Environmental, social and governance is part of the mainstream thinking, and at the core of every leading organization. Trillions of dollars of yearly investments take into account E.S.G. concerns over company revenue.
But E.S.G. initiatives are currently in a similar position to where climate change efforts were a few years ago – not ready to effect extreme changes.
That is about to change. The widespread deployment of technology – IoT being the most prominent example- has a way to turn E.S.G. principles into practice at the ground level. Tech companies making notable strides in enterprise IoT believe that Internet of Things has the key to close the Pandora’s box of E.S.G. issues.
At last week’s Mobility Field Day event in California, Ruckus Networks demonstrated an analytics platform that provides bespoke application-level solutions designed to power organizations’ E.S.G. efforts, and serve some very important real-world use cases.
The presentation showcased Ruckus IoT Insights, “an application-level data processor” that is part of the Ruckus IoT Suite. Ruckus has built a catalogue of applications on it to solve real-world problems at enterprise level, and “deliver outcomes for end users”.
Assessing Impacts
To be E.S.G.-focused, organizations need long-term data on E.S.G. factors. By tapping into the reserves of data flowing in through IoT devices, enterprises in any vertical can become good corporate citizens, and fulfill certain E.S.G. goals.
Ruckus Networks recognizes that with the quick rise and implementation of IoT across sectors, there’s sufficient data to power E.S.G. practices. But lack of analytics has left a majority of organizations unable to quantify this data to environmental and social parameters.
With its eyes set on a range of vertical-led applications, Ruckus Networks is trying to solve this problem with IoT data that is processed by the IoT Insights platform.
The Ruckus IoT Suite comprises a set of technologies designed to enable IoT adoption in enterprises. It comprises IoT gateway access points that connect devices to the Ruckus management platform – the IoT Controller.
The IoT Controller is the central management server that does security, management and connectivity of IoT network and deployments. Inside the Controller, the IoT Insights is a program that performs application-level analysis and logging of events.
Focused on app-level solution, IoT Insights features an intuitive display which constitutes a floor plan, and events metrics shown in the form of diagrams. Sensors in the building show up on the map, changing color as they trigger.
The platform can pull up data from all available IoT devices – very simple to advanced sensors. “Our Insights platform brings in real world data from a whole range of different access points and sensors into our platform,” said Andy Barnes, Sr. director of Product Management, Ruckus Networks.
Real-World Applications
The Solution Panel features all the solutions that Ruckus is offering. These include energy management, water management, environmental monitoring, space optimization, building health and environmental carbon footprint.
“The solutions are next-generation. These are the things that people are interested in, because IoT is all about the data,” said Barnes.
He demonstrated some of the solutions that Ruckus has built on top of its IoT data.
Energy management is a priority in almost all the verticals Ruckus Networks plays in. With energy costs spiraling out of control, this is a solution that most deserves a spot on the list.
“When you’re running very large buildings in education or hospitality, where you have huge energy consumption bills, if you can get an understanding of how much energy is being used, where and when it’s being used, you can start to get to grips with it, and reduce your energy usage,” said Barnes.
This in turn helps curb carbon emissions and manage the overall CO2 footprint of the building.
“When we’re developing solutions and working on how those solutions are going to be integrated into our platform, we look at it from a very wide range about how we are going to solve things for environmental and social governance,” informed Barnes.
Ruckus’ solutions enable smart energy management with insights on metrics like power consumption, power cuts, distribution and utilization.
Ruckus also has a host of safety and tracking solutions like Staff Safety, Medical Assistance and Location Services.
Ruckus IoT Insights
Data is fed into the IoT Insights platform by connected IoT devices deployed in different locations. “We’ve mapped those locations into our IoT ecosystem,” informed Barnes.
Depending on the application, IoT Insights analyzes the data and sends out insights matching the use case. For E.S.G. use cases, the application cranks out insights on things like power consumption, space utilization, water usage, plumbing pipe bursts, mold growth, the health of residents, CO2 levels, air quality – all of which are critical to the overall health of spaces and their occupants.
For a safety solution, the application produces different insights using the same data, such as location of an employee, movement of assets, events like gunshots and fire breakouts, and triggers an alarm in real-time.
The events are captured and logged quickly into the system. When an alert shows up, it is geolocated for the operator to know the exact location where the event is happening. If there’s a camera nearby, they can pull up the footage, see what happened, and use the data for auditing.
Wrapping Up
At its core, E.S.G. is just common sense. It is doing more with less, and saving costs in the process. Ruckus’ solutions are aimed at empowering verticals like hospitality, education and rental real estate, to meet their long-term E.S.G. goals, and in the long run, realign with the rising urgency of embracing sustainable practices, and secure substantial cost cuts.
With a few changes consistently applied, it maybe possible one day for even the smallest organization to become a green business. Ruckus’ solutions paves the way for that by providing the push critical to powering E.S.G. uses cases. In the recessionary economy of today, where E.S.G. sometimes takes a back seat, the solutions will help organizations any size embed sustainable practices in their day-to-day operations.
For more information on the solution, and for all their latest updates, be sure to watch Ruckus’ presentations from the recent Mobility Field Day event on the Tech Field Day website.
