Verdantix awards: Top 10 Smart Building Innovators in 2020
Independent research firm Verdantix on October 14th announced the 10 winners of the 2020 Smart Building Innovation Awards. These prestigious international awards recognize organizations that have implemented innovative technologies to enhance their facilities and real estate strategies. At Spacewell we are absolutely delighted that 2 of our clients were selected as winners by the independent judging panel.
AXA Belgium won the New Corporate Headquarters category for the space optimization project at its 50,000 m² HQ in Brussels. By optimizing space design and analyzing utilization data using 1,850 sensors, AXA’s building management team were able to reduce the desk-to-employee ratio to 0.6 and save costs, whilst providing a comfortable and agile work environment that meets the evolving needs of workers.
- Space usage was optimized for activity-based working reducing the desk-to-employee ratio to 0.6. Workplace occupancy rate of 90% was considered the saturation point. Using a ratio of 6 workplaces per 10 employees (instead of 7 per 10 previously) resulted in savings of 100 workplaces per 1000 employees.
- Taking into account an average gross floor area of 20m² per workstation, that provides a saving of 2000 m² floor space against an annual building cost (rent, tax, operational costs) in the center of Brussels from 350 to 400 euro/m², or roughly 7 to 800,000 euros per year.
- At AXA’s HQ Brussels, there are more than three thousand people, bringing the annual profit of the project to 2.4 million euros.
- Lower footprint of the building through the optimized use, which translates into less energy costs and cleaning costs. The full project cost and investment amounted to approximately 180,000 euros, amortized over five years. Managing the workplace with manual counts (twice yearly before) for the equivalent area was about 60,000 euros per year. As a result, the investment is more than profitable, especially if the cost reduction in terms of leased space is considered. Next to the budget impact, the reduction of the surface area also helped AXA achieve BREEAM certification for sustainability.
AZ Maria Middelares won the Hospital COVID-19 Management category for its innovative use of a mobile app that provides over 100 cleaners with clear work instructions on digital floor plans. During the COVID-19 emergency, the app helped the cleaning team work efficiently and stay safe by visualizing COVID-19 cohort areas and providing tailored work orders with clear safety, hygiene, and sanitization procedures.
- Augmented cleaning capacity: from 5% (2016) to 15% (2019) of all hospital rooms on any given morning
- No need to recruit extra FTEs, even if the average length of stay of patients fell by 5% (higher cleaning frequency) and the number of admissions increased by 8% (higher workload)
- Despite an increase in the workload in the day hospital (equivalent to one FTE), no need to expand the team thanks to the greater efficiency brought by the Work Assistant (savings of approx. 1.2%)
- In combination with a well-structured organization, clear instructions, and the right tools and products, the mobile app (Work Assistant) ensures high satisfaction of the cleaning staff as evidenced by less absenteeism (a reduction of more than 50 %) and reduced staff turnover (9 exits in 2016, 1 exit in 2019) resulting in less recruiting & onboarding time.
To learn more, read the Verdantix press release or register for ‘Next & Best Practices: Learning From Top 10 Smart Building Innovators in 2020’ on December 9th.
About Spacewell
Spacewell is part of the listed Nemetschek Group, a digital transformation pioneer in the AEC industry. As one of the leading corporate groups worldwide, Nemetschek covers the entire life cycle of building and infrastructure projects with its software solutions and guides its customers into the future of digitalization.
Spacewell’s software and technology solutions focus on the use phase (manage & operate) of buildings. Our main goal is to make buildings work harder for their users. We assist our clients to optimize building maintenance and facility operations and achieve bottom-line savings. And we help them create high-performance workplaces that offer the agility, flexibility, and connectivity needed to support new ways of working.
We do this by consolidating life-cycle data, best-practice processes, real-time IoT data, and actionable insights onto a single platform. Spacewell’s product portfolio spans MCS (IWMS), Axxerion (workflow-based property and facility management software), O-Prognose (long-term maintenance planning), Cobundu (Smart Building platform) and Advisory Services. Spacewell was founded in 1989 and currently employs over 300 people across 10 locations.
For more information about Spacewell, visit https://spacewell.com/ or follow us on LinkedIn
