Charbel Ayoub

Are you vibe-coding apps or websites? Then read this: I've been doing some part-time consulting to a leading Australian eCommerce business, and used Claude Code to build an impressive new website! But... despite my background in tech, I'm not a professional engineer/architect, and was concerned that I might have some blind spots that could prove fatal when deploying the new site to hundreds of thousands of customers. I reached out to Lambros Photios at Adaca, a Sydney based AI-native engineering business I've worked with before on complex projects. Within days, they had a leading architect do a thorough code review, and picked up some critical issues in my code, both in terms of scalability as well as security. It's not that Claude Code cannot find these issues... it's that it won't look for them unless you tell it to! This is where experience comes in. And it's why I don't think (good) software engineers or architects will ever really be threatened by AI.

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Big milestones recently for the team at 1089! Grateful to our partners — especially Oka (underwritten by Lloyd’s Syndicate 1922), Price Forbes, and the CTX team — for helping launch the first carbon asset insurance framework for transportation and energy. Now live on CTX. Read the press release here for more info! https://lnkd.in/gYJhAPVp

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Via our proprietary Lemonade platform, we're New Zealand based pioneers of matching half-hourly electricity consumption with carbon-free electricity generation. Our submission on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol)'s Scope 2 Public Consultation expresses our strong support for a key proposed change "...intended to reduce double counting and ensure reported clean energy purchases more accurately reflect the physical realities of the power grid." The proposal would see "a new hourly matching and deliverability requirement for market-based reporting, which would align emissions claims more closely with the time and place electricity is consumed" (source in comments). Evolving these standards is critical as they serve as the basis for emissions reporting and certification schemes globally. Traditional monthly and/or annual approaches have served their purpose in helping to drive greater uptake (and lower costs) of renewable energy. That should be celebrated. But, decarbonisation is hard, and the data and technologies now exist to identify and reward better performance cost-effectively. New Zealand should not attempt to exempt itself from global best practice, watching on as the rest of the world accelerates its ambition. That would be bad for emissions, and our export-dependent economy too. New Zealand's electricity system has a relatively high proportion of renewables, with a particularly strong, centralised hydro base, which many are rightfully proud of. Our overall energy system is around 40% renewables, though. Looking forward, greater electrification is expected to be supported by greater investment in intermittent (and much more distributed) sources of renewable energy, such as wind and solar, as well as increased demand flexibility. The standards that emissions reporting and renewable energy claims are based on should meet this reality, not ignore it. Finally, a common misconception of the proposed Scope 2 changes is that they would require renewable energy purchasers to invest in costly supply portfolios to ensure they achieve a '100% renewables' mix all day, every day. Granular time and location matching does not require this at all. It simply requires reporting claims that align more closely with the physical realities of the grid and the commercial realities of our electricity market. SEANZ - Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand External Reporting Board Rewiring Aotearoa EnergyTag

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I’m a little late commenting on the Government’s changes to New Zealand’s climate-related disclosures — I’ve had my head down leading the rebuild of our next-generation Enterprise Carbon Accounting platform. But as I finally look up, it’s hard to stay quiet about the current climate direction. CRD obligations have now been reduced from 164 entities to just 76, and yet the same story keeps resurfacing: “climate reporting is too costly.” Some organisations are even citing compliance costs of up to $2M. After 25+ years helping organisations reduce emissions, and as the Founder of ESP (now BraveGen) — a company that has been building Carbon Accounting software for 17 years — I can say this with confidence: when reporting costs reach those levels, the issue isn’t the standard. It’s the method. Manual, consultant-heavy carbon accounting creates rework, fragile audit trails, and unnecessary cost. The organisations using audit-proven software simply do not face these blowouts. As the Chief Product Officer of BraveGen, I’ve seen this across both New Zealand and Australia. Our clients use automated data ingestion, complete evidence trails, and workflows tested across hundreds of Big 4 assurance-grade audits — delivering up to 95% reduction in time spent on carbon accounting. So if CRD or voluntary reporting feels expensive or overwhelming, the problem isn’t climate reporting itself — it’s relying on systems that were never designed for assurance. If you want to measure and manage emissions to an auditable standard without multimillion-dollar overhead, I’m happy to share what a modern, software-first approach looks like. If you want to measure and manage emissions to an auditable standard without multimillion-dollar overhead, I’m happy to share what a software-first, evidence-driven model looks like.

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Great article by Adrian Collins Australia’s researchers are facing a crucial tipping point: global challenges demand us to engage, not isolate. This insightful piece argues for a new to Australia funding model Money Follows Cooperation (MFC) that would allow funds to flow across borders and enable collaborations where international partners are co-investigators, not mere contributors.  Key recommendations: • Remove outdated restrictions in Australia’s funding systems.   • Adopt reciprocal access agreements with major S&T partners. • Maintain merit-based review while streamlining cross-border funding administration. A must-read below  for anyone serious about elevating Australia’s global research impact. https://lnkd.in/gizP8Zh7

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I spent 20 years telling programme boards what was wrong. Then I spent two years trying to build a tool that would tell them before it went wrong. Here's what I learned. In 2023, I was standing in a war room in Wellington. Three Waters programme. $80M+ in flight. Twelve workstreams. The board wanted a single answer: are we on track? It took three people, two days, and four different tools to produce a slide that was already out of date by the time it was presented. I'd seen this same scene before — in Brunei managing a $150M fibre rollout with 250 staff, in Singapore with $50M government programmes, in banking managing the biggest ICT merger in NZ history. The problem was never the data. The data existed. The problem was that no one had time to synthesise it into something useful, fast enough to matter. So last year I started building FRAMEMATE.ai. The concept is simple: a Meta Agent that ingests your programme artefacts — plans, risk registers, status reports, change logs — and surfaces the intelligence buried inside them. Dependencies you haven't mapped. Risks that are pattern-matching to failures you've seen before. Portfolio conflicts that won't show up in your dashboard until someone misses a milestone. Not a dashboard. Not another reporting tool. An agent that reads the work and tells you what it means. I'm a Naval Engineer by training. In the Navy we had a principle: the ship tells you what's wrong if you know how to listen. Twenty years in EPMOs taught me that programmes are the same — they leave signals everywhere. Most organisations just don't have the capacity to hear them. FRAMEMATE.ai is being built to listen. We're in early development. If you're leading a PMO, EPMO, or portfolio function and you've felt this pain — I'd genuinely like to hear from you. Not a sales call. A conversation about whether what I'm building solves a real problem for people who live in this space. Drop a comment or DM me directly. #ProgrammeManagement #EPMO #AI #PortfolioManagement #CLAIMS #PMO #ArtificialIntelligence #ProjectManagement #DigitalTransformation

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I get asked for ASRS climate disclosure examples all the time but the first reports aren't due until after 1 July 2026. Luckily there’s a shortcut: 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 TCFD reports are a window into the future in Australia. Yesterday I dug into Deliveroo’s 2024 TCFD report. Here’s what stood out: ✅ Governance is strong – CFO as executive sponsor, climate linked to executive pay. ✅ Scenario analysis goes beyond theatre – actual numbers on beef taxes, AC retrofits, electrification. ✅ Targets to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by up to 25% by 2026 ✅ Emissions dropped 18% last year, but they’re clear about the challenges ahead, especially tracking Scope 3. ⚠️ Climate risks included in company risk register with structured identification and scoring, but not elevated to a principal risk and lacking clear KRIs ⚠️ Scope 3 targets lack granularity; rider emissions (42% of total) acknowledged but strategy still early-stage. If you want more deep dives like this as we head toward #ASRS please get in touch or comment. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿: TCFD reports are voluntary and unaudited. They’re not a template for AASB S2 compliance, but they’re great inspiration.

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🚨 "Carbon offsetting is not the most effective way to assist customers to reduce their emissions" Energy Australia has apologised to customers for falsely marketing their electricity as part of their "Go Neutral" product, acknowledging that carbon offsetting is not a substitute for meaningful action. Many companies are not aware that energy efficiency projects can often both cut emissions and save money. From upgrading equipment to better managing consumption, there are plenty of opportunities, especially when you start to get a handle on your business’s activity data and emissions at a granular level. If you are a business looking for practical steps to reduce your energy use and emissions, a good place to start is by looking at peers in your industry to see how they are tackling similar challenges. The Australian Government’s sector specific guides can also be a helpful starting point: 👉 https://lnkd.in/d8Bbjq5y It will be interesting to see what this case means for carbon neutral claims more broadly. If nothing else, it reinforces the importance of focusing on reduction first.

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Australia's net zero policy is a fraud. We are NOT reducing global CO₂ emissions. Our policy's entire structure is designed to make it look like we're doing something useful, when in reality we're just shifting emissions offshore - mainly to China - by making energy in Australia more expensive and shutting down our industries. As we deindustrialise, we become increasingly dependent on imports from China for goods we used to make ourselves - directly increasing their emissions even further. At the same time, we ramp up exports of coal, gas, uranium, and raw materials to fuel China's factories. This isn't just political spin. The actual mechanics of the policy - the way emissions are counted, the rules for what counts as progress - are designed to hide the reality that Australian emissions are simply being offshored. Western countries, including Australia, not only export their emissions problems to China, but also benefit from cheaper imported goods that are made possible precisely because of lower labour costs and lax enforcement of environmental laws in China. This global shell game is attractive for politicians and consumers alike, who enjoy lower prices while ignoring the true environmental cost. Our leaders and bureaucracy know this, but the public gets a steady stream of talking points pretending we're fixing the climate, when we're actually making no difference. The mainstream media acts as a cheerleader for these policies, repeating the narrative without any genuine analysis or critical scrutiny. China is well aware that they've become the world's factory. China now emits 30% of global CO₂ and has only committed to a modest 7-10% reduction from when its peak is reached, by 2035. I doubt they can even achieve that reduction without major technological advances and/or accounting tricks. Remember back in 1986 when ALP Treasurer Paul Keating warned Australians that we risked becoming a "third rate economy" and a "banana republic"? His reasons included the decline of manufacturing and being too dependent on exporting raw materials instead of value-added goods. Well, today's ALP government is rapidly paving a path to that outcome through a net zero policy based on zealotry and accounting tricks.

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I thought I might start sharing some simple illustrations that could proactively inoculate you from climate change deniers' and delayers' misleading claims. My first one was going to be 🇦🇺 "Do Australia's Emissions Matter?" 🏭 But as soon as I started doing the research, I found the excellent Hannah Ritchie has already drawn the exact chart I was thinking of! Enjoy it below. And then enjoy her excellent blog post that covers FIVE reasons why small emitters can't just say "Our small % doesn't matter": https://lnkd.in/gkwbpVSu #ClimateChange

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In a step forward for renewable energy production in New Zealand, UK-based energy developer Harmony Energy and First Renewables plan to begin building New Zealand’s biggest solar farm this year. Aside from the massive expected generation of 280 gigawatt hours of electricity per year – enough to supply the equivalent of about 35,000 homes – the solar farm plans to deliver a raft of positive ecological benefits. The land will continue to be a farm (after converting from dairy to sheep), screened from neighbours by planting around 100,000 native plants that will become riparian strips and biodiversity corridors, as well as establishing a 7-hectare wetland. You can read more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/gDGjx-AQ #RenewableEnergy #SolarFarm #FutureProof #Decarbonisation

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🚨 Now Open: Carbon Capture Technologies Program – Round 2 🚨   The Australian Government has opened Round 2 of the Carbon Capture Technologies Program, supporting pilot and demonstration projects for novel carbon capture, utilisation and removal technologies in hard‑to‑abate sectors.   Note the application process has changed to a single-stage application this round (i.e. no EOI round).   On offer ✅ Grants from $1m–$10m ✅ Up to 50% co‑funding required ✅ Focus on scalable, durable solutions aligned with net zero by 2050 📅 Applications close 6 May 2026 (5pm AEST)   With Easter around the corner, that means you should be starting your application now!   More information in the comments. #CarbonCapture #ClimateTech #NetZero #CleanTech #Innovation #Grants #Australia

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Your invoices are in Xero. Your tasks are in Asana. Your docs are in Drive. Your conversations are in Slack. Your CRM is in HubSpot. Five tools. Five versions of the truth. None of them talking to each other. Every founder I know is running their business across a dozen disconnected systems and spending half their week being the human glue between them. Copying data from one place to another. Chasing context that exists somewhere but nobody can find it. The game changes when your team can actually compound on the same data instead of constantly rebuilding context from scratch. That’s now a million times easier with something called MCP (Model Context Protocol). It’s an open source protocol that connects the tools you already use to a natural language interface like Claude. One conversation that can see across your whole stack. It came out of the team at Anthropic and I think it’s going to be as impactful as HTTP. If all these initialisms are losing you, I wrote a longer piece breaking it down. https://lnkd.in/ecYjJwGB

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Small businesses can still be mighty. Today we are proud to announce a new Bird Beam Community Impact Initiative. Bird Beam works with farms, commercial facilities, and industrial sites across Australia to solve persistent bird problems using advanced, science-backed and humane deterrent technology. But we also believe in contributing to the bigger picture. For many years we have coordinated a large Christmas food appeal through the Reverse Advent Calendar, supporting local community organisations and food relief agencies with more than $100,000 worth of non-perishable food donations. Today we are pleased to take another step in that commitment. Bird Beam has partnered with We Are Mobilise, an Australian initiative supporting people experiencing homelessness. Through this partnership, every Bird Beam system sold will contribute to accommodation support for Australians doing it tough. • Every Wingzaway system contributes funding equivalent to 3 nights of accommodation • Every AVIX laser system contributes funding equivalent to 10 nights of accommodation For our business, the idea is simple. Solve a problem for our customers. Create a positive outcome for the community at the same time. We also welcome anyone to contribute alongside us. If this initiative resonates with you, you can support it by using the link in the comments. We are proud to support the important work being done by We Are Mobilise and look forward to growing this impact over time. #communityimpact #homelessnesssupport #birdcontrol #agtech #freightlogistics #birdbeam #wingzaway #wearemobilise Wingzaway Bird Control Group

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Attention Australia. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol is updating its Scope 2 guidance - an essential framework for how companies account for emissions from purchased electricity. These changes will influence how companies source and claim carbon-free energy. Energy physics, common sense and hourly matching are key. The public comment period is open. To make a submission highly recommend this Climate Group and EnergyTag webinar hosted by Killian Daly, Rachel S., Shailesh Telang and Sam Kimmins. For more see links in comments to webinar, relevant websites and recent conversations on david roberts Volts podcast and Spark Club podcast. #24/7CFE

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Australia’s new climate reporting requirements roll out this July. Many customers (and partners) are still working out what it means and where to begin. Here’s the good news👇 Partners and their customers with revenue under $50M can now access a complimentary entry level climate report through Carbonhalo, exclusively with Tech Data. It’s a simple way to: • Start climate conversations with ease • Demonstrate value fast • Identify which customers need deeper support • Or just benchmark your own carbon footprint Why partners are leaning in: With Carbonhalo, you can guide customers from first assessment all the way through to full compliance and build a scalable new services offering as demand accelerates. ✔ Recurring revenue built around growing compliance needs ✔ Strong differentiation in IT & Sustainability ✔ Full support and enablement through Carbonhalo Climate reporting widens again in 2027, making this the perfect time to build capability. Start customer discussions and position yourself early. Join our upcoming webinar to learn more, we look forward to connecting with you soon! 📅 Webinar: 25 February 🕐 1:00pm–1:30pm AEDT 🎙 Speakers: Colin Pont & Robbie Upcroft 👉 Register here: http://ms.spr.ly/6047QV8RD #TechDataANZ #PartnerEcosystem #AUSChannel #MSPs #MSSPs #MSPtechdata #MSPAustralia #ITServicesAustralia #ManagedServices #MSPCommunity #CloudServiceProviders #ChannelPartners

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By 2030, every significant Australian business will need a connected climate tech stack. ⚒️ Not just carbon accounting. Not just a consultant. A connected ecosystem of tools, advisors and platforms that moves from data through to reporting, assurance, transition planning and implementation. Right now the ecosystem is fragmented and the landscape is shifting, all while Australian companies come under mandatory climate reporting in Groups 2 and 3. The organisations that get the stack right won't just be compliant. They'll be using sustainability data to drive strategic decisions – linking emissions to financial risk, modelling transition pathways, and embedding climate into the way they run their business. That’s what makes working in climate tech so interesting right now. 💚 Our MD Tai Lennon will delve into this next week at Climate Action Week Sydney💙 Tai will join an expert panel, chaired by Alison Rowe (CEO Edge Impact), bringing together perspectives from corporate sustainability, regulation, assurance and technology, and followed by roundtables diving into practical detail. Spaces are limited so if you’d like to join, reach out to us directly. We’re looking forward to this one! Daniel Lovett Victoria Whitaker Lochie Burke Marc Allen Laurel-Lee Blain Stéphane Schneider Matt van Someren Laura Reed Dr. Elliott More CEng #ClimateActionWeek #ClimateTech #Sustainability #TransitionPlanning #Collaboration

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