Dive Brief:
- BACnet-enabled building automation systems have mitigated 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide since 1995, according to a University of New Hampshire study commissioned by ASHRAE. Another 2.06 billion tons of carbon dioxide could be mitigated by 2030 if more owners adoptthe building automation and control communication protocol, the researchers concluded.
- "This study clearly shows the power of smart buildings and the critical role BACnet plays in reducing global carbon emissions," ASHRAE 2025-26 President Bill McQuade said in a statement. "For nearly three decades, BACnet’s open, interoperable framework has enabled building owners and operators to optimize energy use, improve efficiency and deliver measurable climate impact.”
- BACnet is a global data communication protocol for building control networks that was developed under the guidance of ASHRAE. It enables heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, life-safety and other building systems to communicate and cooperate, driving the efficiency of the modern built environment, ASHRAE said in a release.
Dive Insight:
A building automation system, or BAS, plays a critical role in improving a building’s energy use – and as the dominant standard enabling systems to talk to one another, BACnet is a key part of the efficiency equation, the researchers say in the report. It’s “played a central role in expanding automation adoption worldwide,” they said.
The researchers measured how much carbon reduction can be credited to BACnet by using a model that combines a number of factors, including regional commercial floor area, BAS adoption rates, baseline energy intensity, carbon-intensity trajectories and system performance decay to produce mitigation estimates. Through these estimates, the study — GlobalCarbon Mitigation from BACnet Adoption Commercial Building Automation Systems 1995-2030 — quantifies the global impact of the technology for the first time, ASHRAE said in a summary of the results.
The report highlights that the open systems nature of BACnet accelerated adoption rates across four major regions — the U.S., Canada, Europe and other parts of the world — creating a cohort effect where overlapping systems compound energy savings over time, ASHRAE said. In the U.S., about 70% of the mitigation came from electricity savings, while natural gas savings played a larger role in Europe and Canada due to colder climates and gas-intensive heating loads.
Based on social cost of carbon estimates, the 1.4 billion tons of CO2 avoided by BACnet systems have saved the global economy an estimated $266 billion in climate-related costs, ASHRAE said.
There will need to be sustained maintenance of BAS systems and a broader deployment of the technology in under-automated building segments if organizations and governments are to maximize the carbon value of electricity savings, ASHRAE said. The findings underscore that, while grid decarbonization is important, the efficiency provided by building automation systems remains a “near-term mitigation powerhouse,” the organization said.
The study projects that BACnet systems could help avoid 2.06 billion tons of CO2 by 2030, “underscoring the critical role of smart, connected building technologies in achieving global sustainability goals,” ASHRAE said.
“These findings demonstrate that BAS deliver robust and persistent energy savings, but the carbon value of those savings depends increasingly on regional grid decarbonization pathways,” researchers wrote in the study. “The results highlight the continued importance of BAS, supported by BACnet interoperability, as a nearterm mitigation strategy and underscore the need for sustained maintenance and broader deployment in under-automated building segments.
