Facilio opens office in Sydney
An AI-based property operations system, with headquarters in New York, has opened in Australia and New Zealand in response to demand for its platforms.
The Facilio platform enables real estate owners to aggregate building data, optimize performance, and control portfolio operations – all from the one placeThe SaaS (software as a service) operation will be led by Mickael Dominguez, former director at Deloitte Digital.
Australian real estate company Investa selected Facilio’s connected CMMS (computerised maintenance management system) to digitise their portfolio operations. They have replaced five different systems across their 706,063 million square metre portfolio with just one integrated platform, which has boosted operational efficiencies.
Nine stars to AVJennings
Australian builder, AVJennings, known for building suburbs of brick veneer homes since it was founded in 1932, is building its greenest ever residential houses.
The ASX-listed company will build The Stellar Collection, 39 architect-designed houses and town-houses in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, all with ratings between 8 and 9.4 stars, which is close to a perfect energy efficiency rating where no heating or cooling is required.
The energy efficiency is mainly due to the use of the Pro9 walling system. AVJennings has been working with Pro9 since 2020 and in 2021 introduced the innovative technology into three homes at its Evergreen community in Sydney.
Pro9 walls are built with galvanised steel frames, R4 rated foam insulation and A1 rated fireproof boards to create an airtight home environment with strong thermal properties leading to a stable temperature inside the house.
Also key to the energy savings are double-glazed windows and sliding doors to reduce heat conduction by a factor of four compared to single glazing.
Chief executive Phil Kearns said The Stellar Collection is a key milestone for the business as it moves towards more sustainable and energy efficient forms of housing.
“We know that residential buildings contribute 24 per cent to our overall electricity consumption and 12 per cent of total carbon emissions in Australia come from our homes,” Mr Kearns said.
“The 39 homes are just the start of what we plan to roll out into the future.”
Sustainable steel certification rolls out
The Australian Steel Institute (ASI) has launched Steel Sustainability Australia (SSA), a new certification program for steel businesses.
SSA certification provides a clear pathway for steel businesses to operate more responsibly and transparently while being part of an environmentally and socially sustainable future, the institute states.
The sustainability manager for the institute, Jerusha Beresford, said the program was developed due to the need for “the sustainable performance and decarbonisation of the Australian construction industry”.
Mr Beresford said there was “exponential growth in demand for lower carbon and responsibly sourced construction materials”.
Superseding ASI’s Environmental Sustainability Charter, the SSA program engages the entire steel value chain by certifying downstream steel businesses such as fabricators, roll formers, and reinforcing processors, and verifying upstream steel producers against best practice environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators aligned to the principles supporting the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) Responsible Product Framework.
The SSA Certification Program:
- Assures certified steel suppliers and their products are sustainably manufactured and processed and are sourced through responsible and ethical supply chains
- Promotes steel as a sustainable material choice, supporting mega trends such as embodied carbon reduction and circularity/circular economy
- Provides specifiers, engineers, builders, and government with the means to identify sustainable steel suppliers through transparent and consistent measurement of environmental, social and health impacts across the entire steel value chain.
When the rubber hits the road
Also on the sustainable materials front, Boral has partnered with 12 Sydney local councils to pave their roads using crumbed rubber asphalt made from recycled car and truck tyres.
The trial phase of the project will recycle 2400 car and 490 truck tyres which will be used to make bitumen. The first pavement was laid in early June and the rest will take place over a 12-month period.
Recycled rubber acts as a binder when used to make asphalt and is said to be more durable than standard asphalt using bitumen made from petroleum-based tar.
EV charging startup jolts into North America
Australian EV charging startup Jolt has partnered with Canadian telecommunications group TELUS to roll out 500 street fast chargers across the country.
Consumers will be able to access 7kWh fast-charging free of charge which provides an estimated 40-50km of range. Canada requires around 200,000 public fast charge units to cater for a projected 13 million EVs that will be in circulation by 2030, Jolt said in a statement.
Jolt currently has EV charging stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and expanded into New Zealand last year. The chargers are powered by 100 per cent GreenPower accredited renewable energy.