Our ESG Starting Checklist – Building the Smart Office in Skopje

When we set out to make Hoyo Tech an ESG-conscious company, we knew we had to start by looking inward. Our Skopje office, already fully automated with the Hoyo Smart Office platform, was the perfect environment to develop and test our first ESG integration checklist. This checklist became our internal guide, not just for compliance, but for conscious innovation.

We didn’t want to retrofit ESG, we wanted to build it into our automation, analytics, and decision-making frameworks from the start.

✅ The ESG Starting Checklist for Smart Office Skopje

Here’s a breakdown of the ESG-focused areas we evaluated, optimized, and began monitoring:

🌱 Environmental Checklist

Goal: Reduce energy consumption, maximize sustainability, and track environmental KPIs.

• Device-Level Energy Monitoring
  ➡️ Each smart device connected to the Hoyo Smart System was labeled and tracked for individual consumption.
  ➡️ Genera monitored total, per-room, and per-device power usage (e.g., shellyplus1__1010077_Power).
• Automated Lighting & Motion Sensing
  ➡️ Installed smart motion detectors (Aqara, Shelly) to manage lights based on occupancy.
  ➡️ Introduced night-mode and away-mode rules to avoid unnecessary energy usage.
• HVAC Optimization with Sensor Inputs
  ➡️ Used temperature, humidity, and CO₂ sensors to dynamically adjust heating and cooling.
  ➡️ Reduced overcooling/heating in unoccupied zones via presence detection.
• Monitoring Air & Environmental Quality
  ➡️ Implemented Air quality sensors in each office section.
  ➡️ Integrated thresholds into Genera’s logic for ventilation and comfort automation.
• Waste Reduction Through Automation
  ➡️ Scheduled printers, monitors, and shared equipment to shut down during idle hours.
  ➡️ Controlled by Shelly relays to avoid phantom energy drains.

🤝 Social Checklist

Goal: Improve employee wellbeing, ergonomics, and workplace satisfaction.

• Adaptive Comfort Settings
  ➡️ Personalized climate and lighting profiles by office zones.
  ➡️ Employees could opt-in for preference-based automation through Genera.
• Air & Noise Awareness
  ➡️ Measured indoor air quality to reduce risk of fatigue and headaches.
  ➡️ Noise level alerts enabled in shared spaces to support focus and comfort.
• Smart Access & Safety
  ➡️ Integrated digital access control (NFC, remote door unlocks) to increase both safety and convenience.
  ➡️ Motion-triggered alerts for after-hours movement, with visual confirmation.
• Human-Centric Lighting
  ➡️ Used Tunable White LED lighting with time-based presets to match circadian rhythms.
  ➡️ Automated light intensity changes based on outdoor brightness and time of day.

🔐 Governance Checklist

Goal: Ensure data transparency, ethical automation, and secure operations.

• Data Logging & Explainability
  ➡️ Every decision made by Genera was logged with timestamp, rule ID, and sensor input references.
  ➡️ Created audit trails for review and optimization.
• Secure Data Access
  ➡️ Segregated device control from monitoring for admin and non-admin users.
  ➡️ Enforced encryption for external integrations (e.g., Siri, Alexa, mobile apps).
• Consent-Based Automations
  ➡️ Introduced opt-in and override features for employee-specific automations.
  ➡️ Manual triggers always available alongside automated flows.
• AI Behavior Monitoring
  ➡️ Regularly reviewed automation patterns to ensure no adverse patterns developed.
  ➡️ Genera uses rule-based fallback for transparency in all learning behavior.

📊 Technology & Tools Used

• IoT Backbone: Hoyo Smart + Genera AI
• Monitoring Stack: Prometheus, InfluxDB, Grafana
• Devices: Shelly, Aqara, Sonoff, Nest,  Alexa, Philips Hue, Lutron, etc.
• Energy Infrastructure: Circuit-level smart relays and sensor-fused power meters
• AI Controller: Genera (contextual rule engine with user-behavior feedback loop)

Outcomes from the Skopje ESG Checklist

• ~18% energy savings in the first 3 months after full automation
• 100% coverage of motion-based lighting and HVAC control
• Improved comfort reporting from employees in shared spaces
• Established baseline for tracking ESG KPIs in Prometheus/Grafana dashboards

This checklist became the blueprint for the next big leap: our upcoming Struga office. In the next article, we’ll walk through how we designed the new office from the ground up with ESG as a core requirement, including 25kW of solar panels, 10kW battery systems, and fully integrated energy intelligence.