Redefining the Built Environment for the Climate Era
At Environmental Sustainability and Climate Innovation, Maud Demurge, Head of North America at Akila, presents a transformative view of how intelligent building technology reshapes the global sustainability landscape. She asserts that the world’s path to achieving net-zero begins not in policy frameworks or financial markets but within the built environment itself. As energy costs surge and climate adaptation drives new demand across every sector, buildings—the largest consumers of energy worldwide - emerge as the most immediate and scalable levers for emissions reduction. Demurge defines this moment as a turning point where infrastructure evolves from static assets into living systems that learn, adapt, and optimize continuously through digital intelligence.
Rising Energy Pressures Demanding Intelligent Action
The global energy landscape is entering a period of sustained volatility. Electricity prices have surged as electrification expands through electric vehicles, renewable integration, and data centers that power the digital economy. These pressures expose the fragility of legacy building systems that rely on static controls, manual oversight, and incomplete data. Despite accounting for more than one-third of global energy consumption, most buildings remain under-instrumented and under-optimized. Demurge emphasizes that this inefficiency is not a technical inevitability but a strategic failure—and that digital transformation in building operations is no longer optional. Efficiency and sustainability, she argues, now define competitiveness and corporate resilience.
From Data Collection to Intelligent Decision-Making
Akila’s platform represents a paradigm shift from passive data collection to active intelligence. Through a fusion of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, digital twins, and artificial intelligence, the company creates continuous feedback loops that connect systems, people, and performance. Real-time data becomes the foundation for insight, and insight becomes the foundation for action. The platform monitors conditions across energy, temperature, occupancy, and equipment performance; identifies anomalies; and recommends corrective measures automatically. This evolution turns operational management into a dynamic process of learning and refinement—transforming each building into a responsive, data-driven ecosystem that continuously optimizes itself for efficiency and sustainability.
Turning Insight into Scalable Climate Impact
Demurge outlines a clear operational framework that guides organizations from visibility to transformation: monitor, track, and act. The first phase establishes transparency by collecting and consolidating fragmented data. The second phase introduces real-time tracking that uncovers inefficiencies and patterns. The third phase applies intelligence to create actionable strategies that lower energy use, reduce carbon intensity, and improve comfort and reliability. Once these cycles are in place, companies can execute, replicate, and scale results across entire portfolios. The process converts sustainability from a project-based initiative into an enterprise-wide operating system that continuously measures, manages, and improves performance.
Building Intelligence as a Competitive Advantage
Akila’s approach delivers measurable results across industries that depend on energy and facility performance. In manufacturing, intelligent systems reduce downtime and extend equipment life by predicting failures before they occur. In logistics, automation streamlines energy use across warehouses and distribution centers. In offices, real-time optimization lowers consumption while improving indoor air quality and productivity. In hospitality and infrastructure, the platform balances comfort, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. Across every application, data functions as strategic capital—linking operational decisions to financial and sustainability outcomes. This integration allows companies to align their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments with core business metrics.
Artificial Intelligence Driving Continuous Optimization
Artificial intelligence amplifies building performance by transforming complexity into actionable precision. Akila’s AI engine analyzes thousands of operational variables - temperature, lighting, air quality, occupancy, and system load - to identify the most efficient operating conditions at any given moment. The system continuously learns from outcomes, building predictive models that anticipate issues before they arise and optimize energy allocation across networks. This capability turns AI from a management tool into a performance partner, ensuring that every decision contributes to both cost efficiency and carbon reduction. For organizations under increasing regulatory and investor scrutiny, this transparency and adaptability provide measurable proof of impact.
Aligning Digital Transformation with Sustainability Leadership
Digitalization becomes a source of leadership when paired with accountability. Demurge highlights that companies adopting building intelligence achieve verifiable reductions in energy use, carbon emissions, and operational costs, while improving reporting accuracy for ESG disclosures. This transparency enhances investor confidence, reinforces brand trust, and accelerates progress toward climate commitments. The shift from fragmented efficiency measures to integrated intelligence marks a broader organizational evolution—from compliance to conviction, from short-term fixes to long-term strategy.
A Blueprint for a Smarter and Sustainable Future
Maud Demurge’s vision at Environmental Sustainability and Climate Innovation redefines the role of technology in achieving climate goals. She demonstrates that intelligent buildings are not simply modernized assets but the foundation of a new sustainability infrastructure. Through Akila’s model, data becomes the connective tissue linking energy efficiency, digital transformation, and environmental performance. The company’s platform proves that climate progress can be operational, measurable, and replicable at scale.
As organizations seek credible paths to net-zero, building intelligence offers a roadmap that unites innovation and responsibility. Demurge’s leadership signals a shift from aspiration to execution - where sustainability is not a cost of doing business but a driver of long-term value creation. In the emerging economy of intelligence and impact, Akila stands as a model for how technology, purpose, and performance converge to shape a truly sustainable future.
