SUSTAINABILITY
F or decades,‘ smart’ buildings meant little more than automated lights and a scheduled thermostat. Today, however, thanks to technologies like IoT, edge computing and Gen AI, buildings can not only react to programmed schedules but adapt and learn from the people inside them.
Much of the pressure to convert existing buildings to‘ smart’ ones comes from increasingly-stringent sustainability targets. Buildings account for nearly 40 % of global carbon emissions and, with regulations tightening, property owners face both compliance requirements and serious financial risk. There’ s a catch, though. Most existing building stock is ageing, disconnected and energy-inefficient, meaning the solution is in retrofitting, rather than tearing buildings down.
Digital twins are proving central to this transformation. By creating virtual replicas of physical buildings, facility managers can simulate scenarios, predict failures before they happen and optimise energy usage in real-time. So, now the challenge is software-driven, rather than being rooted in hardware. The breakthrough happens when HVAC, security and IT systems stop operating in isolation and start functioning as a single, integrated whole.
NEARLY
40 %
of global carbon emissions come from the built environment
140 February 2026