While our expertise at Buildings Alive is in building energy performance, people are in fact at the heart of everything we do. It is people that both occupy and manage buildings and they have the largest effects on energy consumption. By supporting people – encouraging them to identify and seize opportunities and recognising their challenges and constraints – we can deliver the most significant and sustainable building energy performance outcomes.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a marked effect on the markets we serve, and the people we interact with, and like many others, we have put the health and safety of our people and those we work with at the forefront.
We continue to provide automated daily analysis and feedback on building energy performance and expert advice and insight. This month we have shifted all our customer engagements to video or teleconferencing – providing “remote” support has always been a part of our service model, and so this has been a notable but not revolutionary change for us. We of course recognise that many of our customers as building/facility managers and with broader environment, health and safety remits are under pressure to deliver additional in-building outcomes in this time of rapid change. Yet we find there is a continued – even heightened – interest in building energy performance, even in these challenging times.
Since mid-March 2020, we have been operating as a 100% remote team. In particular this is a change for our Sydney-based staff, because we have had international staff in France, Switzerland and the United States, periodic remote workers in China, as well as a distributed footprint in Australia with staff in Brisbane and Melbourne for a number of years. This deliberate move to 100% remote work has meant that our staff have reduced their own exposure to COVID-19, and by extension that of their families and wider communities, and allowed much needed flexibility to respond to rapid changes.
Beyond our own staff and our customers, we also recognise the wider health, social and economic effects of COVID-19. We understand that our customers are facing difficult circumstances, and are working with them to ensure continuity of service even under operational and financial strain. While we don’t employ casual workers, we have recognised our place in the supply chain, and we’ve retained our commercial relationships with other SMEs who may be in a less resilient position than ourselves. We’re also actively seeking ways we can contribute to the communities in which we work and live as they confront the challenge of COVID-19.
We’re well positioned to see the current challenges through, looking out for our customers, our staff and their communities. We’re looking forward to seeing you all on the other side.