Going green

Alex Brisbourne explains how M2M applications can help companies to become greener and more environmentally conscious while still boosting revenues.

Going green is not just for tree-huggers anymore. The machine-to-machine (M2M) communications market, which uses wireless networks to communicate in real-time with sensors embedded just about everywhere, is enabling organizations worldwide to save energy, water and natural resources, create efficiencies and boost revenues.

Exploring real world deployments of green M2M networking requires developing a better understanding of how wireless technology and sensor networks are making the world greener with innovative M2M applications that conserve energy, save water, preserve resources and drive additional revenues.

Solutions providers in a variety of industries, such as resource management, utilities, the public sector and agriculture, are developing and implementing profitable M2M green applications today. Wireless technology is a core component of green initiatives around the world. Real-world examples of companies becoming more energy and water-use efficient and/or environmentally conscious with M2M applications include using M2M communications for trash management. Instead of hauling trash, companies can better manage it by determining the best way to handle the waste and scrap coming out of their businesses. With devices installed on or near a trash compactor control panel, companies can record and analyze compactor activity, energy use, safety door switches and pickup and return. From there, the collected data can be wirelessly relayed from any location, helping to reduce costs and the environmental impact of trash.

For example, American Trash Management implemented a wireless M2M solution that relies on remote sensors to monitor containers, send notifications, and receive and process usage information. This data is uploaded to a centralized business management system for highly effective and scalable waste management. With increased scheduling efficiencies and optimized truck rolls for fuel and maintenance savings, this has yielded both cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.

Another example of companies becoming more energy and water-use efficient and/or environmentally conscious is using M2M communications for water management. Advanced wireless water management devices can monitor irrigation schedules and water usage like never before to provide just the right amount of water to keep landscapes healthy. Such a system can calculate and control irrigation on a 'just-in-time' basis, using real-time data from weather forecasts and just-passed weather events, water evaporation, plant transpiration and sub-soil leakage. Many organizations, including the State of California, better regulate their water usage levels and irrigation schedules using M2M.

Using M2M for smart grid monitoring is another example. A large electric utility in Arizona is at the forefront of a growing national trend toward smart metering. Their automated metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment consists of M2M data communications to and from electric meters at customer premises. In practice, the AMI simultaneously provides a higher level of service and reduces many hard and soft operational costs required for service. Consumers can monitor electrical usage in real-time, while the utility can identify and correct service interruptions more quickly, and improve efficiencies in the meter reading process, billing and customer-service operations as a whole. The meter data is backhauled across the M2M wireless network within a secure IP VPN. As a result, the utility eliminates approximately 7,200 truck rolls per month for every 100,000 meters deployed, yielding a substantial direct savings, customer satisfaction improvement and carbon footprint reduction.

However, this barely scratches the surface of the potential for innovative networked applications. Within a few years, hundreds of millions of wireless devices will be attached to digital cellular networks, quietly performing the things we want them to do in our quest to be more cost efficient, safer and more responsive to our customers. And it doesn't stop there - regulatory initiatives will drive adoption of wireless-based data gathering and remote control applications in the environmental, energy and safety arenas. For all of these reasons, the M2M market grew significantly over the course of the past two years, and is ideally positioned to continue this growth over the next five years.

Alex Brisbourne is President and COO of Kore Telematics. He has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and was personally involved in launching the first 2.5G GPRS network in North America. He sits on the Advisory Board of several technology companies in the USA and Canada.