‘Peak’ performance to improve energy efficiency in property


CIM founder and chief executive officer David Walsh had his ‘lightbulb moment’ when working as a commercial manager in environmental technology and consulting services.

Mr Walsh – whose family boasts a long and proud history of business ownership in his native Ireland for more than 200 years – had developed a keen interest in property and sustainable energy consumption in his early working life and wanted to make a difference.

Wearing his ‘problem-solving’ hat in the commercial manager role, he spotted a ‘black hole’ in the way energy data was being used within buildings, prompting the need for technology and automation to drive efficiency.

He identified that companies were data-rich but information poor. There was no focus on finding or fixing the root cause of energy wastage.

CIM chief executive David Walsh

Armed with a vision to optimise the performance of buildings through advanced data analytics, Mr Walsh founded CIM. And he’s come a long way, turning his ambitious vision into reality.

Fast forward to today, and CIM is a company that provides deeper data, which bolsters operational efficiencies, improves financial performance and minimises climate impact.

Today, CIM aims to make it easy to operate large buildings at their ‘peak operational performance,’ while delivering economic and environmental benefits for shareholders, tenants and society.

The Sydney-based company is a finalist in the 2022 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence in the software innovation category. The company is driving transformational through its PEAK Platform service, a building analytics tool that supercharges property operations. The Award winner will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at the Cutaway venue at Barangaroo in Sydney. You can reserve your seat here.

The platform integrates building intelligence, machine learning and mechanical engineering to improve efficiency, productivity and sustainability.

“The innovative technology empowers property teams to work smarter and more collaboratively. Critical operational activities are automated, and the completion of key tasks are accelerated by leveraging digital workflows across the entire supply chain,” Mr Walsh said.

Customers include Charter Hall, Lendlease, Museums Victoria, Scentre Group, GPT, QIC, Dexus, Knight Frank, CBRE.

Mr Walsh is on a mission to help improve operational efficiency and sustainability – but to also show Australia and the world that “data is the key to building optimisation” – and also pivotal to achieving the Paris Agreement targets for climate change.

“The building sector is one of the largest contributors to climate change, accounting for over 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. We have hugely ambitious goals to help the built environment save substantial emissions and bring joy to the lives of the two million+ facilities managers who globally manage complex buildings.”

Mr Walsh believes technology and data have a big role to play in bringing visibility across building operations, particularly for systems people don’t see – like the ones keeping buildings cool in summer and warm in winter, or the ones that operate lifts and escalators, and lighting.

“These use more than 60 per cent of a building’s total energy consumption, and up to a third of that energy is often wasted due to malfunctions, performance degradation and improperly tuned controls. When you consider that virtually all large buildings have operational issues, these statistics are hard to ignore and something that technology and data can dramatically improve.

“With building analytics technology, this sector has the biggest opportunity to quickly and cost-effectively cut carbon emissions and play a critical role in curbing climate change. Australia can lead the world in showing how this can be done.”

Working smarter is an important part of the action plan, according to Mr Walsh, who said the analytics software solution empowers property teams to work more collaboratively – generating significant operational efficiencies across an entire portfolio.

“Critical operational activities are automated and the completion of key tasks are accelerated by leveraging digital workflows across the entire supply chain,” Mr Walsh said, explaining the technology delivers four key outcomes: transparency; accountability; visibility; and control.

Global march

And the march is on as the company looks to embark on its next stage, continuing its international expansion. CIM has expanded its team to 53 staff globally, 37 of whom are based in Australia.

“While we have had great success to date in our two main geographies (Australia and Ireland), there’s still a huge amount of ‘white space’ globally. We recently announced AU$10 million funding after closing its Series A.

“The new capital will be used to expand CIM internationally into Asia and North America, in addition to building out the team with a doubling of headcount expected in the next 12 months.”

And he’s proud of the team that surrounds him. Galvanised around a common purpose, Mr Walsh has been able to curate a group of highly experienced industry professionals.

The leadership team consists of proven senior executives with experience at the likes of Atlassian, Xero, SafetyCulture, Johnson & Johnson, and an army of passionate individuals spanning software engineers, marketers, HR, and customer success professionals.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

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