Increasing the productivity of knowledge workers through better indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in office buildings

Project Information

720IEQ

Grant agreement ID: 829433

DOI

10.3030/829433

Project closed

EC signature date 5 September 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 June 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 1 945 000,00

EU contribution

€ 1 361 500,00

Coordinated by

720 DEGREES OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 720IEQ (Increasing the productivity of knowledge workers through better indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in office buildings)

Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2020-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The objective of the 720IEQ project is to remove the main barriers to expansion across (1) the whole building portfolios of existing customers and (2) new markets in Europe.

The outcomes of the 720IEQ project are:
- Improved value offering: In addition to real-time IEQ issue detection and analysis, 720° can start providing automated IEQ improvement through BMS systems and the proprietary API.
- Larger Serviceable Obtainable Market: 720° can integrate with the most common data communication protocols for building automation and control networks. As a result, 720° can be integrated with the Building Management Systems of more than 50% of the buildings that belong to our target group as well as any other technical solution with no adaptation of 720°.
- Cooperation agreements with new commercialization partners to increase the market presence in the EU: Several commercialization partners have been signed in the European Union that enables scale also to other continents.
- Better visibility among target groups: Lead generation is more effective and visibility has increased substantially through development of the sales angles and supporting materials.

As a result of the 720IEQ project, 720 Degrees expects to achieve 2-3x year over year growth through further scaling and expansion to the US and Asia even through the COVID-19 crisis.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1
All tasks in WP1 have started and during the first project year, we have managed to utilize various data sources in order to increase the precision of issue identification and utilized the same methods in order to define where issues originate in the building. We have also been able to reliably estimate PM 2.5 levels indoor based on outdoor forecasts to a high certainty.

Work Package 2
All tasks in WP2 have also started and within the first project year, we have developed and tested capabilities on our Backend for several different protocols. This enables us to properly pilot the solution with BMS in order to send commands that would be related to the technical intervention as well as retrieve data to enrich our analysis.

Work Package 3
WP3 is focused on piloting. We have started with piloting activities and this work continues on until the end of the project. We have gotten a better understanding of what the data sources within BMS can be and how the data is structured.

Work Package 4
Commercialisation work will continue until the end of the project as well. During the first year, we were able to both start pilot and signed agreements with partners that have access to >10 000 buildings and renewed our business model to scale with partners while not deviating from the model with existing customers that have notable potential. We also participated at various events and will continue with that during the second year.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We were able validate our solution technically and improve on the analytics to the point where we can scale the solution technically. The commercial aspect, while more difficult to combine with the technical aspects, has been very promising even through the development of COVID-19 as we have reached commitments to several pilots and expansions when offices open up again.
We have a very high confidence in our ability to change the way buildings indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is managed today. We have for a long time been able to decrease potential risks of issues related to IEQ as well as increase awareness among occupants. The technical and analytical competence developed during the project is propelling the solution to remain the highest level application of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in analysis and communication of IEQ.
The project built a solid base for both commercial and technical development where the cost of expansion decreases and technical implementation of AI is available to all commercial buildings increasing the value of the solution through network effect. This will significantly increase customers and service provider’s abilities to identify and react on IEQ issues, where it has a substantial effect on resources being redirected to directly impact the wellbeing of millions of people, who currently are affected in terms of both decreased productivity, wellbeing and comfort, all the while also decreasing buildings carbon footprint and making our society sustainable.

Our solution