The city of Helsinki has set the target of being the most functional city in the world and becoming completely CO2 neutral by 2035.
As part of its efforts, the city has now connected more than 1,700 public buildings to a smart building platform. They can now measure and control, among other things, their building’s energy consumption and air quality.
Leading the way is the new city library, Oodi. Hundreds of data points relating to energy consumption and more than a thousand process- and indoor air sensors can be read in real time. This constant flow of data facilitates analysis and fine-tuning processes. The result is optimised energy consumption, cleaner air for library users and reduced CO2 emissions from the building.
“Oodi is not only a beautiful building. It’s probably also one of the most energy efficient buildings in Helsinki,” says Olli Parkkonen, head of business solutions, at Nuuka Solutions, a global software company for large property owners, cities and retail which specialises in smart building management solutions
He adds: “Through real-time data collected by our smart building management platform we can monitor Oodi’s CO2 emissions and energy consumption as well as indoor climate and HVAC processes. This way, we get good indoor air quality with optimal energy efficiency in the building at all the times.”
A report from World Green Building Council https://www.worldgbc.org states that CO2 emissions from buildings are responsible for 39% of global CO2 emissions. With this in mind, Helsinki’s digitisation project started in 2018, and the city has calculated that total building-related energy consumption is set to be reduced by a minimum of 10-20%.
The Oodi was opened in December 2018. It is designed by ALA Architects and the structural design is by Ramboll Finland. It has 143 energy consumption data points and 1,201 process and indoor climate data points monitored in real-time on the Nuuka platform.
