I share the concern expressed in your article ‘Government urged to back heritage retrofits’. Retrofitting is essential to mitigate the environmental harm caused by the built environment, especially considering that 80% of the buildings that exist today will still be in use in 2050. The greenest building is the one that already exists, but updating stock is rarely straightforward.

Retrofitting is essential to mitigate the environmental harm caused by the built environment, especially considering that 80% of the buildings that exist today will still be in use in 2050. The greenest building is the one that already exists, but updating stock is rarely straightforward.

Retrofitting is often an extensive and resource-intensive process, and heritage buildings in particular demand a specialist skillset. But what’s missing from the discussion is the potential for technology to improve buildings’ sustainability by reducing their energy and carbon usage, without large-scale and expensive refits.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology research suggests up to 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted, in particular through heating and cooling. Clearly, traditional air conditioning methods are not fit for purpose if we hope to reduce the environmental damage caused by the built environment and achieve net zero emissions.

Building management systems enable the use of energy optimisation tools that monitor and regulate building temperature automatically. These smart building technologies give a deeper insight into energy usage by combining real-time data from sensors and weather forecasts.

This automatically controls and optimises a building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to maintain ideal conditions using the minimum energy required, reducing a building’s energy use and carbon footprint without extensive and costly hardware or structural changes.

Cecilia Rihm, product manager, Spica Technologies

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