Electronic Products & Technology

Canada’s first sustainable multi-tenant building targets net positive energy

EP&T Magazine   

Electronics Wireless IoT Building Building Carbon Carbon IoT IoT Zero Zero

eleven-x, Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo announce collaboration supporting low power, LoRaWAN based solution to monitor office space environments, water consumption, air quality and sound levels

eleven-x Inc., Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo have reached a partnership to support the groundbreaking evolv1 initiative, Canada’s first building to earn the Zero Carbon Building – Design certification. eleven-x, Canada’s leading full-service low power IoT solution provider and operator of the first and only public coast-to-coast network optimized for IoT, will be deploying a suite of intelligent office monitoring devices that will be used to track the health and wellness relationship between buildings and people. 

This innovative initiative will bring insight to how interactions between a sustainable office building and its inhabitants produce wellbeing, collaboration, and engagement in pro-environmental practices. It will also track how the performance relating to these outcomes can be optimized. A new commercial multi-tenant office building, evolv1 is one of 16 elite projects across Canada to be selected by the CaGBC [Canadian Green Building Council] to participate in a two-year pilot of its new Zero Carbon Building Standard.

The innovative program is backed by some of Canada’s leading academic institutions and sustainability organizations including: Laurier, through the Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS), who is leading the project and whose focus is on culture of sustainability, and UWaterloo, through the Faculty of Environment, who is providing the environmental expertise, including access to buildings to be used in future phases. Additionally, York University and Sustainable Waterloo Region are also key partners in the project.

Wireless intelligent building solution enables real-time monitoring and data collection

eleven-x is deploying a suite of sensors as part of a wireless intelligent building solution that enables real-time monitoring and data collection for applications including the tracking of air quality, water consumption, and sound and light levels. The solution uses LoRaWAN-based low power connectivity to track, manage and collect data from the sensors deployed throughout the building. The data collected will then be used to track and measure results of the interactions between the evolv1 building and its inhabitants. The building data is collected and measured using eleven-x’s secure and reliable wireless networking solution.

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“This is a great opportunity to examine over an extended period of time in a real-world environment how the inhabitants of a high-performance green building interact with the building to produce positive outcomes such as wellbeing, productivity, and a culture of sustainability,” said Dr. Manuel Riemer, Associate Professor of Community Psychology and Sustainability Science, Director of VERiS, and the Principal Investigator for the initiative at Laurier. “The eleven-x team has been a critical partner in realizing our living lab approach by providing the technology and the technical expertise that is needed to create such a space within a commercial building. Getting the buy-in from the tenants of the building required a wireless system of sensors that are unobtrusive but deliver high-quality real-time data. Our partners at eleven-x delivered exactly that.”

“This project really complements our focus on building sustainable communities through creating opportunities for the environment and the economy,” said Dr. Paul Parker, Professor, School of Environment, Enterprise and Development [SEED] and Department of Geography and Environment Management [GEM] at UWaterloo. “It’s great to have technology that tracks environmental performance in real time and provides feedback to encourage positive action at the individual and building level.”

“This is a great partnership that brings together a number of world-leading organizations. Most of us spend much of our adult lives in office buildings, and so it is a very important environment for all of us,” said Dan Mathers, President and CEO of eleven-x Inc. “We are excited that our wireless intelligent building solution is a core part of this innovative project by providing  the data collection, delivery and management platform needed to fully understand building performance and the interactions between buildings and people.”

 

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