Serious Materials Changes Company Name to Serious Energy

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Serious Materials announced today that it has changed its name to Serious Energy. The new name reflects the company's suite of energy software services and advanced building products designed to increase the value of America’s buildings, for both owners and occupants. For building owners, the goal is to increase net operating income. For occupants, the goal is to increase comfort, productivity, and health at lower operating cost.

“Our industry must help raise the value of America’s buildings. Our economic stability and growth depends on it”

We spend over 90% of our lives inside buildings where we live, work, study, and shop. American commercial and residential real estate has lost trillions of dollars of value. Since 2007, commercial property values dropped 40%, and the average home value is down 27% or more. The U.S. Department of Energy states that America’s buildings account for approximately 40% of total U.S. energy consumption, costing $400 billion annually. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that some 30% of buildings’ energy is simply wasted.

Improving the comfort, productivity, and health of occupants is critical to increasing building value. Independent studies have shown that quiet office spaces improve employee productivity, and upgrades that increase natural daylighting can lead to decreased absenteeism and higher productivity. Energy efficiency increases the value of a building. A platform of smart energy management with advanced materials upgrades of our buildings offer a simple, fast, and capital-efficient way to deliver increased value.

“Our industry must help raise the value of America’s buildings. Our economic stability and growth depends on it,” said Kevin Surace, President & CEO of Serious Energy. “We’re serious about energy, serious about our buildings, and serious about delivering value in a manner that is realistic, capital-efficient, and achievable.”

Serious Energy is addressing the enormous opportunity to unleash the value in buildings with a platform of products and services that combine real-time, connected building analytics and control with material science innovations. SeriousEnergy Manager™ is a breakthrough cloud-based software system that monitors, optimizes, and controls building energy use through advanced algorithms. SeriousWindows™ and iWindow™ significantly improve the building envelope, improving comfort and reducing heating and cooling. QuietRock® delivers soundproofing and improved acoustics, enabling buildings to increase density and productivity.

Numerous studies show that property owners and managers who help improve the quality of indoor environments for tenants and occupants are able to be more competitive today and more profitable in the long term. According to McGraw Hill, energy efficiency improvements can consistently command higher rental rates, offer faster letting, and secure greater occupancy, thereby increasing the overall value of the building. As demonstrated by the energy efficiency improvements of the Empire State Building, including the upgrade of all 6,514 windows, the iconic building has attracted new corporate tenants such as LinkedIn, and rents have in many cases increased by $20 to $40 per square foot.

“Silicon Valley regularly churns out the innovations that change the world,” said Forest Baskett, PhD, General Partner at NEA. “Buildings touch us all – almost every hour, every day. Serious Energy is Silicon Valley’s response to what are some of the greatest economic challenges of our time – our excessive energy use, our productivity, and our well-being.”

About Serious Energy, Inc.

Serious Energy’s platform of products and services are designed to increase the value of buildings for both owners and occupants by combining real-time, connected building analytics and control with material science innovations. SeriousEnergy Manager is a cloud-based enterprise software system that monitors, optimizes, and controls building energy use using advanced algorithm technology. SeriousWindows and iWindow significantly improve building envelope energy performance, improving comfort and reducing heating and cooling. QuietRock delivers improved comfort through reduced-material patented soundproofing technology, enabling buildings to increase density and help improve productivity. With an advanced software development team, six manufacturing plants and a broad network of distributors throughout the U.S. and Canada, Serious Energy products have been installed in over 70,000 projects worldwide, including the Empire State Building. For more information, visit www.SeriousEnergy.com.