LaSalle Investment Management supercharges building efficiency with innovative AI solution

Occupying a prime spot on London's skyline, 240 Blackfriars is an imposing 278-foot office building with floor-to-ceiling windows. While offering spectacular city views, this unique building presented LaSalle Investment Management with significant climate control challenges. The highly glazed facade meant the building was subject to considerable temperature fluctuations throughout the day.

“If you are working in this building in the morning in a specific location, you have a very different experience to in the afternoon,” explains Beverly Kilbride, European Chief Operating Officer, LaSalle Investment Management. This inconsistency created a challenge in maintaining tenant comfort, especially as the building houses multiple tenants with varying needs.

LaSalle realized that tenant comfort must come hand in hand with responsible operations. With energy prices soaring, and tenants looking to landlords for solutions to reduce costs while meeting ambitious sustainability targets, LaSalle needed an innovative solution that could address climate control issues and improve tenant satisfaction, as well as achieve sustainability goals.

To address LaSalle's challenges, JLL proposed the use of Hank, an AI-powered platform designed to revolutionize building operations. The platform proactively manages energy consumption, maintains the ideal indoor climate and identifies maintenance needs before they escalate into problems. This intelligent system uses real-time data and energy models to make continuous micro-adjustments, optimizing energy use and improving overall efficiency.

“240 Blackfriars is an investment managed by LaSalle, where JLL has an important role to play, in particular in the facility management,” says Kilbride.

Hank integrates with the existing Building Management System (BMS) and uses AI to optimize its performance. The temperature and airflow equipment generate data, which is collected by the building's BMS and routed to Hank's cloud infrastructure. This allows Hank to learn the building's unique characteristics and improve its performance.

“Hank helps building engineers and property owners manage and make their building operations much more efficient,” explains Lawrence Yen, Software Engineering Manager at JLL.

JLL's property management team played a crucial role in the successful introduction of Hank at 240 Blackfriars. Working closely with LaSalle and the technology team, they oversaw the integration of Hank with the building's existing systems. The property already had a building management system in place, making Hank a seamless addition.

Steve Mercer, JLL’s Site Supervisor at 240 Blackfriars, describes Hank as “like having a building management engineer sitting at the PC 24/7. Hank has allowed me to carry on with my job and not have to constantly look at the building management system.”

The team created digital twins, virtual copies of particular pieces of equipment, designed to mimic operations and logic. Digital twins allow the simulation of buildings using real-world and real-time data to generate predictions. These predictions are then fed back into Hank to anticipate cooling or heating load for the building.

Hank has delivered significant benefits to LaSalle and the tenants at 240 Blackfriars:
 

• Elevated tenant dialogue: Hank's ability to deliver immediate-term solutions has changed the communication between LaSalle and its tenants. “We’re no longer speaking about complaints; we’re talking about improvements,” Kilbride explains.

• Enhanced engineering team productivity: Hank has elevated the work of the engineering staff, shifting their focus from small adjustments to data-driven solutions.

• Improved sustainability: By optimizing energy consumption, Hank has also had a significant impact on sustainability and efficiency. Beverly Kilbride notes: “We've been able to measure the positive impact on reducing the energy usage in the building and the impact on cost.”

• Increased tenant comfort: Hank’s dynamic comfort models pre-empt heating and cooling needs for a given room, or even entire floors for any given day, ensuring that people occupying that space are comfortable.

The success of Hank at 240 Blackfriars demonstrates the potential of AI to transform buildings into smart, sustainable and tenant-friendly environments.

LaSalle and JLL are now exploring opportunities to integrate Hank with other building systems, such as lighting and security, to further enhance efficiency and create a more holistic building management solution. “Hank is constantly learning this building, so the opportunities are endless,” says Kilbride.

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