I’m incredibly pleased to share that I have been included in the Digital Construction Power Players 2025 list by Digital Construction Plus.
This recognition is primarily based on my leadership of the Digital Buildings Council (DBC) and contributions to advancing smart assets within the built environment. For me, this is a profound validation of my professional approach: utilising strategic engagement to navigate complex ecosystems and drive business transformation.
Digital Construction Plus’s profile highlights this focus, noting that “Smart assets, especially smart buildings, issue a new challenge for collaboration between developers, clients, tenants, contractors and FM teams.”
My inclusion in this list reflects a dedicated effort to address the market confusion created by conflicting voices and vested interests. Through facilitating deep and meaningful conversations, the aim has always been to close the technology promise gap and demonstrate holistic ROI for smart assets.
A key focus of my work has been the review of the RIBA Smart Buildings Overlay for the Plan of Work. As Digital Construction Plus noted, I was swift to identify the need for a new iteration to address the critical distinction between new build and retrofit, a crucial insight for ensuring the overlay remains relevant and practical.
I am looking forward to collaborating with the original authors to drive the next iteration of the overlay, ensuring it supports a broader understanding of smart assets across the industry.
Digital Construction Plus Profile Snippet
Justin Kirby, executive officer, Digital Buildings Council
Smart assets represent the next frontier for information management to interface with. Smart assets, especially smart buildings, issue a new challenge for collaboration between developers, clients, tenants, contractors and FM teams. And the challenge is different if it’s a building being developed from scratch or an existing building being retrofitted.
To represent smart assets, we’ve selected Justin Kirby. He helped launch the Digital Buildings Council (DBC) last year and now acts as its executive officer.
The DBC aims to address market confusion through too many conflicting voices and vested interests, the technology promise gap, and how to demonstrate ROI and think holistically about how ROI is calculated, among other targets.
When RIBA launched the Smart Buildings Overlay for the Plan of Work last year, Kirby was swift to note that a new iteration would be needed quickly, as the overlay did not address the new versus retrofit issue. Fast forward to a fortnight’s time and he’ll be alongside the original authors at Digital Construction Week offering a sneak peek of v2.0 of the overlay.
Excerpt from the Digital Construction Power Players list
