News
Building Dashboard® featured in Sustainable Industries' 'Eight Trends for 2008'
January 7, 2008
San Francisco, CA - Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard® is featured in Sustainable Industries Journal's frontpage article: "Eight Trends for 2008." Part Three, titled "Information Is Power," quotes a Lucid team member and discusses the rise of new technologies aimed to help consumers change their behavior, and especially how they use energy. From the article:
"'It was only a matter of time,' says Michael Murray, president of Oakland-based Lucid Design Group. 'People expect to be able to buy ringtones on their phone, and Chase lets you check your bank balance on your mobile phone... There's the expectation that more and more info is going to be put online.
"As the data available to energy companies and their customers become increasingly detailed, systems are needed to display the relevant information to the people who can make behavior changes that have an impact.
"Facilities managers have had access to energy–management systems for several years, but the new breed of company is focusing on making that data more comprehensible to those beyond the operations division, including financial officers who want to keep tabs on how energy dollars are spent (and wasted), and everyday building occupants.
"Murray's company, Lucid Design Group, offers the 'Building Dashboard,' an interactive online display that allows building users to see how their behavior impacts energy consumption... While the company can provide detailed monitoring about any number of systems, Murray says he encourages clients to focus on 'discretionary' energy uses, such as lighting and electrical outlet use (known as 'plug loads' in industry-speak). Utilities now estimate electricity used to power plug-in devices such as cell phones and laptops could surpass lighting usage in five to 10 years.
"... 'I see this as the next low-hanging fruit,' Murray says. 'Beyond better lighting systems, cooling systems, the next thing to do before spending millions of dollars is to try and change people’s behavior. That’s our overall approach.'"
Read the Sustainable Industries Journal article online »
About Lucid
Founded in 2004, Lucid Design Group, Inc. ("Lucid") is a privately held cleantech software company and a pioneer in providing real-time information feedback to teach, inspire behavior change and save energy and water resources in buildings. Over the past seven years, Lucid's team has endeavored to make resource use visible, accessible and engaging so that building occupants have the data visualization and communication tools to manage and reduce their consumption.
Today, tens of thousands of people live and work in schools, companies, community and commercial buildings and homes enhanced by Lucid's web-based Building Dashboard® technology. Now in its fourth generation, the intuitive Building Dashboard® user interface allows occupants to connect personal electricity, water and natural gas consumption with the actions and events that take place within buildings.
