for smart lighting and HVAC efficiencies, with additional long-term savings potential identified. These same capabilities can be helpful in both preparing for and recovering from a tropical cyclone.
By analyzing data collected during a storm, stakeholders can pinpoint infrastructure vulnerabilities and focus investment on addressing them, making the building better prepared to weather the next storm. Solutions infused with AI can streamline and improve this process by automating analysis, uncovering deeper insights and making data-driven findings accessible to non-technical stakeholders. While these storms can’t be avoided, this capability empowers organizations to make smarter decisions about investments aimed at mitigating their impacts.
This technology can also be used to optimize space allocation during repairs, enable closer coordination with first responders and support scenario modeling to stress-test operational plans.
In addition to playing an important role in dealing with severe weather events, workplace management and smart building technology can help organizations address the very factors driving more intense and destructive storms and support sustainability initiatives. It can reduce carbon emissions, contribute to a more stable energy grid and cut water usage. The same systems that enable facility managers to identify energy sources and water waste during day-to-day operations are equally powerful in remotely monitoring and controlling plumbing, lighting and electrical systems during a storm. Real-time visibility and analysis of energy use also helps facility managers identify maintenance issues early, regardless of the cause.
Sustainability and resilience planning, like preparing for hurricanes and other severe weather events, are often treated as separate priorities in facilities management, but the reality is they can be advanced together.
As tropical cyclones grow more intense and their impacts reach further inland, the ability to prepare and respond effectively is becoming a strategic imperative for real estate stakeholders. That’s especially important in places where structures weren’t built to weather these kinds of storms.
For business leaders, resilience planning is an operational, financial and competitive necessity that creates stronger, more sustainable and more attractive workplaces. Workplace management and smart building technology is helping organizations plan for, withstand and recover from these storms, while also delivering substantial cost savings, efficiency and sustainability benefits year-round.
Andrew has over 30 years of leadership experience in engineering and property-related industries. As Director of Strategy at Johnson Controls, he guides corporate strategy and provides key insights into the future needs of the market. Andrew is recognized as a thought leader and problem solver in the area of workspace analytics within corporate real estate.
