Ecova, an energy and sustainability management company, announced that it has acquired Retroficiency, a leading building efficiency intelligence company. Ecova said it will leverage Retroficiency’s expertise in building analytics to drive energy savings and engagement for commercial and industrial customers, directly and through utilities.

ASHRAE has announced its newly published Cold-Climate Buildings Design Guide, which provides information on the issues commonly faced in designing buildings for arctic and subarctic climates.

The Building Performance Institute Inc. (BPI) and Aeroseal LLC have announced a strategic partnership to offer BPI GoldStar Contractor program participation to Aeroseal dealers, and to provide Aeroseal’s Comfort Institute home performance training to BPI GoldStar Contractors.

The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) announced it is kicking off development of a new guideline to help building owners and their design teams utilize building information modeling (BIM) during the building design, construction, and operations process and better support owners’ performance requirements.

Plasma Air International has announced the release of its PlasmaSoft 2.0 IAQ Procedure Software, said to be the first web-based program of its kind that supports the use of the ASHRAE Standard 62.1 IAQ procedure.

The global smart thermostat market is projected to generate revenue of more than $1.3 billion by 2019, according to a report by Sandler Research. The report states that one of the main challenges faced by the smart thermostats market is the high initial cost, which exceeds that of conventional thermostats.