News 18th April 2024 building automation

Workman has been named as a proud finalist in Property Week’s 2024 Property Awards for Sustainability Initiative of the Year, thanks to IBOS, its Intelligent Building Operating System, developed in conjunction with Bubll Automation.

Workman’s IBOS, which is now installed across 5 million sq. ft of commercial property, has delivered £3.4m savings on clients’ energy bills in 2023.

Meanwhile, 2,500,000 kg of CO2 has cumulatively been prevented from entering the earth’s atmosphere over the past year, at the 60 buildings where IBOS is installed.

This means the system has saved enough electricity over the past year to power the equivalent of 1.1 trillion mobile phone charges – that’s a total of 11,000,000 kWh (kilowatt hours) of energy.

To put the scale of savings into even sharper context, using a laptop requires 20-50 watts for a whole day, while keeping a broadband router on for five days takes 7-10 watts, shows data from OVO Energy.

James Hallworth MRICS, Partner and Head of Building Technology at Workman, says: “IBOS is playing a pivotal role in significantly reducing carbon by optimising energy consumption within buildings, analysing data and automating systems for maximum efficiency. The antithesis of greenwashing, this technology delivers tangible action and real measurable results.”

Savings delivered by IBOS in 2023

IBOS typically takes around two days to install, with data accessible within two weeks and energy savings of at least 20% usually identified within the first three months.

Now installed in more than 60 buildings across the UK, the system has proved commercially viable in spaces as small as 3,600 sq. ft, as large as 1.5m sq. ft and in both vacant and fully occupied units. It can also be installed across portfolios as well as individual properties.

IBOS saves huge amounts of energy, cost and carbon across the real estate where it is installed. But without access to 24/7 monitoring and the analytics service delivered by Workman’s Building Technology team, these savings opportunities are usually missed.

Key highlights from individual assets include:

  • £314,000 annual cost saving at a 90,000sq. ft London office, equating to 337 tonnes of carbon.
  • 580,000 kWh annual energy savings (32%) at a 380,000 sq. ft shopping centre.
  • £750,000 annual cost savings at a 140,000 sq. ft office scheme in Uxbridge, cutting carbon by 560 tonnes.
  • 250 tonnes annual carbon savings at a 270,000 sq. ft London office.

IBOS was initially conceived when Workman partnered with software developers Bubll Automation to create a digital platform to automate and optimise building performance.

After 18 months of development and testing in buildings with different levels of infrastructure and technology, Workman launched IBOS in May 2021.

Find out more about how it works in this short video: