Tech @ Work: TracerES

Booming Belmont University has grown its footprint by more than 40 percent since 2003. But energy-efficient and sustainable design and smart process improvements over that time have held energy cost increases to just 10 percent. Mark Grones, assistant director of facilities management services and university engineer, and his team have built out an integrated campus-wide controls system that tracks energy use, proactively manages costs and drives better operational decisions.

At the core of their process is a product called Trane Tracer ES, which includes web-based tools that let them manage the operations of an individual building or make campus-wide changes from most personal computers, tablets and smart phones. A predecessor version of Tracer was first installed in 2003, controlling only a few buildings at first. By 2008, university officials began an earnest push to bury electrical lines, install sub-meters and figure out a controls system that could integrate and monitor the various tools in place.