Just over five years ago I was working in the music events industry. It was my job to make sure that bands, equipment and guests all ended up in the right place, but that turned out to be far more difficult than I expected. With musicians getting lost all over the English countryside, I realised street addresses just weren’t reliable enough, and latitude and longitude coordinates were too long and easy to mistake. There had to be a better way.

I sat down with a couple of friends to tackle this problem, and what3words was born. We divided the entire world into 3m x 3m squares, and gave each square a unique 3 word address. recoil.itself.electrics for example, identifies the exact front entrance of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. We had a created a location reference solution that was very, very precise but also simple, and easy to remember, use and share with others. I had solved my problem of directing musicians to festival fields, but soon realised that 3 word addresses could have a far greater impact on the world. Four billion people don’t have a reliable address for where they live. They struggle to stake a property claim, register births, open a bank account, access health services, run a business or be found in an emergency. It hampers the growth and progress of nations and puts lives at risk. And even in the best-addressed parts of the world, street addresses aren’t accurate enough for services such as on-demand delivery, and certainly not for a future of autonomous vehicles and delivery drones.

what3words offers people a really simple way to talk about location. It can currently be used in 26 languages, including Arabic, and is optimised for speech recognition. The technology is used by businesses, governments and NGOs to operate more efficiently, and by individuals to find and share places reliably using the free app for iOS or Android.

Our system is being used by humanitarian organisations and NGOs around the world to give people access to essential services. In rural India, for example Pollinate Energy use 3 word addresses to deliver solar lanterns to communities without electricity, and in Mongolia and Liberia, people can now access microfinance for the first time thanks to having an address to give on their application form.

In South Africa, NGO Gateway Health provides vulnerable pregnant women with their 3 word address, and has trained the local ambulance drivers to find places quickly in an emergency using what3words. The technology has also been used by the UN, Infinitum Humanitarian Systems and the Philippine Red Cross for faster and more effective response in the aftermath of natural disasters.

As well as enabling access to basic services, what3words is working with innovative companies to build the cities, transport systems and mobility solutions of the future. Mercedes-Benz already offers what3words voice navigation in several of its vehicles, enabling drivers to input any precise destination simply by saying three words to their car. The technology has also been integrated into autonomous shuttles such as IBM’s #AccessibleOlli and modular vehicles created by Next Future Transportation in Dubai.

As we move towards increasingly fluid and flexible transport systems and the sharing economy grows in importance, being able easily to communicate precise location is essential. what3words has been built into ride-hailing apps such as Cabify, a key player in Spanish and Portuguese markets, and can be used to locate charging points for electric vehicles, as well as specific parking spots for car-sharing projects. By making these new mobility services efficient and easy to use, we can cut carbon emissions and enjoy cleaner, healthier cities.

By Chris Sheldrick / Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words

The United Nations (UN) forecasts the world’s population to increase from 7 billion today to 9.7 billion by 2050 leading to a 55% increase in the demand for water. As a result more than 40% of people will be living in areas of severe water stress – defined as when demand for water regularly exceeds supply.

By Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi / CEO Aerospace, Renewables and ICT for Mubadala

It’s no secret that healthcare facilities are among the most energy intensive building environments. They operate 24/7 all through the year and must follow strict regulations. Today’s hospitals are under tremendous pressure to serve growing patient populations despite shrinking budgets, and facilities staff are responsible for the daunting task of maintaining facility health while ensuring patient safety and regulatory compliance.

There has never been a greater need for hospitals to improve efficiency, productivity and effectiveness. Unfortunately, many healthcare facilities are still in the slow lane when it comes to implementing new technologies that can help them achieve these goals.

A number of factors complicate the adoption of certain technologies in the healthcare arena. Facility managers need immediate access to infrastructure information to ensure the comfort and safety of patients, staff and visitors. But hospital building systems are far more complex than in other types of facilities, with exponentially more moving parts. Often maintenance personnel are not even aware of a system issue or malfunction until someone enters a work order. This not only delays response time, but frustrates facility staff by placing them in perpetual “catch-up” mode.

Additionally, many facility managers are aware of the significant energy waste that happens every day in patient rooms and operating theaters, but they remain powerless to meticulously and manually adjust every area within their sprawling campuses. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day or members on the facilities staff to ensure temperatures aren’t set too high and lights are turned off in unoccupied rooms.

So how can hospital facility managers address these challenges? The answer lies in data that’s already right in front of them.

Leveraging Building and Patient Data for Improved Savings and Satisfaction

The building management system (BMS) is like the respiratory system of a hospital. It breathes air in and out of the hospital and filters out contaminants that could threaten patients, staff and equipment. The BMS also provides enormous value as it aggregates what is usually disparate building data to uncover inefficiencies and alert facilities staff to equipment problems. But the BMS typically lacks insight into a critical component of the healthcare environment – its ever-evolving patient population. Admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) systems are the keeper of patient comings and goings and can be used by facilities staff to deliver new opportunities for energy savings, staff productivity and patient satisfaction.

Today’s technology enables facility managers to leverage critical room occupancy data that previously hadn’t been used to its full potential. The key is sharing information through a Health Level-7 (HL7) interface that ensures compliance with international healthcare security and patient privacy standards.

Using HL7, facilities staff can create interoperability between a hospital’s BMS and its clinical scheduling, housekeeping and ADT systems. For example, a clinical environment optimisation solution can share the occupancy status of patient rooms and operating theatres with the BMS, which then sets rooms to predetermined set points for HVAC and lighting during vacancy to achieve energy savings during unoccupied times. The BMS puts the room back into normal operation when it receives a notification that the patient will be returning, or when a room has been assigned to maintain the optimal environment for patient healing and satisfaction.

This level of integration leads to a number of benefits including:

• Energy savings – Facility managers can reduce energy use in rooms that are vacant or unoccupied for long periods of time and make more informed decisions about how to best manage room conditions.
• Improved staff productivity – Maintenance and cleaning staff gain productivity by knowing when they can schedule work in patient rooms conveniently and efficiently when rooms are unoccupied.
• Enhanced patient satisfaction – Patients have the ability to specify their preferred room temperature during the admission process or control it themselves from their room via a mobile app.

A small change can make a big impact on how much energy a facility consumes, and on the operating budget. In fact, just a 20 per cent energy saving can save up to US$1.8 million a year for a 250-bed hospital. Those savings can be reinvested in a variety of ways, from new clinical services to attract patients, to additional savings opportunities through infrastructure retrofits or green initiatives.

More than half (54 per cent) of healthcare executives rank patient experience and satisfaction among their top three priorities.^[1] For healthcare providers, there is value in delivering a high-quality, positive and engaging patient experience. For instance, a hospital with US$120 million annual revenues can improve patient satisfaction and realize an estimated US$2.2 million to US$5.4 million in additional revenue annually.^[2]

But as hospitals struggle to manage limited budgets, some are forced to consider staff cuts. This measure only creates more problems because staff shortages will ultimately impact the overall patient experience and drive down satisfaction scores.

By implementing energy efficiency measures, hospitals can reduce their operating costs while also improving the quality of care they deliver to patients. The added level of control and choice patients have over their environment during their hospital stay has been proven to improve patient satisfaction.

Today’s healthcare facility managers can make smarter decisions about their energy use by integrating the clinical and facilities sides of their organization.The end result is a win for patients, hospital staff and the bottom line.

[1] “2013 Industry Survey Data,” HealthLeadersMedia, (2013).

[2] Hall, Melvin F. “Looking to Improve Financial Results? Start by Listening to Patients,” Healthcare Financial Management, (October 2008).

By Manoj Soni / Vice President of EcoBuilding Business - Gulf Countries and Pakistan, Schneider Electric