Innovating for Impact: Avani's Role in Reshaping the Built Environment

Written by Nicolette Maury, CEO of Avani

As we enter the final quarter of the 2023-24 financial year, I recently sat down with our team of problem solvers here at Avani to celebrate some of the wins we’ve enjoyed in FY23 and look forward to some of the challenges and opportunities that FY24 brings.

2023 was massive for Avani. When I joined as CEO early in the year, I was greeted by an enthusiastic team hard at work to release our next-gen Avani platform in only a few short months’ time. For a company that’s about to celebrate its twentieth year in operation, the energy and ambition of the team made it feel more like a bustling startup, laser-focused on the ultimate goal of completely eliminating all wasted resources from the built environment. And when 39% of all global carbon emissions comes from the built environment, that’s a pretty powerful goal.

A decarbonisation platform to unlock a greater impact

In July, the release of our next-generation Avani platform marked a significant milestone for the business and our ability to impact real and lasting change for our people, our clients, and ultimately, the planet.

The new platform represents a mammoth effort to give our clients the complete visibility, new insights, and advanced features required to rapidly decarbonise their assets by changing the way they behave. Owners andoccupiers of commercial property now have access to a single screen that provides a real-time view of how an entire portfolio is tracking towards its net zero targets, and more importantly, identify changes required to keep on track.

The powerful, portfolio-wide insights built into Avani are designed to leverage resource data like electricity, water, gas, thermal, and waste to set benchmarks and identify outliers to continually optimise performance and actively reduce the total carbon footprint across assets.

Can you tell I’m a little impressed by this team? And I haven’t even mentioned our automated demand-response functionality yet…

Another year closer to net zero commitments: What's in store for 2024

This will be a pivotal year for climate action asAustralia’s economy decarbonises, with only six years remaining to realise theGovernment’s ambitious target of an 82% renewable energy grid by 2030.

With intermittent renewable energy comprising a majority ofenergy supply in Australia, we will need to pay closer attention to how – and crucially, when – we use it.

Avani is working hard to enhance our demand-response modules which allow clients to alter energy demand during times of peak strain on the grid, providing grid reliability, reducing cost, and cutting emissions. The intent is to align economic and environmental incentives, allowing clients to use more renewable energy when it is prominent in the grid, and cut back when the grid is mostly comprised of fossil fuels. Of note, this is when wholesale energy prices are also the highest.

We’re aiming for scenarios whereby clients are able to use more energy, but during times when this energy is cleaner and cheaper. Avani’s live connectivity to buildings and to the grid allows clients to increase output while reducing cost and carbon.

As Avani expands its presence and operates across a diverse range of assets and sectors, these modules will evolve, sharing learnings between clients and ensuring contributions are being made to Australia’s energy transition.

So, as I approach my one-year anniversary with Avani, and we celebrate our twenty-year milestone together, we know there’s much still to do. We look forward to sharing our progress with the Climate Salad family – and indeed international climate tech community – in 2024 and beyond.

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Avani is a leading property portfolio solution designed to help you hit your sustainability and financial goals, change performance for the better, and simplify your reporting requirements.

Unlock a greater impact today at avanisolutions.com

Written by Nicolette Maury, CEO of Avani Solutions