Are dashboards the key to environmental gains?

In perusing green tech news the other day, I came across another
major software vendor that has turned its programming prowess
toward environmental sustainability. On Feb. 9,
Microsoft announced the availability of its Environmental
Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

The new functionality is available to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009
customers at no additional charge, and tracks energy consumption
and greenhouse gas emissions. In taking a look at the
video demo, the tool seems to be a pretty easy way to input
energy consumption data as part of everyday business processes such
as entering accounts payable transactions to utility companies or
other vendors where activities with the vendor involve an
environmental impact. It also has a slick user interface and charts
for tracking and visualizing the data, once it’s entered.

Nothing against the Microsoft dashboard—because it seems a
useful way to track trends—but the larger question is whether
any dashboard can really be the key to better energy and emissions
management. Don’t get me wrong, dashboards are a great thing.
They present trends in an easy to understand format, and can
elevate exceptions as actionable items. And from a software sales
perspective, they “demo” well. But the catch to the
power of dashboards is this: how do you populate the dashboards
with data, and even if you have pretty good summary data, can the
dashboard drill down into process/control level data that might be
needed to fine-tune the way you run operations or facilities?

The ideal situation would be to have an
environmental/sustainability dashboard with integrated, automated
links to data or exceptions from process-level systems for building
control, heating and cooling, energy consumption data from large
pieces of equipment, or perhaps energy pricing data from a
third-party. You could spot a trend or exception in the dashboard,
and then drill down into more detailed data to see what might need
to change down at the daily operational level. Maybe, for instance,
you can determine that dock doors are being left open during
cross-docking operations when they could be closed for a half hour,
or heating in one zone of a building could be turned down if a
double shift is being run in that zone? A dashboard that tracks the
emissions and consumption data related to monthly payments or
high-level trends probably isn’t going to pinpoint these
sorts of tactics, though it might spot a bump in costs or
emissions.

What are your feelings on the usefulness of dashboards, versus a
more integrated, automated approach?