By: Mark Freeman, Offer Manager - Digital Buildings, Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric 

There’s a lot to be said about circumventing a cookie cutter approach. Yes, metrics and frameworks are fundamental to implementing best practices but like most industries, the buildings segment should also be able to adapt according to regional requirements and individual needs.

As an example, today’s building design frameworks and certification provide useful global benchmarks, but in many regions, these remain voluntary rather than mandated.

Furthermore, embedding building intelligence must be tailored to context. For example, a building in Nairobi, Kenya has very different needs from one in Dubai, UAE. While high-performance air conditioning may be non-negotiable in the Gulf, it may be somewhat redundant in temperate African climates. 

Therefore, making buildings intelligent means aligning them with their unique operating environments, ensuring sustainability solutions are practical, not wasteful.

The sustainability and efficiency equation

Today, true sustainability is about embedding efficiency into the DNA of a building and ensuring ongoing optimisation, whether it is a new build or retrofitting an existing facility. Furthermore, serious consideration should be given to where this building operates. 

And this is where the Building Management System (BMS) shines. Once viewed as a nice-to-have, BMS’ are increasingly vital for real-time monitoring, fault detection, and intelligent control, customised to meet specific building operational and regional needs.

Indeed, a modern BMS, enhanced with features like AI, can transform building performance, making efficiency measurable and actionable.

An important part of BMS and subsequent buildings intelligence is implementing efficiency first.  What does this mean?  It puts optimisation at the centre of each and every decision,

As an example, manual building operations checks result in approximately 950 preventative maintenance inspections per year. However, advanced BMS platforms can conduct over 4,000 automated checks per day. The difference is not just scale but also quality - AI can flag issues early, anticipate failures, and suggest corrective actions.

This is particularly critical in Africa, where long supply chain lead times mean parts can take months to arrive. Here, predictive maintenance powered by AI allows building managers to anticipate component failures, order replacements in advance, and avoid costly downtime. 

Moreover, AI tools can now quantify the cost impact of equipment inefficiencies, giving owners a clearer picture of return on investment. For building owners, this means fewer errors, stronger service level agreements (SLAs), and accurate fixes on the first visit, delivering both cost savings and operational stability.

Tackling the skills gap

As mentioned, as buildings evolve, so too does the complexity of the systems that power them. Current equipment increasingly features embedded automation, smart controls, and integrated energy management, all technologies that demand specialised expertise to operate and maintain. 

But without a deliberate investment in local skills development, the shift toward sustainable infrastructure risks stalling at the implementation stage.

Retrofitting buildings with smart systems like BMS enables owners and operators to enhance efficiency and reduce emissions. However, technology alone is not enough. These systems must be paired with a skilled local workforce capable of managing them over time.

In a region where energy resilience and operational efficiency are increasingly strategic, Africa cannot afford to treat building intelligence as optional. Closing the skills and systems gap is not just a technical imperative, it’s a competitive one.

Making sustainability tangible

Complimenting buildings’ efficiency and sustainability efforts are tools like Schneider Electric Sustainability Pack which enable building owners and facility managers monitor, manage, and optimise resource usage across multiple utilities—not just electricity, but also water, gas, steam, and other measurable inputs.

As an add-on module to Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Building Operation, of which BMS is the central intelligence layer, it benchmarks carbon footprints, tracking progress towards net-zero goals, and visualising impact through dashboards.