Welcome to the world of blockchain!

Across a leafy neighbourhood in Brooklyn, locals such as 54 year-old real estate broker and solar energy proponent, Michael Guerra, generates and trades all his own energy with his next-door neighbour. This allows Michael to obtain the energy he needs from renewable sources and also sell excess electricity credits, bypassing the electricity supplier, and providing a grid that functions independently, even during broad power failures.

American start-up energy-tech company LO3 Energy enlisted residents’ participation in this radical scheme through a combination of modern technology (identifying homes with rooftop solar installations through Google Earth) and traditional methods (securing their buy-in through door knocking).

Powered by blockchain, their community initiative now enables hundreds of local homes and businesses to choose their preferred energy sources from a network of suppliers to increase the amount of clean, renewable energy in Brooklyn. The virtual trading platform enables locals to sell excess electricity credits from their systems to buyers in the group, bypassing the electric company energy supplier.

For people like Michael, who initially only installed solar panels to reduce his air-conditioning costs in summer, it’s a no-brainer and the way of the future.

This fourth edition of our Buildings of the Future series explores not only how we design, construct and maintain our buildings, but how we can use data to amplify business performance, through the following: Blockchain’s impact on buildings; The power of data; How will we stay secure?

Watch this video and explore our insights further below.

In some industries and applications, there is little doubt that emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchains have the potential to radically reshape supply chains and, as a consequence, industry norms themselves.

We are only starting to understand how ‘digital’ will fully impact people’s lives and work practices. What we do know is that this is an inevitability and it is an unstoppable force, and will forever change the way we live, interact, design, build and maintain our homes, workplaces and precincts in the future.

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