Industry leaders get hands-on demos of live net zero building technology at the Johnson Controls OpenBlue Innovation Center launch in Rotterdam

• State-of-the-art digital technology and hyper-efficient, sustainable heating and cooling can help make net zero buildings the norm, in time to support a 1.5 C climate scenario.
• Johnson Controls launches the OpenBlue Innovation Center in Rotterdam on March 21, 2023, inviting public and industry leaders in Europe to see how to make buildings fit for net zero.
• An interactive demo will walk visitors through an 8-step journey for old and new buildings to reach net zero – from assessment, road mapping, and financing to technology and digitalization, to on-site renewable energy and digital emissions management.

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, March 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With nearly a 40% share of global greenhouse gas emissions, buildings are a primary target in the pursuit of a net zero world. Net zero buildings could become the norm, in time to support a 1.5 C global warming scenario, if building owners start using the smart building technology and services available now. Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, opens the doors of its new OpenBlue Innovation Center in Rotterdam, inviting industry leaders to experience net zero-focused building solutions in a real-time operating environment.

An interactive demo will walk visitors through the 8-step journey for old and new buildings to reach net zero, including assessment and advisory, road mapping, financing, technology upgrades, digitalization, and on-site renewable energy. The final step – using the unique, all-in-one digital dashboard in the OpenBlue Net Zero Advisor to assess carbon footprints, set targets, manage emissions, and track progress – will be especially important to businesses in the coming years. Climate disclosures are becoming mandatory in the EU, the US, and many other countries, not only for building certification and environmental reporting, but also for financial regulation.

Visitors will also experience demos and models of sustainable building technology, including heat pumps that can run on less than half the energy used in conventional heating. Heat pumps extract and amplify thermal energy from renewable sources like sea water, earth, and air, and even use the thermal waste from other heating or cooling processes. Heat pumps are energy multipliers that can run with zero emissions on clean electricity. Heat pumps could replace 80% of gas used to heat buildings, according to the IEA. They will play a significant role not only in helping buildings to reach net zero, but also in achieving energy security imperatives, and are a top priority for the EU and the US.