Sustainability has moved from a "nice-to-have" initiative to a business imperative for industrial organizations. With growing regulatory pressure, stakeholder expectations, and financial incentives, companies are increasingly seeking ways to reduce their environmental footprint while maintaining operational excellence.
The challenge? Making meaningful progress on sustainability goals requires accurate, timely data to identify opportunities, measure impact, and track progress.
Let's explore five concrete ways AVEVA PI System can help improve sustainability across your operations, backed by real-world examples of companies that have achieved remarkable results.
Energy consumption represents both a significant cost center and a major source of emissions for most industrial operations. AVEVA PI System enables comprehensive energy management through:
Real-time monitoring of energy consumption across your enterprise
Correlation between energy usage and production activities
Identification of energy-intensive processes and equipment
Detection of anomalies and inefficiencies
Optimization of operations to minimize energy usage
UC Davis, one of the University of California's premier research institutions, pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025—a monumental challenge for a campus with over 1,000 buildings operating like a small city. The university deployed AVEVA PI System and AVEVA System Platform to control and assess sustainability performance across its multiple campuses.
The results have been more than impressive:
46% reduction in energy use intensity since 2009, saving $15 million
62% reduction in gas usage from heating system retrofit
Expected annual savings of $150,000 from chilled water optimization
Projected savings of $197 million over 60 years from a shift to low-temperature hot water heating
A key sustainability initiative at UC Davis involved improving HVAC scheduling through occupancy data. The campus had a data stream showing the number of Wi-Fi connections per building, which they fed into the PI System as a measure of building occupancy. This allowed them to optimize their HVAC systems to run only when buildings were actually in use, rather than on fixed schedules.
As one UC Davis team member put it, "You can't manage what you don't measure. It is really true in sustainability."
Beyond energy, AVEVA PI System helps organizations monitor and optimize the use of other valuable resources such as water, raw materials, and consumables:
Track consumption rates and patterns
Identify leaks, losses, and inefficiencies
Benchmark performance against targets and standards
Optimize processes to reduce waste and consumption
Validate the impact of conservation initiatives
San Jose Water, which serves over one million people in the greater San Jose metropolitan area, leveraged AVEVA PI System to address significant challenges in water resource management.
The utility implemented PI System to:
Monitor real-time water usage and distribution
Create a single source of truth for data from disparate sources including SCADA, PG&E billing, weather services, and pressure monitors
Identify system losses and inefficiencies
The results included:
Reduction in energy costs of $143,000 per year
Carbon footprint reduction by 206 tons of CO2 per year
Improved pump efficiencies and reduced maintenance costs
Return on investment in less than one year
By providing a comprehensive view of their operations, AVEVA PI System enabled San Jose Water to make data-driven decisions that improved both financial performance and environmental sustainability.
With increasing regulatory requirements around emissions reporting, organizations need reliable systems to track, report, and reduce their carbon footprint:
Monitor emissions in real-time
Calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from process data
Track progress toward reduction targets
Generate compliance reports automatically
Model scenarios to identify reduction opportunities
TotalEnergies, a major energy company transitioning from 92% oil and gas in 2021 to 75% renewables and new molecules by 2050, implemented a GHG monitoring tool using AVEVA PI Asset Framework (PI AF) with a centralized and standardized approach. They built the model once and then applied it to hundreds of assets, enabling real-time data calculations, analysis, and KPIs related to emissions.
The implementation has been highly successful:
Developed an industrial monitoring tool within a three-year timeframe
Headquarter and operating centers now rely on the tool's displays for daily discussions and operational decision-making
Efficient identification of poorly performing assets and undesired process deviations that contribute to GHG emissions
Achieved real-time monitoring of 85% of Scope 1 GHG emissions for operating assets
This example demonstrates how AVEVA PI System can provide the foundation for a comprehensive emissions monitoring and reduction program, supporting both compliance requirements and strategic sustainability goals.
Sustainable operations aren't just about reducing resource consumption—they also involve maximizing the lifespan of existing assets to reduce manufacturing and disposal impacts:
Monitor equipment health in real-time
Predict failures before they occur
Optimize maintenance schedules based on actual conditions
Extend asset life through improved operations
Reduce the need for new equipment and associated embodied carbon
RHI Magnesita, a global leader in refractory products, expanded their data infrastructure to the cloud by combining AVEVA PI System with CONNECT data services to modernize maintenance and asset management.
Their approach included:
Using AVEVA PI System data to develop machine learning models
Creating predictive models for equipment health and performance
Implementing maintenance schedules based on actual conditions rather than calendar time
The results have been substantial:
Machine learning models enable predictions for refractory consumption with an accuracy of more than 80%
Expected reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by more than 4,200 tons per year
Significant improvement in asset performance and reliability
Prevention of unplanned downtime and associated waste
By extending the life of their assets and optimizing their performance, RHI Magnesita has reduced both operational costs and environmental impact—a win-win for sustainability and the bottom line.
Effective sustainability programs require reliable metrics and reporting capabilities to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate results to stakeholders:
Collect data from across your operations
Calculate key sustainability metrics and KPIs
Visualize performance against targets
Generate reports for internal and external stakeholders
Support sustainability certifications and standards
Cargill, a global leader in agricultural and food products, created a five-step program to leverage AVEVA PI System for energy modeling and sustainability reporting:
Define model scope
Develop model equations
Add models to data context (using the PI System) for analysis
Develop troubleshooting guides
Begin using the models
Their energy models focused on identifying variability in process, cost, and intensity, which revealed:
Equipment failures
Equipment leaks
Incorrect installations
Improved accuracy of equipment status (e.g., idled instead of shutdown)
This systematic approach to energy modeling enabled Cargill to track and report on their sustainability metrics with greater accuracy and detail, supporting both internal improvement initiatives and external reporting requirements.
Implementing a comprehensive sustainability program doesn't have to be overwhelming. Many organizations start with a focused application and expand as they demonstrate value.
Here's a simple approach to getting started:
Identify key sustainability metrics relevant to your operations
Deploy AVEVA PI System to collect and organize the necessary data
Create dashboards in AVEVA PI Vision to visualize performance
Implement analytics to identify improvement opportunities
Track progress against targets and report results
Expand to additional areas as you demonstrate success
The flexibility of AVEVA PI System allows you to start small and scale up, adapting to your organization's specific sustainability goals and priorities.
As industrial organizations face increasing pressure to improve sustainability performance, having the right data infrastructure becomes critical. AVEVA PI System provides the foundation for effective sustainability initiatives by enabling real-time monitoring, analysis, and optimization of resource usage and emissions.
The examples from UC Davis, San Jose Water, TotalEnergies, RHI Magnesita, and Cargill demonstrate that significant sustainability improvements are possible across diverse industries and use cases. By implementing AVEVA PI System, these organizations have not only reduced their environmental footprint but also realized substantial cost savings and operational benefits.
Whether your focus is on energy efficiency, resource conservation, emissions reduction, asset longevity, or sustainability reporting, AVEVA PI System provides the data foundation that turns sustainability ambitions into measurable results.