Welcome to our post-show issue. We squeezed in a little AHR/ASHRAE content from Chicago last month thanks to a favorable schedule, but now that we’ve returned back home to unpack the suitcase and the virtual mountain of information, we can serve up some follow-up to the week in Chicago.

LIVE FROM THE PRESS ROOM

One advantage to being in this line of work when it comes to the AHR Expo is the press room. The obvious reasons include amenities such as the coat rack, the occasional food and drink, the seating, and most definitely the wifi. It’s a most welcome place to manage some email between appointments or to catch your breath after walking the 3.14 miles from McCormick’s far downstairs meeting rooms up to the hall.

The less obvious upside is the people you run into. This year’s happenstance included an overdue catch-up with Ron Zimmer, who is the president and CEO of CABA (Continental Automated Buildings Association, www.caba.org). Ron was appointed to that position just about the same time I was named to this position back in the late 20th century, and since then, he has overseen all manner of growth and special projects on both the nonresidential and residential sides of building automation. I owe him a belated congratulations, as it turns out. He neglected to mention that he had just been inducted into the ControlTrends Hall of Fame at this year’s ControlTrends Awards, held every show week.

However, what he did not mind mentioning was an interesting CABA white paper titled, “Creating A New Deal For Buildings.”

A NEW DEAL

A white paper written by several authors spanning several organizations, working together to apply some vision and collaboration to industry-wide challenges … that’s unusual around here. Hard to think of another one, really. The document, aiming “to facilitate the adoption of information technologies enabling a more productive indoor environment,” came after Jim Lee (Cimetrics) and Anto Budiardjo (fractional entrepreneur and familiar industry figure) created a blog called A New Deal For Buildings.

Looking across the blog’s contributors and the paper’s authors beyond Jim and Anto, I’m happy to see several people who have contributed to our own BAS coverage over the last 20 years and/or spoken at ES events and/or provided some old-fashioned good advice. Jack McGowan, John Petze, Marc Petock, Ron Bernstein to name a few, along with Therese Sullivan, who has frequently worked with our old columnist Ken Sinclair at his portal, AutomatedBuildings.com.

This isn’t just a namedropping exercise. My point is that this initiative and its ideas have picked up a pretty top-shelf bunch of veterans, crossing manufacturer and association lines. They are experienced enough to understand the evolution of the BAS industry’s true challenges and enthusiastic enough to look ahead for solutions.

No space to go further, but I’ll tell you that the paper’s headers for the three tenets in this “New Deal” are Open Standards, Digital Twin, and Service Transparency. We’re posting the paper in our own white paper section (look under Resources), and a little later this year, we will dive into the ideas on offer here. Until then, don’t wait for us, go see for yourself.

ES Jukebox

Our managing editor, James Siegel, mentioned this disc in a newsletter recently. First Aid Kit is a Swedish sister duo, and their modern folk/rock sound will beckon to anyone with a penchant for harmonies. (Emmylou Harris fans: I’m talking to you.) Between Ruins and a new album from Brandi Carlile, it’s been a great 2018 already for women behind the mic.
 

ES WEBINARS BOX

Register for our free webinars at webinars.esmagazine.com, where users can also view any webinar from the last year on demand in our archive.

April 26
Power Management of Energy Storage Technologies
Presented by Julius Neudorfer
Sponsored by Kohler

INDUSTRY EVENTS 2018