The Nexus Podcast

"For us, it's simpler to work with applications that go ontop of the BOS because we can control the information being accessed. Without the BOS, transparency is limited, which limits the number of use cases.

By adding this data layer, we're dramatically increasing transparency and the possibilities of what else can easily be added on top."

—Grigor Hadjiev

• About Allianz (3:07)
• How technology improves asset value (4:16)
• Digitization vs Smart Building (6:46)
• Defining ‘smart building’ (11:01)
• Overview of the Allianz smart building program (12:39)
• The importance of data and the data layer (38:09)
• What are the key components of the BOS (44:55)
• Next steps in the program (49:38)
• Careveouts (53:38)

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“The tools that have always been successful at instigating change are benchmarking and performance standards. Let's use those tools and evolve them to better fit the needs of today's definition of a high-performance building, which includes the carbon aspect, grid interactivity, and occupant responsiveness."

—Molly Dee-Ramasamy

• JBB's background (6:25)
• Deep Carbon Reduction (7:55)
• Local Law 97's impact on the industry (9:36)
• Stories from the ground (18:15)
• Flight to quality and repositioning of assets (26:23)
• Evolution of these programs and Benchmark 8760 (35:29)
• The biggest impediment of decarbonizing buildings in NYC (42:31)
• Helping clients with other risks (51:59)
• The shift in the design consulting role (56:45)
• Carveouts (58:23)

You can find Chris and Molly on LinkedIn.
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“The grid is starting to look a lot like the internet. These IOT devices are distributed, digital, user owned and operated nodes. They can buy from the grid, they can sell from the grid, they can respond dynamically.

These nodes are increasing ten, a hundred, a thousand fold over the next decade, which has really interesting implications for how we'll operate the grid going forward."

—James McGinniss

• What are DERs? (8:59)
• How DERs are changing the electric grid (10:11)
• David Energy's founding story (12:47)
• The three pillars of David Energy: the REP, the DR provider, and the supervisory control software platform (15:25)
• What are retail electricity providers? (17:34)
• The value of bundling efficiency with grid benefits (31:09)
• How the bundling allows David Energy to handle risk better than other REPs (37:31)
• Their innovative smart thermostat program (42:44)

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“Don't spend your time with the laggards who don't yet see the need for (smart building technology). When they see it they'll find you. Go find owners with a need and then meet that need."

—Mandi Wedin

• The macro perspective of commercial real estate investment (5:04)
• Types of real estate investment vehicles (10:12)
• Different issues real estate owners currently face (14:19)
• The solution for a frozen market (19:00)
• Current property level needs (25:33)
• Smart building fundamentals today (31:01)
• What the current environment means for smart buildings specifically (36:45)
• Impacts on smart building investment plans (45:13)
• The bright spots and reasons for optimism (59:41)
• Carveouts (1:05:00)

You can find Mandi and Joe on LinkedIn.
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“There is another use case for smart building systems and for BAS, and it is critical input data for designing low-carbon systems for your building that if you don't have that data, you are not going to design your systems properly.

They will probably be oversized and a lot more expensive than they need to be compared to as if you had good data to design on."

—Brad White

• The shift from energy management to decarbonization (7:05)
• Decarbonization roadmaps (14:36)
• The role of carbon accounting (33:38)
• Types of technologies that are vital (38:40)
• Role of BAS and analytics (47:15)
• Electrification - when does it make sense and how technology can help (50:48)
• Tips for others on this journey (1:05:54)
• Carveouts (1:09:55)

You can find Brad and Leo on LinkedIn.
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“A building can only run as efficiently as its engineer knows how to run it. Unless you have an engineer-first mindset, none of your energy efficiency efforts is ever really going to reap the rewards."

—Sara Neff

• About Lendlease (4:47)
• Sara's role at Lendlease (6:25)
• Roadmap to net zero (12:07)
• Renewable procurement (22:22)
• Energy efficiency and deep energy retrofits (41:10)
• Carbon accounting today (48:48)
• Change management and internal leadership (50:44)
• Split incentive (56:32)
• Carveouts (1:06:07)

You can find Sara on LinkedIn.
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“We can have all the technology in the world but dropping it into a building doesn't magically transform it. It ultimately is a tool. Your people can be empowered by this tool but it will never do everything for you.

You have to set objectives, lean in and embrace the technology. You have to train your people and build the organization in a structure that supports it."

—Tearle Whitson

• Tearle’s background (2:24)
• "Teardown School" (19:49)
• Smart buildings grew up around Tearle and an overview of the Microsoft smart buildings program (34:08)
• How to run a remote operations center (43:15)
• Best practices for implementing individual technologies (53:09)
• Carveouts (1:12:35)

You can find Tearle on LinkedIn.
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“There's definitely still venture capital money out there looking for great companies, especially in the smart building space. As long as you have a clear thesis and value proposition and your tech addresses a need of a building owner/operator, you're going to pass this deeper diligence with flying colors."

—Jeanne Casey

• The economic environment that startups are in today (4:46)
• To what extent are smart buildings insulated from market trends (15:42)
• Why downturn is a good time to build (24:10)
• M&A trends in smart buildings (37:38)
• Measurabl x Hatch Data (43:28)
• Deepki x Fabriq (51:25)
• EnergyCAP x Wattics (1:01:28)
• White space for startups from a technology standpoint (1:05:48)
• Carveouts (1:12:08)

You can find Joe and Jeanne on LinkedIn.
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"Real estate owners buy and sell assets and drive yield. So we needed to reframe little "e", the discussion on electrons, and expand into big "E", environmental social governance. Doing so helped the real estate owner understand not commodities, but yield and risk in return."

—Matt Ellis

• Measurabl’s founding story (2:10)
• From "meter" to "market" (7:59)
• Journey to decarbonization (12:10)
• Point solutions vs. platforms (26:23)
• Why M&A and the platform approach are better than interoperability standards (33:38)
• Acquiring Hatch Data and Wegowise (38:58)
• Using customers' data to make the solution better (50:06)
• Where to from here? (53:26)
• Carveouts (58:08)

You can find Matt on LinkedIn.
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“Step one (of 3) on reducing embodied carbon emissions is to start thinking about if we have to build a building at all. So if we just stopped building right now, there's plenty of empty space for us to put all that square footage into that we say we need. And beyond that, we have more than we need."

—Stacy Smedley

• Quick overview of Stacy's background - lots of activities! (2:02)
• A primer on emissions from construction - What is embodied carbon? (8:31)
• LEED - why hasn't it scaled? (19:46)
• What is the EC3 tool and how is it transforming construction? (25:53)
• Future of EC3 - Where's this headed and the connection to digital twins (36:43)

You can find Stacy on LinkedIn.
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