Digitalization in the building and construction sectors offers great potential. As recently as 2021, the EU noted that the construction sector has the lowest rate of productivity growth compared to all other economic sectors. It can therefore serve as an enabler for climate protection and play an important role in accelerating and optimizing processes in both new construction and existing buildings.

Klara Geywitz, the Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development, and Construction, has also recognized this and called for the digitization of the entire construction industry to boost productivity and accelerate new construction. The federal government rightly decided in its digital strategy from August 2022 to increase the use of Building Information Modeling and has set various milestones to be achieved by 2025; however, from the BDI’s perspective, these two measures are not sufficient to advance digitalization in the building sector. A comprehensive strategy—a digital agenda for the building sector—is needed.

Digitalization, automation, and the collection of measurement data from buildings are therefore necessary prerequisites for greater climate protection in the building sector and require correspondingly greater political attention at the German and European levels. The BDI identifies the following necessary actions:

1. The foundation for any action is transparency and the associated availability of data: Examples in the building sector include cross-sector energy management (within buildings), operational optimization, and the collection of data—for instance, to ensure consumption transparency or to plan renovations and new construction using digital building twins or BIM. Therefore, the BDI calls for an innovative data policy in the building sector to, among other things, further promote transparency, accelerate data utilization, and enable data partnerships and voluntary open-data initiatives.
2. To develop innovative business models and advance climate protection in buildings, owners, property managers, project developers, and service providers in the building sector must have access to relevant data. To this end, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must be further developed. At the same time, Germany must not regulate beyond the provisions of the existing GDPR.
3. Tenants and landlords must be educated about the benefits of digitalization and building automation through an information campaign. By using consumption data updated daily, tenants and owners can, for example, optimize their energy consumption or tap into efficiency potential, thereby actively contributing to climate protection. To this end, they should be supported through regular information and more effective government incentive programs. In particular, the digital transformation of the energy transition depends heavily on customer acceptance.
4. The development of open interfaces, standards, and protocols—wherever appropriate—must be advanced to enable the interoperability of services.
5. The digital infrastructure within buildings must be expanded (including sensors, actuators, and digital meters), and connections to digital telecommunications infrastructure at the building level must be established.
6. Digital solutions—many of which rely on AI-based analysis of large amounts of data, such as condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, predictive operation, and smart buildings—must be consistently applied and widely implemented. To this end, European legislation (EPBD and EED) must be swiftly implemented, and data usage regulations (including the GDPR) must be adapted.
7. Research and development must be advanced to consolidate Germany’s position as a market leader. To this end, reliable long-term framework conditions must be established and investment incentives put in place.