Author: omc_admin

The proposed elimination of the famous program raises big questions about the future of data management and benchmarking in real estate. By Matt Ellis, CEO of Measurabl While perhaps best known for consumer appliance labels, ESTAR’s (often overlooked) component – a software product called ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) – acts as the backbone of energy and sustainability data management and benchmarking for the North American commercial real estate industry. Supporting 330,000 buildings, across 35 billion sq. ft. of North American real estate, ESPM powers a variety of green loan programs from HUD to Fannie Mae, supports compliance with more…

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 49 people have died in flooding in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province after an extreme cold front brought heavy rain and snow to parts of the country, officials said Wednesday.Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said police provided the death toll, which is expected to rise as authorities continue to search for missing people.“As we speak here, other bodies are being discovered,” Mabuyane told reporters at a briefing.Mabuyane’s office reported seven deaths in the floods on Tuesday, including six high school students who were washed away when their school bus was caught in floodwaters near a…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Radhika Sharma, a 35-year-old product manager based in New Delhi. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I started my tech career in 2015 and spent the last six years working for a small-scale organization where I worked my way up to product owner. In February, I quit that job to spend more time with my young daughter.After just a two-month break, I started hunting for jobs again. This time, I aimed to get into product management.During my job search, I submitted my application to a SaaS company, and received an email…

German fusion technology startup Proxima Fusion announced today that it has raised €130 million (USD$149 million) in a Series A funding round, with proceeds aimed at supporting its efforts to build the first stellarator-based fusion power plant in the 2030s. The financing marks the largest private fusion investment round in Europe to date. Fusion, the process of combining two atoms to form a single atom to release energy, has been long referred to as the “Holy Grail” of clean and abundant energy production, given its potential to produce power from hydrogen – the most common element in the universe –…

A major US government website supporting public education on climate science looks likely to be shuttered after almost all of its staff were fired, the Guardian has learned.Climate.gov, the gateway website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa)’s Climate Program Office, will imminently no longer publish new content, according to multiple former staff responsible for the site’s content whose contracts were recently terminated.“The entire content production staff at climate.gov (including me) were let go from our government contract on 31 May,” said a former government contractor who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “We were told that…

India’s ethanol production capacity has jumped more than four times in the last 11 years of the Modi government to 1,810 crore litres annually with the help of favourable policy initiatives, according to a senior official.With an enhanced installed production capacity, the blending of ethanol with petrol has surged to nearly 19 per cent from 1.53 per cent in 2013, leading to huge saving in foreign exchange — more than ₹1.10 lakh crore — as well as benefits to sugarcane and foodgrain farmers. A senior official from the Department of Food and Public Distribution in the central government said till…

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said he was still unable to travel freely almost a year after being arrested at a Paris airport.In an interview with Tucker Carlson posted on YouTube on Tuesday, Durov said that following his arrest in August 2024, French authorities detained him for four days in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer or phone calls.”They read the list of charges; I have nothing to do with these crimes, like organized crime, selling drugs,” he said. “But then I realized it’s serious because they’re not letting me out.”Durov said the charges pertained to alleged criminal activity by…

New maps have revealed the best “win-win” opportunities across the world to regrow forests and tackle the climate crisis, without harming people or wildlife.The places range from the eastern US and western Canada, to Brazil and Columbia, and across Europe, adding up to 195 million hectares (482 million acres). If reforested, this would remove 2.2bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, about the same as all the nations in the European Union.Previous maps have suggested much larger areas have the potential for regrowing trees but were criticised for including important ecosystems like savannahs and not considering the impact on the…

Crude oil demand will continue growing over the coming decades as the world’s population increases, the secretary-general of OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais, said this week, predicting a 24% cumulative rise in this demand until 2050.“There is no peak in oil demand on the horizon,” Al Ghais said at the Canadian Global Energy Show, as quoted by Reuters. The top OPEC official went on to reiterate a warning about the adverse potential consequences of underinvestment in new oil and gas supply—something, in which OPEC has been very consistent over the past few years amid a pressure campaign from anti-oil activists who…

OMV AG plans to launch a seismic survey in December to explore the potential of geothermal energy in the East Styrian basin in the greater Graz area. The Austrian state-backed energy company expects to drill an exploration well in the second half of 2026. “If the suspected geothermal potential is confirmed, OMV, together with Energie Steiermark and Energie Graz, is planning the long-term extraction of heat from deep geothermal energy for the greater Graz area and thus a sustainable, climate-friendly heat supply for the city”, OMV said in a press release. OMV expects to explore the geothermal subsurface at 700-3,500…