“We’ve created a smart cities platform suite that does so much. So it’s a real disruptor; it is disruptive, and I’m very happy to take the claim of being the Disruptor of the Year.”

Sharon says that even without expensive retrofits of ageing, clunky and inefficient buildings, he can easily achieve efficiencies in savings of up to 70 per cent in carbon emissions and 50 per cent in operating costs just by plucking low-hanging fruit.

Sharon’s system consolidates an array of functions, this state-of-the-art technology embodying excellence in the cloud, IoT, interoperability, smart sensors and controllers, machine learning, predictive maintenance, and cybersecurity.

His product Encompass Blue provides a broad, open platform for digital transformation in facilities management, infrastructure, buildings and smart cities.

The system does away with archaic control rooms and instead can be controlled from anywhere with a smart phone with his multitudes of IoT sensors monitoring conditions throughout the building and making adjustments to the endless machines which control our climate that lives in our built environments.

And he can do it with a 70 to 100 per cent reduction of conduit or drilling a hole in a single wall because the basis of the system is wireless.

Importantly, his sensors monitor the quality of the very air that we breathe when we are in the buildings that have been retrofitted with his devices, which reduce or prevent hot spots and cold spots in our offices. With such air quality data, existing systems can be adjusted to improve air quality. Remediation through Blue IoT monitored Air Purifiers can also be installed to mitigate risks.

“We can go to our customers and say, we can help you become sustainable. We can help you with your net-zero or ESG targets.”

“And we make it financially sustainable. So it’s a win-win. You’re not going to lose out of this. Any CFO would give me a big hug, metaphorically speaking of course.”

Asked about challenges, Sharon immediately dwells on the woes of running a start-up in Australia.

“The biggest challenge is getting recognition. Because firstly, there’s an old saying, ‘you never got sacked for buying an IBM’,” says Sharon, whose interests transcend business and environmental sustainability. His passions include building orphanages, preventing child slavery, as well as ending child marriage and poverty, and mentoring struggling entrepreneurs.

“And so here’s this little upstart company coming in. Oh, who are you? Oh, yeah, you got this wireless stuff. Oh, no, we can’t run buildings reliably on that.”

“Now people say, that’s not going to happen —- not interested. So people are very risk averse. And in Australia, they’re even much more risk averse than most countries.

“That’s why many organisations have to get capital offshore, because here it’s a lot harder. It’s another example, but I guess that was one of the big challenges, just sticking my head above water and saying here we are.”

He says technological transformation is now advancing much faster because of what happened with COVID, “and so everything in this space is accelerating”.

“So the future of our industry is extremely bright.”

He sounded one note of caution: “The thing we need to watch out for, of course, is one, the quality of people, and what we call the ‘cowboys’. So in the IoT space or the industrial IoT space, you know, it’s a bit like the Wild West and a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of false promises.”

He says awards for excellence such as the ACS Digital Disruptors Awards will “help separate the wheat from the chaff”.

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Originally Appeared Here