Company Interview / Aeris teams up with Cognizant for smart buildings, greener future

Key points:

Aeris Environmental (ASX: AEI) partners with Cognizant Technologies for tech product developmentSynchro Mesh technology enhances building management systems through IoTAeris (ASX: AEI) targets significant growth in the under-digitised Australian market

Aeris Environmental (ASX: AEI) announces a joint venture with Cognizant Technologies to develop and commercialise tech-based products. CEO Andrew Just shares that following a strong year, Aeris (ASX: AEI) grew revenues by 50% and reduced operating expenses, aiming to expand their ESG capabilities.

Andrew explains that Aeris Environmental (ASX: AEI) focuses on energy efficiency and indoor air quality for commercial properties. The joint venture introduces IoT technology to manage building systems, targeting a $2 billion market in Australia, where 87% of properties currently lack digital management systems.

The new technology, Synchro Mesh, connects various sensors wirelessly, allowing buildings to collect actionable data for improving performance and reducing carbon emissions. Andrew states that Aeris (ASX: AEI) is well-positioned for growth, with unique, affordable tech and a solid roadmap for the future.

Full unedited transcript below:

0:00

Let's move to some company news and ASX listed, environmentally friendly tech manufacturing company Eris Environmental has announced a joint venture with Cognizant Technologies to develop and commercialize its tech based products. Andrew Justice, the chief executive of environmental. He joins us now. Andrew, welcome to ausbiz. Thanks for joining us. Just talk us through how why you've struck this this joint venture.

0:22

Yeah. It's great. Morning, Andrew. Thank you. So off the back of a good strong year for Aeris we grew revenues 50% reduced our opex. This is an opportunity for us to expand the scope of our capability and offering, and really target the narrative that keeps growing on ESG.

0:41

Andrew, just explain to those unaware of of various environmental and what you do. Just expand on what you are doing there at the moment.

0:50

Yeah, absolutely. So Aarhus Environmental has always been about energy efficiency and indoor air quality improvements for the built environment, for commercial property, property ostensibly. So we've got a history of going in and treating those buildings and those assets to improve the way they perform from a carbon emission profile perspective, but also improving the environmental quality of the air. So what this does with the JV is this brings a whole layer of technology on top of those core competencies that we have to actually address the the IoT or the smart building space of that market. And what is your market at the moment, Andrew?

1:31

So, uh, if you look at the JV in particular, we're targeting the, uh, the global building management system market for technology that's about 180 billion globally. In Australia, it's about a $2 billion market. But interestingly, in Australia, around 87% of commercial properties have no digital management system in their building. And that's what the JV brings to the table. We're able to bring in a very cost, affordable, short ROI technology to put in a digital management system for buildings, and then to use that actionable data that we collect to address the carbon profile and drop the emissions for the building. So is that where Conan comes in with its synchro mesh technology? What? What is that? Yeah, absolutely. So synchro mesh is an IoT or an Internet of Things technology. They create a network inside the building. It's a wireless network. It can connect to any

2:31

sensor. So the difference between this and most is that it's agnostic. It can talk to any sensor. As long as it's Bluetooth or Modbus enabled. You can have an air quality sensor, an energy monitor, any type of occupancy sensor or lighting control that can all connect to synchro mesh. That data is collected and ingested and either sent to an incumbent VMs system or sent to our end to end cloud service, where we can provide the data to the customer and provide them insights on how to use the data to address the building and improve its performance. So, Andrew, you talk about that potential growth there and just how large the market is. Your share price has struggled since, well, certainly since Covid. You're not alone on that front. Um, what do you see that has been the catalyst for turning it around.

3:23

Yeah, absolutely. I think we're addressing a little bit of a blue sky market here. As I said, 87% of the commercial property market in Australia alone does not have a digital system. We have a fairly unique advantage with this technology in that it's much more affordable to put in and easier to deploy than traditional systems. So in in essence, we're actually growing the size of the pie for the digital building management system market. Um, so that's a really that's a really good opportunity for us. And off the back of that, we obviously have our core programs that we know work that demonstrated to work for many years. We can come in and actually provide an action to the landlord as well as the data. So that combination of being able to provide the data easily and affordably and also provide a program to lower the carbon emission profile for the building. It's a great opportunity for Eris,

4:23

and I think it's a really good, uh, really good roadmap we have ahead of us for growth. Significant growth.