In this episode of the Built to Perform Podcast, host James Hallworth speaks with Michal Ciurej, Innovation Engineer at 3M SE, about the urgent need to control buildings intelligently to tackle energy waste and meet net-zero goals. Michal—a product designer with a background in law—shares his unique perspective on the rigid world of Building Management Systems (BMS) and how technology is the only way to scale efficiency.

Learn why smart building performance has a greater impact on emissions than the shift to EVs, and how the industry must evolve to unlock its massive potential.

Key Takeaways:

BMS: The "Dark Arts": Building Management Systems are often opaque and inaccessible, leading operators to not trust the data they see.
The Power of Scalability: Automating analytics through Ontology (standardizing data models) is the key to deploy efficiency strategies to smaller, unmanaged buildings and not just the "shiny assets".
The Biggest Environmental Impact: Commercial real estate consumes enormous amounts of energy, and intelligently controlling buildings will have a greater impact on emissions than turning all cars into EVs.
Evolution Over Revolution: Michal argues that incremental change (evolution) is the safest and most effective way to reform the industry, as revolutions are painful and garner less buy-in.

Time |

Topic00:00:00 | Introduction: The Scale of the Problem & Intelligent Control
00:00:48 | Who is Michal Ciurej? Innovation Engineer and his Role
00:01:51 | The Non-Standard Route: From Law Degree to Industrial Automation
00:04:14 | The Challenge of Rigid Building Automation Frameworks (Niagara, Tridium)
00:05:14 | Defining BMS: The "Dark Arts" of Building Management
00:07:33 | The Gap Between Operator Expertise and System Scale
00:09:34 | Finding the "Needles in the Haystack" with Analytics
00:11:04 | The Problem of Trust and Data Validation in BMS
00:14:34 | The Solution: Automatically Deploying Self-Validating Algorithms
00:16:41 | Why Ontology is Key: Standardizing Data Models for Scale
00:21:13 | The Problem of Inconsistent Naming Conventions (FCU 101)
00:23:12 | Scalable Deployments for Small and Medium-Sized Buildings
00:25:24 | The Cost of Extreme Inefficiency in Unmanaged Real Estate
00:27:03 | Wireless Tech (e.g., Laura one) Enabling Frictionless Retrofits
00:28:33 | The Disconnect Between ESG Strategy and Tenant Comfort
00:29:41 | Aligning Competing Objectives: Reliability vs. Efficiency
00:33:04 | Case Study: Demand-Driven HVAC System and Transparency
00:36:27 | Why Change is Required: CRE’s Huge Environmental Impact
00:38:44 | Comparing CRE's Impact to Automotive Emissions
00:40:57 | Evolution or Revolution? Michal's Stance
00:43:54 | The Need for Transparency to Drive External Demand for Change
00:44:48 | Closing Remarks