Energy Efficient Buildings - Transforming existing building operations for a low-carbon future

Existing buildings represent one of the largest and most immediate opportunities for carbon reduction. While new construction standards continue to improve, operational emissions from existing buildings, driven by inefficient energy use, outdated systems, and human behaviour, remain a significant barrier to achieving climate and energy targets. 

Operational energy use in buildings is often hindered by fragmented systems (such as ACMV and lighting), limited real-time visibility, and management approaches that are reactive rather than adaptive. Even when energy-efficient technologies are deployed, their impact is frequently reduced by poor system integration, insufficient use of data for decision-making, and misaligned incentives among building owners, operators, and tenants. Consequently, buildings routinely consume more energy than necessary, which remains an opportunity for costs and emissions reductions. 

Behavioural factors also play a critical role in determining building energy performance. Decisions made by occupants and operators, such as temperature setpoints, equipment usage, and scheduling, can significantly influence energy consumption. However, most occupants and operators lack clear and actionable feedback on how their behaviours affect energy consumption and carbon emissions. This creates a strong need for tools and systems that not only optimise building operations, but also actively engage users, align incentives, and foster sustained energy-saving behaviours.

Finally, while many solutions claimed energy or carbon reduction benefits, the sector continues to face challenges to implement a cost effective approach for measurement, verification and accountability. Inconsistent data, limited standardisation, and insufficient analytics make it difficult to validate performance, compare solutions or scale successful approaches. Robust monitoring and verification frameworks are essential to ensure transparency, enable continuous improvement, and build confidence among building owners, tenants, investors, and policymakers. 

Potential approaches could combine intelligent building energy management systems, real-time performance monitoring, and occupant engagement tools to reduce energy use, influence everyday behaviours, and verify carbon savings in existing buildings.

Trial site information will be confirmed on a later date. Interested parties are encouraged to participate in the site visit organised by JTC, kindly register via the link to access further details.