Last August 30th, the 37th edition of the Digital Economy and Telecommunications Meeting, organized by AMETIC (Spanish electronics and communications business federation) was celebrated.
For three days, professionals and representatives from business, public and academic environments took part in several debates and speeches related to digital transformation in Spain.
Among all the participants, José Luis Fernández Carnero, General Director of Strategy of Televes, participated in the discussion table “The building facing the challenge of sustainability”, which was held on September 1st at 10:10 AM. He was accompanied by Paloma García, Director of Standardization Programs and Stakeholders of the Spanish Standardization Association (UNE).
The 37th edition of the Digital Economy and Telecommunications Meeting was held at the Palacio de la Magdalena in downtown Santander (Cantabria – Spain).
From August 30th to September 1st, representatives from companies and institutions of all kinds gathered to tackle different topics linked to today’s communications and technologies. Amongst them, Santiago Rey, CEO of Televes Corporation.
Eduardo Valencia – Director of Electronic Industry, New Entrepreneurship and Territorial Development at AMETIC – was the moderator during the third day of the event.
The debate held by representatives of Televes and UNE was one of the first sessions on this day. The main focus was placed on the challenges faced by the building industry in terms of sustainability.
Televes showed some worrisome figures about buildings, which made quite clear that we are “not aware” of their importance yet. For instance, it was revealed that people spend between 80 and 85% of their time at home; that they account for 41% of the total energy consumption; and that they generate 36% of greenhouse-effect gases. In addition to this, the impact of the high consumption of drinking water they represent was also emphasized.
“This is a huge impact that needs to be reverted because we are ruining the climate. The only way to do so is by applying technology in three different ways: by getting rid of fuels; by turning traditional dwellings into zero-emission buildings – those generating as much energy as they consume – and by implementing an infrastructure allowing for climate neutrality”, stated General Strategy Director of Televes.
This approach is in line with the statement made by the speaker: "It’s not enough for buildings to be intelligent; they should be also sustainable".
That being said, how can we achieve this ambitious goal? We are actually following several strategies to make buildings behave like major resource consumers. Among them all, data management is especially important, as “it helps buildings be both sustainable and efficient”.
In this regard, the proposal of the Building Infrastructure Group was also highlighted; it is based on “measuring, collecting and analyzing data to make adjustments, even in the systems themselves”.
During this speech, Televes took the opportunity to announce that the Building Infrastructure Group had already urged the Administration to regulate measured and monitored buildings and to make their implementation compulsory.
In order to do so, a regulation has been drafted with minimal consensus as a starting point of sustainable buildings. This document also includes the awareness of the different agents involved.
Televes concluded this debate by placing emphasis on technology as the only way to revert the current behavior of buildings understood as major resource consumers:
“Consensus is the most difficult thing to achieve. Even if we have made it in the business framework, now it is the turn of associations”.
The event celebrated this summer in Santander was very special for the association, that is why the slogan of this edition was “50 years promoting the transformation of Spain”.
AMETIC is actually celebrating half a century of history, which was reflected in many of the debates: apart from describing the challenges and possibilities of an upcoming future, there was also a look back to the past.
In addition to sustainable buildings, other issues were addressed during these three days, such as digital SMEs, Cloud technologies, cybersecurity, among many others.
AMETIC is constantly active and has already scheduled a new event within the same framework.
It is the VI Alliance Forum for the Development of Digital Talent, which is utterly focused on this process at business, economic and social levels. It will take place on October 26th 2023 at the Edificio Castellana in Madrid.