Late last year, I had the privilege of delivering a keynote address at the BSRIA Briefing 2024 Summit, a top industry event focused on retrofitting. Stepping in at the last minute, this opportunity allowed me to articulate the Digital Buildings Council’s (DBC) core purpose and strategically link it back to the summit’s overarching theme of digital transformation in the built environment. As a market engagement specialist, few things are as rewarding as distilling complex industry challenges into clear calls to action, fostering essential dialogue for tangible progress.
My presentation underscored the urgent need for digital transformation, particularly in retrofitting existing buildings for energy efficiency and achieving net-zero goals. It was an opportunity to move the industry conversation from simply “why” smart buildings are important to “how” they can be effectively implemented in legacy assets.
The Urgent Imperative of Digital Retrofitting
The global push for net-zero emissions places the built environment under immense pressure. With nearly 40% of global emissions originating from real estate, and approximately 80% of today’s buildings still expected to be in use by 2050, the challenge of retrofitting for energy efficiency is paramount. My keynote illuminated this vast disparity between current energy consumption in commercial buildings and the ambitious net-zero targets.
The foundational principle I outlined was the evolving “smart building tech stack” – a sophisticated ecosystem vital for analysing data, optimising performance, and automating building technologies to drive savings. It highlighted the DBC’s role in bridging blurring traditional industry silos across the built environment ecosystem, and showcased how our founding members are actively tackling retrofit projects.
Navigating the Core Challenges
The path to digitally transformed, net-zero retrofits is fraught with challenges, which formed a significant part of my address:
- The Project-Operations Gap: A significant disconnect exists between the design and construction phase and the operational phase of buildings. As I highlighted, “Building users and facilities staff remain frustrated by the lack of influence and input they have over smart specifications defined during the design and planning phases by stakeholders that will walk away at practical completion, even though they ultimately run the building!”
- Data Silos & Interoperability: A critical barrier remains the lack of interoperability and data sharing between various building systems and stakeholders. My presentation underscored: “It’s about how do you get the data from all these different operational technology devices, whether that’s your fire system, your security or your HVAC, into the cloud and into platforms, so you can analyse that data, optimise performance and automate those technologies to drive savings, etc.”
- Terminology Ambiguity: Simple yet profound, the lack of consistent definitions for key terms like retrofit, refurbishment, and fit-out creates confusion and impedes effective communication and collaboration. I advocated for tackling this head-on: “I think one of the things we really need to do first is like tackle the terminology… if we could get some common agreement about those terminologies… that will help with alignment around, you know, effective communication about what it is that we’re talking about.”
- Skills Gap: A pervasive lack of skilled personnel to manage and operate smart building technologies presents a major obstacle to digital adoption and efficiency gains.
- Unlocking Investment Beyond Energy Efficiency: The prevailing focus on building performance often narrows to energy efficiency. However, to attract the necessary investment, the scope must expand to encompass occupant well-being and user experience. As I noted, quoting the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), “the people from the International World Buildings Institute pointed out there’s a difference between what is efficient buildings and what are effective buildings. Because post-COVID if a building is not occupied it is neither sustainable or effective.”
Pioneering Solutions for a Digital Future
My keynote also proposed a series of tangible solutions and actionable steps for the industry:
- Early Stakeholder Engagement: Emphasizing “Smart from the Start,” involving all stakeholders, especially building users and facility managers, from the outset of a project. The RIBA’s Smart Building Overlay is a positive step in this direction.
- Performance-based Metrics: Leveraging metrics like NABERS can drive meaningful improvements by directly connecting design and operational outcomes.
- Digital Soft Landings Framework: Proposing the development of a “digital soft landings” framework as a collaborative effort to improve the transition from project to operations and ensure the long-term effectiveness of smart building technologies.
- Active Digital Twins: Advocating for a transition from passive BIM models to active digital twins that are continuously updated with real-time data, unlocking potential for optimisation, predictive maintenance, and clear ROI. This ensures “passive digital twins” evolve into “active or performance digital twins” for sustained energy efficiencies.
- Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing: Highlighting the critical need for enhanced collaboration among industry bodies, rating organisations, and technology providers to establish common standards, best practices, and tackle the skills gap.
Conclusion: A Call to Action for Integrated Progress
The digital retrofitting challenge is multifaceted and demands a holistic approach. By focusing on closing the project-operations gap, leveraging data-driven insights, and fostering robust collaboration, the industry can unlock significant opportunities for energy efficiency, occupant well-being, and truly sustainable building operations. My keynote concluded with a strong call for industry-wide collaboration to develop a shared understanding of terminology, explore digital soft landings, and promote performance-based metrics and active digital twins.
This keynote was a privilege to deliver, reflecting my commitment to making complex industry challenges accessible and actionable through strategic dialogue.
You can view the presentation slides on the DBC site here. Listen to AI-generated podcast summaries of the keynote, exploring these themes in depth:
