Energy label, SRI and IT-label: who measures digital?

Over the past decades the real estate sector has become steadily better at measuring building quality. We assess energy use, insulation, installations and indoor climate. New instruments are emerging that look at how intelligently a building can respond to users and to the energy system. That is a good development, because a building you cannot assess is also a building you cannot improve in a targeted way.

But something falls between these various yardsticks. We measure how sustainable a building is and we are increasingly measuring how smart a building is. The question that remains unanswered alongside this is whether that same building can keep functioning digitally. As buildings become smarter, that question becomes more urgent, not less.

This article places the energy label, the European Smart Readiness Indicator and the IT-label side by side. Not to determine which one wins, but to show that each measures something different and that together they give a more complete picture.

First we made buildings sustainable

The rise of the energy label has achieved something important. It has translated complex technical information about energy use, CO2 emissions and installations into a classification that almost everyone understands. A tenant does not need to be an installation consultant to grasp that there is a difference between one energy performance and another.

That is the core of what a label does: translating complexity into understandable information. Behind a letter on a label lies extensive technical substantiation, but the user does not need to fully grasp it in order to make a well-considered choice. This translation function is precisely what makes the label usable in a market where far from everyone has technical training.

The sector has learned that classification works. Alongside energy, instruments such as BREEAM and WELL look at sustainability, health and wellbeing. It is a logical next question which aspect of building quality has not yet been made visible in this way.

Now buildings are becoming smart

The next development is in full swing. Buildings are becoming smarter. Sensors measure occupancy, climate installations respond to users, lighting is controlled automatically and charging points communicate with energy systems. Building management systems collect data and installations can respond to energy prices and grid load.

Within Europe, increasing attention is being paid to this through the Smart Readiness Indicator, or SRI for short. The SRI is an instrument that assesses the extent to which a building can use smart technology. It looks primarily at the ability to optimise energy performance, to respond to the needs of users, to control installations more intelligently and to enable flexibility toward the energy system.

In recent years the SRI has been further developed within European energy regulation and is being tested and refined in various member states. The emphasis lies on the relationship between smart technology and energy. That is valuable and it fits with the broader European course on sustainability and smart building technology.

But smart automatically means more digital

Here comes the turn that is crucial from the perspective of digital infrastructure. The smarter a building becomes, the more dependent it becomes on data, connectivity, software, sensors, networks, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. Smart and digital are not synonyms, but one cannot exist without the other.

A traditional building could largely keep functioning during an internet outage. The heating worked, the doors opened and the lights turned on. For a fully smart building, that is different. What happens when digital connections or systems fail? Can employees get inside, does access control work, does the climate system keep functioning, do sensors keep communicating and can the users themselves still work at all?

This gives rise to the core question of this article: how smart is a building when its digital foundation has not been developed to the same level? A building that has been made dependent on digital systems, but whose underlying infrastructure is unknown or vulnerable, relocates a risk rather than removing it.

A building can be designed to be smart and at the same time be delivered vulnerable, the moment no one has checked whether the digital foundation can actually carry the smart layer.

SRI and IT-label measure something different

It is important to see that the SRI and the IT-label are not trying to measure the same thing. They sit in different places within the same chain. A simple comparison makes that visible.

• The energy label answers the question: how energy efficient does the building perform?
• The SRI answers the question: how intelligently can the building respond to users, installations and the energy system?
• The IT-label answers the question: what can the building digitally facilitate and what digital delivery level does the user receive?

These instruments are not competing but complementary. One does not need to replace the other. In fact, the smarter buildings become, the more relevant insight into their digital infrastructure becomes. The SRI, which draws attention to smart technology, makes the question about the digital foundation bigger, not smaller.

The IT-label translates existing technical standards into an understandable delivery level, from IT5 SHELL to IT1+ PREMIUM. This does not happen instead of technical expertise, but on top of the expertise that specialists already provide.

This is the gap the IT-label wants to fill

A user considering a space today usually receives information about the energy label, sustainability, installations, floor area, parking spaces, service costs and location. And in the future, increasingly, about the smart readiness of a building too. That is valuable information.

But does that same user also get an understandable answer to the digital questions? What fibre is present, is there redundancy, what internal data cabling is in place, how is wifi arranged, how are server and patch rooms set up and who has access to them? And further: how is digital continuity organised, what building-related digital systems are present, how are they connected and who is responsible for what?

Perhaps the most important question is whether the digital infrastructure can grow along with the tenant's future use. In many rental brochures this information is entirely absent, even though this component is becoming increasingly decisive for the usability of a property. That is where the space for the IT-label lies.

The IT-label mainly wants to make the translation

The sector does not so much need even more technical reports. IT specialists, telecom companies, installation consultants, cybersecurity firms and smart building experts already exist and deliver excellent work. The problem lies elsewhere: who translates all that technical information for the user?

An entrepreneur does not necessarily want to know which protocols sit behind every system. He wants to know whether he can work well here. A landlord wants to know what he is delivering digitally. An agent wants to know what he can communicate about it. An investor wants to know where the risks and future investments lie. An asset manager wants to know where improvement is needed and an IT specialist wants to know what foundation is already present.

The IT-label therefore positions itself as the common language between IT, real estate and the user. This role of a shared language is exactly what is missing the moment five parties look at the same technical reality from five different interests.

From technical specification to functional question

An important principle here is that it is not enough merely to inventory what is technically present. The more relevant question is what that means for the user's ability to function. The difference always lies in the leap from specification to meaning.

• Not just: fibre is present. But: what can the user do with it?
• Not just: there is wifi. But: is this infrastructure suitable for the number of users and applications?
• Not just: there is a server room. But: is that room secured, functionally arranged and clearly demarcated?
• Not just: the building is smart. But: can the digital infrastructure reliably support all those smart applications?

This is how the IT-label becomes the translation from technology to functionality. It is not about adding up components, but about whether the whole enables the user to do what they need to do. Topics such as redundancy and cybersecurity thereby get a place in the conversation about building quality, instead of in a drawer of technical documentation.

From technical ageing to digital ageing

Real estate exists to facilitate a function. An office must allow organisations to work, a logistics building must make logistics possible and a shop must be able to process transactions. Almost every function is becoming increasingly dependent on IT. This shifts the question of when a building is still functional.

Is an office functional when the lights and heating work, but five hundred employees do not have a reliable digital connection? This brings a new risk into view: digital ageing, also known as digital obsolescence. A building can be structurally excellently maintained, with a good roof, a modern facade, a strong energy label and installations that still have years of life left, while the digital infrastructure lags behind at the same time.

This can mean that users have to make additional investments, or that certain organisations ultimately find the building less attractive. A building therefore does not need to be physically outdated to age digitally in a functional sense. For the value of real estate, that is a reason to make digital quality explicitly visible.

AI is accelerating this development

This shift is being accelerated by the rise of artificial intelligence. Organisations are making increasing use of AI assistants, cloud platforms, large datasets, real time collaboration, video communication, automation, IoT and digital twins. As a result, the requirements list of users is changing.

The question is no longer solely how many square metres someone needs. Increasingly, the question is what the workplace needs to be able to handle digitally and whether the building can grow along with that. More on the relationship between AI and real estate shows that the data use of many organisations is growing faster than the infrastructure that is often delivered as standard.

SRI and IT-label together: smart and digitally functional

A future-proof building ideally combines three qualities. On energy, the building uses energy efficiently. On smart level, it can respond intelligently to users and to the energy system. On digital level, the underlying infrastructure can reliably support both building and user. These layers build on each other.

The core is simple: smart requires digital. Every sensor needs to communicate, every app needs connectivity, every building management system processes data and every smart installation becomes part of a digital ecosystem. The smarter the building becomes, the more important the digital foundation underneath it is.

A useful formula brings this together: smart, safe and connected together lead to functional real estate. Smart means the building responds intelligently. Safe means the digital and physical IT infrastructure is appropriately secured. Connected means the building and its users have sufficient connectivity. All three are needed to keep a building digitally functional.

A constructive question for Europe and government

Europe is steering strongly on energy performance, sustainability, smart buildings, cybersecurity, AI and digitalisation. These developments ultimately come together in the same physical environment: the building. That makes their interconnection a policy issue.

The constructive question for policymakers is whether, as buildings are required to become increasingly smart, we should at the same time make it clear whether their digital foundation is strong enough. Can a building truly be smart ready without attention to digital readiness? Existing instruments and regulation touch on digital infrastructure in parts, for example through cybersecurity requirements, but the translation to what the user needs on a daily basis remains largely unaddressed.

It is not up to a knowledge collective to determine what policy should look like. It is up to it, however, to put the subject clearly on the table, as also happens in the broader discussion on IT-labels and government policy. Transparency about digital building quality is the starting point for that.

An opportunity for collaboration

The right framing is not SRI or IT-label, but SRI plus IT-label. Not installation technology or IT, but installation technology plus IT. Not landlord or user, but landlord plus user. The worlds of sustainability, building technology, smart buildings, cybersecurity and IT infrastructure ultimately share the same goal: buildings that keep functioning.

On top of existing technical standards, a simple, understandable translation layer can emerge. The energy label translates into an understandable energy performance, the SRI into an understandable smart readiness and the IT-label into an understandable digital delivery level. Together they give a more complete picture of the building, in which an agent, tenant, landlord, IT specialist and investor can all understand the same information.

Put the digital layer on the table

We make buildings sustainable so that they remain future-proof and we make them smart so that they function more efficiently. But the smarter and more digital they become, the more dependent they are on their digital foundation. Tomorrow's building must not only be sustainable and smart, it must be able to keep functioning digitally.

The concrete next step is to make the digital layer just as discussable as the energy label already is. Map out what is digitally present, what that means for the user and where the infrastructure needs to grow along. If you want to know how that translation works in practice, take a look at how the IT-label comes about or present your situation via a conversation with the knowledge collective.

The most important question, in the end, is not how much technology we put into a building. The most important question is whether the building keeps functioning for the people and organisations that depend on it. The energy label tells us how energy efficient the building is, the SRI how smart it can respond and the IT-label makes clear what the building can digitally facilitate. Together they bring real estate closer to what it should be: functional, future-proof and digital.