Johnson Controls, a leading provider of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), fire detection, security, distributed energy storage, and digital and sustainability solutions for commercial and residential buildings, has partnered with alternative investment firm Apollo Global Management to provide sustainability and energy services to commercial buildings to help them meet their decarbonization goals.
The partnership will provide customers in the U.S. and Canada with performance-based infrastructure services on a monthly subscription basis. These will include efficiency solutions, optimizing building performance, and providing other smart buildings services without requiring any upfront costs from participants.
This venture follows a series of climate-friendly initiatives launched by the company earlier this year. In July, the company launched its OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings as a service program that includes a full spectrum of sustainability services designed for schools, university campuses, medical facilities, data centers, and other commercial facilities.
“The need for making net-zero leadership easier to achieve is immediate and greater than ever,” said George Oliver, chairman, and CEO of Johnson Controls. “Buildings represent about 40 percent of global emissions and Johnson Controls is uniquely positioned to help customers around the world pursue their net-zero carbon goals.”
The OpenBlue program came on the heels of Johnson Controls’ survey of over 1,000 North American building operators, facilities managers, and sustainability officers last May. The survey found that over 90 percent of respondents had significant goals to reduce carbon emissions by 2030. Over 60 percent of survey participants had a target of reducing their energy consumption by 50 percent or more by that date.
“The global building stock will double by 2050 — the equivalent of building one New York City a month for the next forty years,” stated the survey. “The building construction industry accounts for 40 percent of total global energy-related carbon emissions, and three-quarters of those emissions are attributable to building operations. It’s now widely acknowledged that cutting emissions from buildings is the key to mitigating climate change.”
However, most respondents face a variety of challenges on their path to net-zero buildings. Those include how to improve energy efficiency, source and integrate off-site renewable energies, electrify buildings and add grid-integrative capabilities. Another major problem was how to measure emissions, especially how to aggregate data from multiple sources. Building managers and operators need effective, low-cost metering and digital solutions to that end.
The partnership with Apollo will bring the necessary infrastructure expertise and financial capital to help offer the right products and services to those customers.
“We see strong and enduring demand for greater energy efficiency and sustainability. This new venture will help companies find innovative, more affordable means to take on these critical infrastructure projects and aligns with Apollo’s longstanding commitment to ESG,” said Geoffrey Strong, senior partner and co-head of infrastructure and natural resources at Apollo.
In addition, “The partnership provides a new strategic option for addressing the North American segment of the estimated $240 billion global market for decarbonization retrofit and services over the next decade,” noted Johnson Controls.
