The Climate Gap

If your EMS creates more alerts than actions, you don’t have a data problem. You have a decision problem with Ryan Adelman CEO Phoneix Energy Technologies


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If your EMS creates more alerts than actions, you don’t have a data problem. You have a decision problem.

Ryan Adelman, CEO of Phoenix Energy Technologies, explains why.


Energy management systems promise visibility and control. In reality, many operators are overwhelmed by alarms, managing massive multi-site portfolios with small teams and data they do not always trust.


In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Ryan Adelman, CEO of Phoenix Energy Technologies, to unpack why data overload persists in commercial real estate and what it actually takes to build a culture where data leads to decisions, not paralysis.


Ryan draws on years of experience working inside retail, grocery, and national portfolios to explain why alarm triage, system fragmentation, and optimization drift are so hard to escape, and what separates organizations that break through from those that stay reactive.

We dig into:

  • Why small teams struggle to act even on timely, actionable data
  • How fragmented EMS platforms erode trust in data quality
  • What “optimization entropy” looks like in real buildings
  • The hidden costs of staying reactive, from comfort to credibility
  • Why decision culture starts with writing things down and assigning costs
  • Where AI genuinely helps, and where human judgement still matters most


About Ryan Adelman

Ryan Adelman is the CEO of Phoenix Energy Technologies. He has spent nearly two decades working across the built environment and distributed energy, from large enterprises to early-stage technology companies. At Phoenix, Ryan leads the company’s next phase of growth, helping large multi-site portfolios move from alarm-driven operations to decision-driven performance.

Watch if you are:

  • An owner or operator managing large, distributed building portfolios
  • An FM or energy leader buried in alerts and dashboards
  • A technology leader trying to translate data into action
  • Exploring how AI fits into real-world building operations


Smarter buildings are not built on more data. They are built on better decisions.

The Climate Gap is powered by Element Six.


Element Six specializes in addressing talent challenges across the built environment and climate technology sectors. Partnering with technology vendors and solutions providers delivering decarbonization solutions, helping them find the leaders and teams they need to scale.


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