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Smart buildings are

History of Green Buildings
The Green and Sustainable construction movement started in the 1970s by architects interested in the first Earth Day in 1970. The OPEC oil embargo of 1973 furthermore highlighted the need for green buildings, as Gasoline prices spiked upward in the summer of 1973 and gas rationing became the norm, society's reliance on Fossil fuel s for houses, transportation, and buildings came into focus as a major issue that needed to be addressed.

The 1990s and 2000s brought extreme weather patterns and heightened awareness on the impact of human pollution, the spotlight again was on buildings and the need to construct more efficiently in order to reduce our impact on the environment.

This time both the real estate and government communities heeded the call with the rise of certifications like BREEAM and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and both local and Countrywide Commitments to reduce emissions. This revolution has now become the “baseline” and is now a proven business case driven by economic and tax incentives promoted by governments.

The last 10 years has seen a rise in the number of buildings using technology to drive operational efficiency and enhance occupant productivity and wellness, commonly referred to as the Smart Building movement. Slow to gain mass adoption, the Smart Building movement so far has only a small subset of buildings in each market having invested in this technology, including EDGE Tech's Cube building in Berlin.

The evolution of the Green Building movement back in 1970s, started from Victor Olgyay's work 'Design with Climate', published in 1963, and Ralph Knowles's book 'Form and Stability', published in 1967. The movement evolved into popular practice in the 1990s and is now a code requirement for the majority of cities) we will likely see a forced upgrade to Smarter and Healthier buildings as they become a critical occupancy requirement and reinforced through building code as a result of the current crisis.

During Bill Clinton's presidency in the United States in 1992, 23 years after the initial Earth Day, Clinton announced a plan to make the White House the “model for efficiency and waste reduction" . The “Greening of the White House” program was designed to improve “energy efficiency and environmental performance of the White House complex by identifying opportunities to reduce waste, lower energy use, and make an appropriate use of renewable resources, all while improving the indoor air quality and building comfort.” On the 13 March 1996, it was reported that through the first two years of the “Greening” project, the program saved more than $150,000 per year in energy and water costs, landscaping expenses, and expenditures associated with solid waste. Since 1996, over $300,000 has been saved annually due to additional projects. In total, 845 metric tons per year of Carbon emission s were eliminated during Clinton’s presidency.

The Green Building movement gained momentum, and encouraged The Pentagon, the Presidio, and the United States Department of Energy to go 'green' ever since.

The Green building has been defined by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive as “the practice of: 1) increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use energy, water, and materials, and 2) reducing building impacts of human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal throughout the complete life cycle.”

The Transformation into Smart Buildings
With the modern world placing more importance on Technology and digital connectivity, the Green Building movement has transformed into the Smart Building movement. The Smart Building space has mostly been dominated by technologists, defining them as "a smart building is any structure that uses automated processes to automatically control the building's operations including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security and other systems ."