Smart Buildings Super Cluster (SBSC)

About the SBSC

The Smart Buildings Super Cluster (SBSC) unites public, private and academic collaborative partnerships to address key aspects in the development, operation and support of Smart Buildings within the municipal environment. These aspects may include supporting deployment of ICT technologies within the municipal environment, interoperability and integration, standards, performance metrics, data analytics and activation, operational autonomy, digital services, and skills and training.

SBSC serves an important role in the GCTC-SC3 family of clusters as Smart Buildings, as robust connected, experience rich IoT platforms, are foundational to the creation of Smart Cities. Smart Buildings can contribute to the acceleration of smart city infrastructure deployment; enable the development and deployment of broader municipal smart applications; are a launchpad for scalable economic development; entice corporations, job seekers and entrepreneurs to bring their business to the municipality; and increase health, wellness and happiness for workers and citizens.

The technologies within Smart Buildings; the functionality they enable; how they serve municipalities, the community and myriad other stakeholders; and how these buildings integrate and interoperate within smart municipalities is still evolving and to be defined. The purpose of the SBSC is to explore, research and provide guidance with regard to these questions.

Some statistics that advocate for a Smart Buildings focus:

• In urban settings, 87% of a day is spent inside a building
• 80% of all mobile usage is inside a building
• Smart buildings support sustainability and a smart sustainable building can reduce energy usage from 40% to an astounding 70%
• In certain municipalities, office space utilization is at 48%, leaving much room for smart, flexible space utilization
• Improved workplace design, lighting, and air quality can lead to an uplift of 30-40% in employee productivity
• Health, wellness and productivity as supported by the workplace are key trends in corporate human resource management

Both the concept and the reality of developing a Smart Building are relatively new. There are a number of challenges and opportunities facing smart buildings. There is much to experiment with, learn and explore. The SBSC will utilize the collective capabilities of its partners to produce a series of deliverables including a Smart Buildings Blueprint, best practices, guidelines, checklists, and use cases.

SBSC’s launch objective is to create a Blueprint that will address some of these questions. Primary areas of focus at this time are:

• Communications and Connectivity – Design, deployment and management
• Smart Cities/Safer Buildings – Public safety that unifies efforts of real property owners and managers with municipal, regional and federal first responders
• Organizational Productivity – For municipal and commercial organizations, and the impact that has on the design and development of real property
• Interfacing with Municipal Services and Utilities – Includes communications networks, systems and applications within buildings and between buildings and their environment (city, town, campus)
• Transportation – Public and private transportation, connected and autonomous, applications and infrastructure

The SBSC collaborative welcomes thought leaders and experts who wish to contribute, and any general questions and requests for information. Please contact Limor Schafman and Ronna Davis.

SBSC Members: Jeff Booth, DHS; Benson Chan, Strategy of Things; John Coluccio, City of Schenectady; Ronna Davis, Commscope; Yuri Gawdiak, NASA; John Hagerty, ARUP; Rebecca Hunter, Crown Castle; Benny Lee, San Mateo County; Renil Paramel, Strategy of Things; Peter Poolsaar, BlueCatalyst; Mark Reynolds, University of New Mexico; Deborah Shands, SRI International; Jiri Skopek, JLL; Alan Tilles, Shulman Rogers

With Special Thanks for Ongoing Support to: Sokwoo Rhee, (NIST) and Jean Rice (NTIA)

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Chair(s)

Leadership Team

DHS, NTIA, Strategy of Things, NIST, City of Schenectady, Commscope, NASA, ARUP, Crown Castle, San Mateo County, BlueCatalyst, University of New Mexico, SRI International, JLL, Shulman Rogers