BEMS can help offices reduce wasted energy, improve comfort and respond more effectively to hybrid working patterns.
Smart building performance in offices
Office buildings are being asked to do more than ever, yet many are still operating as though occupancy patterns have not changed.
Hybrid working has fundamentally altered how offices are used, with fluctuating occupancy across the week. However, heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems often continue to run on fixed schedules, regardless of whether spaces are fully occupied, partially used or empty.
This disconnect between how buildings are used and how they operate is a key contributor to the well-established performance gap across commercial buildings, and a major source of wasted energy, cost and carbon.
Ron Purcell, Vice President of the Building Controls Industry Association and Product Manager at Siemens, believes this is where Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) play a critical role.
“Hybrid working has changed the way offices operate, but many building systems have not kept pace. A well-configured BEMS gives operators the visibility and control to align services with real demand, rather than relying on fixed schedules or manual intervention.”
Why office performance needs smarter control
For many commercial buildings, the issue is not inefficient plant, but inefficient operation.
Heating may start before people arrive. Ventilation may serve lightly occupied zones at full demand. Cooling may run where occupancy has dropped, and lighting may remain active across partially used spaces.
BEMS address these issues by integrating energy-related services such as HVAC, lighting and metering through a central platform for monitoring, control and optimisation. By combining data from occupancy, temperature, CO₂ levels, energy use and external conditions, buildings can respond dynamically throughout the day.
For facilities teams, this provides a clear, real-time view of building performance, making it easier to identify wasted energy, emerging comfort issues and unnecessary system demand.
This is the foundation of smart building performance: systems working together based on live demand, rather than operating on assumptions.
Reducing commercial building energy waste
The BCIA white paper, Comfort, Efficiency and Health: The Untapped Potential of Building Energy Management Systems, highlights the scale of the opportunity.
Advanced BEMS can deliver energy savings of 20% to 50%, depending on building type and system integration.
For a typical 1,000m² office, moving from a standard Class C system to an advanced Class A BEMS can save 104 tonnes of CO₂e over ten years, with a typical payback period of around four years.
For building owners and occupiers, this makes energy efficiency a commercial priority as well as an environmental one. Lower consumption reduces exposure to energy price volatility, improves operational control and strengthens ESG and net zero reporting.
Importantly, building controls can also improve existing systems without major plant replacement, making BEMS a realistic first step where capital budgets are constrained.
Supporting hybrid working and comfort
Hybrid working has made predictable occupancy harder to manage. A building may be busy midweek, lightly occupied on Friday, and experience fluctuating demand across desks, meeting rooms and collaboration spaces.
Fixed operating schedules are poorly suited to this reality.
With BEMS and occupancy data, facilities teams can adapt services more accurately. Meeting rooms can be ventilated when occupied, heating and cooling can be zoned intelligently, and lighting can respond to presence and daylight.
This is not about reducing service levels. It is about providing the right service in the right place at the right time.
Poorly controlled buildings can lead to overheating, cold spots, stale air and complaints from occupants, affecting productivity, wellbeing and confidence in the workplace.
The BCIA white paper highlights the wider economic impact of improving indoor conditions. Its modelling suggests that enhanced comfort in offices could generate £5.29 billion in annual GVA in 2025, increasing based on the growth rate to £12.75 billion by 2050. It also estimates that reducing sick days through better air quality could save £322 million in lost productivity each year.
For employers and building owners, this positions building performance as a driver of business outcomes, not just energy savings.
Making smart building performance practical
Technology alone does not guarantee better outcomes. Systems need to be designed, commissioned, maintained and understood by the people responsible for operating them.
As Ron explains: “Controls are not a nice-to-have. They are fundamental to net zero, smarter buildings and better performance.”
This means selecting the right level of control, ensuring systems are usable, and reviewing performance over time. It also means treating BEMS as part of the operational strategy, not a technical package installed at the end of a project.
With the majority of buildings that will exist in 2050 already built, improving how existing offices operate will be essential to meeting energy and carbon targets.
A better route to office efficiency
Smart building performance in offices is now a commercial, environmental and workplace priority.
As occupancy patterns continue to evolve, buildings that rely on static control strategies will increasingly fall behind. Those that adapt to real-world use will be better positioned to reduce energy waste, improve comfort and operate more efficiently.
BEMS provide a practical, proven way to achieve this. By aligning building performance with actual demand, they enable offices to respond to hybrid working, strengthen operational resilience and deliver measurable outcomes over the long term.