Encompass Blue Makes an Asset Manager’s Job Easier Through Data Amalgamation and Visualisation
Encompass Blue, founded by building‑technology veteran Bob Sharon, offers a smart‑building platform that consolidates data from disparate building management systems, sensors, and APIs into a single visual dashboard. By leveraging open‑source Niagara BMS and Amazon Web Services, the solution overcomes proprietary interoperability barriers that often lock owners out of their own data. The platform tracks energy, water, waste, and indoor‑air‑quality metrics, giving real‑estate asset managers actionable insights for sustainability, health, and cost performance. Encompass Blue is currently piloting research‑driven IAQ tools with Queensland University of Technology and ThriveIAQ.
The Love Affair with Batteries and Energy Tech Just Keeps Getting Deeper
Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries program has sparked a surge of roughly 250,000 new residential battery installations, mirroring the earlier rooftop‑solar boom. The average home battery now sits at about 30 kWh, letting owners shift evening loads off the grid. Parallel growth...
Community Batteries and the Missed Opportunities of Virtual Power Plants
Australia’s home‑battery boom is outpacing the rest of the world, accounting for 9% of global capacity in March alone, yet virtual power plants (VPPs) remain under‑utilised. In the UK a 10 kW battery can earn about $625 per year, with larger...
Tenants Expect Great Service – Privacy and Ethics Included
Tenants are pressing landlords for a seamless access experience, wanting a single card or digital‑wallet credential that works across buildings owned by different parties. Adoption of Apple and Google wallet entry has surged from 10% in 2020 to 44% today,...
Are Commercial Buildings Still Waiting for Tech’s Holy Grail?
Commercial building owners are still wrestling with fragmented technology ecosystems, where dozens of siloed systems—BMS, lease management, access control, and energy analytics—must be manually stitched together. While hardware and AI tools like lease‑reading agents are affordable, the real challenge lies...
‘It’s Very Uncomfortable, Leaks Like a Sieve, and Is Probably Not Delivering the Performance that a New Tenant Wants’ –...
Julian Sutherland, head of sustainable assets at JLL, argues that Passive House (PH) retrofits can revitalize leaky B‑ and C‑grade office towers, turning them into high‑performance, low‑energy assets. By reskinning the façade, upgrading windows, and adding a weather‑proof membrane, a...
$5 Million to Electrify the City of Melbourne Buildings and Pools, Plus some Ambitious Targets – Lord Mayor Nick Reece
Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece announced a $5 million budget allocation to electrify municipal buildings and swimming pools as part of a broader push toward net‑zero carbon‑ready structures by 2040. He noted that HVAC systems account for roughly 40% of a...
What the Federal Budget Really Says About Australia’s Housing Crisis
The Australian federal budget proposes tightening negative‑gearing and capital‑gains‑tax concessions, marking a sharp political reversal after earlier assurances they would stay unchanged. It also introduces a $2 billion Australian Local Infrastructure Fund—about $1.3 billion USD—to finance transport, utilities, and climate‑resilient projects in...
Jesse Clarke and Digging Into the Passive House Story
Jesse Clarke, a building physicist and Pro Clima R&D manager, argues that Passive House design must prioritize occupant health before energy efficiency. He highlights Europe’s “sick building” crisis caused by overly airtight construction and notes the UK’s corrective use of ventilation....
Elon Musk, Data Centres – and Junk – in Space, BSC’s New Board and Smart Energy Council
Elon Musk unveiled plans to launch up to one million orbital data‑centre satellites, each powered by massive solar arrays and capable of delivering up to a megawatt of AI‑compute power. The concept, tied to SpaceX’s Starship launch capacity and xAI’s recent...
NSW First to the Post with New Building Laws Planned for MMC
New South Wales has introduced the Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 to streamline approvals for modern methods of construction (MMC), cut red tape, and impose tougher penalties on conflicted certifiers. The legislation defines prefabricated buildings in law, aiming to...
On the Fraught Passive House Debate and Why It’s a Good Thing
The article examines the growing skepticism among Australian architects toward the Passive House (PH) standard, arguing that its airtight, high‑performance design may be ill‑suited to the country’s warm climate and lifestyle. Critics cite potential overheating, mold, and the high cost...
Modern Supply Chains Need a Resilience First Redesign
The Iran crisis highlighted how fragile global supply chains become when a single weak link is disrupted, especially for critical materials embedded in modern products. While attention has long focused on minerals like lithium and cobalt, the real operational risk...
This Is Not Temporary Price Pain for Buildings – It’s a Major Structural Shift. Get Set for Big Changes
Australia’s electricity and gas markets are entering a structural price‑volatility phase, pushing building operating costs higher. Daytime solar drives low prices but peak‑evening spikes keep electricity bills among the highest globally, while gas prices have surged, nearly doubling in Melbourne...
France Turns Off Gas Boilers; Built and Wesfarmers’s Modular Play, Sport Dearth and Sally Capp in yet Another Job
France announced a ban on gas boilers in all new residential and commercial buildings, aiming to install one million heat pumps annually and shift 60% of heating to decarbonised sources by 2030. The government also doubled its electrification budget to €10 bn...