Jen Vickers, president, Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) looks at unlocking the future of smart buildings.
When we talk about decarbonising buildings, the conversation often focuses on hardware - heat pumps, insulation, solar panels and plant replacement. These technologies are important, but they are only part of the story. A building can have the most efficient equipment available and still waste large amounts of energy if it is not managed intelligently.
In reality, the biggest opportunity for improving building performance often lies not in replacing infrastructure, but in how we operate it. This is where smart building controls come into their own.
As the UK government moves forward with its Warm Homes Plan, which aims to accelerate building decarbonisation and improve energy performance across the country, digital building controls should be recognised as a key enabler.
Across the UK, thousands of commercial and public buildings already contain complex heating, ventilation and cooling systems. Yet many are effectively running blind - operating on fixed schedules, responding slowly to changing conditions, or failing to communicate across systems. The result is energy waste, unnecessary carbon emissions and uncomfortable indoor environments.
Modern Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) transform buildings into responsive environments. Sensors, analytics and integrated control platforms allow systems to continuously adjust to real-world conditions, including occupancy levels, external temperatures, indoor air quality and energy demand.
Instead of reacting hours later, buildings can respond instantly. This shift from static to dynamic operation represents one of the most underappreciated opportunities in the journey to net zero. According to analysis from the Building Controls Industry Association, upgrading commercial and public buildings to high-performance control standards could reduce emissions by around 15 million tonnes of CO₂ between 2026 and 2035.
What makes this particularly powerful is the speed at which these improvements can be delivered. Unlike structural retrofits, which can take years to plan and implement, control upgrades can often be installed within existing systems. The building stays operational while performance improves.
For building owners and operators, that makes smart controls one of the fastest routes to measurable carbon reduction. However, the real potential of smart buildings extends beyond energy savings. A truly intelligent building continuously learns about how it is used. It understands patterns of occupancy, adapts to seasonal changes and balances energy consumption with occupant comfort. This creates environments that are not only more efficient, but healthier and more productive.
Indoor air quality, temperature stability and ventilation rates can all be actively managed rather than passively tolerated. For workplaces, this means better conditions for employees. In schools, it means classrooms where students can focus more effectively. In hospitals, it means environments that better support patient recovery.
In other words, smart buildings are not just energy assets; they are human environments.
The challenge is that much of this potential remains untapped. Many buildings still rely on outdated control strategies or systems that operate in isolation rather than as part of a connected platform.
At a time when digital transformation is reshaping almost every sector of the economy, buildings cannot remain analogue.
The next stage of the smart building journey will be about integration and intelligence. Data from building systems will increasingly combine with cloud analytics, predictive maintenance tools and artificial intelligence to optimise performance automatically. Buildings will become adaptive systems that continuously improve their own efficiency.
Yet unlocking that future requires investment in the digital backbone of buildings: the control systems that coordinate everything else.
Too often, building controls are treated as a technical afterthought - something hidden behind the scenes rather than recognised as a core component of building performance. In reality, they are the operating system that allows modern buildings to function effectively.
If we want buildings to become truly smart, we must start by giving them the intelligence to manage themselves.
As national policy evolves through initiatives such as the Warm Homes Plan, there is a growing opportunity to recognise the role that intelligent building controls can play alongside fabric upgrades and low-carbon heating. Smart operation of buildings should sit at the centre of the UK’s strategy to reduce emissions from the built environment.