Comment: Decarbonising manufacturing through digitalisation

What industrial operators do to limit energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions – and what their customers and partners do, too – matters. Buildings consume more than 30 percent of the world’s energy[1] and account for 26 percent of global CO2 emissions[2]. 

The threat posed by climate change is by its nature a global challenge and ‘small wins’ at individual locations equal big gains when emulated across many thousands of industrial facilities worldwide.

In this article, we will take a closer look at how industry 4.0 solutions are helping to achieve big wins when it comes to decarbonising manufacturing operations, and how a new generation of ‘smart’ buildings use digital, automation and electrification technologies to provide managers with real-time data on energy use, emissions and costs so they can make informed decisions around sustainability.   

The world needs more power – with less emissions

The world needs more power with less emissions – and fast. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy efficiency improvements need to double by 2030 to reach net zero by 2050[3].

Achieving this goal promises not only to reduce emissions by more than 7Gt by 2030 (more than 50% of emissions reductions during that period) but also slash energy bills in developed economies by up to a third and create millions of jobs via building retrofits and energy-saving technology installations.

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To deliver this ambitious target, the integration of renewables like wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) needs to triple to at least 11,000GW by 2030. The IEA expects renewables to grow by more than 740GW annually between now and 2035 and capture nearly 90% of all new power generation capacity globally[4].

From Europe to China, energy transition opportunities abound. ABB, for example, has commissioned a $300m advanced innovative industrial hub in Xiamen, one of the company’s largest manufacturing sites worldwide and one of seven certified as ‘Green Factories’ by China’s Ministry of Industry and IT.

In 2019, ABB’s flagship Mission to Zero initiative began as a pilot concept at the company’s electrical products factory in Lüdenscheid, Germany. Here, the team installed electric vehicle (EV) chargers, solar panels and battery storage, and customised the plant’s automation controls to serve as a de facto smart energy management system[5], reducing annual CO2e emissions by 750 tons.

Smart buildings are a key step on path to net-zero emissions

All around the world, the digitalisation of buildings through connected technologies and automation has a key role to play in catering for the increased power demands on commercial infrastructure – from electric vehicle fleets to decentralised renewable energy solutions such as wind and solar PV.

Smart buildings deploy interconnected technologies to improve comfort and performance across a range of key services, including energy management, water consumption, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, remote monitoring and communication networks. By integrating digital and automation solutions, building operators can maximise their ROI and hit environmental targets.

The smart building idea is not new, of course; architects and developers have been installing separate systems to control lighting, heating and ventilation for many decades. What is new are web-based platforms that allow facility systems to integrate seamlessly with each other, delivering a single view of how efficiently and effectively a site operates. Armed with this granular data, managers can take proactive steps to avoid waste and optimise consumption – cutting emissions and making savings.

Future-proofing industry through digitalisation

Environmental credentials are no longer simply a ‘nice to have’ – manufacturers that remain behind the curve when it comes to innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data not only risk losing competitive advantage, but also their license to operate, not to mention losing out in the race to attract and retain the current and next generation of digitally literate talent.

Business leaders underestimate this final point at their peril. Increasingly, employees want to know what the company is doing to ‘walk the talk’ on embedding sustainability into everyday operations.

Digital, automation and electrification innovations – coupled with a company culture that prioritises environmental responsibility and action – are helping significantly reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing and production operations in multiple industry sectors worldwide, future-proofing them for generations to come, and providing a blueprint for the smart, clean factories of the future.

Aldo Sciacca, portfolio and R&D Leader at ABB Electrification’s Smart Buildings Division