Cortex Intel Mobile App Delivers Millions in Value and Big Sustainability Gains
The Empire State Building has long been a global icon of leadership and innovation—from the completion of its initial construction in 1931 to the kickoff of the Empire State ReBuilding Program in 2009 and its successful investment and return focused energy-efficiency retrofit. Today the Empire State Building, assisted by JLL, is continuing to lead innovation by harnessing a mobile app provided by Cortex Building Intelligence to track and control energy consumption at the property. By using the Cortex app, engineers at the Empire State Building have been able to operate HVAC systems more precisely. The substantial reduction in energy usage at the Empire State Building has translated into an $800,000 decrease in the building’s annual operating costs—all without compromising tenant satisfaction.
The Empire State Building has created substantial energy savings for several years—from refurbishing all 6,514 windows in the building to making significant investments in their building management system. The Empire State Building has also continued to invest in the people who operate it, building an engineering team with over 100 years of collective experience working in the building itself.
“We certainly spent significant time looking at a large number of building intelligence software platforms, and what really stood out to us about Cortex was its ability to provide powerful, specific, and simple recommendations for the engineers through a mobile app that they could access from anywhere. Our work with ownership has shown that use of the app has been a benefit to the engineering team, generating savings six times greater than Cortex originally projected,” explains Dana Robbins Schneider, a managing director at JLL who has led JLL’s work with ESRT at the Empire State Building.
Cortex connects directly to the building management system and, in real time, distills the immense amount of data being collected into simple and intuitive charts, visualizations, and recommendations that the engineers can access from their mobile devices. Consequently, the building engineers can make informed decisions with better information at their fingertips, such as when to turn up the chiller or fans, or when to shut systems down in the most energy-efficient manner. Engineers also receive alerts when they are within a certain percentage of hitting monthly peak electric or steam demand to avoid unnecessarily high peak demand charges.
Cortex’s recommendations are based on machine-learned historical, current, and forecasted data specific to each building, taking into account weather, the day of the week, and the preceding day’s profile to understand how best to operate the building. By continuously monitoring and analyzing data sources in each building, the Cortex platform helps engineers provide the best commands to the building’s HVAC infrastructure—a significant source of energy consumption and utility costs.
In addition to the real-time recommendations and insights offered through the app, the Cortex team has acted as a partner to the Empire State Building engineers and the JLL Energy and Sustainability team, participated in monthly discussions to identify collectively operational opportunities, and continues to issue regular savings and performance reports. In addition, the Cortex Customer Success team spends significant time in person with the building engineers, proactively identifying opportunities and answering questions.
As described by Dailey, “We have 24-hour access to the app and also have daily interaction with Cortex team members where we get detailed reports.”
According to Bryan Bennett, Cortex’s founder and CEO, “At Cortex, our primary mission is to solve specific problems facing building engineers, and enable them to create substantial bottom-line impact for ownership. We strongly believe that one of the most valuable assets of any building is its operating team and the deep knowledge and judgment that the team brings. We think technology’s role is to augment and support that asset, giving engineers better and more digestible information at their fingertips so they can make smart decisions. Because of that, our platform has been built, and will continue to be built, in collaboration with the engineers with whom we work.”
Now Cortex is fully deployed nationally, and across 10 million square feet of office property in New York City, including high-profile Class A assets like 277 Park Avenue, The Woolworth Building, and 110 William Street. At 277 Park Avenue, for instance, Cortex Intel has reduced annual operating costs by $700,000, resulting in a significant increase to net operating income and a strong boost to asset value. Portfolio-wide, Cortex is averaging an 8 percent annual reduction in building energy consumption for its customers, which is equivalent to taking 850 cars off the road.
The Witkoff Group, owner of the office space at the historic Woolworth Building, has also deployed Cortex Intel and seen immediate results. “Seemingly small, individual decisions made every day in the management of an office building can multiply into a significant impact on the annual bottom line, and on the environment as well,” said Scott C. Alper, president and chief investment officer of Witkoff Group, which has deployed Cortex Intel for the office space at the historic Woolworth Building. “With Cortex Intel we’ve been able to improve those decisions to achieve an annualized reduction in operating costs of over $100,000.”
Savanna, a New York based real estate investment management company, deployed Cortex Intel at 110 William Street about 18 months ago. “We’ve already achieved significant financial benefit at 110 William through Cortex Intel’s platform, reducing annual operating costs by $250,000, which translates into a property valuation increase of about $5 million,” said Nicholas Bienstock, co-managing partner at Savanna. “The impact of Cortex Intel’s technology has been substantial, and we believe many other property owners will benefit from implementing it.”
In tandem with financial gains, Cortex Intel’s positive environmental impact has been felt immediately. At 277 Park Avenue, Cortex Intel has delivered a 9 percent reduction in energy consumption. The Woolworth Building and 110 William have achieved 5 percent and 11 percent reductions, respectively, using Cortex Intel technology.
“Industry adoption of Cortex Intel is accelerating because it produces tangible benefits that building owners, managers, engineers, and tenants can easily see and feel,” Beinstock added. “The business proposition is simple and compelling: with limited cost, we can help you operate your building better, make your tenants happier, save you money, increase your asset value, and reduce your environmental impact.”
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