The Nexus Podcast

Latest Episodes:

🎧 #120: Fixing Offsets and Decarbonizing Buildings with McGee Young Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

“They're doing the same thing they did last year, but now it's called decarbonization. But the reality is, is that they are decarbonizing buildings. The work that we've been doing for 20 years is the right work to be doing we just don't have a metric to measure ourselves against and a way to value that work."
—McGee Young

My Highlights

The problem and why McGee started WattCarbon (14:35)
The transition from energy management to carbon (21:34)
Connecting real-time carbon emissions data from the grid to hourly granular energy data (26:08)
How most people get their emissions today (29:14)
How to get to scope 2 emissions from kW hours used at a certain hour (24:52)
Data platform and API strategy (39:49)
The importance of transparency in the calculations and data (44:40)
Creating a marketplace for offsets from buildings (49:14)
The disconnect between net zero targets and actual energy being used (53:28)
Carveouts (1:13:46)

You can find McGee on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #119: How service robots fit into the smart building ecosystem Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

“We see an expansion of robots doing 80% of a job in the service sector, allowing humans to do what's complex."
—Greg Scott

My Highlights

SRT Labs (5:00)
Use cases for robots (11:17)
"Smart" definitions in the context of robots (19:49)
Robotic product adoption (23:14)
Problems unique to the federal sphere (41:58)
Map-based data collection (46:54)
The parallels and connection points with smart buildings (55:42)
SRT's full offering and how it’s helping campuses (1:01:43)
“Platforms” (1:05:05)
Carveouts (1:08:03)

You can find Greg and Michelle on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #118: Simplifying decarbonization with Aaron Block Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

“There's a lot of complexity that goes into building a technology that simplifies things for people."
—Aaron Block

My Highlights

Aaron’s background (2:50)
The #1 way to unlock decarbonization of commercial buildings (17:19)
The problem is complexity (28:16)
How energy as a service differs from the ESCO model (38:55)
Fuel switching (50:43)
Current tech making it simple (55:05)
Carveouts (1:03:11)

You can find Aaron on LinkedIn.
Watch on YouTube or read on the web.
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🎧 #117: 4 Steps to Sustainable Indoor Air Quality Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

“We can accomplish both sustainability and IAQ, but we need to think holistically. And we need to think in terms of layered strategies and frameworks."
—Christian Weeks

Highlights

enVerid's founding story (4:53)
How enVerid's whitepaper came to be (18:53)
Step 1: define goals (26:18)
Defining acceptable IAQ and which metrics to monitor (32:01)
CO2 (38:24)
Step 2 - clean indoor air (43:35)
Step 3 - optimize ventilation (49:44)
Step 4 - monitor, validate, control (54:10)
Determining ROI (1:02:37)
Carveouts (1:07:32)

You can find Christian on LinkedIn.
Watch on YouTube or read on the web.
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🎧 #116: Integrating "Smart" Into the Construction Process with Charlie Buscarino Sep 01, 2022

Show notes

“In the beginning of their journey to a smart building, many of our clients are wondering what they need to buy to check the box.
We've flipped that so that the conversation looks at the experiences, outcomes, and capabilities that are meaningful to the organization. Then we can look at the technology."
—Charlie Buscarino

My Highlights

Charlie’s background (2:43)
Asking the smart building question (9:04)
Use case scoring and prioritizing (15:45)
Division 25 (22:51)
The device layer (27:51)
IDL platform marketplace (35:05)
More on division 25 (40:34)
Case study (50:18)
Carveouts (55:14)

You can find Charlie on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #115: The role of the smart building consultant with Bruce Duyshart Aug 25, 2022

Show notes

“My 80/20 rule is that it's 20% of technology—and there are a lot of technologies in a smart building. And it's 80% about people and human engineering."
—Bruce Duyshart

My Highlights

Bruce’s background (1:11)
Meld's key projects (13:24)
Horizontal architecture: converged network, data platform, apps (16:44)
How Bruce defines a smart building (23:01)
Bruce's 80/20 rule (27:50)
The consultant’s role across the phases of a project (39:40)
Consultant vs. designer vs. MSI vs. commissioning agent (53:58)
Carveouts (1:05:53)

You can find Bruce on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #114: Decarbonized Buildings Require Better Energy Modeling Tools Aug 18, 2022

Show notes

“I don't know as much as a tax consultant by a long shot, but for most cases with TurboTax, 90% of the cases, I was good. The 10% of the cases, I'm definitely not good and I will need a tax consultant and all of that good stuff. That was really what I wanted to build for the energy modeling community, where for the 90% of the cases we can get pretty darn close."
—Sandeep Ahuja

My Highlights

cove.tool today (4:11)
Building a successful sustainability consulting firm (9:47)
Selling to architects (17:15)
The difference between early-stage models and detailed later-stage models (24:35)
Key products and features and why they’re important (30:06)
Including costs in energy modeling (34:25)
How electrification is made easier with an energy model (44:42)
Carveouts (46:29)

You can find Sandeep on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #113: The Data Required for The Third Phase of ESG Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

“Why isn't everybody that's using energy accurately collecting data on the source of their energy and also the use of their energy? And then saying, what is the accurate carbon footprint of that energy? And what, if anything, should I be doing about it?"
—Lincoln Payton

My Highlights

The founding story of Cleartrace (5:35)
Why data is so important for decarbonization (11:22)
How we go from old standards to gaining access to hourly energy and carbon data (27:15)
How data can be used to plan out this roadmap (48:35)
Integration into the real estate tech stack (54:55)
Carveouts (58:32)

You can find Lincoln on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #112: Demystifying 'Zero Trust' Aug 04, 2022

Show notes

“Complacency is no longer a viable option. If you're looking around and you're seeing your third parties getting carte blanche access to your networks inside of your building, it's time to do something about it. If you have open ports exposed to the public internet, it's time to do something about it. There's a better way to do it."
—Jim Anthony

My Highlights

How were things done before Zero Trust (3:52)
Zero Trust architecture (8:31)
How this concept applies to who is taking responsibility (16:06)
Use cases for the end user (20:07)
Products that aren't really Zero Trust (25:37)
The Journey to Zero Trust (29:29)
Connecting ZTA back to the Horizontal Architecture (40:20)
Carveouts (44:03)

You can find Richard and Jim on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #111: Tenant apps: the why, what, and how with Prasan Kale Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

“I was building buildings. I was running a large portfolio. And the number one brick wall I kept running into was technology silos. There were 8 to 10 things I had to buy for everyone of those buildings, and they didn't talk to each other..."
—Prasan Kale