Decarbonising Buildings Starts With Understanding Performance

When organisations discuss decarbonising buildings, the conversation often focuses on technologies such as heat pumps, solar PV, battery storage and insulation upgrades. These solutions all have an important role to play in reducing carbon emissions, but they are only part of the picture.

A building can incorporate highly efficient equipment and still consume more energy than necessary if systems are not operating as intended. Heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems influence energy consumption every day, yet many organisations have limited visibility of how these systems are performing, where energy is being consumed or whether control strategies still reflect how spaces are used.

As a result, buildings can consume excessive energy, generate avoidable carbon emissions and struggle to maintain comfortable environments for occupants.

Decarbonising buildings is therefore not simply about installing new technology. It is about understanding how buildings perform and ensuring existing systems operate as efficiently as possible.

Climate change is increasing the pressure on buildings

The need to decarbonise buildings is becoming increasingly urgent. The Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget identifies improvements to building energy performance and energy management as critical to achieving the UK’s long-term emissions reduction targets (Climate Change Committee, 2025).

At the same time, climate change is changing the demands placed on buildings. In its article, Red Extreme Heat Warning in Force as Record-Breaking June Temperatures Forecast, the Met Office highlights that hot spells are expected to become more frequent in the UK’s future climate, with temperatures projected to rise in all seasons and the most intense heat occurring during summer. The organisation also notes that it is virtually certain that human influence has increased the occurrence and intensity of extreme heat events (Met Office, 2026).

Recent heatwaves have demonstrated how quickly building performance becomes visible when external conditions change. Buildings that struggle to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures often experience increased occupant complaints, reduced productivity and higher energy consumption as cooling systems work harder to compensate.

However, extreme heat is only one example. Buildings must increasingly cope with a wider range of changing environmental conditions while continuing to provide comfortable, healthy and productive spaces for occupants.

This means that organisations face a dual challenge: reducing carbon emissions while ensuring buildings remain resilient and adaptable.

Understanding performance before investing in change

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding building decarbonisation is that progress always requires major capital investment.

In reality, many organisations already have systems capable of delivering meaningful improvements in energy performance. The challenge is understanding how effectively those systems are operating.

Before energy consumption can be reduced, carbon emissions lowered or performance improved, organisations need accurate information about how their buildings are performing.

This principle is increasingly recognised across the industry. The updated CIBSE TM39 Building Metering and Monitoring guidance places greater emphasis on monitoring, analytics and the practical use of building performance data to support better decision-making (CIBSE, 2026).

Without visibility, inefficiencies can remain hidden for years. Equipment may operate outside occupied hours, heating and cooling systems may work against one another, or occupancy patterns may change while control strategies remain unchanged.

These issues can increase both energy consumption and carbon emissions without being immediately obvious to building operators. As we explored in The Hidden Cost of Running a Legacy BMS System, many organisations continue to absorb these inefficiencies without realising the impact they have on energy consumption, maintenance requirements and operational performance.

Why building controls matter

A Building Energy Management System (BEMS) monitors and controls building services such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting. Facilities teams access and manage this information through the head-end, which acts as the central interface for the system. From the head-end, users can see how equipment is operating, identify faults, acknowledge alarms, adjust control settings, review performance trends and monitor energy usage across the building, providing the visibility needed to understand how the building is operating and where inefficiencies may exist.

However, not all BMS platforms provide the same level of visibility. Many organisations continue to operate legacy systems that were designed for a very different era of building management. The challenge is not that these systems stop working overnight. Rather, they can make it more difficult to access information, identify inefficiencies and make informed decisions about energy use. If energy consumption, equipment operation and system faults are difficult to see, they become far more difficult to manage.

Modern platforms such as IQVISION are designed to provide greater visibility across building systems, helping facilities teams access performance data, investigate issues, identify opportunities for optimisation and support wider energy management initiatives. The easier it is to identify inefficiencies, the easier it becomes to reduce them.

Recent research published by the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) in its white paper, Comfort, Efficiency and Health: The Untapped Potential of Building Energy Management Systems, highlights the growing role advanced building controls can play in supporting building decarbonisation. The report found that widespread adoption of advanced Building Energy Management Systems could reduce emissions from UK commercial and public sector buildings by an average of 7.4% annually between 2026 and 2035 (BCIA, 2025).

The research also identified wider benefits beyond energy efficiency. Improved environmental control can contribute to better indoor air quality, improved occupant comfort and healthier indoor environments. The report estimates that advanced building controls could reduce sickness absence and generate significant economic value through improved workplace productivity (BCIA, 2025).

These findings reflect a broader shift in how building controls are viewed. They are no longer simply an engineering tool used to operate plant equipment. They are increasingly recognised as an important part of how organisations manage sustainability, operational performance and occupant wellbeing.

Decarbonisation starts with visibility

Many organisations begin their decarbonisation journey by focusing on what needs to be replaced.

A more effective starting point is often understanding what already exists.

Building performance data provides the foundation for identifying opportunities to reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency and lower carbon emissions. It helps organisations understand how systems are operating, where inefficiencies exist and which improvements are likely to deliver the greatest impact.

As explored in our article, Driving Net Zero and Budget Efficiency: Building the Roadmap Together, understanding how energy is consumed is often the first step towards identifying practical opportunities for improvement.

Similarly, our article, London Climate Action Week: Why Building Performance Matters More Than Ever, explored how monitoring, analytics and building performance data are becoming increasingly important as organisations respond to growing sustainability expectations.

The common theme running through both discussions is that meaningful improvements begin with understanding current performance.

Without that understanding, organisations risk investing in solutions without fully understanding the problems they are trying to solve.

Building for climate resilience

Decarbonising buildings is often presented as a technology challenge. In reality, it is equally a performance challenge.

As organisations continue to navigate rising energy costs, Net Zero commitments and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, understanding how buildings perform will become increasingly important.

Buildings that perform well are typically more energy efficient, more resilient and better equipped to support occupant wellbeing. They are also better positioned to adapt to future environmental and regulatory pressures.

Before organisations can decide what to replace, upgrade or invest in next, they first need to understand how their buildings are performing today.

Decarbonising buildings starts with understanding performance.

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