It is evident to many that the world is at a stand-still when it comes to the environment. It is at the forefront of many discussions by politicians, yet we still see progress that was once made being reversed. Climate accords are being withdrawn, legislation limiting greenhouse gas emissions have been eliminated, and climate change has gone from a fact to a debate topic. Now, more than ever, the world needs individuals with the means and a platform to take a stand, and that is just what French entrepreneur Jean-Fabrice Brunel is doing.
Brunel is most known for his prolific work revolutionizing France’s mobility industry with his company L’Agence Telecom over the past 13 years. His other ventures, such as H A Reve, have worked hard to better the lives of those living in care homes while still increasing revenue, and now, he has taken on yet another business, AT Technologies Development Inc., with the goal and focus of helping the environment.
“Every country becomes more and more aware of the environment and they need to be more responsible. People are changing and the future of technologies tends to be an ecological one, the planet is the only one we’ve got, and we need to protect it. Green projects are the best choice to make. The green has to take advantage of new technologies and that’s why we are on track for it,” he said.
With AT Technologies Development Inc., Brunel is working on technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Future California regulations and is signing a partnership with Property Management CNIC. A division of this, Smartility, is a consumption and budget control system for water, power, and gas utilities. User management is operated via SMARTU™ App.
“Imagine a world in which the resident/tenant could precisely budget their monthly utility bills.
The result is Smartility, a combination of proprietary hardware and software that provides precise control for the utility consumer. Smartility monitors and adjusts downstream utility usage by controlling time, volume and temperature of utilities to meet cost targets. The system plans and schedules according to user input settings and adjusts variables according to actual usage and budget targets,” he said.
Smartility’s hardware is comprised of micro sensors and controllers deployed directly to the delivery infrastructure. Users set monthly budgets and the system will plan usage limits across all utilities according to primacy needs. It constantly monitors, recalculates and reallocates according to actual usage. The system may be overridden at any utility delivery point (plug, device, heating, shower, etc.) according to user settings. For example, the shower would monitor flow rate, temperature, and time to give the consumption and cost. A user’s four minute shower would have a flow rate of 2.1 gallons-per-minute at 85 degrees, and Smartility would recommend a three minute shower at 75 degrees to meet the user’s goal.
“I wanted to create this project because since I’ve been working on retirement homes in France, I realized that when I was auditing those prestigious groups, in order to provide them the latest and most economic technologies in terms of energy savings technologies, it required a constant quest for technologies that allows the user to cap their own expenditure each month. The demand for this was high which made it very important to cap the expenses for people having a small and fixed pension. Then, I became aware that it was not only a question of savings, it was also a great way to end waste and be greener in everyday life and people start to become aware and more demanding and more responsible,” said Brunel.
Smartility is good for everyone, as the sensors can be deployed on all existing utility infrastructure inside homes and buildings (pipes, wires). It is expected to be launched this year, and is already in BETA testing in many areas. Brunel himself uses it in his home and is thrilled with its efficiency.
“It’s really important to respect the earth and come back to the fundamentals. It’s a good example for the future generations and we can try to leave them some good tools to improve. I like that I feel I’m contributing to give people and my kids a better world,” he concluded.