It’s time to rethink what ‘energy efficiency’ means for buildings. Energy efficiency is the most powerful tool we have for accelerating progress to Net Zero Carbon (NZC), but as the California Energy Commission explains in its Energy Efficiency Action Plan: “… it is...

For the first time in NABERS’ history, the National Greenhouse Account (NGA) factors that are used to calculate NABERS Energy ratings are going to change. Read on to find out what that means for your rating and what you can do to maintain (or improve) your building’s...

Buildings Alive works with only a tiny fraction of the more than 1,200 entities and 96,000 assets that participated in last year’s GRESB Real Estate Assessment, and yet we count a surprising number of the global and regional sector leaders as clients (i.e., the best...

Ever since we conducted our first experiments and built our first prototypes almost a decade ago, Buildings Alive has been saving people time. Sure, our main purpose is to help building owners, operators and occupiers achieve their energy and environmental efficiency...

The stability of the electricity grid and incentives for electricity users to change their behaviour is once again topical as we approach another Australian summer with the expectation of greater than ever demand. However, load management has been a challenge for...

The first priority of building operators—at all times—is the health, safety and well-being of occupants. And right now the challenges are unprecedented. Here are some measures that can improve your building's health and safety while also ensuring it remains as...

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted almost every aspect of daily life, with the subsequent lockdowns bringing numerous challenges to commercial building owners and operators. With large changes in occupancy, one of the difficulties has been ensuring energy use has...

Continuing to operate at the leading edge of building energy performance analysis, Buildings Alive commits a significant amount of resources to research and development activity. Several of Buildings Alive’s staff have again had research papers accepted to the...

On 31 August 2018, three public advocacy groups wrote to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) asking for it to change the rules governing how the Australian electricity market works. Their request? Allow consumers to be paid for electricity they avoid using....

The number of people working in office buildings has fallen dramatically since COVID-19 control measures were introduced. In this short video we illustrate, with real-world data*, the range of energy efficiency outcomes that commercial office building owners and...

All buildings are created for people and building owners must ensure they are safe. But unfortunately, as with most things in life, there is no guidebook setting out the ‘ideal’ way to achieve that outcome. This is especially true in a pandemic. Over recent days,...

[Note: information regarding the final position of NABERS on COVID-19 occupancy changes and the practical implications is updated in our new blog post of 8 July 2020.] The COVID-19 response has dramatically impacted the operation of commercial buildings. In this short...