Acuity Brands, Inc. has announced it is expanding its collaboration with Microsoft to bring new capabilities to its smart lighting, lighting controls, and building automation solutions.
The partnership will bring the Acuity Brands portfolio of applications to Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability and Microsoft Azure IoT.
Through this integration, the two companies look to standardise data ingestion and analysis via Azure Digital Twins and analysis of this data via Azure’s AI offering.
They hope that this will enable end customers to forecast and calculate the environmental and financial impacts that these new technologies deliver.
The partners also look to explore technology solutions that further evolve the way spaces can be evaluated, managed, and optimised in the future.
Neil Ashe, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Brands, said: “We estimate that building operations contribute 28% of global carbon emissions. By developing, deploying, and operating building systems with a focus on sustainability, we can materially reduce energy usage from facilities.
“Together with Microsoft, our goal is to integrate foundational technologies like Microsoft Azure IoT and AI with Acuity Brands solutions that allow companies to reduce carbon emissions while saving money on operating expenses.”
Matt Renner, President, U.S. Enterprise Commercial at Microsoft, said: “Microsoft has bold commitments to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030, and we are pleased to partner with Acuity on its digital transformation journey.
“Together we will accelerate development of solutions that immediately impact carbon emissions from building operations and extend these solutions to companies of all sizes that will need simple solutions to meet their own climate goals.”
Image credit: zhu difeng/Shutterstock
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