Interview: Practitioners on IoT, Sensors & Smart Infrastructure

Asia-Pacific's smart infrastructure market reached $47.3 billion in 2024, with IoT sensor deployments growing at 34% annually across the region—yet practitioners report that 62% of pilot projects fail to scale beyond initial implementation phases. This disconnect between investment enthusiasm and operational reality reveals fundamental misconceptions about what makes IoT-enabled sustainability infrastructure succeed. Through conversations with implementation teams at leading organizations across Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, a clearer picture emerges: the technology works, but the myths surrounding deployment, data quality, and carbon impact measurement continue to derail promising initiatives.

Why It Matters

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 52% of global carbon emissions, making it the decisive arena for climate technology deployment. Smart infrastructure powered by IoT sensors represents one of the most scalable pathways to emissions reduction, with the International Energy Agency estimating that intelligent building and industrial systems could reduce regional energy consumption by 15-25% by 2030. Yet this potential remains largely unrealized.

The regulatory environment has intensified pressure for verifiable emissions data. Singapore's mandatory climate reporting requirements, effective 2025, demand granular Scope 1 and Scope 2 data that manual monitoring cannot reliably provide. Japan's Green Transformation (GX) initiative allocates ¥150 trillion over the next decade toward decarbonization infrastructure, with IoT-enabled monitoring systems receiving priority funding. South Korea's 2030 carbon neutrality framework requires industrial facilities to implement continuous emissions monitoring systems—specifications that effectively mandate IoT sensor networks.

Investment flows reflect this urgency. According to BloombergNEF's 2024 Asia-Pacific Climate Technology Report, venture capital and corporate investment in smart infrastructure reached $12.8 billion in 2024, a 41% increase from 2023. Cross-border technology partnerships between Japanese sensor manufacturers, Korean semiconductor companies, and Southeast Asian infrastructure operators have created supply chain integration unprecedented in the region's climate technology sector.

The commercial case compounds the regulatory imperative. Energy costs across APAC increased 23% between 2022 and 2024, with industrial electricity prices in markets like Australia and Japan among the highest globally. IoT-enabled demand response and optimization systems offer payback periods of 18-30 months in energy-intensive facilities—attractive economics that have accelerated procurement even among organizations without explicit sustainability mandates.

Key Concepts

IoT Sensors for Environmental Monitoring refer to networked devices that continuously measure parameters including temperature, humidity, air quality, energy consumption, water flow, and equipment performance. Unlike periodic manual monitoring, IoT sensors provide sub-minute data resolution that enables real-time optimization and anomaly detection. Modern deployments typically integrate wireless protocols (LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, LTE-M) with edge computing capabilities that preprocess data before transmission, reducing bandwidth requirements and enabling faster response to operational events.

Smart Infrastructure encompasses physical systems—buildings, factories, transportation networks, utilities—augmented with sensing, connectivity, and analytical capabilities that enable automated or semi-automated optimization. The "smartness" derives not from sensors alone but from the integration layer that connects sensor data to actuators (valves, switches, motors) and decision systems (building management systems, manufacturing execution systems). Practitioners emphasize that infrastructure becomes smart through integration, not through sensor quantity.

Traceability in the sustainability context refers to the ability to track materials, energy, and emissions through complex value chains with verifiable data provenance. IoT sensors enable traceability by creating tamper-evident records of conditions throughout product lifecycles—from raw material extraction through manufacturing, logistics, and end-of-life. For carbon accounting, traceability systems must link physical measurements to financial transactions and emissions factors, creating audit trails that satisfy increasingly stringent disclosure requirements.

Battery Technology and Energy Storage intersect with IoT infrastructure in two dimensions: batteries power remote sensors that cannot access grid electricity, and battery storage systems themselves require IoT-enabled management for optimal performance. The proliferation of lithium-ion battery systems across APAC—driven by electric vehicle adoption and renewable integration—has created new demands for battery management systems that monitor cell health, predict degradation, and optimize charging profiles.

Carbon Intensity Measurement quantifies greenhouse gas emissions per unit of activity, output, or energy consumed. IoT sensors enable high-frequency carbon intensity calculations by providing real-time energy consumption data that can be multiplied against grid emissions factors (which vary hourly based on generation mix) or process-specific emissions factors. This granularity transforms carbon accounting from an annual retrospective exercise into an operational parameter that can be optimized in real-time.

What's Working and What Isn't

What's Working

Predictive Maintenance for Industrial Equipment: Across APAC manufacturing facilities, IoT-enabled predictive maintenance consistently delivers measurable results. Practitioners at Hitachi's Lumada platform report that vibration sensors, thermal imaging, and power quality monitors reduce unplanned downtime by 35-50% in heavy industrial applications. The sustainability impact flows through two channels: reduced equipment failures prevent the energy waste of emergency repairs and production reruns, while optimized maintenance scheduling extends equipment lifespan—avoiding the embodied carbon of premature replacement. A Japanese steel manufacturer shared that their IoT-based predictive system reduced annual CO2 emissions by 12,000 tonnes through improved furnace efficiency and reduced scrap rates.

Cold Chain Monitoring for Food and Pharmaceutical Logistics: Temperature and humidity sensors throughout refrigerated supply chains have achieved near-universal adoption among major APAC logistics providers. The technology is mature, the value proposition is clear (preventing spoilage worth 2-5% of cargo value), and regulatory requirements in markets like Australia and Singapore mandate continuous temperature records for pharmaceutical distribution. Practitioners note that cold chain IoT represents one of the few sensor applications where the business case requires no sustainability justification—compliance and loss prevention alone justify deployment. The sustainability co-benefit is substantial: reducing food waste prevents the emissions embodied in wasted agricultural production, estimated at 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Building Energy Management Systems with Granular Submetering: Commercial buildings across Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo demonstrate that IoT-enabled building management delivers 15-25% energy reduction compared to conventional systems. The key differentiator identified by practitioners is submetering granularity: buildings that meter energy consumption at the floor, zone, or equipment level consistently outperform those relying on whole-building meters. Submetering enables behavioral interventions (showing tenants their consumption), automated optimization (adjusting HVAC based on actual occupancy rather than schedules), and anomaly detection (identifying equipment operating outside normal parameters). CapitaLand's smart building program across 200+ APAC properties achieved 21% energy intensity reduction between 2020 and 2024, with practitioners crediting IoT-enabled visibility as the foundation for subsequent optimization efforts.

Real-Time Grid Carbon Intensity Optimization: Organizations with flexible electrical loads—data centers, industrial processes with batch operations, electric vehicle charging infrastructure—increasingly use IoT systems to shift consumption toward periods of lower grid carbon intensity. This practice is particularly effective in markets like Australia, where grid carbon intensity varies by a factor of three or more between high-renewable and high-fossil periods. Microsoft's Singapore data center operations reportedly reduced carbon intensity by 18% through workload shifting enabled by real-time grid emissions data, without affecting service levels.

What Isn't Working

Overprovisioned Sensor Networks Without Clear Use Cases: The most common failure pattern involves deploying sensors before defining what decisions they will inform. Practitioners describe facilities with thousands of sensors generating terabytes of data that no one analyzes. One Korean manufacturing company installed 15,000 sensors across a semiconductor fabrication facility only to discover that 80% of the data duplicated information already available from existing programmable logic controllers. The sustainability claims evaporated when the energy consumption of the sensor network and data infrastructure exceeded the savings from the marginal insights gained.

Scope 3 Emissions Tracking Through Supplier Questionnaires Instead of Primary Data: Multiple practitioners expressed frustration with corporate sustainability teams that expect IoT sensor data from supply chains but provide no infrastructure, incentives, or standards for suppliers to deploy sensing systems. The result is Scope 3 "estimates" derived from industry averages and supplier self-reports—data of such low quality that it cannot support optimization decisions. As one supply chain director noted: "We have IoT sensors on every pallet in our own facilities, but we still rely on annual surveys to estimate 70% of our carbon footprint. The precision mismatch makes the whole exercise feel performative."

Pilot Projects That Never Scale: Asia-Pacific is littered with successful pilot deployments that never expanded beyond initial sites. Practitioners identify several recurring causes: pilot success depended on exceptional local champions who subsequently moved roles; integration with legacy systems proved prohibitively expensive at scale; procurement processes designed for capital equipment could not accommodate the operating expense model of IoT-as-a-service; and cybersecurity reviews blocked internet-connected devices in operational technology environments. A Japanese chemical company described deploying the same "pilot" IoT system at five facilities over four years—each installation treated as a new experiment rather than a rollout.

Carbon Claims Based on Modeled Rather Than Measured Savings: Practitioners consistently warn against IoT deployments that claim carbon reductions based on engineering models rather than measured consumption changes. One building automation vendor's case study claimed 30% emissions reduction based on simulated HVAC performance—but the building's metered electricity consumption increased 8% in the same period due to factors the model ignored. The credibility of IoT-enabled sustainability claims depends on transparent measurement and verification protocols, yet practitioners report that fewer than one-third of implementations they encounter include rigorous M&V frameworks.

Key Players

Established Leaders

Hitachi operates the Lumada IoT platform across APAC, with particular strength in industrial applications, railway systems, and urban infrastructure. Their partnership with municipal governments in Japan has created reference implementations for smart city infrastructure that influence procurement specifications region-wide.

Huawei provides IoT connectivity infrastructure including NB-IoT and industrial gateways deployed across manufacturing, logistics, and smart city applications. Despite geopolitical constraints in some markets, their technology underpins substantial portions of APAC's IoT backbone.

Samsung SDS delivers smart building and logistics solutions leveraging Samsung's semiconductor and display manufacturing expertise. Their Cello platform manages IoT deployments across diverse facility types with emphasis on Korean and Southeast Asian markets.

NEC Corporation specializes in smart city infrastructure including traffic management, public safety, and utilities monitoring. Their facial recognition and sensing technologies raise privacy considerations but demonstrate advanced integration of multiple sensor modalities.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) implements IoT solutions across India and Southeast Asia, with particular expertise in manufacturing execution systems and supply chain visibility platforms for multinational corporations.

Emerging Startups

UnaBiz (Singapore) operates Sigfox IoT networks across Asia-Pacific, providing low-power wide-area connectivity for applications where cellular costs are prohibitive. Their acquisition of Sigfox's global network positions them as a regional connectivity standard.

Zenatix (India) develops AI-powered energy management systems for commercial buildings and retail chains, with deployments across 3,000+ sites in India demonstrating 15-20% energy savings.

Tagbox (Singapore) provides cold chain monitoring solutions for pharmaceutical and food logistics, with regulatory-compliant temperature tracking systems deployed across Southeast Asian distribution networks.

SensorFlow (Singapore) offers hotel energy management systems that integrate occupancy sensing, HVAC control, and guest experience—claiming 30% energy reduction in hospitality applications across 15 APAC markets.

Facilio (India) provides connected building operations platform that unifies building management, energy optimization, and maintenance workflows—recently expanding from India into Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

Key Investors & Funders

Temasek Holdings (Singapore) maintains significant positions in smart infrastructure through direct investments and portfolio company activities, with sustainability-linked IoT featuring in their climate-focused allocation.

SoftBank Vision Fund has invested heavily in IoT-adjacent technologies across Asia, including warehouse automation, logistics optimization, and connected vehicle infrastructure.

Sequoia Capital India/Southeast Asia backs multiple climate technology and industrial IoT startups, with recent investments emphasizing supply chain visibility and energy management applications.

Asian Development Bank provides concessional financing for smart infrastructure projects across developing APAC markets, with climate monitoring and urban sustainability representing priority sectors.

GIC (Singapore) invests in real assets including commercial real estate and infrastructure where IoT-enabled sustainability features increasingly influence asset valuation and investment decisions.

Examples

CapitaLand's Integrated Sustainability Management System (Singapore): CapitaLand deployed an IoT-enabled sustainability management system across 200+ properties in Singapore, China, Vietnam, and India, integrating 50,000+ sensors measuring energy, water, waste, and indoor environmental quality. The system achieved 21% reduction in energy intensity between 2020 and 2024, with practitioners crediting three factors: executive-level dashboards that created accountability, automated anomaly alerts that reduced response time from days to hours, and integration with tenant billing that created economic incentives aligned with environmental outcomes. The implementation required 18 months and $23 million investment across the initial portfolio, with projected payback of 4.2 years based on energy savings alone. Carbon emissions avoided exceeded 180,000 tonnes CO2e during the implementation period.

Hitachi's Industrial IoT Deployment at Kobe Steel (Japan): Hitachi implemented their Lumada platform across Kobe Steel's Kakogawa Works, integrating 8,500 sensors monitoring blast furnace operations, power generation, and material handling. The system enabled 3.2% reduction in coke consumption per tonne of steel—a meaningful efficiency gain in an industry where energy comprises 20-30% of production costs. Practitioners identified the key success factor as integration with existing process control systems rather than parallel deployment. The 24-month implementation overcame initial resistance from operations teams through demonstrated value in production optimization before emphasizing sustainability metrics. Annual CO2 reduction exceeded 95,000 tonnes.

Melbourne Water's Smart Meter Network (Australia): Melbourne Water deployed 900,000 smart water meters across metropolitan Melbourne, creating one of the Asia-Pacific's largest IoT sensor networks for utility management. The system identifies leaks within 24 hours (compared to weeks or months with traditional metering), enables consumption-based billing that incentivizes conservation, and provides data for hydraulic modeling that optimizes pumping operations. Practitioners report 8% reduction in non-revenue water (losses through leaks and theft) and 12% reduction in pumping energy through optimized network pressure management. The $300 million investment over five years demonstrated that IoT infrastructure can achieve scale when deployment is structured as a regulated utility investment rather than a discretionary technology project.

Action Checklist

• Audit existing data sources before deploying new sensors—many facilities discover that building management systems, manufacturing execution systems, and utility meters already capture 60-80% of required data but lack integration to make it accessible.

• Define specific decisions that sensor data will inform before procurement. Each sensor should connect to an action: if data reveals X, we will do Y. Sensors without decision linkage become expensive data generation exercises.

• Establish baseline energy and emissions measurements using at least 12 months of historical data, normalized for weather, production volume, and occupancy variations. Without credible baselines, IoT-enabled savings claims lack verifiability.

• Design for cybersecurity from inception—operational technology networks require segmentation, authentication, and monitoring that cannot be retrofitted. Budget 15-20% of implementation cost for security architecture.

• Plan data governance including retention policies, access controls, and compliance with regional privacy regulations (PDPA in Singapore, APPI in Japan, Privacy Act in Australia) before deployment.

• Start with facilities that have stable operations, good existing instrumentation, and supportive local leadership. Prove value before expanding to challenging sites.

• Require vendors to demonstrate integration with your existing systems during proof-of-concept rather than promising future compatibility. Integration failures cause 40% of IoT project delays.

• Build internal capability through training and documentation. IoT systems require ongoing maintenance; total reliance on external vendors creates long-term cost and continuity risk.

• Establish measurement and verification protocols aligned with recognized standards (IPMVP, ISO 50001) before claiming emissions reductions. Auditors and investors increasingly scrutinize IoT-based carbon claims.

• Create feedback loops between sensor data and operational teams through dashboards, alerts, and regular review meetings. Data without attention produces no outcomes.

FAQ

Q: How do organizations determine the appropriate sensor density for sustainability monitoring? A: Sensor density should follow the principle of decision-relevant granularity rather than maximum coverage. Begin by identifying the smallest operational unit where decisions can be made—a production line, a building zone, a distribution route—and ensure sensors provide data at that level. Over-instrumentation creates noise without actionable insight. Practitioners recommend starting with 10-15 sensors per decision point (covering energy, environment, and equipment status), then adding sensors only when specific questions require additional data. A 100,000 square meter commercial building typically requires 2,000-3,000 sensors for effective energy optimization; more than double that quantity rarely improves outcomes.

Q: What are realistic timeframes for IoT sustainability implementations to demonstrate measurable carbon reductions? A: Practitioners report that credible emissions reduction claims require 18-24 months from deployment completion. The first 6-12 months establish baselines and calibrate systems; the following 6-12 months demonstrate sustained performance improvement. Shorter timeframes typically reflect cherry-picked metrics or modeled rather than measured savings. Organizations should plan for three-year evaluation cycles, with meaningful carbon reductions typically materializing in Year 2 and scaling through Year 3 as optimization algorithms mature and operational teams integrate data into routine decision-making.

Q: How should organizations handle cybersecurity concerns when connecting operational technology to IoT platforms? A: The standard approach separates OT networks from IT networks through segmentation, with IoT data flowing through unidirectional gateways that permit data extraction but prevent inbound commands. This architecture protects critical operational systems while enabling analytics. Organizations should require vendors to demonstrate compliance with IEC 62443 (industrial cybersecurity) and regional critical infrastructure protection standards. Penetration testing before production deployment is essential. The 2024 Claroty report found that 67% of APAC industrial IoT deployments had exploitable vulnerabilities at initial assessment—a statistic that underscores the need for security-first implementation approaches.

Q: What distinguishes successful IoT sustainability implementations from failed projects? A: Analysis of APAC implementations reveals three distinguishing factors. First, successful projects had executive sponsorship with sustainability-linked performance incentives—not just IT or facilities management leadership. Second, successful implementations integrated IoT data with existing business processes (capital planning, maintenance scheduling, energy procurement) rather than creating parallel sustainability reporting workflows. Third, successful projects invested in change management and training, recognizing that technology deployment without behavior change produces negligible results. Failed projects typically exhibited the inverse: technology-led initiatives without business integration, facilities-level sponsorship without executive accountability, and deployment without adoption.

Q: How do organizations validate vendor claims about IoT-enabled sustainability benefits? A: Practitioners recommend five validation steps. Request customer references from similar facility types willing to discuss actual versus projected performance. Require vendors to specify measurement methodology and baseline calculations in contract terms. Insist on third-party measurement and verification for any carbon claims used in sustainability reporting. Pilot at a single site for 12+ months before portfolio-wide commitment. Structure contracts with performance guarantees linked to measured outcomes rather than deployment milestones. Organizations that skip validation steps report satisfaction rates below 40%; those implementing rigorous validation achieve satisfaction above 75%.

Sources

• International Energy Agency, "Energy Efficiency 2024: Asia-Pacific Focus," November 2024
• BloombergNEF, "Asia-Pacific Climate Technology Investment Report 2024," January 2025
• CapitaLand Investment Limited, "Sustainability Report 2024," March 2024
• Hitachi, Ltd., "Lumada Industrial IoT: Asia-Pacific Deployment Insights," September 2024
• Claroty, "State of Industrial Cybersecurity: Asia-Pacific 2024," October 2024
• Singapore Exchange Regulation, "Climate Reporting Requirements: Implementation Guide," December 2024
• Australian Energy Market Operator, "Demand Side Participation: Smart Infrastructure Insights," August 2024
• Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, "GX Implementation Framework," October 2024