Hydrowood, a business that retrieves and sells timber from Tasmania’s Lake Pieman, has partnered with hardwood suppliers Mortlock Timber to increase sustainability and quality standards, and gain better access to the architectural timber sector.
Hydrowood’s range of timber varieties will now be introduced onto Mortlock’s platform under the Trendplank, Proplank and Satinplank range.
The collaboration will help share the two companies’ vision for ethical and environmentally conscious practices and aim to set new benchmarks and foster a greener future, the companies said.
Flow Power goes carbon neutral
Melbourne energy retailer Flow Power has launched its new carbon neutral strategy, which includes departing from conventional carbon offset programs and using large-scale generation certificates.
The retailers engaged carbon consultancy Pathzero to measure its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and will offset these through equivalent tonnes in LGCs. The program will promote investment in renewable energy projects from Australia instead of other countries.
However, LGCs are not currently recognised as certified carbon offsetting methods, leading the company to call for a change to the regulatory model.
Byron Serjeantson, Flow Power’s chief of operations, said, “Utilising LGCs as carbon offsets could help provide the critical investment boost Australia needs. This alternate approach will increase investment in renewable energy projects while offering companies additional, and highly tangible, ways to offset their emissions, resulting in benefits for the environment, the economy and the cost of living.”
Colouring Australia – how’s your building compare?
Knowledge and data exchange platform Colouring Australia has received a major upgrade to improve user experience and unify data of cities into an integrated database.
The Alan Turing Institute developed the platform to maximise access to building-level data across countries to help improve stock quality, efficiency, sustainability, and resilience to meet net zero goals.
The redesigned platform will introduce the toggle feature to transition seamlessly between cities and simplify data exploration in urban areas.
Users will also be able to access comprehensive datasets of all towns, which will be integrated into the existing building footprint dataset to be accessible on the national housing data exchange.
Brighte
Solar financing company Brighte has appointed Gavin Dennis as the new chief financial officer, starting this month.
Prior to his new gig, Dennis had been the CFO at Cover Genius, a global insurance tech business, for three years. He had also been the CFO of eBay Australia for five years, where he was involved in finance, analytics, consumer marketing and trust and risk management.
Brighte founder and chief executive Katherine McConnell said Dennis’s appointment is a win in the sustainability industry.
GEV Wind Power acquires Rigcom
GEV Wind Power, a wind turbine repair and maintenance provider, has acquired Rigcom Group, an Australian independent rotor blade maintenance and height safety services provider.
Current chair Gary Flowers and chief executive Michael Biddle will continue to lead and support Rigcom and the existing team.
The acquirement will allow GEV, which services the UK, Europe and the US, to operate onshore and offshore in Australia and the APAC region in maintaining and providing renewable energy.
The company has serviced and retrofitted 5000 turbines, including upgrades to increase size, speed, and structure resilience.
Rising “AI-washing” among “green-washing” trends
The latest Build-Apps newsletter identified a surge in interest from institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds looking to invest in the commercial real estate market. With the market moving towards addressing ESG concerns and the impacts of AI-driven digitalisation, many funds are now worried about safeguarding their intellectual property from potential devaluation by third parties.
The rising trend of AI handling real estate data sheds light on how the legal system addresses these issues of privacy, intellectual property and consumer safety, the company said.
With imminent threats of lawsuits and copyright disputes, it’s time for developers to think about what data they are using to train their AI and whether these materials are copyrighted. A sample case study is Getty Images’ legal action against Stability AI on copyright and trademark infringement when using watermarked images, said a company statement.
SDP becomes not-for-profit
Founder of Sustainable Digitalisation Project Simon Carter is stepping down from the group that partners with industry, academic and government institutions as it reforms as a not-for-profit organisation.
The organisation, which focuses on the built environment, has introduced a board of directors to steer its philanthropic and strategic initiatives. This includes Sheridan Ware, former chief information officer of Charter Hall, as chair, Jon Collinge, executive director at Morrison, Liam Murray, chief executive of Build-Apps and Karl Mahoney, managing director of Carrier HVAC.