Johnson Controls released its 13th annual Energy Efficiency Indicator study, which surveyed facility and energy management executives in 11 countries on current and planned investment in energy efficiency. Over 1,300 respondents were represented from eleven countries, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey analyzed market drivers, organizational barriers, enabling policies, as well as current and planned investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart building technology.
While the survey was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence from the 2010 survey conducted amid the Great Recession indicated that energy efficiency investment did not slow.
Some of the survey’s key findings include:
- Resilience is becoming a greater priority. When making energy and building infrastructure investments, 82 percent of respondents rated resilience extremely or very important. Germany, Japan and the U.S. are the countries placed the highest priority on resilience.
- Strong investment in smart building technologies. 70 percent of organizations invested in building control improvements, the highest percentage of any measure and an increase of three percent from the previous year. Respondents predicted that data analytics, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity will be the most impactful technology trends on smart buildings over the next five years.
- Sustainability issues continue to drive investment in building technology around the world. 73 percent of respondents noted that greenhouse gas footprint reduction is extremely or very important.