Author: Peggy Smedley

Energy efficiency is a top priority for many homeowners today, as we are seeing the rise of such trends as net zero and passive housing. Now, more organizations are spurring passive housing, which is a set of building standards that creates comfortable and healthy structures yet consume very little energy. There are many ways to achieve passive housing, including airtightness, above-code thermal insulation, mechanical ventilation heat recovery, high performance windows, and thermal bridge-free construction, as just a few examples. For this column, let’s explore one specific instance of passive housing in the Chicagoland area. Preservation of Affordable Housing has closed…

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Construction firms need to really be thinking about sustainability and how they are investing in ESG (environmental, social, and governance), energy, and training workers to understand it as well. They also need to consider how technology fits into the equation. First, a primer and then an example. At its core, ESG is a foundational set of principles that guide various areas of the business. For some companies ESG efforts are led by investors. For others, it is led by other corporate objectives that a business may be looking to achieve. For many, good ESG practices lead to happier workers and…

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Data centers are poised for big disruptions, as new innovations become available. We are beginning to see new power and cooling capabilities, as well as the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) that is set to transform everything. Recent research from Dell’Oro Group suggests AI infrastructure spending will propel data center capex to more than half a trillion dollars by 2027, with worldwide data center capex forecast to grow 15% by 2027. Baron Fung, senior research director for Data Center Capex, Dell’Oro Group, suggests the biggest takeaway from this research is the increased projections for AI-related spending and that AI-related infrastructure…

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Solar is becoming a more common option for many homeowners these days—something we have explored in depth here on this blog. It is a good option to help reduce emissions and energy costs in home, although it does often come with a large upfront price tag that can sometimes be hard to ignore. The good news is the technology continues to advance, offering new capabilities and features for homeowners. Consider the example of SolarEdge Technologies, which has unveiled the latest version of its SolarEdge Home Hub and Wave inverters in the United States. The new inverters will be integrated with…

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If you have followed this column for any length of time, then you know rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure is a huge undertaking for a lot of people. I have spent a lot of time talking about what is required to achieve these lofty objectives and it’s even far to say it’s a top priority of mine. Our infrastructure can include everything from roads and bridges to our nation’s cybersecurity to ensure critical infrastructure isn’t under attack. Today, let’s take a closer look at how our infrastructure is fairing in 2023. But, first, let’s look back to look forward, as I…

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Mainframes have powered mission-critical applications for many industries for more than 60 years, keeping airlines, global retailers, and other businesses humming. In fact, mainframes today handle 70% of the world’s production IT workloads, according to Aparna Sharma, general manager, hybrid cloud services, IBM Consulting. This is precisely the conversation I had recently with Sharma and Cristina Potra, leading the Azure customer engineering team for mainframes modernization, Microsoft. We discussed mainframe application modernization today—and why it is so important. “As I work with clients every day and I talk to them about this topic, there are three things that I hear…

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For the past couple of years, I have been keeping a close eye on national construction employment trends just to keep a pulse on the state of the workforce. We know there is a talent shortage that needs to be addressed, but it’s always important to keep a close eye on the actual number to ensure we know which way we are trending. Earlier this month, the ADP National Employment Report was released, which is an independent measure and high-frequency view of the private-sector labor market based on actual, anonymized payroll data of more than 25 million U.S. employees. Using…

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Extreme weather events are impacting many areas of work and life. Our crops are no exception. With a greater focus on climate change these days, farmers, producers, and even homeowners are now looking for sustainable ways to grow crops in any weather conditions. This is where new technology enters the equation. Technology can help grow crops in a controlled environment, regardless of the weather conditions. Consider the example of Urban Crop Solutions, which provides an indoor farming solution that can perform in any weather condition. In a recent project in Saudi Arabia, the system was subjected to challenges due to…

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As the amount of data increases, so too does the amount of computing needed to manage all that data. In fact, Intel estimates that up to 20% of a data center’s energy consumption is simply due to software inefficiency. We have reached the point where we now need to leverage software to optimize workloads, to maintain performance and lower power. This is precisely the conversation I had recently with Jen Huffstetler, chief product sustainability officer, Intel, who says the future of sustainable computing is largely in the hands of AI (artificial intelligence) software developers. “The power of AI is looking…

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The smart home certainly isn’t a new concept—it is one contractors and builders have been talking about for decades, as films, books, and industry have been touting the value technology can provide to homeowners. Now, we are seeing the rise of a new subset of smart homes: the smart-energy home. Expect an 18% growth rate between 2023 and 2032 for the global smart-home energy management device market, according to a new report from Market Research Future. The size is expected to reach $4 billion by 2032. As one example, in July, Schneider Electric announced the launch of a new modular,…

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