According to a recent report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), electricity use in buildings generates 6,343 million metric tons of CO2, with 75% of that coming from HVAC systems, lighting, and appliances.

Modern office buildings must—and can—do better. There are also financial factors at play. As energy costs rise, inefficiency can hurt an otherwise healthy fiscal year. Excessive energy consumption leads to higher greenhouse emissions and a larger carbon footprint, which not only harm the environment but also risk damaging your company’s reputation.

With a system that counts the number of people using your spaces, you can optimize energy usage by introducing granular, automated control over your HVAC and lighting systems. While occupancy sensing offers basic detection—indicating whether people are present or not—people counting takes it a step further by providing more than a binary “yes, people are here” or “no, no one’s here” message. Instead, it indicates how many individuals are in the space. This extra layer of information allows your HVAC and lighting solutions to adjust accordingly, scaling energy use based on real-time needs and, thus, avoiding energy waste…