Carl Henriksen, CEO of managed IT specialist OryxAlign, explains why smarter building management systems (SBMS) are essential for ensuring smarter and greener urban infrastructure
As the population continues to rapidly grow, so do our cities. However, such immense infrastructure must now stand the test of time, combating sustainability challenges like high carbon emissions and energy consumption. Smart building management systems (SBMS) that combine IoT and automation, play a crucial role in meeting the demands for sustainable urbanisation.
According to the United Nations, 55% per cent of the global population lives in urban areas, a figure expected to rise to 68% by 2050. With these areas becoming more populous, pressure surrounding sustainability has also intensified.
Goal 11, proposed by the UN focuses entirely on making cities sustainable, inclusive, safe and resilient as cities present as the future of global living, but making cities sustainable takes some intelligent initiatives. SBMS provide a proactive approach, evolving from their early days of automatic lighting. They have since become highly
integrated platforms, using live analytics, the Internet of Things (IOT) and AI to manage a building’s core systems.
Some modern systems also now connect with wider city infrastructure and feature self-learning capabilities. Most SBMS communicate through an open application programming interface (API), a software that permits communication between two applications. This interface delivers direct service updates to tenants, providing public transport times or emergency service alerts in real time. It also supports smart EV charging, informing tenants of cheaper, greener grid times for charging or reducing the risk of EV’s overloading the building’s electrical system.
Overcoming challenges
While SBMS look like a promising solution, they bring their own challenges. Legacy infrastructure poses as the biggest hurdle, as old, standalone systems weren’t built to integrate with modern digital platforms. Many buildings still operate siloed networks for functions like CCTV, HVAC and tenant services, making convergence a technical and cultural challenge.
Converging these systems into a single IP-based network involves restructuring how data flows across the building. This requires unified hardware like cabling and network infrastructure that supports multiple devices and close vendor collaboration to coordinate project logistics and educate internal teams on convergence benefits.
Concerns have also grown over cybersecurity in smart building integration. As buildings become more interconnected, with systems like CCTV or access control linked to one shared network, cyber threat risk increases. This has led to some stakeholders preferring isolated networks, particularly in high-security environments like data centres or financial institutions.
Strategic IT leadership is key in mitigating cybersecurity risk associated with a unified network. This may include end to end encryption, vulnerability assessments and technical education for stakeholders. By aligning all stakeholders with third party IT teams and vendors early in the integration process, security operations and data governance fall under a shared vision. This allows for buildings to be well connected with SBMS and remain digitally secure, both of which are non-negotiable in the future of sustainable infrastructure.
Futureproofing through collaboration
Successful collaboration is achieved through shared data and KPIs that align with the stakeholder’s sustainability goals. Measurable outcomes like energy usage per square metre or carbon emissions saved versus baseline help all service partners contribute to a shared Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy. This transparency ensures that all parties are accountable for the building’s ESG commitments and able to make informed adjustments to continuously improve system performance over time.
This community mindset among service providers ultimately saves stakeholders from making costly redesigns later in the project. Embedding capabilities like network capacity early means that the building can already support high bandwidth smart systems, eradicating the need for infrastructural upgrades which are disruptive and costly. Thus, it accelerates both occupancy readiness and long-term operational efficiency.
These unified SBMS networks support technologies like real-time building automation, which ensure that critical systems like HVAC or access control operate effectively. Optimised resource use enabled by these networks help to reduce carbon emissions and support long term sustainability goals like ESG.
As our cities continue to grow, the pressure to meet sustainability targets intensifies. SBMS have become an essential component in future-ready urban environments, but their true potential relies on robust, secure IT networks. From enabling real-time energy optimisation to facilitating integrations with the wider city, they are the backbone of smart, sustainable buildings.
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