Installing the Digital Foundation Buildings Need for a Decarbonised Future
Jason Dean, Chief Technology Officer at Equans Digital, explores the opportunities and considerations for implementing digital building systems to accelerate sustainability goals.
Technology is now embedded into almost every aspect of how buildings are operated and maintained. This shift is being driven by two factors: the need to run estates more efficiently and sustainably, and the rapid growth in the data being produced by modern building systems. As a result, digital capability is moving from being a differentiator to a fundamental requirement.
Building asset owners and Facilities Management (FM) providers are now managing unprecedented volumes of information. An array of embedded digital systems all generate their own datasets – these include Building Management Systems, SCADA, BIM models, IoT sensors, specialist control systems and CAFM platforms. Historically, these systems were designed to operate independently, and the data they produced remained locked in functional silos.
That model no longer works. Organisations increasingly require integrated insights on their buildings’ performance, not isolated reports. At the same time, AI and machine learning tools require consistent, structured and accessible data to deliver meaningful outputs. The problem facing the built environment today isn’t a lack of data – it’s the opposite. There is too much, coming from too many places, in too many formats.
To realise the full value of AI, digital twins and predictive maintenance; FM operators must first solve the data problem. This requires moving towards a centralised data ontology that enables semantic interoperability across all systems. In practice, this means establishing a single way of defining, tagging and interpreting data, regardless of its source.
Equans Digital
Equans UK & Ireland is transforming the way infrastructure and the built environment operates through its Equans Digital business.
This is not a quick or easy task. Collecting, cleaning, staging and securing large, complex datasets is technically challenging and resource-intensive. And building a scalable, cyber-secure environment to host these datasets requires careful planning and investment.
But the benefits are significant. Once data is unified and reliable, it becomes the foundation for new capabilities, including:
- Predictive and condition-based maintenance
- High-accuracy digital twins for operational modelling
- Automated environmental reporting
- Real-time energy and carbon optimisation
- Portfolio-wide performance insights
These capabilities don’t simply improve visibility – they directly influence cost, carbon, compliance and customer experience.
Our clients, particularly in regulated sectors such as utilities, are under mounting pressure to evidence their progress on sustainability and wider ESG goals. This has led to an increased demand for:
- Automated energy reporting
- Auditable measurement and verification (M&V)
- Real-time environmental performance data
- Clear and consistent carbon calculations
- Demonstrable compliance with evolving regulations
Delivering this level of reporting accurately and reliably is only possible with a strong data architecture behind it. As sustainability expectations continue to rise, the ability to produce high-quality data at speed will become a core service requirement across the Facilities Management industry.
The role of data science in FM is expanding rapidly. Tasks that once relied on manual inputs are now increasingly automated and analytical. As AI and machine learning tools mature, they will further reshape the industry.
Building asset owners who harness this change towards data engineering, cybersecurity, cloud architecture and AI-ready ontologies will be in a significantly stronger position in the years to come. Those who delay, will find themselves constrained by legacy systems.
The volume of available data will only continue to grow. The challenge -and opportunity - lies in turning that data into insight, efficiency and measurable value.
The work involved in building the right digital foundations is substantial, but the long-term advantages are clear. With the right architecture, the right security and the right tools, organisations have the potential not only to improve how their buildings are run day to day, but to unlock insights to support strategic ambitions for years to come.
