When Siemens, a big German industrial conglomerate, rebuilt its offices in the Swiss town of Zug, it did not skimp on the project's green credentials. Water from nearby Lake Zug is piped in and fed through pumps to heat or cool the offices. None of the materials used in the building came from more than 8ookm away. Rain that falls on its grass-covered roof is used to flush the toilets. It did not skimp on technology, either, for the buildings were designed partly as a showcase for the firm's new "Smart Infrastructure" division. High-tech buildings are one of the most common uses of the sensors and distributed computing that make up the IOT. GSMA Intelligence, a research firm, forecasts that industrial uses of the iot will overtake consumer ones by 2023, with smart corporate buildings leading the way.
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