Panduit Corporation (Panduit), a US-based physical infrastructure solutions company, is unveiling a new vision to "smarten up" new and existing buildings called the Unified Physical Infrastructure (UPI) approach. UPI-based connected building and data center solutions from Panduit deliver improved energy efficiency and operational advantages, while enhancing reliability, security, and integration.
Buildings consume 72% of all the electricity produced in the US and emit almost 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. Incentives for energy efficiency improvements in new construction and existing buildings are key components of energy bills now before the Senate, as well as a number of state and federal initiatives governing public sector infrastructure projects.
Panduit is demonstrating its new UPI approach to help meet the new goals in buildings, like the Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, N.C. developed and managed by Childress Klein Properties, as well as in its own new world headquarters building in a Chicago suburb, scheduled to open in early 2010.
By integrating critical building functions that are historically siloed, such as control, computing, communications, power and security, the UPI based solutions reduce energy use by as much as 30%.
“Green buildings are a critical part of the climate change solution and Panduit’s approach is a great example of the impact we can have on energy use and our carbon footprint when we better integrate all the systems we depend on,” said Doug Widener, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council – Chicago Chapter, whose members toured the new headquarters building this month. “This is exactly the kind of innovation we are looking for in buildings of the future.”
The UPI approach was developed by Panduit to deliver new ways to build converged physical infrastructure for smart data centers and connected buildings. It provides a vision for the evolution of the physical infrastructure that aligns closely with and provides a solid foundation for the evolution of the logical systems infrastructure as defined by leading IT companies. Panduit is partnering with these industry leaders to develop integrated physical-logical, UPI based solutions. These solutions will be deployed in the new Panduit world headquarters building that will house up to 800 employees. This building is expected to achieve Gold level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program.
“UPI changes the way we work, design and build,” said Vineeth Ram, Panduit’s vice president global strategic marketing. “Once opened, our world headquarters will provide state-of-the-art visibility and control over all building systems such as heating and cooling, lighting, data center and networking. This deployment will become a living showcase for how to deploy leading converged systems technologies on an optimized and scalable physical infrastructure that reduces risk and lowers costs while increasing agility and sustainability.”