Environmental Systems Design, a Chicago-based design firm of high-performance buildings, developed a new Intelligent Building Group dedicated to helping clients navigate the maze of intelligent building options and solutions, it explained. The new team will be led by ESD President Kurt Karnatz.

“Intelligent buildings are central to any complex real-estate strategy and they create outcomes that benefit all stakeholders,” Karnatz said. “Owners, operators, occupants and visitors all are seeing the positive effects of intelligent buildings today and will enjoy them even more in the future.”

ESD noted its intelligent building work already has helped major companies. It believes as more stakeholders embrace the business case for intelligent buildings’ economic, environmental and experiential outcomes, more companies will take part in this design practice.

ESD Vice President David Clute added: “The idea of intelligent buildings has been around since the 1980s, but it’s taken off in the last five years because of the ubiquity of Wi-Fi, the Internet of Things, secure networks and the availability of cost-effective building sensors. We’re literally at the threshold of the long-term potential of intelligent buildings.”