Bangkok is getting hotter every year. This summer alone, temperatures were forecast to reach 43°C (109°F), while a “super El Niño” threatens unprecedented heatwaves across Thailand.

As cities expand and temperatures rise, buildings are becoming an increasingly significant part of the country’s energy challenge. Cooling systems already account for around 60% of energy consumption in Thailand’s buildings, raising a critical question: how can Thailand meet growing cooling demand without driving up power costs or straying from its net-zero goals?

This challenge inspired New Energy Nexus Thailand’s Green Building Initiative, launched in 2024 to connect green building startups with building owners seeking to align with environmental targets.

Through the initiative and a series of ConNEX forums, developers, architects, startups, researchers, and policymakers explored the future of sustainable buildings in Thailand. They found that the challenge isn’t a lack of technology, but the ecosystem needed to scale it.

Those discussions surfaced several persistent barriers, along with practical policy recommendations to address them.

Green building development still relies too heavily on voluntary action.

A recurring theme across the discussions was that Thailand’s progress in green building remains largely dependent on individual champions rather than on systemic support.

While sustainability standards and green building certifications are already available, adoption remains uneven. Fragmented governance, limited enforcement, and insufficient economic incentives make it difficult for sustainable building practices to move beyond a small number of leading projects. Without stronger policy signals and long-term market support, many green solutions struggle to scale.

Policymakers should: Strengthen incentive frameworks and regulatory instruments to support the systematic development of green buildings.

There’s limited access to reliable building performance data.

Another major challenge identified was the lack of consistent, high-quality data on building energy use and emissions.

Existing datasets are often fragmented, inconsistent, or based on estimates rather than measured operational performance from buildings in Thailand. This makes it difficult for policymakers, developers, and building owners to accurately assess performance, prioritize retrofits, or make evidence-based decisions.

Without standardized measurement and reporting systems, the sector risks making investments and policy decisions without a clear understanding of what is actually working.

Policymakers should: Develop standardized methodologies for measuring and reporting building energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, while integrating data across existing reporting platforms.

Climate innovations struggle to move from pilots to widespread adoption.

Thailand is home to a growing pipeline of startups and climate technologies with the potential to improve building sustainability. Yet many founders face the same challenge: gaining access to real-world environments to test, validate, and demonstrate their solutions.

At the same time, building owners are often hesitant to adopt unfamiliar technologies without proven performance data. The result is a persistent gap between innovation and implementation, where promising solutions can become stuck between prototype and market adoption.

This is why proof-of-concept (PoC) projects are so important. They help generate the operational evidence needed to build confidence among customers, investors, and policymakers.

One startup currently implementing a PoC through GBI is Videnvaren+, which develops thermal insulation materials made from recycled end-of-life tires. Its solution helps reduce heat transfer in buildings while transforming waste into a valuable construction material.

“Buildings have never been the work of a single mind,” said Kongphat, founder of Videnvaren+. They are the result of collaboration across disciplines, generations, and systems.”

Policymakers should: Promote and support the development, testing, and real-world deployment of green technologies, innovations, and materials to accelerate sustainable building adoption.

You can’t build green buildings alone.

Progress requires collaboration across the entire ecosystem, from regulators and developers to startups, researchers, financiers, and implementation partners.

While the Videnvaren+ PoC is still underway, the project already demonstrates why startup support and real-world implementation opportunities matter. Without places to test and validate new technologies, innovation struggles to move beyond promising ideas. And without operational data and proven results, building owners, investors, and policymakers often lack the confidence to support wider adoption.

Thailand’s green building future will not be built through isolated solutions. It will depend on how we build the ecosystem that allows sustainable solutions to move from concept to scale.

Learn more when you read the full GBI ConNEX report here (in Thai).