Software developer Live Monitoring launched its greenMON software – a world-first automated carbon emissions footprint measurement and verification software solution – for the buildings of small, medium- sized and large enterprises in November.

Live Monitoring director Tony Kay explains that greenMON assists clients in monitoring their facilities’ and buildings’ carbon and waste outputs against the norms and targets of other buildings in real time and, when necessary, alerting clients to when adjustments need to be made.

“It is a simple means of collecting the data required to compile emissions reports for real-time and historical reporting. Where possible, much of the inputs can be automatically obtained from using existing building management systems or by combining with Live Monitoring’s other systems, such as liveMON for power and process variables and produMAX for manufacturing data,” he says.

The software solution provides an easier way of monitoring the outcomes of efficiency improvement projects, for example, lighting and heating, ventilation and air- conditioning systems interventions.

The solution provides centralised access to efficiency information, including progress, the pitfalls involved and providing an audit trail that records the impact of the organisation on the environment, as well as the social aspect of interventions, such as community participation and the sharing of ideas on efficiency.

Further, an advanced data collection function has been built into the greenMON service. Although the function is not hard-coded to any specific Web service interface, it can be configured to request data from any third-party Web service using scripting.

Usually, data interface routines require the Web service structure to be predefined before the solution is deployed and included in the Web service declaration, says Kay.

However, greenMON connects and compiles this information when a building is being used, so it does not require the information beforehand. Therefore, as new data stores are identified in any of the three emissions scopes – direct emissions, energy (usually electricity) and indirect emissions – and are contained in enterprise resource planning or financial systems scripts, the data stored can be incorporated into the greenMON system.

Clients using greenMON, coupled with using the company’s existing produMAX and liveMON systems, as well as its enterprise resource planning, financial systems and building management systems (BMS), can benefit from the automatic data collection of nearly all the data requirements for emissions reporting.

“If there are not any in place, manual data collection forms are provided online, as the software is Web-based. This, in turn, allows for easy centralised collection, access and use of these forms,” Kay adds.

As a result of an increased focus on energy efficiency, creating a greener world and reducing carbon taxes, he says that “a vital component of the new industrial world order is monitoring, be it individual machines, items, assets, buildings or communication between them”.
Meanwhile, Live Monitoring has achieved an overall building efficiency increase for a large industrial manufacturer, from 56% efficiency to 82% efficiency – measured against an operator performance ratio, calculated as the planned time to do the work against the actual time taken – which is a world-class standard, highlights Kay.

Industrial monitoring software is generally regarded as an unnecessary expense, he adds.

“Live Monitoring software eliminates the guesswork by understanding machine ‘talk’, extracting data from the machines, sensors, radio-frequency identification tags, power meters and BMS directly and presenting it in a simple and easily understood visual process.

”

Kay adds that millions of rands are spent yearly by medium-sized and large South African manufacturing companies on licence fees sold by overseas software vendors, when competent and locally produced software is available in South Africa.