Digital Buildings Council

As part of our event partnership with PropTech Connect in September this year, our Executive Officer Justin Kirby moderated the ‘A Holistic Approach to Maximising ROI in Smart Buildings’ panel. The discussion is connected to our ‘Project costing and the business case’ Working Group launched with others at the show: https://lnkd.in/e7G7faDt Panellists included the following experts from various sectors of the smart building industry: - Mike Hook, Owner/Director at LMG (lmgiq.com) and treasurer of the DBC - Emilia Cardamone, Associate Director, Real Estate Digital at Turner & Townsend (now Global Real Estate Senior Manager - Workplace Experience at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)) - Jonathan Treece, Director – Digital Lead, The Design House at Barclays - Johan Wiksell, Head of smart homes and buildings at JM - James Kendall, European Regional Director at SwiftConnect We’ve produced this AI Summary of key insights from these industry experts who gathered to explore the challenges and strategies involved in demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) for smart buildings. Executive Summary The conversation began with an introduction to the Digital Buildings Council’s mission, highlighting the importance of early cost and ROI models in project planning. Panelists discussed varying ROI perspectives for landlords and tenants, the impact of sustainability on energy efficiency, and the significance of user experience over mere entry security. They emphasized a holistic approach to ROI that includes effectiveness, efficiency, experience, health/safety/security, and sustainability, while navigating the complexities of quantifying soft benefits. Practical guidance was provided, recommending a user-centric strategy, establishing quantifiable metrics early, and fostering collaboration between construction and operation phases to ensure long-term success and scalability in smart building initiatives. You can read the full summary at the link below.

As some of you may already know, WiredScore's former Head Of Research - SmartScore, Aleksandra Dasala MIET, has joined independent SMaRT consultants and DBC founding member, Nuxform. Aleks has over 10+ years’ experience in consultancy, research and project management. That has already played a key role in helping establish the DBC by co-facilitating the round table earlier this year with our executive officer Justin Kirby, which was the catalyst for the council's formation. More recently, Aleks helped coordinate member input on our Working Groups and accompanying best practice guides we launched last month at a workshop at PropTech Connect she kindly helped co-facilitate. We look forward to Aleks' participation with her Nuxform colleagues in the various member-led project initiatives that support our Working Groups. In the meantime, you can read the 'What’s smarter now in design and deployment for digital buildings?' report she co-wrote with Justin on the key takeaways from the session for Smart Buildings Magazine: https://lnkd.in/eaj4CqP9 You can also read the announcement about the launch of our Working Groups in Smart Buildings Magazine: https://lnkd.in/eDqRRUqa Stay connected by following the DBC on here for the latest updates, events and insights from the founding members and reach out to learn how to join our community and contribute to our mission.

Huge thanks to the Simmtronic's team for this summary of one of the two panels the Digital Buildings Council facilated as part of our event partnership with the Smart Buildings Show. What we were trying to do with these two panels was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to prompt conversations around our recently launched working groups with participants from across the digital building ecosystem including those from developers/owners/operators: https://lnkd.in/e7G7faDt At the same time, we attempted to support our Chairperson Jess Costanzo with her mission to encourage our industry to be evermore diverse and inclusive across the two panels. We hope to share longer reports of the two panels soon, but in the meantime huge thanks to the following for their participation: Rethinking Smart Building ROI and the Business Case(s): - Daniel Watson at Hereworks - Jonathan Wilson at Gardiner & Theobald LLP - Shreya Sheth at PATRIZIA SE - Viktoras Cesnulevicius at FPC Global - Jess Costanzo at Simmtronic (DBC Chairperson) - Justin Kirby (DBC Executive Officer and moderator) Harmonizing Demand for Smart Buildings: - Ravi Lakhani at Cordless Consultants - Linden Stephens - CEng, BEng(Hons) MCIBSE, MIET at British Land - James Thomas at SES Engineering Services - Damien Renaut at Landsec - Kevin Brownell CPP at Nuxform (DBC Secretary and moderator) You can read highlights from the Harmonizing Demand panel Jess kindly shared here: https://lnkd.in/e8WUQMwZ

The DBC would like to thank Hereworks for their kind support of our stand at the Smart Buildings Show, based on this year, we are going to need a bigger one for next 😃

Huge thanks to DBC chair Jess Costanzo at Simmtronic for putting together this summary of our 'Harmonizing Demand for Smart Buildings' yesterday at the Smart Buildings Show and for the following for participating: DBC secretary Kevin Brownell CPP at Nuxform, Ravi Lakhani at Cordless Consultants, James Thomas at SES Engineering Services, Linden Stephens - CEng, BEng(Hons) MCIBSE, MIET at British Land and Damien Renaut at Landsec.

Not only are the DBC an association partner of the Smart Buildings Show this year we will also have a small booth there (C55), kindly sponsored by founding members Hereworks LMG (lmgiq.com) Nuxform SES Engineering Services and Simmtronic. Please come and say hello and also check out the sessions that representatives from our founding members are participating in (as shown in the following guide): https://lnkd.in/eJb8mNFH

In our series of founding member profiles we are featuring Technology Consultancy Cordless Consultants this week: https://lnkd.in/e5HFJNia Their smart solutions head Ravi Lakhani and DBC Steering Committee member will be participating on the the Harmonizing Demand for Smart Buildings panel at the Smart Buildings Show this Wednesday with fellow DBC members Kevin Brownell CPP at Nuxform, James Thomas at SES Engineering Services and others: https://lnkd.in/eQAP9_W5 You can also see their Smart Solutions Consultant and Data Specialist Tom Keeling participating in the Uniting Digital and Physical Workplaces panel on the same day: https://lnkd.in/eeyd4ydt The DBC will be exhibiting at the Smart Buildings Show on Stand C55 (9-10 Oct), please come and say hello. You can also see a guide we have put together of other representatives from DBC members participating at the Show here: https://lnkd.in/ebRx_Fps In the meantime, stay connected by following the DBC on here for the latest updates, events and insights from the founding members and reach out to learn how to join our community and contribute to our mission.

Representatives from 3 DBC founding members attended the #nexuscon event run by the Nexus Labs team in Denver this week and caught up for an impromptu gathering. From left to right: Tomás G. Mac Eoin at Hereworks, DBC secretary Kevin Brownell CPP at Nuxform and DBC Steering Committee member James Atkins at Facility Performance Consulting. The two key themes this year included diving into the business case for smart buildings tech from many different angles and perspectives and also narrowing the chasm between decarbonization and digitization efforts within real estate organizations. We look forward to hearing from Tomás, Kevin and James about what was discussed and the shared lessons learned. The DBC are an event partner of the Smart Buildings Show at Excel London next week where we have a small booth (C55) and the majority of founding members will have representatives participating (see guide below): https://lnkd.in/eHHpGeFR The DBC are also event partners of London Build Expo at Olympia in London next month and will be announcing a panel soon linked to the overarching gap between construction and operations as their increasing digitalisation drives many of our planned working group initiatives: https://lnkd.in/e7G7faDt Please follow the DBC on here for more updates including where else you can meet members to hear more about our activities including the working groups, or do get in touch to find out how you can join.

Only 2 weeks to go now until the Smart Buildings Show at ExCeL London (9-10th Oct). This is the second of our event partnership and this time we will be exhibiting on stand C55 thanks to the kind support of some of our founding members. As mentioned in Smart Buildings Magazine, we announced the launch of our Working Groups and accompanying Best Practice Guides recently that enable members to collaborate on its stated goals, encourage membership expansion and form partnerships with other relevant trade bodies and initiatives: https://lnkd.in/eWTVy9PS We have put together this little guide of where and when you can see representatives from our members participating in the conference, as much of what they are discussing is linked to these and the overarching challenge of plugging the project-operations gap. We've highlighted the Executive Team and Steering Committee members, so please introduce yourself if you would like to find out more about what we are up to. FYI Duncan Greene and John Clarke at One Sightsolutions LTD, Kevin Brownell CPP at Nuxform, James Thomas at SES Engineering Services, Ravi Lakhani at Cordless Consultants, Brian Coogan and Euan Keighley at Ethos Engineering, Robert Hemmerdinger at Delta Controls Inc., Danny Venturelli at Smart Spaces®, Daniel Watson at Hereworks, Viktoras Cesnulevicius at Facility Performance Consulting, Jess Costanzo at Simmtronic, Sam Norledge at LMG (lmgiq.com), Brahm Lategan MIET MIEEE at MiX Consultancy Ltd and the DBC's executive officer Justin Kirby. You can see the full Smart Buildings Show agenda at the following URL, we look forward to meeting you there: https://lnkd.in/e6TF44Vt Please follow the DBC on here for more updates including where else you can meet members to hear more about our activities including the working groups, or do get in touch to find out how you can join.

As mentioned recently, the DBC launced its Working Groups and accompanying Best Practice Guides at PropTech Connect (PTC) as covered last week in Smart Buildings Magazine: https://lnkd.in/eDqRRUqa As outlined in our launch announcement, a key driver for the formation of the DBC is the consensus among founding members that the growth of the digital buildings market has been constrained by uncertainty and if key issues are not consistently addressed, there is a significant risk that it will not fulfil its potentials. These issues include the need to demonstrate ROI and adopt a holistic approach to calculating it, which our ‘Project costing and the business case’ Working Group aims to address. Collaborative efforts on this working group include the engagement of Cost and Project Management Consultants to align digital outcomes with costs early in the project lifecycle, aiming to mitigate value engineering challenges and ensure comprehensive value: https://lnkd.in/e7G7faDt To kick off the initiative the DBC’s Executive Officer Justin Kirby moderated the A Holistic Approach to Maximising ROI in Smart Building Tech panel in the main hall at PTC with the following participants: - Emilia Cardamone, Associate Director – Real Estate Digital at Turner & Townsend - Mike Hook, DBC Treasurer and Co-founder and Director of LMG (lmgiq.com) - Jonathan Treece, Director – Digital Lead | The Design House at Barclays - Johan Wiksell, Head of smart homes and buildings at JM - James Kendall, European Regional Director at SwiftConnect You can read a summary of the panel discussion at the following URL: https://lnkd.in/eQcUxnC8 The DBC will be exhibiting at the Smart Buildings Show next month and Justin will be moderating a follow-up ROI-Themed panel with the following participants: - Jess Costanzo, DBC Chairperson and Commercial Director at Simmtronic - Daniel Watson, DBC Steering Committee member and UK Director at Hereworks - Jonathan Wilson, Partner at Gardiner & Theobald LLP - Shreya Sheth, Associate Director at PATRIZIA SE - Viktoras Cesnulevicius, Senior Digital Buildings Consultant at DBC founding member Facility Performance Consulting You read more about the panel over on the Smart Buildings Show's site: https://lnkd.in/eGZH5nAU Stay connected by following the DBC here on LinkedIn for the latest updates, events and insights from the founding members and reach out to learn how to join our community and contribute to our mission.