Closing the Performance Gap: Why Buildings Underperform and How Intelligent Controls Can Fix It
Despite significant advances in building technology, many buildings continue to consume more energy than predicted, fail to deliver consistent occupant comfort, and fall short of their intended operational performance. This disparity between design intent and actual operation, commonly known as the performance gap, remains one of the greatest challenges facing the built environment.
What if your building's biggest energy-saving opportunity is already installed, but simply not being fully utilised?
This session will explore why buildings fail to meet expectations and demonstrate how Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) and Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) can help bridge the gap between design intent and real-world performance.
Gain practical insights into how intelligent controls can identify hidden inefficiencies, support ongoing optimisation, and unlock significant energy, carbon and operational savings.
In this session the panel will explore:
• Why actual building performance often differs from design intent.
• What is the real cost of doing nothing.
• Is the route to better performance already installed?
• What practical steps buildings owners can take to close the performance gap.
Chair of panel: Ron Purcell, Vice President BCIA and Product Manager at Siemens
Panellists to be announced soon.
Session Speakers
With 40 years' industry experience, Ron is a highly regarded controls and BMS engineer and an advocate for smart buildings. Currently serving as Vice President of BCIA, he is also an active member of CIBSE and holds an HNC in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Believing that controls are vital to meet many of the challenges that we face today including how to deliver energy efficient buildings that also deliver wellbeing for their occupants, Ron supports the Association with raising the profile of the sector and broadening the understanding of the benefits of controls.
Ron is focused on shifting perceptions and advocates that BMS systems need be much more clearly mandated in UK policy that that installed systems are smart and intelligent enough to cope with today’s sophisticated designs whilst still being intuitive enough to be useful to the occupant.
Snigdha Jain is Head of ESG at Turley, with over 18 years' experience closing the gap between design ambition and real-world building performance for investors and asset owners.
She has led decarbonisation CAPEX modelling, operational carbon tracking and MEES/EPC compliance across major UK portfolios. A GRESB and BREEAM In-Use specialist, she's led ESG audits and performance-risk assessments across diverse portfolios, and sat on UKNZCBS's Top-Down Task Group, connecting national carbon budgets to individual asset performance.
She hosts the industry podcast Turley ESG Bites and writes and speaks widely on what actually moves the needle on operational building performance
With more than 20 years’ experience across the public and private sectors, George is a specialist in sustainable energy and decarbonisation. He brings extensive knowledge of the energy sector and a practical understanding of the challenges involved in delivering successful decarbonisation programmes across large property portfolios.
Throughout his career, George has led and contributed to decarbonisation initiatives as a client, project manager and strategic champion, giving him a well-rounded perspective on both the strategic and operational requirements of effective delivery.
In his current role with Tier 1 contractor Equans, George works in partnership with organisations to develop, fund and deliver prioritised decarbonisation pathways that support their long-term energy and sustainability goals, beginning with optimising their assets.
Netza is a Chartered Engineer and senior leader with over 30 years’ experience spanning real estate, facilities, sustainability, and corporate ESG strategy. He has a proven track record of delivering operational excellence, leading technical teams, and driving net zero pathways across global organisations. Skilled at board-level reporting, stakeholder engagement, and implementing innovative building performance strategies that reduce emissions, enhance efficiency, and strengthen ESG ratings. Experienced trustee and advisor with governance expertise in both corporate and non-profit sectors. Netza Jack is also a Warwick Business School Alumni.
Netza has also worked for a wide range of recognized companies such as Man Group, British Land, Tishman Speyer and The FA, implementing new technologies such as building metering and battery storage technology, green initiatives and strategies for building optimisation and carbon reporting. He is also a previous winner of the CIBSE Building Performance Awards, recognised for Building Operation and recently shortlisted for 2025 CIBSE Engineer of the Year.
His current roles focused on providing strategic leadership as well as the operational performance management of Engineering (and other related services), ensuring that the day-to-day operation is delivered to a high standard with efficient and smart performance.
Netza is currently leading on the Royal London contract with JLL, developing strategic frameworks for their UK-wide commercial properties. He has also led in the implementation of a data-led predictive maintenance (DLM) system with Engineering firm, TwentyOne Engineering. Although this technology and its methods are at an infancy stage, Netza is currently leading on its delivery, and has identified that the Building Services industry would require trained/ tech-savvy staff with the right insight to manage and operate these new systems. His article covering this topic has been posted on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/has-pandemic-presented-clear-pathway-introduction-fm-jack-ceng-ciwfm/?trackingId=jJT1vqHUSsuNUA9evgkdwg%3D%3D
