Sector
Healthcare, life sciences, and electronics
Scope
15 buildings (in a first phase)
Merck is the world’s oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company, as well as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. With a global presence of 66 sites and 58,000 employees, they are able to provide localized service that caters to the needs of different markets. In that context, corporate real estate is managed efficiently as they incorporate new digital technologies to optimize the workplace and make it more sustainable.
From their corporate headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, to their numerous sites throughout the world, Merck is dedicated to providing life-enhancing products and services that aid people’s well-being.
The Objective: Improve Space Efficiency and Sustainability
The Merck Group is working to drastically reduce CO2 emissions from its real estate. The objective is to become a leader in sustainable energy while also saving resources and optimizing workspaces for hybrid work.
Realizing that space efficiency and energy efficiency in commercial buildings go hand in hand, gaining insight into space occupancy and utilization was an obvious first step, especially with remote and hybrid work on the rise. Under-utilized spaces, floors, or even entire buildings, especially those that have been identified as energy inefficient, have been temporarily shut down, taken out of service or repurposed.
Space Optimization and Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings
Merck leveraged Spacewell Workplace to track real occupancy rates and analyze utilization. As a result, thy could accurately estimate how much space was needed for employees on a given workday. This workspace was then concentrated on a smaller number of buildings, enabling Merck to ‘shut down’ energy-inefficient buildings and unused areas and save energy, especially during winter.
To enable employees to work in their preferred location and move between buildings or floors, workspaces in the remaining areas can easily be booked by using Spacewell Workplace room and desk reservation tool, which shows free spaces on digital floor plans.
The Example of Space Management during an Exceptional Situation
During the Covid pandemic and the subsequent period of remote work, nine buildings were wholly or partially hibernated. This was done by turning down heating systems to a ‘healthy for buildings’ minimum and shutting down electrical circuits that are not safety-relevant. At the same time, the required number of workstations was identified and made available in the most energy-efficient buildings so that all employees could work in optimal conditions.
By reducing energy consumption by 50 to 60 percent, the Merck Group is saving about 150,000 tons of CO2 in its office buildings.
The next step was to implement demand-oriented building technology control in individual buildings based on occupancy and reservation data. The aim is not only to heat or cool individual floors or building sections as needed in the future but also to better target other activities such as cleaning. This is part of the strategy to make operations more efficient and connected to the real use of the spaces, further reducing energy and operational FM costs.
Based on close cooperation with CREM SOLUTIONS, the system consisting of Workplace and the integrated IoT solutions was designed in such a way that the Merck Group’s desired need for a smart building solution is completely mapped – the monitoring of spaces as well as an uncomplicated booking of desks and rooms – both for employees and management.
Daniel Mihaljevic
IT Manager and Project Manager at Merck Real Estate Office & Lab
