LADERA RANCH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (“SmartStop” or the “Company”), a self-managed and fully integrated self storage company, announced that it was recognized as the top 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year annualized total return performer among Lifecycle REITs in the summer 2022 issue of THE IPA/STANGER MONITOR™. SmartStop’s Class A share achieved a 1-year total return of approximately 51.3%, a 3-year annualized total return of approximately 18.3%, and a 5-year annualized total return of approximately 14.1%.

“We’ve worked diligently over the past 18 years to build and grow a premier brand and storage portfolio that not only provides quality service to our customers but also provides strong value to our stockholders,” said H. Michael Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of SmartStop. “Recognition by THE IPA/STANGER MONITOR validates our income and growth strategy, the remarkable achievements of our team, and the robustness of our platform. It is gratifying to, once again, be identified as a top performer in the Lifecycle REIT category.”

THE IPA/STANGER MONITOR is sponsored by the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (“IPA”) and authored and published by Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc. (“Stanger”). THE IPA/STANGER MONITOR performance analysis tracks the total return of non-listed REITs, including 22 lifecycle REITs and 17 Net Asset Value (“NAV”) REITs with a combined market capitalization of over $114.4 billion. The information included in this press release is from THE IPA/STANGER MONITOR, Volume IV No. 3, released in summer 2022. For more information, visit https://rastanger.com/.

About SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (SmartStop):

SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (“SmartStop”) is a self-managed REIT with a fully integrated operations team of approximately 450 self storage professionals focused on growing the SmartStop® Self Storage brand. SmartStop, through its indirect subsidiary SmartStop REIT Advisors, LLC, also sponsors other self storage programs. As of August 23, 2022, SmartStop has an owned or managed portfolio of 174 properties in 22 states and Ontario, Canada, comprising approximately 119,200 units and 13.5 million rentable square feet. SmartStop and its affiliates own or manage 19 operating self storage properties in the Greater Toronto Area, which total approximately 16,200 units and 1.6 million rentable square feet. Additional information regarding SmartStop is available at www.smartstopselfstorage.com.

Contacts

David Corak
VP of Corporate Finance

SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc.

949-542-3331

IR@smartstop.com

Registration opens for Augmenta pilot program for electrical contractors and engineers to evaluate its automated design solution for the construction industry

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Augmenta, the company automating building design for the construction industry, today announced the Electrical Design Module, the first Generative Design solution for its Augmenta Construction Platform (ACP). The module addresses the needs of electrical contractors and engineers, enabling them to accelerate the time it takes to estimate and create fully constructible, code-compliant electrical raceway designs by automating the entire process.

While today’s shop drawings typically only model the main runs of an electrical distribution system, the Augmenta Construction Platform can create fully detailed designs for entire projects in hours instead of weeks or months. Using Generative Design, the Electrical Design Module for the ACP delivers accurate, National Electrical Code® (NEC) compliant, fully detailed 3D raceway designs, complete with a bill of materials. This not only reduces design time by up to 70%, it also eliminates double entry, and provides the ability to evaluate multiple design options against cost, construction time, and maintainability. The generated designs are more efficient, requiring up to 20% less material and labor than traditional designs. The Electrical Design Module also cuts the time required to estimate projects by up to 50%. These benefits enable engineers and contractors to make better use of their teams, letting them focus on higher value activities.

“The Electrical Design Module for our Augmenta Construction Platform is the first of several solutions we are developing to automate building design,” said Francesco Iorio, CEO and co-founder of Augmenta. “We’re tackling the toughest design challenges in the construction industry, and plan to also provide solutions for plumbing, mechanical, and structural engineers and contractors. Our ultimate goal is to deliver an integrated solution that eliminates the time consuming and error prone processes of designing systems, and sharing and coordinating those designs across trades.”

Using Generative Design and AI to solve one of the biggest design problems in construction

Today, the building design process is constrained by tools that act as little more than a digital drafting board. These tools make creating designs for electrical systems complex and time-consuming, often requiring several rounds of review, interpretation, and refinement. Each iteration takes time and money, making it impractical to explore alternative design options.

Until now, computational design and design automation have been used in the construction industry primarily for conceptual exploration by architects. For the first time, Augmenta is bringing the power of these techniques to all aspects of the design process. Using a novel combination of mathematical optimization and artificial intelligence to ensure designs are constructible and compliant, the ACP also leverages machine learning to continuously speed up the design process. This transformative approach enables the automated design of constructible buildings at a high level of detail, based on the requirements identified for a building and the applicable building codes.

The Electrical Design Module was developed in collaboration with Interstates, an innovative electrical contractor based in the U.S. “In a very short period of time, we saw how dramatically Augmenta’s approach to automated design can reduce the cost of the design process,” said Josh Gillespie, BIM/VDC Director at Interstates. “It enables us to decrease the risk of inaccurately scoping time and cost estimates while drastically reducing the time it takes to complete estimates for bids. This gives us additional time to present fully considered design alternatives, thus positioning our company as a strategic partner to our clients, which include general contractors, engineering firms, developers, and owners.”

Pilot program for electrical contracting or engineering firms

Augmenta is launching a pilot program for a limited number of electrical contracting or engineering firms to trial and evaluate the Electrical Design Module. Those interested can sign up to receive details at www.augmenta.ai/electrical.

About Augmenta

Founded by pioneers of Generative Design at Autodesk, Augmenta is a software company that is driving a new level of efficiency for the construction industry by automating building design. The company’s flagship Augmenta Construction Platform (ACP) significantly accelerates the time it takes to detail and estimate designs, eliminates costly redesign and rework, and reduces overall risk. It also ensures buildings are designed to be energy efficient, use sustainable materials, are safer to build, and contribute less waste to landfill during construction. Once available commercially, this innovative new cloud-based platform – which uses artificial intelligence, including machine learning and mathematical optimization – will enable contractors and engineers to create error-free, constructible, code-compliant designs of buildings and systems in hours instead of weeks. For additional information, visit augmenta.ai.

Contacts

Lisa Ballard

Boulevard Public Relations (for Augmenta)

lisa@boulevardpr.com

PALATKA, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Saint-Gobain, through its building products subsidiary CertainTeed LLC, will install recycling technology at its gypsum plant in Palatka, Florida, increasing the recycled content in its wallboard products manufactured in Palatka by 18,000 tons/year while also reducing the site’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2,260 tons/year.

The project represents a $1.1 Million investment from CertainTeed and comes as Saint-Gobain continues to roll out its new global Grow and Impact strategy, which includes reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts at its manufacturing sites.

Gypsum wallboard is made from a gypsum slurry that is poured and dries between two sheets of paper. Some scrap materials, consisting of gypsum and paper, are normally created every time a production line is started up or shut down, or when production equipment is changed to manufacture different sizes of wallboard.

The new recycling technology in Palatka will work by grinding the waste gypsum and waste paper down into fine particles, allowing the plant to capture and internally recycle the materials, which are sorted and then reintroduced to the production process at the plant.

Today, each wallboard produced at CertainTeed’s Palatka facility includes recycled content. The upgraded technology, which the company plans to take online later this year, will increase the amount of recycled material in wallboard manufactured in Palatka.

The new equipment is powered by electricity and replaces older equipment currently powered by diesel, lowering the plant’s Scope 1 Emissions from its operations. Additionally, by consuming more recycled gypsum, the plant is less reliant on feedstock that is shipped to Palatka from external sources, allowing the site to also reduce Scope 3 Emissions associated with transporting the feedstock.

The investment in Palatka follows similar investments that will increase the recycled content of wallboard made at CertainTeed’s gypsum plants in Silver Grove, Kentucky and Nashville, Arkansas.

“In Palatka and at all of our manufacturing sites in North America, our team will continue to aggressively pursue opportunities to maximize our company’s positive impact, for our customers and the communities where we operate, while minimizing our environmental footprint,” said Jay Bachmann, Vice President and General Manager of CertainTeed Interior Products Group. “The new technology in Palatka will allow us to increase the recycled content in our products, reduce our carbon dioxide emissions at the plant, and strengthen our operations at a time of unprecedented consumer demand for gypsum wallboard in the southeastern United States.”

CertainTeed’s Palatka plant began operations in 2001 and sits on more than 100 acres of land in Putnam County. Today the plant is home to 150 employees and is one of the largest employers in Palatka, and also one of the largest gypsum plants in the southeastern United States. The plant is currently hiring for several roles in engineering and production. A complete listing of job openings at all Saint-Gobain locations, including the CertainTeed site in Palatka, can be found on the company’s website.

The investment in recycling technology in Palatka follows several other recent actions taken by the company to solidify its commitment towards sustainability:

• In July, Saint-Gobain announced the upgrade of key equipment at its Buchanan, New York gypsum plant, saving nearly 700,000 kWh of electricity per year and also reducing the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• In June, Saint-Gobain announced a $91 Million CAD investment in its gypsum plant in Montreal, creating the first zero-carbon manufacturing site for wallboard in North America and increasing the plant’s production capacity by 40%.
• In May, Saint-Gobain announced its newly installed recycling technology at its gypsum wallboard plant in Nashville, Arkansas would save 65,000 tons of material per year from landfill.
• In April, Saint-Gobain entered into a recycling partnership at its SageGlass electrochromic glass production site in Fairbault, Minnesota, saving 1,000 tons of material per year from landfill over the next five years.
• In March, Saint-Gobain North America announced it would install heat recovery technology at its CertainTeed gypsum manufacturing site in Vancouver, British Columbia, which will reduce the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10% and improve its energy efficiency.
• Also in March, Saint-Gobain announced that through its virtual Power Purchase Agreement with the Blooming Grove Wind Farm in McLean County, Illinois, and additional renewables contracting, the company received renewable energy certificates that effectively reduced approximately 33% of its CO2 emissions from electricity usage in 2021 in the United States and Canada.
• In February, the company invested $32 Million to upgrade equipment at its insulation plant in Chowchilla, California, reducing the facility’s carbon footprint by more than 4,000 metric tons per year.
• In January, Saint-Gobain North America donated a zero energy ready house in Canton, Ohio, made with more than 20 of its own products, to Habitat for Humanity.

About CertainTeed

Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has helped shape the building products industry for more than 115 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm’s slogan “Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed,” inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed is a leading North American brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, solar, fence, railing, trim, insulation, drywall and ceilings. www.certainteed.com.

About Saint-Gobain

Worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and services for the construction and industrial markets. Its integrated solutions for the renovation of public and private buildings, light construction and the decarbonization of construction and industry are developed through a continuous innovation process and provide sustainability and performance. The Group’s commitment is guided by its purpose, “MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER HOME”.

€44.2 billion in sales in 2021

167,000 employees, located in 76 countries

Committed to achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2050

For more details on Saint-Gobain, visit http://www.saint-gobain.com and follow us on Twitter @saintgobain.

Contacts

Media

David Rosen

Saint-Gobain

Corporate Communications

Media@saint-gobain.com

The company is modernizing the way building managers work with service vendors across all asset classes

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–VendorPM, a marketplace connecting building managers and service vendors, today announced that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Prudence with significant contribution from Bessemer Venture Partners, Navitas Capital and Alate Partners. Strategic investors in the round include Colliers and RXR alongside notable angels; Dick Costolo (Former CEO of Twitter), Mark Rose (Chair & CEO of Avison Young) and others.

This latest funding round follows VendorPM’s recent $6 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and will enable the company to continue to reinvest in building out their world-class team and platform. In doing so, VendorPM will address the strong market demand as well as support their expansion into additional U.S. markets including Chicago, IL and Washington, DC. Additionally, the new funding round will enable VendorPM to build out new product offerings for both service vendors and property managers including new payment technology solutions to enable an increasingly frictionless workflow with a comprehensive platform experience from procurement to payment.

The VendorPM SaaS platform and marketplace supports over 5,000 buildings and close to 40,000 service vendors across major Canadian cities and a growing number of U.S. cities. Building managers use VendorPM for its modern, standardized approach to vendor management, sourcing, procurement and compliance. Regardless of asset class, VendorPM is the single most efficient way to obtain multiple bids across every building service and simplify the many steps that come before and after. As a result, leading property management firms across North America are evolving old school practices such as email and word of mouth, to using VendorPM to unlock standardized visibility and control into what has been a rather opaque workflow to date. Currently hosting 120+ leading commercial real estate organizations and property management groups including Colliers, Golub & Co, Avison Young, BentallGreenOak and more, VendorPM plans to aggressively expand their U.S. footprint, already having undergone a strong market entry into Chicago, Illinois.

“Our industry’s need for modernization has never been felt like this before. People are getting busier and their budgets are getting tighter. We can not expect different results if we don’t improve and innovate,” said CEO Emiel Bril. “That is why our industry is turning to VendorPM; to cut operating costs in a meaningful way while enabling their teams to buy-back precious time in an otherwise outdated workflow. This $20 million investment will ensure that as our users’ expectations increase, we continue to raise the bar, and set a new industry standard.”

“Property managers in North America alone spend over $400 billion to service their buildings each year and almost all of this spend is procured, managed and paid manually,” said Gavin Myers, Managing Partner of Prudence. “VendorPM is building the automation layer for this massive segment and we’re thrilled to partner with Emiel and the rest of the VendorPM team as they address this global opportunity.”

About VendorPM

VendorPM is a software-enabled marketplace that modernizes how property managers work with vendors through enhancing vendor management, sourcing, procurement & compliance. This one-of-a-kind two-sided marketplace allows property managers to connect with vendors to fulfill projects and contracts of all sizes and scopes while enabling vendors to effortlessly market their services. Today, VendorPM serves close to 40,000+ vendors, 120+ property management groups, and 5,000+ buildings across the US and Canada. Notable users include Colliers, Golub & Co., Avison Young, BentallGreenOak, and many more.

About Prudence

Prudence is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology companies leading the global transformation of the real estate sector. Prudence is an early investor in companies such as Casafari, Compass (COMP), CREXi, Evernest, Hemlane, Maxwell, Morty, Properly and Sundae. The firm is headquartered in New York City and has an office in London. Learn more at www.prudence.vc.

Contacts

Ethan Chamish

echamish@vendorpm.com

This integration marks the latest step forward in FCT’s mission to fuel growth and innovation across the real estate industry

OAKVILLE, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FCT, the leading national service provider in real estate technology and title insurance, announced today an integration with Canadian Residential Appraisal Library (CRAL) ReportPro™ from ACI, a leading innovator in collateral valuation technologies.

This integration allows appraisers to directly populate appraisal forms with residential property information, capturing key data points in one click and reducing turnaround times by more than half in many instances.

“Our integration with ACI aligns with our commitment to provide our customers with intuitive, data-driven products and deliver the highest quality of service,” said Daniela DeTommaso, president of FCT. “By combining FCT’s industry leading technology with ACI’s robust data and innovative workflow solutions, we are one step closer to creating a seamless experience across the real estate lifecycle.”

“We are excited to partner with FCT in advancing the Canadian appraisal market through collaborative innovation,” said Jeremy Staudenmaier, managing senior director at ACI. “This initiative is a major step forward in modernizing the appraisal process, while maintaining the high standard of quality their customers have come to expect.”

About FCT

Based in Oakville, Ontario, FCT has over 1,000 employees across the country. FCT provides industry-leading title insurance, default solutions and other real estate-related products and services to approximately 450 lenders, 43,000 legal professionals and 5,000 recovery professionals, as well as real estate agents, mortgage brokers and builders, nationwide.

The Great Place to Work® Institute has named FCT one of Canada’s Top 50 Best Workplaces for eight consecutive years (2015-2022) and certified FCT as a Great Place to Work. The company was also recognized for the third consecutive year (2020-2022) on the list of Best Workplaces™ for Women. Earlier this year, FCT’s parent company, First American Financial Corporation, was named was named one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Great Place to Work® and Fortune magazine for the seventh consecutive year.

For more information on FCT, please visit the company website at www.fct.ca.

About ACI

ACI specializes in creating innovative workflow solutions for real estate appraisers, appraisal management companies and financial institutions. Backed by analysis-driven tools and industry expertise, ACI’s cloud-based and enterprise software applications empower stakeholders with a streamlined approach to managing forms, rules and data, while operating with audit-ready transparency and compliance. Through visionary leadership and dedication to client service, ACI has served as a reliable and driving force in the valuation industry for nearly 40 years. Headquartered in Palm Coast, Florida, ACI is a member of the First American (NYSE: FAF) family of companies.

For more information, visit www.aciweb.com.

Contacts

Jacquie Alford

Communications Manager

905.483.4568

jaalford@fct.ca

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adastra, a global leader in AI and machine learning, is proud to announce that it has been awarded a $1.1-million investment from SCALE AI to support a supply chain optimization platform project for their partner Taiga Building Products.

SCALE AI is Canada’s supercluster dedicated to strengthening the country’s leadership role in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science. This is the second project SCALE AI has funded for Adastra this year, after their investment of $1-million into developing a smart platform to optimize agricultural yield in April 2022.

”By using AI to enable data-driven decisions on these critical elements of Taiga’s supply chain there will be a direct impact to the consumer with available inventory, lower costs, and a wider variety of products,” says Darren Edery, CEO, Adastra. “One of Taiga’s retail customers will participate in the project and provide real-time data that will be integrated into Taiga’s ‘just-in-time’ inventory model to create tangible impact along the building materials supply chain.”

Adastra saw a need for the project due to the fragmented nature of the building materials supply chain. The overall goal of this initiative is to use data inputs that are readily available in disparate systems and use advanced AI techniques to solve three of the most pressing bottlenecks in the building materials supply chain: accurate demand forecasting, maximizing truck loads, and optimizing warehouse layouts.

“Taiga sees the use of technology, specifically machine learning/artificial intelligence technology at the retail level to be a meaningful advancement for our customers,” says Hanif Jessani, Director, IT, Taiga Building Products. “The promotion of these tools will increase revenue for our customers and improve the overall value chain in the LBM space.”

In 2021, Adastra was awarded a Microsoft Impact Award in artificial intelligence. These annual awards recognize Microsoft partners that have focused on bettering the lives of Canadians and demonstrated excellence in sales, marketing, skilling, innovation, and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Coupled with their two projects funded by SCALE AI, Adastra is quickly becoming a leader in helping organizations address complex supply chain issues with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Their proven solutions in the space have been unlocking value for organizations and their clients.

Contact us to find out how Adastra can help your organization on your AI/ML journey.

About Adastra

Adastra transforms businesses into digital leaders. Since 2000, Adastra has been helping global organizations accelerate innovation, improve operational excellence, and create unforgettable customer experiences, all with the power of their data. By providing industry-leading Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Digital, and Governance services and solutions, Adastra helps enterprises leverage data that they can manage and trust, connecting them to their customers – and their customers to the world. We have a proven track record of delivering enterprise-grade solutions to Fortune 1000 and SME organizations across all industries. More information can be found at www.adastracorp.com.

Contacts

Claire Elder, Corporate Communications, 1-647-308-8952

claire.elder@adastragrp.com