The First Facility Management Blog

LonMark International (LMI), a non-profit member trade association working for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for the benefit of manufacturers, integrators, and end users, has entered a collaborative agreement with GreenLink Alliance. GreenLink Alliance is a non-profit trade association focused on promoting products and services that help to conserve energy in the built environment.

The partnership provides a platform for bringing together LonMark’s recognized work in the field of open and interoperable standards with GreenLink’s mission to influence policymakers to expand tax incentives for owners of existing buildings that want to improve energy efficiency using intelligent control technology. GreenLink believes that building automation systems that leverage the capabilities of the power line offer a cost-effective and environmentally sound solution to retrofit legacy buildings to increase energy efficiency.

LonMark International, already a strong advocate for education, welcomes the opportunity for both organizations to jointly offer further education to building owners, facility managers, and the general public about the advantages of using control technology.

“LonMark is a reputable and well established organization and GreenLink is honored to be a strategic partner with them,” said Cory Vanderpool, executive director of GreenLink Alliance. “GreenLink recognizes that interoperability and open standards are critical to further market adoption of residential and commercial building control technology.”

“LonMark is committed to partnering with other organizations dedicated to educating our members to implement practical, cost-effective intelligent control systems,” said Ron Bernstein, executive director of LonMark International. “This alliance between LonMark and GreenLink will foster ongoing efforts to establish incentives and legislation to encourage more energy efficient system designs. LonMark’s members will benefit through expanding opportunities via governmental incentives to utilize open, interoperable solutions.”

LonMark International, a standards development and industry trade association supporting the LonWorks control-networking technologies, recently announced that the voting members of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC 1) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have formally approved LonWorks control networking technology as ISO/IEC 14908, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. The four parts of the standard set comprise the core protocol; the twisted-pair, free-topology-wiring transfer medium; the powerline transfer medium, and the use of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a tunneling transfer medium, respectively.

“Already American, European, and Chinese standards, it was the natural progression for LonWorks to be adopted by our larger, global community; paving the way for other nations to more easily specify LonWorks control systems without having to duplicate the standardization efforts within their own countries,” remarked Jeremy J. Roberts, technical director of LonMark International.

“This is very exciting news for the controls market,” stated Ron Bernstein, executive director of LonMark International. “This announcement re-affirms the validity and strength of LonWorks worldwide and will pave the way for even greater adoption. We are pleased to have been able to spearhead this standardization effort for our members and the market, and are looking forward to the opportunities it creates for all end users seeking true, open, interoperable control networks.”

This ratification will enhance the adoption and usage of this technology within the worldwide controls market and specifically in the buildings vertical. While LonWorks is also used in many other markets, such as outdoor lighting, transportation, utility, process control, and home automation, the majority of the over 100 million installed devices have been installed in or around buildings projects. The LonWorks control networking technology was first introduced in 1990.