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00:00:13.240Welcome to another episode of Sustainability Unveiled.
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00:00:21.332As always, my name is Jessica Hunt and I am the host of this podcast, and I'm so thrilled to have our guest on with us today.
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00:00:34.582Dan Diehl, ceo and President of Air Cutie, is here, and I'm going to give Dan the floor first, just to let us know a little bit about his background, and thank you so much for being with us today.
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00:00:35.685Thanks for having me.
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00:00:59.832Yeah, my background, I guess, is really my whole career has been spent in the built environment to so large commercial buildings and it's been a mix of new construction, energy efficiency, sustainability and, in a couple different areas, but primarily HVAC, building controls and lighting energy efficiency over my career.
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00:01:10.314Wonderful and, as a fellow Terp fan and graduate of the University of Maryland, what kind of led you on this path to where you are today?
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00:01:14.168Yeah, I graduated as a mechanical engineer from the University of Maryland.
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00:01:16.153I'm definitely proud of it, I'm very fond of it.
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00:01:30.688You know I started my career actually at Johnson Controls, you know out of college and so that kind of introduced me into this space and and kind of what, what led me down this path and that you know that was, I guess, the simple start of it.
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00:01:43.049But you know, during, as I mentioned, during that career, I had a pretty long tenure there for 11 years, but left to do something entrepreneurial after a graduate degree in business and then so I had my own.
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00:01:51.873I was partnering with somebody in another business doing energy efficient lighting, and then kind of had a stint with Lutron For the last gosh.
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00:01:53.063It's now like 16 years.
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00:02:05.864I've been with Air Acuity, kind of joined it at the very early start, early days of kind of launching kind of Air Acuity as a technology, a platform for the built environment, so again.
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00:02:12.211So most of all of my career has been in either one of those two fields and working in commercial buildings.
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00:02:30.539And before we get into some more conversation about air acuity and Thrive Buildings, which we haven't talked about yet, I would really like to know your opinion and your experience in terms of how the industry that you are in has really changed and evolved since you began your career.
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00:02:38.495Yeah, that's a really good question and I think I don't know if I would be completely unique in this in this response.
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00:02:55.872I think it has, to a large degree, change and evolve, but not nearly as fast as many other industries, and I think there's some interesting kind of reasons why buildings tend to be much, much longer, less turnover.
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00:03:00.810So a life of a building could be 50, 70.
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00:03:03.082Obviously, we even see buildings that have been around a lot longer than that 50, 70,.
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00:03:20.278You know, obviously we even see buildings that have been around a lot longer than that and you know it tends to be a more conservative group, with engineers, architects and building owners and operators that you know kind of have ways of doing things and maybe systems set up in place that work for them.
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00:03:30.993And so change, I think in our space tends to happen a little bit slower than, say, like software or some other industries which have a much quicker turn.
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00:03:36.507I think even automotive is like a seven to 10-year kind of lifecycle turnover.
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00:03:43.991So when I think about our industry I think wow, a lot has changed and technology has been.
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00:03:47.241I actually got in really dating myself.
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00:03:57.951I've got introduced into the market when pneumatic controls were a thing and was there for the launch of direct digital controls for building automation systems.
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00:04:00.186So I've seen some of that change.
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00:04:02.562I saw all in the technology coming through in lighting, james.
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00:04:16.136I saw all the technology coming through in lighting, and now you see the advance of analytics and a lot of people talking about AI for the built environment and fault-detection diagnostic systems and independent data layer systems.
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00:04:18.259So there has been a lot of change.
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00:04:22.389But again, that's over a 30-plus career that that's all happened.
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00:04:26.226So I do think it's changed the speed of adoption.
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00:04:27.528It tends to be slower than that.
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00:04:31.771I can definitely see that, especially with working with the different clients.
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00:04:41.579What are some of the biggest goals that you have as the president and CEO of AirCuity and Thrive Buildings?
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00:04:47.747What do you want to see come down the pipeline with your companies in terms of hitting those?
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00:05:00.345customers, and I will really start by saying I think the thing we're most proud of is we work with customers that almost every single person that would listen to this podcast or have heard of and know of.
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00:05:01.687So it's large.
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00:05:14.942You know over 350 or so large institutional, on and on and on, and then you would have large life science firms and large healthcare, legal healthcare providers, research institutions.
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00:05:19.810We'd even do large commercial office in places like Apple and Google.
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00:05:24.120So the names we work with are really, you know, obviously really proud of that.
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00:05:35.886Following that, I would then say that our job is to assist them with their sustainability goals, and I think that goes back to a story of just you know kind of.
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00:05:51.872If you look at my personal evolution in the built environment, it really stems from the fact that you know kind of started with getting buildings to have better control systems so that they could operate more efficiently, and that, you know that kind of started me down that path.
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00:06:19.593And lighting was the same, you know the same activity set of basically getting equipment and operations and maintenance to be more efficient to help customer facilities with, you know, with lower cost and in a more sustainable manner, and what really kind of introduced me to Air Acuity was having seen those two kind of technologies come into the market and get adopted and make a big difference.
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00:06:44.314At the time I was leaving lighting, it was really just looking at, okay, what's going to be the next thing that really needs to evolve and improve in the built environment, and I really looked at that as air-centered energy efficiency, meaning like the amount of ventilation and the amount of heating, cooling and ventilation that happens in buildings really could be optimized pretty significantly and specifically for we do.
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00:06:52.528We do a lot of larger, more complex type building, clean rooms and healthcare, you know facilities.
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00:07:01.281So when you, when you look at those types of facilities, they they use and utilize a lot more energy than like a normal commercial office building would.
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00:07:09.093So I think the two things that really drove me and attracted me to air acuity was okay, how do we tackle those more complex buildings?
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00:07:11.483Number one, because there's a much bigger impact.
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00:07:20.288And then also, how do we just in general improve this area of efficiency and sustainability, build an environment you know going forward.
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00:07:27.023So it was exciting, it was newer and I saw it as being a really big opportunity.
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00:07:41.012So that's really what attracted me and then, in the end of the day, the reason why we were able to work with those really good customers and do a lot of repeat business and more projects with them typically we work with clients over their portfolio.
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00:07:48.418We're not really just doing a project is because you know we can really demonstrate the impact we have from a little bit about that later.
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00:07:54.971But we do really make a really big impact, a significant impact as really attractive return on investment.
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00:07:57.505So it just makes a lot of business sense for our customers to do that.
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00:08:08.387And then having the you know, the co-benefits of sustainability and helping our customers in the pursuit of net zero and helping them achieve their sustainability goals is pretty.
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00:08:10.072That's really very honestly.
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00:08:12.148It's very rewarding and it's a lot of fun.
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00:08:28.303So I get to work with really smart people and really on really fun projects, whether they be brand new buildings coming out of the ground and achieving net zero or helping customers reduce the energy and the carbon goals that they have in their existing portfolio.
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00:08:30.269It's a lot of fun and very rewarding.
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00:08:32.822Rewarding and fun.
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00:09:00.035I mean, that's what you want when you go to work, right, you don't want to just go to work and do a job, you want to be able to come and really see that you are making a difference, which sounds like that you are doing with your clients Now sticking on the topic of air quality, and companies really, and your clients, as you said, really coming to realize that this is the next step in the built environment to help improve energy efficiency.
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00:09:01.279So is this benefit?
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00:09:19.705Has it driven people, you think, to choose this energy savings measure more often since the COVID-19 pandemic, when obviously air quality was such a huge part of the discussion, as well as the number of wildfires that have increased, especially in the United States and North America?
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00:09:24.836Yeah, I think those are absolutely drivers.
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00:09:41.852The awareness of indoor air quality is way more known and important as a health, wellness, productivity, and you now are kind of really seeing that kind of more full-on impetus to get people back into the office and work environments in general.
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00:09:55.135Across all those, if you look at it you know it's better research spaces or better outcomes for, you know, for an operating room, or more productivity and health and wellness for an office worker.
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00:10:04.230I mean, all of those have really large benefits that go well beyond just energy savings and sustainability, I would say unfortunately.
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00:10:24.836But I do think that many times they're overlooked when it comes to procurement and a lot of times we are doing and we are in the business of dealing with facilities and they look at things very much, tend to look at things from like a hard ROI how much energy am I saving, how much is this particular project costing?
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00:10:45.631But when you look at all those co-benefits and when you look at and you really think about them we have one customer that talks about their insurance being the best in the whole entire UC system and how much money they're able to save through better environmental, health and safety programs and the way they operate their research facilities.
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00:11:02.558There are a lot of co-benefits and when you look at all of those you know kind of together it has driven more people to kind of understand that this is a big and important area and it touches a lot of different constituents.
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00:11:07.216It's not just a facilities quote-unquote issue but it's really a C-suite issue.
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00:11:16.234You know, when we work with our customers, many times we might have four or five different constituent groups at the table talking about our projects.
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00:11:22.351It might be animal research professionals, it might be environmental, health and safety, it might be infection control, it might be quality and compliance.
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00:11:28.894You know, alongside the facilities, alongside the sustainability, alongside with the quality and compliance, you know, alongside the facilities, alongside the sustainability, alongside with the C-suite.
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00:11:31.730So a lot of times it takes it's a very.
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00:11:34.378It's a very when you talk about, you know, airflow.
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00:11:39.697I think this is really important and it impacts everybody, all those things it impacts.
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00:11:42.649And so what we always talk about is really optimizing.
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00:11:47.619You know, optimizing airflow and the systems.
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00:12:01.255You're trying to not reduce it, you're trying to provide the right amount where and when you need it and in general that saves a significant amount of energy, creates a really meaningful economic impact, impact for them.
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00:12:10.693It also actually enhances the performance on all those fronts, because many times you're actually providing a lot more error when and when you need it.
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00:12:22.277And you also now are measuring outcomes you know we always talk about you can't really improve and or understand what's happening in your buildings until you measure it, until you measure it effectively over time.
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00:12:29.734So it's really important that you know, as anything else, you know whether it's KPIs in business or whether it's.
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00:12:34.456You know you're tracking your fitness on your Apple watch or whatever it may be.
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00:12:43.937You know you really do need to measure things and to understand what's actually happening to be able to make an improvement in intelligent business decisions from there.
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00:12:46.812So it's just a big part of what we do.
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00:13:05.269We try to do that accurately for the life of the building measure the key indoor air quality parameters and really feed that into an automated response system and then also allow the different constituents to see that data and take action on that data, use it for compliance, use it for health and safety.
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00:13:16.075You know reporting and better addressing of where there are problems in a specific building and where they may be able to be more proactive and reactive.
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00:13:38.336So anyway, so it's really that again has been a huge, really exciting, I think, improvement in the built environment is being able to measure the different indoor air quality parameters and being able to take action with them, and that is definitely something that's been newer over the last really decade in our space.
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00:13:54.994I can definitely see that, and while I was listening to you speak, one thing that just kept popping back into my head was a school building, having kids that are in the school system and the air quality, or lack thereof, depending on the time of year or the building.
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00:14:12.981There really doesn't seem to be any consistency within specific school buildings, for example, but in terms of the built environment in general, is that something that you find clients are having to deal with, or owners of specific buildings?
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00:14:17.972Yes, yeah, it's, you know, 100 percent.
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00:14:20.538And in schools is really good example.
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00:14:30.120And that, you know, when I think about schools, I think all the way from higher ed to a large teaching building at a university or a student library, all the way down to K-12.
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00:14:46.200And I know them all fairly well from kind of like a perspective in the HVAC design perspective, and we and others in the industry see all sides of indoor air quality when it comes to those buildings and how they operate.
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00:15:13.318And just as it can go to the simplest example, just a K through 12 classroom building that doesn't have, you know, operable windows for whatever reason, and they have not a lot of fresh air coming in, and you could have that class packed and CO2 levels going up well over 2000 parts per million, which, not to go down a rabbit hole in terms of what that means, but it's really bad in terms of how well your body and brain is going to be able to function in that classroom.
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00:15:33.378So we, you know, having control systems and having air quality measurement and control that actually works to make sure that those buildings are ventilated appropriately for the task at hand, and it's a really important aspect of you know.
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00:15:37.706And it also relates, then, to how often kids will get sick.
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00:15:41.756How much will you know infectious?
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00:15:48.368You know airborne particles spread in a school and you know how well they're filtering the air.
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00:16:05.070There's a lot of different sides to that, so it's a certainly deeper conversation, but to your point, it's a very important one, and you know certainly our job and what we try to work on every day in the various building types that we work in is how to make sure that that's improved.
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00:16:08.572To the degree that we do that, what kind of control systems do they need?
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00:16:11.774Their filtration, are they measuring it?
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00:16:14.815Do they know what's happening in their buildings first and foremost?
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00:16:16.889And so there's a lot of different.
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00:16:44.817You know a lot of different tentacles to that, but, yeah, it's a really important aspect and everybody's a lot more aware of it after the pandemic, seeing how we all learned that that particular pandemic was spread with airborne respiratory-grade particles and certainly in improperly ventilated spaces, you are going to be much, much more susceptible to getting COVID than you would be in an outdoor air environment where you've got.
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00:17:09.440It's always my favorite when one of my kids comes home and lets me know that there are kids absent in their class because they're sick Cause I just inevitably know that in the next week or so it's going to hit our house too, especially because where we live you can't you open the windows because of all everything that's going on in the United States in education today.
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00:17:18.759So that's a whole other aspect of something that you know our sustainability and our facilities here and to tackle and work around.
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00:17:19.539Yeah.
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00:17:19.880Yeah.
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00:17:30.865We have a lot of K-12 clients in Maryland actually, so there's been some really good school designs that have been brought to market and again, there's different views and different philosophies.
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00:17:45.696But there are some really I would say, more modern, I guess, or more current ACD designs where they have higher filtration, higher change rates, air quality measurement systems in the schools.
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00:17:49.991They are there and I think it's also really important.
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00:18:03.819Just message for generally, for people that would listen to this podcast, or just in general, there tends to be a lack of awareness that sustainable designs tend to be as cost effective.
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00:18:10.111Sometimes they cost a little bit more first cost, but from a life cycle cost perspective they're usually generally much better.
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00:18:13.133They're more energy efficient.
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00:18:21.935The systems that they're utilizing are used to less, so the O&M cost of those systems tends to be less.
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00:18:25.573So I think the biggest message always is to get out.
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00:18:33.930There is, looking at things from purely a first-cost basis tends to be one of the bigger problems in the industry, and that happens a lot in K-12,.
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00:18:42.105I think, just from my experience, that people tend to be short-sighted and first-cost is certainly important.
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00:18:45.424Well, I understand it 100%, but you really wouldn't score the gold in that, for again They'll get it wrong.
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00:18:50.176I understand it 100%, but you really, when you're in school, you're going to have to go in that for again 30 plus 50 years.
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00:18:54.190So you really want to be looking at the life cycle cost when you're designing those.
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00:19:08.770Definitely and, as you mentioned earlier too, and it's kind of like a domino effect where if the right systems are not in place, it can effect, as you said, healthcare within different buildings.
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00:19:15.398Specifically, if we're talking about a K-12 school, obviously the teachers and the students that are in the school and that can have repercussions that are just longstanding and continue down the road.
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00:19:24.109So you really do have to put that into your cost-benefit analysis when it comes to retrofitting a school or new sustainable designs that are coming out.
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00:19:46.138So, sticking on this topic a little bit more, when it comes to issues that buildings, building owners might deal with, based on your experience over the past 30 years, and even I would say more in the past 10, what have you seen as the top two or three biggest issues that really can get in the way of the decarbonization program?
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00:19:53.993Number one always is it really starts with leadership.
00:19:53.993 -->
00:19:57.865The reason is actually a pretty simple one to explain.
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00:20:01.611It is because there's a lot of different constituents that are involved.
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00:20:15.258It takes getting all those various parties at the table and really having a collaborative dialogue and an understanding of what we're trying to.
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00:20:17.907You just talked what's the mission here.
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00:20:18.949Is it education?
00:20:18.949 -->
00:20:23.474Is it really lower infection rates in the operating room?
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00:20:26.880Is it education?
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00:20:27.721Higher education?
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00:20:28.567Is it research?
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00:20:31.396Is it, you know, compliance for a clean room?
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00:20:35.789These, all you know, all these different facilities are mission critical.
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00:20:42.951They're there to support the mission and they're there to deliver an outcome that doesn't negatively impact it.
00:20:42.951 -->
00:20:55.525So what ends up happening is many times, I think in general, the built environment again gets relegated to a facilities-only conversation.
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00:21:12.818And where we see success and it is the 95 rule, where we see success, it comes from having a vision and an understanding of that at a higher level in the organization.
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00:21:28.141And it's the, you know, the leadership to get the different parties really working together and collaboratively again, together and collaboratively again, so that they're driving towards the mission.
00:21:32.684 -->
00:21:39.038And again, looking at all the different various what you and I were just discussing in terms of lifecycle cost versus first cost and the impact of this and all the different impacts of it.
00:21:39.038 -->
00:21:57.448And usually when that's done or those organizations are extremely successful and they again these have incredible return on when done right, and so it's actually just a better business approach as well, which I think is you know, first and foremost, the reality a lot of times.
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00:22:00.355What drives decisions is this needs to fit.
00:22:00.355 -->
00:22:05.973It can't cost 20x, you know, and in this case it usually doesn't.
00:22:05.973 -->
00:22:10.090It usually, you know it usually costs a percentage more upfront.
00:22:10.090 -->
00:22:20.189You know some of these, you know designs, but then again, if you look at all these other co-benefits and lifecycle costs, it usually wins out, you know, in spades.
00:22:20.189 -->
00:22:27.079So I think that would be my number one answer is really just, you know kind of about leadership and a shared vision inside of an organization.
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00:22:37.785I don't, and I think when you talk about economics look, I don't think, from at least what we do, it's really a cost issue.
00:22:37.785 -->
00:22:43.292If you look at utility rates around the country, they're skyrocketing and going up.
00:22:43.292 -->
00:22:49.080You know same percentages 20, 30%, really, really high.
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00:23:28.087There's a lot of drivers in the marketplace that are incentivizing, so there's utility incentives and there's drivers that are out there to motivate owners and now there's even a large, growing disincentive or penalties that are basically trying to drive owners and leaderships to act on these issues, and so they're looking at penalizing high energy human buildings, inefficient buildings, high carbon intensive buildings, buildings high carbon intensive buildings.
00:23:28.167 -->
00:23:31.915So there's a lot of drivers like that in New York and Boston and California and Denver and Seattle and Washington now.
00:23:31.915 -->
00:23:33.659So those exist out there.
00:23:33.659 -->
00:23:42.326So I think it's leadership, but I think it's just getting this education and getting the various people at the table.
00:23:42.326 -->
00:23:48.798That is the biggest solution to solving this problem.
00:23:48.798 -->
00:23:49.930The economics are there.
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00:24:01.516They shouldn't be the issue and what we see and what we struggle with usually is just getting to all the various and getting them to move forward.
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00:24:40.136As I'm listening to you talk about that, I'm also thinking of different regulations that you are dealing with, depending on the state that the company is that you're working with, along with just individual goals that the different stakeholders might have when it comes to their building designs and really maximizing their costs or I should say, minimizing their costs but maximizing the value and where they're going to see the most return on their investment and I know that it's really the industry has changed as a whole.
00:24:40.136 -->
00:24:41.728As you mentioned earlier.
00:24:41.728 -->
00:24:43.471It's not just a facilities problem.
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00:25:01.114It's you working with the different constituents, the different stakeholders, to really come up with a holistic plan that's going to help increase the efficiency of the building, whether we're talking about air quality or energy efficiency, everything and everything else within the realm of a built environment.
00:25:01.114 -->
00:25:05.076So I think that was a really good point that you had there.
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00:25:20.673One thing I get and we mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I would like to talk a little bit more about Thrive Buildings with you and if you could kind of go into what Thrive Buildings is all about for those who may be not familiar with it.
00:25:23.096 -->
00:25:34.009Well, we, we AirQD originally was a technology and a platform and was you know we were really trying to bring a technology to market and to build.
00:25:34.009 -->
00:25:37.974Environment has a lot of longstanding, large companies.
00:25:37.974 -->
00:25:39.917So I started with one Johnson Controls.
00:25:39.917 -->
00:25:49.530You have Siemens, you have Honeywell, you have Schneider, you have I can keep going on and on and on Carrier and Train and all sorts of these very large, longstanding companies that have been around for 100 years.
00:25:49.530 -->
00:25:58.346You almost think of them as like oligopolies or whatever and they kind of have a strong hold on the industry and the way things happen in the industry.
00:25:58.346 -->
00:26:05.855So we're trying to bring a new technology to market and that has been easy in this market, as I alluded to earlier.
00:26:05.855 -->
00:26:08.596And that's not you know, that has been easy in this market, as I alluded to earlier.
00:26:08.616 -->
00:26:27.353I think when you look at air acuity as a technology and a technology you know kind of a manufacturer like sometimes gets used in this industry of a technology in our platform we created Thrive and evolved Thrive solely to implement the technology and airside energy efficiency in existing buildings.
00:26:28.055 -->
00:26:49.107So what we saw customers the struggle with the most is that we or somebody else, a third party, could provide that technology to a customer, but that the end result wasn't fully realized and fully actualized because of a bunch of different reasons.
00:26:49.674 -->
00:27:05.346And so we saw that, from a new construction perspective, a lot of our, a lot of representatives could get our products back, could get it put into a building, then could put the system into a new construction building, and that would be all really fine and well.
00:27:05.346 -->
00:27:18.862But when it came to looking at an existing facility that was 30 years old and has a bunch of deferred maintenance and has older space, how do you do an air-side energy efficiency project in that building?
00:27:18.862 -->
00:27:25.569So not by matter of like, let's stream this up in a lab and create this company.
00:27:25.569 -->
00:27:33.887It's as many entrepreneurial and that continuous conditioning of the systems for perpetuity you know for the building.
00:27:33.887 -->
00:27:45.487So so again, embedding technology so that you, many times in the industry, what you'll see is you can get everything really then through portfolio, not just doing projects and and and.
00:27:45.487 -->
00:27:57.162Then again, I think the last part I would add to that is a lot of experience goes into that, being able to talk, to work with a customer across all those different groups that we talked about, and this is not a short process.
00:27:59.579 -->
00:28:00.423I imagine it's not.
00:28:02.055 -->
00:28:03.355Yeah, it could be a year-long endeavor that you're going.
00:28:03.355 -->
00:28:05.356Yeah, it could be a year-long endeavor that you're going.
00:28:05.356 -->
00:28:13.423They were an exciting process for us as a company, so we now kind of have a technology arm.
00:28:13.462 -->
00:28:36.056We have this delivery arm, if you want to call it that, and then what we're actually building right now is a services arm, that ongoing services over time and helping them with other things like compliance, reporting, infectious control.
00:28:36.056 -->
00:28:39.567You know if it's a animal research facility or if it's an OR and they're dealing with their compliance.
00:28:39.567 -->
00:28:42.758You know regulations about, you know helping maintain these facilities.
00:28:42.758 -->
00:28:47.738Again, just all this whole conversation just continually goes back to like, what's the core mission, right?
00:28:47.738 -->
00:28:50.528What is that facility there to support?
00:28:50.528 -->
00:28:55.221What are they trying to achieve and how can you do that in the most sustainable and efficient way?
00:28:55.221 -->
00:29:00.101And you can't do that just by something Now, unfortunately.
00:29:00.101 -->
00:29:09.099You really need to help people sometimes thrive, and I think we've got a really exciting future ahead with Thrive and the ongoing services that we provide our customers.
00:29:09.099 -->
00:29:10.563So, thanks for asking this.
00:29:10.563 -->
00:29:12.675I haven't really described a lot of that.
00:29:12.675 -->
00:29:14.221I haven't described that to many people.
00:29:15.307 -->
00:29:17.295Now you have and you can clear the podcast.
00:29:17.295 -->
00:29:18.719You want to learn more about Thrive.
00:29:18.719 -->
00:29:25.919Listen to the conversation we have with any leader right, all great points that you had there.
00:29:25.919 -->
00:29:32.170And, speaking of the future, what do you see in the future for smart buildings?
00:29:32.170 -->
00:29:38.407I mean, obviously we know technologies and other people not within the industry you might not know about.
00:29:42.556 -->
00:29:44.343Yeah, I mean there's probably two questions there.
00:29:44.343 -->
00:29:46.818So buildings are going to be.
00:29:46.818 -->
00:29:52.209Well, we're talking about a lot of different building types so it's a little bit hard for you to answer.
00:29:52.209 -->
00:30:00.150But I will say that, like you know, commercial office building, you know, as an example they tend to be a little bit more variable, occupied than they were previously.
00:30:00.150 -->
00:30:07.869You know it's not nine to five and it's not everybody in the office all the time and leaving at lunch and it's not everybody in the office all the time and leaving at lunch.
00:30:07.869 -->
00:30:09.492So you know there's more flexible work schedules.
00:30:10.115 -->
00:30:22.328These buildings you now have these similar-sized buildings which might be occupied at, you know, 50, 60 percent less than it was previously, and so they need to be smarter and adapt more and be or they'll be more wasteful, right?
00:30:22.328 -->
00:30:32.685So in order for them to be efficient and sustainable, they're going to need to adapt and that's going to bring in intelligence and quote exactly what you said smart buildings, right, understanding, who's there?
00:30:32.685 -->
00:30:34.107Where are they going in the building?
00:30:34.107 -->
00:30:35.609What are they trying to do?
00:30:41.875 -->
00:30:43.520When we look at research facilities, they tend to be less variable, occupied.
00:30:43.520 -->
00:30:45.406You need to be in your lab to do your research.
00:30:45.406 -->
00:30:46.932So we don't see that same issue there.
00:30:46.932 -->
00:31:00.355But we also know that labs historically have been five to seven, even as much as 10, you know, 15 times as energy-consuming as, like a commercial office space.
00:31:00.355 -->
00:31:07.949So they're way more, you know, impactful in terms of the you know, carbon footprint and sustainability side.
00:31:07.949 -->
00:31:29.079They're way more impactful to address and those buildings will be getting kind of way smarter with our technology and others to really again, many of them historically have been prescriptively controlled, meaning I'm going to have some kind of prescribed air change rate and I'm going to assume that that's a good right.
00:31:29.079 -->
00:31:45.384So if I'm operating a clean room I'm going to have a design standard of 25 air changes, 40 air change rates and I'm going to run it 24-7, all the time at that number and they'll periodically measure.
00:31:45.384 -->
00:31:49.190You know what's happening and our approach is way simpler than that.
00:31:49.190 -->
00:31:53.178It just says no measure it 24-7.
00:31:53.198 -->
00:32:07.327And you know, if it's clean, take those air change rates way down and if you start to see a spike, weigh in on what your compliance regulations require, start to ramp those systems up so that you don't even come close to your minimum.
00:32:07.327 -->
00:32:09.864You know maximum particle level threshold.
00:32:09.864 -->
00:32:20.166So it's using technology, less prescriptive and much more of a measured and controlled dynamic approach to make those facilities optimized.
00:32:20.166 -->
00:32:26.474And that's just one really good example of I think what you said, what people don't realize is happening.
00:32:26.474 -->
00:32:26.997That's happening in ORs, of I think what you said, what people don't realize is happening.
00:32:26.997 -->
00:32:38.528It's happening in ORs, it's happening in clean rooms, it's happening in research facilities and I think to a large degree, you know, make sure ventilation has been around from an adult environment.
00:32:38.528 -->
00:32:48.429I do think from my experience, not only here but previously, it's not always well implemented here, but previously it's not always well implemented.
00:32:48.429 -->
00:32:54.673If you use discrete sensors in those buildings they kind of go out of calibration and they can work, if they're calibrated and maintained, over the life of the building.
00:32:54.673 -->
00:32:58.726That's costly to do and it's also not very often.
00:32:58.726 -->
00:33:02.304So what ends up happening is somebody will put that in a brand new building.
00:33:02.304 -->
00:33:04.499It'll go out of spec in three years from now.
00:33:04.499 -->
00:33:09.112That building is really inefficient in the building, it'll go out of spec in three years from now.
00:33:09.112 -->
00:33:09.954That building is really inefficient.
00:33:09.954 -->
00:33:17.275So again, it's putting in systems and technology that are going to sustain this over time.
00:33:18.474 -->
00:33:28.126And then the last part of, I think, what's happening in the build environment again is what we're doing with this independent data layer is really kind of allowing owners to grab data from a lot of different sources in a building.
00:33:28.126 -->
00:33:31.044The cost has come way down to do that.
00:33:31.044 -->
00:33:36.548It's something that was around a long, long time ago with data systems and really really expensive facilities.
00:33:36.548 -->
00:33:42.667Now the cost to do that in all buildings is becoming much more attainable.
00:33:42.667 -->
00:33:50.961And then what you see is really analytics and AI and other other applications applied to that data layer.
00:33:50.961 -->
00:33:53.906So, again, simple.
00:33:53.906 -->
00:34:00.698So leaving with this simple thought is you know, again, you cannot measure and improve or optimize what you don't measure.
00:34:00.698 -->
00:34:06.930So measure it first before you're going to optimize it and make an impact with what you're doing.
00:34:06.930 -->
00:34:17.231So I think the IDL, the data layer, is really something I think that you're going to just see become more ubiquitous across the built environment.
00:34:17.231 -->
00:34:23.554There are just some things that come top of mind, certainly, and we're involved in many of them on a day-to-day basis.
00:34:23.554 -->
00:34:24.257Sure.
00:34:24.778 -->
00:34:27.336And, as you mentioned before, it depends on the facility.
00:34:27.336 -->
00:34:36.224It depends on, you know, obviously a K-12 school is going to have different requirements as opposed to a hospital, a surgical rooms, ors, all of that.
00:34:36.224 -->
00:34:39.036So definitely a lot of things to take into account.
00:34:39.036 -->
00:34:51.869We've talked a lot, obviously, about smart buildings, resilient building designs, technology, but I'm going to I want to focus the last part of our conversation on you and what, personally, any exciting things coming up.
00:34:51.869 -->
00:34:55.666Hopefully you'll make it to some Maryland games in the next years, a couple of years.
00:34:59.275 -->
00:35:05.996Yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, for me this is I just said this to kind of actually our leadership.
00:35:05.996 -->
00:35:10.847I've never been, you know, had more fun in my job and in the built environment.
00:35:10.847 -->
00:35:17.282You can probably, you know, see a little bit of that and all the things we touched on the customers we get to work with.
00:35:17.282 -->
00:35:29.235We just work in Mecca, we are, we have an unbelievable, we're launching into new markets, we're trying to help the federal government kind of on a bunch of different fronts.
00:35:29.235 -->
00:35:40.304Actually, this week I'm going down I don't know what to actually say, but I'm going to a very large government secure facility downtown and and working with them on on optimizing their space.
00:35:40.304 -->
00:35:54.358So it's, it's incredibly exciting and I think you know largely, I think I see my future is really being to really fulfill this vision which I had when I came here, and definitely taking a little bit longer than we thought it would, but it also is.
00:35:54.358 -->
00:35:59.623It's been really fun, really exciting, and I see a lot more of that going forward.
00:36:00.996 -->
00:36:16.311And then, other than that, I just my, my, my last child is going to be out of college in two years, so just doing a little more traveling and hopefully some personally rewarding stuff after working really hard to get three kids through college.
00:36:16.311 -->
00:36:24.597But, yeah, so having a little bit more fun time to travel and see some things, but I do get a lot of that with my job, which is fun and exciting.
00:36:24.597 -->
00:36:26.838But I do get a lot of that with my job, which is fun and exciting.
00:36:26.838 -->
00:36:31.603And, yeah, no, I'm really very, very bullish on what we're doing and where we're going in the market.
00:36:31.603 -->
00:36:35.067I look forward to continuing to talk about it and this is a great opportunity to do so.
00:36:35.067 -->
00:36:39.871So I really appreciate you having me on and getting to tell our story.
00:36:40.992 -->
00:36:46.596Yes, no.
00:36:46.596 -->
00:36:49.675I want to thank you again for taking the time to talk with me this morning and I hope this is not the last conversation that we will have.
00:36:49.675 -->
00:36:52.264We look forward to working with you and the company.
00:36:52.264 -->
00:36:53.847Thank you to your team.
00:36:53.847 -->
00:36:58.204They are wonderful and it's been a pleasure to get to know some of the team members.
00:36:58.204 -->
00:37:10.621And as well as you, in the next 60 seconds, ask yourself how can I contribute to a brighter, more sustainable future, not just personally, but professionally?
00:37:10.621 -->
00:37:16.400Let's embark on this journey together and shape the landscape of sustainable leadership for tomorrow.
00:37:16.400 -->
00:37:21.659Take the first step now and make a commitment to lead with sustainability in mind.
00:37:21.659 -->
00:37:25.329That's all for this episode of Sustain unveiled.
00:37:25.329 -->
00:37:31.222Join us next time as we continue exploring the forefront of sustainable business practices.
00:37:31.222 -->
00:37:35.449Until then, stay informed, stay sustainable.
