Maalka Blog

July 28, 2022

Our Partnership with 2030 Districts Network

2030 Districts is a network of cities and buildings in the US and Canada that are dedicated to a 50% reduction in carbon, energy, and water by the year 2030. These on-going goals help mitigate the growing climate change crisis by addressing carbon consumption through community-driven actions in the commercial building space. The Network has been growing every year, with new cities joining in their vision of fostering sustainable buildings all over the world. 
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Maalka has partnered with numerous cities from the 2030 Districts Network over the past eight years. Our collaboration with this non-profit organization has resulted in the creation of our most popular program: the Performance Targets Program - a comprehensive, multi-building analytical tool that builds reports based on consumption goals for buildings and cities. 2030 Districts has helped us create these reports based on real-life scenarios, and we have helped them connect with the building owners in their network. We are pleased to announce that several new cities from 2030 Districts have onboarded with Maalka over the past few months, including Seattle, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. We hope that our new partnerships will bring even more insight into both the Maalka application and general ESG management as we help 2030 districts with their reduction goals. 

February 7, 2022

Maalka Highlighted as a Successful ESG Company in GreenBiz.com Article

Recently, Maalka was featured in the article, "3 Ways Startups 'do ESG' Well" on the prominent website, GreenBiz.com. The article highlights Maalka's technological achievements, our ability to adapt organizations' existing sustainability programs to our platform, and our plans for the future. Check out the full article here.‍

December 7, 2021

Maalka Launches "Scorecard" Program for U.S. Districts

Scorecard, the latest program on the Maalka platform, has been rolled out for extensive piloting in public and private schools across the United States. This beta-test acts as a precursor to a rollout of over 300 schools around the world, slated for early 2022. From New York City to San Francisco, and many cities in between, schools are now using Scorecard to run the Sustainability Tracking & Roadmap Tool (START), a comprehensive sustainability program designed and administered by Green Schools Alliance (GSA). START doesn’t just count CO2 emissions, but rather integrates sustainability best practices into the operations, culture, and curriculum of schools, enabling a holistic and long-term sustainability vision.

The program consists of a rating system that indicates the effort and impact of over 50 actions a school can take to allow administrators to identify and take actions towards those best practices, with START providing step-by-step instructions to not only inspire that action but also to give schools the resources and assistance they need to make their goals a reality. START includes student activities and discussion forums as well, so that students and administrators can learn from one another and achieve even greater progress together.

Maalka enables this new program through its streamlined data collection, validation, and analysis platform, which provides schools with helpful interactive visualization to let them see their progress and how they stack up among their peers. When Scorecard goes international next year, GSA and Maalka will convene committees in different countries to ensure the metrics being tracked or those most applicable to the new geographies. At the same time, Scorecard will be rolled out beyond schools, to complement Maalka’s existing corporate tools for measuring and tracking impact toward environmental, social, and governance goals.
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August 26, 2021

Maalka Wins SBIR Funding to Support Net-Zero Pathways Software

NEW YORK, NY (BUSINESS WIRE)

Real estate sustainability technology company Maalka has been awarded $1.1 million by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Maalka has completed several DoE-sponsored product developments which have led to commercial success, garnering Maalka a reputation as a growing sustainability technology developer and allowing it to partner with a growing list of global real estate leaders, such as Cushman & Wakefield and Green Building Alliance.The latest award highlights Maalka’s ability to deploy funds effectively, delivering products that exceed expectations and drive real impact. The funds will enable the company to ramp up its largely growth-funded R&D to pilot and commercialize a Portfolio-based Building Energy Rating tool, also known as “Lifecycle.” This new program in the Maalka suite will act as a conduit between Maalka’s existing portfolio-scale real estate data management tools and powerful downstream analytics, allowing the Maalka platform to provide investment-grade insights while utilizing open-source data collection applications that many organizations already use.

Maalka thanks all of our supporters as we work together to scale sustainability efforts globally.
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July 17, 2019

Maalka To Commercialize Portfolio-Scale Energy Modeling Technology with Department of Energy Grant

Department of Energy Announcement: link.

Following on its award of ‘Phase I’ last year (link), Maalka is excited to announce that it has been selected as a recipient for the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant of $1mm, which is awarded to companies that have proven the concept and utility of a product and are now ready to bring it to market.

The product being supported by this award is KAVA, a cutting-edge application of the OpenStudio Energy Modeling engine designed to enable rapid, calibrated portfolio-level energy analysis. KAVA allows users to understand the granular breakdown of energy-use for buildings across a portfolio to inform strategic and cost-effective energy efficiency (EE) analysis and investment. Building Owners and Managers will be able to unlock insights for enhancing EE through more accurate portfolio-scale energy models, customer targeting, and project management capabilities. The high-level goal of this product is to aid cities, corporations, and utilities in developing the most economic and effective strategies for reaching energy and carbon reduction goals through specific EE improvement recommendations driven by accurate, low-cost, energy modeling.

With the aid of proceeds from Phase I of this grant, awarded in 2018, Maalka proved not only that this concept works, but that it can be done at a decimal of the cost charged by more manual, less accurate solutions. Just as importantly, the program runs on Maalka’s existing platform, allowing easy integration with Energy Star Portfolio Manager and best-in-class data validation, analysis, and visualization capabilities as well as useful tools for collaborating across teams.

Our appreciation goes out to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Wells Fargo, who have supported our work since its inception under Wells Fargo’s IN2 program - we thank both of these organizations for their continued support.

For more information on KAVA or the Maalka platform, please email info@maalka.com. ‍

October 16, 2018

Maalka Presents at VERGE Sustainability Conference

Maalka CEO, Rimas Gulbinas, was invited to present Maalka and promote the Wells Fargo IN2 program on the main stage of the VERGE Sustainability conference in Oakland, CA. VERGE brought together more than 2,500 leaders from private and public sectors to discuss the evolving challenges of scaling solutions for improving sustainability across business operations. Maalka was selected from over 100 companies to demonstrate how its technology uniquely integrates financial, risk, and building data from disparate systems to enable sustainability programs that span large real estate portfolios.

Article
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October 2, 2018

Portfolio Codes Assessment Tool Goes Live

Maalka worked with Integral Group, New Buildings Institute, Eco Edge, and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance to release the final tool in a series of open-source applications developed under the Department of Energy Municipal Portfolio Performance project. The Portfolio Codes Assessment tool was designed to be the first step for municipalities to conduct a quick, simple analysis to understand the typical breakdown of energy end-uses for their buildings and the impact that different tiers of investment strategies may have on their overall energy-use and efficiency. The tool leverages the output of extensive modeling and simulation efforts to express the impacts of different scenarios clearly and intuitively.

The tool can be accessed here: Portfolio Codes Assessment Tool

July 16, 2018

Maalka Announced as Finalist for Clean-Economy Startup Pitch Competition

Maalka recently collaborated with the Green Building Alliance to co-design and develop a program hosted on the Maalka Platform for managing data validation, analysis, and reporting for the 2030 District Network. The 2030 Districts program leverages the ZeroTool that Maalka developed for Architecture2030 to analyze progress towards energy performance goals. The integrated building performance reports combine progress tracking towards energy, water, and carbon reduction goals. Maalka and the Green Building Alliance are in the process of expanding features to enable additional insights at the building and portfolio levels.
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Article
2030 Project PDF

June 4, 2018

Maalka Awarded SBIR Funding to Bring Portfolio Scale Modeling and Simulation to Cities

Maalka was awarded funding through the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to complete development of an end-to-end workflow for remotely modeling, calibrating, and analyzing energy models for entire building portfolios. The next generation solution builds on work started with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) under the Wells Fargo IN2 program and SBIR funding will enable Maalka to deploy and test a proof-of-concept in several pilot cities by the end of the year.

Integration of the Modeling Engine with the Maalka Platform will enable energy service providers and financial institutions to develop novel, more accurate building performance and financial models for driving portfolio-level investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency; utilities to enhance load curtailment strategies and improve incentive programs through more accurate customer targeting and management capabilities; and cities to develop strategies for reaching carbon goals through specific EE improvements.

The solution is part of a suite of applications on the Maalka Platform that help cities and portfolio owners continually expand and improve their energy management and sustainability programs.
For more information, please email info@maalka.com.

Department of Energy Article

January 3, 2018

Maalka Selected for Phase II as Wells Fargo IN2 Startup

Through close collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Maalka is developing new technology with far reaching implications for cities, commercial building owners, and energy utilities who will leverage it to administer highly targeted energy efficiency improvement programs. This technology will provide Maalka users with a next generation energy modeling solution that is more accurate, comprehensive, faster, and two orders of magnitude cheaper than competing solutions on the market – empowering customers of all sizes to identify and invest in upgrades that yield maximum energy and cost savings.  

Maalka and NREL successfully met all technical development milestones for Phase I of the program in 2017 and will focus on preparing the technology for scaled deployment in 2018. The technology will be tested in pilot cities and on the Wells Fargo portfolio and will be available to Maalka users by the end of the year.

Maalka technology and leadership is recognized across the United States, through our selection as a Department of Commerce NTIS Joint Venture Partner, Wells Fargo IN2 Company, and Department of Energy Better Buildings Summit SEED App Showcase Winner. Maalka will be expanding to several major cities and corporations across the United States and Europe beginning in 2018.
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Innovation Incubator Article
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For more information, please email info@maalka.com.

October 13, 2017

CEO Rimas Gulbinas Publishes Article on Sustainable Districts for Meeting of the Minds

At the recent Global Cities Team Challenge Expo, Acquanetta Warren, the Mayor of Fontana California, expressed that ‘Technology makes government more accessible.’ Similar to cities, however, district-level organizations face constant challenges associated with financial and human resource constraints. In an environment of competing priorities and limited resources, strategies that depend on upfront investment and long-term returns are difficult to adopt at any level of governance.

Sustainability programs often require such long-term visions and upfront investment. In order for smart districts to become sustainable districts, it is imperative to develop strategies that leverage administrative frameworks, external resources, and novel technologies to minimize costs and facilitate continuous progress.

See Article

February 15, 2017

The Inaugural NYC Smart Districts Summit

Maalka is helping the Hub at Grand Central Tech, NYC Department of Small Business Services, and Citiesense organize and launch the inaugural NYC Smart Districts Summit on March 8th, 2017.  The event is the first of its kind to focus on how technology and data can help district level organizations overcome challenges related to sustainability, mobility, real estate management.  

Maalka has been working with partner ZGF Architects to frame a message around district-level sustainability for two years and this summit represents a huge step forward. Charles Kelley, Principal Architect at ZGF, is a world-renowned expert on eco-districts and has been a driving force behind the most sustainable districts in the world, including the Pearl District in Portland, OR and Kashiwa-no-ha in the Chiba Prefecture of Japan. Charles and other Maalka partners will be among the summit’s participants, who will collaboratively explore how emerging technologies are being leveraged to address the most pressing district-level challenges.

To learn more about the summit and to register, click here.

2017 SMART DISTRICTS SUMMIT DETAILS

Exploring the Intersection of District Management and Technology
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - Evening
The Hub at Grand Central Tech335 Madison Ave, Floor 4, New York, NY 10017

February 10, 2017

Maalka Starting Work with New Cities For 3-Year Department of Energy Grant

Maalka has started work with new cities around the country as part of a team that was recently awarded a 3-Year Department of Energy grant for helping small and medium-sized municipalities deploy data-driven strategic energy management plans (SEMPs) with open-source software tools. With support from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the team is extending the successful framework it developed from years of working with small municipalities to deploy SEMPs under the Community Buildings Renewal Initiative. 

Team Members: New Buildings Institute (Prime), Maalka, Integral Group, EcoEdge, National Institute of Building Science.

Maalka’s main role over the next three years is to develop and deploy a variety of open-source tools for building portfolio performance analysis and improvement tracking. Resource-constrained municipalities will be able to use the tools to manage their own data-driven energy efficiency programs and use Maalka’s platform to further streamline their programs with additional applications and functionalities. The tools will be fully aligned with EPA’s Portfolio Manager and will enable diagnostics of relative building performance to help jurisdictions target poor performing buildings for upgrades. Work has begun with the City of Eugene, OR and City of Providence, RI.

View the DoE Announcement

January 11, 2017

Maalka Added to Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator

Recently accepted to the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), Maalka is receiving non-dilutive funding from Wells Fargo and technical support from the Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory to open-source and integrate a rapid modeling and simulation engine. The next-generation software enables Maalka to provide users with actionable insights for achieving reductions in energy-use, emissions, and operational expenses across whole building portfolios in a matter of hours.

The new workflow combines Maalka’s highly intuitive user-experience to manage data collection, tracking and validation across a building portfolio with a modeling and simulation engine for rapid analysis. Maalka’s algorithms then help users prioritize energy efficiency measures (e.g. investing in new lighting or upgrading heating systems) to have maximum impact across their portfolio at the lowest cost. Augmenting Maalka’s portfolio-level program management and analysis capabilities, the new features will change how real estate owners manage strategic energy efficiency investments and how utilities, cities, and districts conduct large scale load curtailment analysis.

View the Wells Fargo Announcement

October 19, 2016

Maalka Selected as a US Commerce Department National Technical Information Service Joint Venture Partner (JVP)

As a JVP, Maalka is now able to participate on ground breaking data-related projects funded by federal agencies.  

"These joint ventures mark a major milestone for the data economy, said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. As America’s data agency, the Commerce Department is committed to making it easier for businesses, government, taxpayers and communities to access, analyze and use data to strengthen economic growth and create new jobs. I am confident the partnerships between NTIS and each selected organization will unlock new federal data that will leverage advances in data science, promote software development and accelerate innovation."

Maalka and its partners (People Power Company and Urban Systems) join a distinguished list of JVPs including Amazon Web Services, IBM, and Palantir Technologies. In order to be selected, each company had to pass a rigorous merit review. It is expected that many new partnerships and innovations in data technologies will result among the NTIS JVPs. Maalka is honored to be part of the select group and looks forward to continued discussions and work with various federal agencies.

View the NTIS JVP Announcement.

September 16, 2016

Changing How Cities Use Their Energy Data

Cornell Tech recently released this great article about us on their news page. Check it out here.

September 10, 2016

Maalka Provides the Technology Needed to Develop Data Monitoring Kiosks in Downtown Washington D.C.

In conjunction with DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) and Smart City Media, Maalka has helped to create a network of data access points that will soon be installed throughout a 138-block area in Washington D.C. The seven-foot-tall kiosks will allow anyone to access information about the city, from noise levels to energy and water usage in the D.C. BID area. For more information about the project, go here.

September 9, 2016

The California Energy Commission Clean Jobs Act (Prop 39)

Maalka CEO Rimas Gulbinas recently released a video demo showcasing our work for the state of California. Catch a glimpse of what Maalka has accomplished with the Prop39 Tool:

August 4, 2016

Maalka Wins App Showcase at the Better Buildings Summit

During the 2016 US Department of Energy Better Buildings Summit, Maalka was voted crowd favorite by fellow attendees. To read more about the event and see how our platform is improving data analysis in the buildings sector, go here for the full press release.

June 24, 2016

How Multiple IoT Projects Contribute to Washington, D.C.'s Long-Term Vision

By Scott Pomeroy, Downtown DC Business Improvement District; John Teeter, Maalka; and Zach Wilson, D.C. Department of General Services

The District of Columbia has multiple IoT-based projects underway. The most public of these projects are participating in the Global Cities Team Challenge (GCTC)  sponsored by US Ignite and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cyber-Physical Systems Group.

Full Article

July 7, 2016

How Standards Help Washington, D.C. Accelerate Smart Cities Efforts

By Scott Pomeroy, Rimas Gulbinas and John Teeter

The inability to share information and action across the infrastructure silos within our current cities is a barrier to providing our next generation cities.  The need for an integral whole is clear. As described by the most recent directive of the eight joint ministries of the central government of China, Smart Cities:

Full Article

August 4, 2016

DC-Net - Leadership in Public Communications Infrastructures

By Scott Pomeroy, Director of Sustainability Initiatives, DowntownDC Business Improvement DistrictRimas Gulbinas, CEO Maalka; Geoff Mulligan, Chairman LoRa AllianceJohn Teeter, CIO Urban.Systems; Chairman Maalka

The District government is making significant strides to become a smarter and more connected city. One of the first and most significant steps in this process was the creation of the SmarterDC Tiger Team made up of District agencies (transportation, public safety, health care, economic development, urban planning, education, environmental, building management, and public utilities) along with other key stakeholders including federal government, universities, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), and the technology community.

Full Article