Make Every Hour Earth Hour with CIM's PEAK Platform

CIM joined businesses and households around the globe partaking in Earth Hour as a symbol of our commitment to our planet.

Since 2007, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been encouraging everyone to #Connect2Earth and turn off all electrical lights for an hour. What started as a lights-off event in Sydney has grown to over 187 countries around the world.

The average Australian household wastes as much as 20% of the electricity being paid for, costing over $400 a year. A 10% reduction in household electricity consumption can save $200 and three-quarters of a tonne of carbon dioxide pollution.

Now imagine this at a commercial building level.

The building sector contributes as much as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide emissions from buildings account for 30 to 40% of the total greenhouse gas emissions which have been rising steadily since the 1950s and are estimated to grow faster than any other economic sectors over the next 25 years.

It was reported that about 35 to 40% of total energy consumed in buildings in developed countries with 50 to 65% of electricity consumption.

Business as usual, cannot continue if we are to limit the severe impact businesses are having on the environment.

In a commercial building, up to 50% of electricity consumption is attributed to Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC). Often, HVAC and lighting are left running overnight, causing enormous amounts of wastage and unnecessarily increasing your base-load consumption.

The work CIM Enviro is doing with the ACE Platform in utilising data analytics and building automation, allows building owners and operators to sync their assets to operate only when needed. In doing so, energy consumption and wastage are drastically reduced and cost savings and sustainability are increased.

The cheapest gigawatt of power you will ever have is the one you don’t use.

CIM Enviro’s Head Engineer, Antonious Mickaeal, knows first hand how much energy and money turning off equipment such as lights, computer monitors or ventilation fans, can save off the base-load consumption for the building.

“Turning off ancillary equipment every day for an hour will give you an average energy reduction of 5.5%. Just imagine the impact on carbon emissions reductions you can have by multiplying that annually.”

Just powering off your lights, air-conditioning and electrical devices when they aren’t needed can have a substantial positive impact on both your electrical bill and the environment. Australia is one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world, with 0.3% of the world's population it produces 1.3% of the world's greenhouse gases. As of September 2018, Australia is still on track to miss its Paris target of a 26%-28% cut to emissions on 2005 levels by 2030.

If switching off the lights for an hour can make a tangible difference in energy consumption on a global scale, the millions of households and businesses can make monumental strides in reducing the effects of global warming just by turning off their assets when not in use.

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CIM's PEAK Platform is a best-in-class building analytics and property operations software, improving efficiency, sustainability, and tenant comfort across property portfolios. Discover more by watching a demo.