The Measure Podcast

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We’re back with a new series and new name – The Measure Podcast by Metrikus! You may have previously listened when we were called The PropTech Ramble, but we started to realize we were rambling on about so much more than just PropTech… So this time, we’ll be broadening our horizons and helping you get the measure of a huge range of topics, from building efficiencies and workplace productivity to sustainable buildings and ESG. Throughout the new series, Michael Grant, Metrikus COO and co-founder, will be joined by a new guest every Wednesday – for 10 weeks straight – to size up a brand new topic. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can stay in the loop!

Episodes

Wednesday May 17, 2023

Why Digital Technology Is Crucial For Sustainability

Wednesday May 17, 2023

Episode Summary: In the tenth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Miranda Hill, Executive, Global Sustainability Leader at Avanade

Episode theme: Sustainability

Episode highlights:

What is the push for sustainability solutions like from customers right now? (01.55)
Why should people and organizations care about ESG and sustainability? (06.11)
The main struggles organizations face when trying to meet ESG demands (09.48)
Challenges for organizations when measuring their ESG performance and progress (11.57)
Examples of how digital technology can help with ESG (16.30)
Strategies for using digital technology to drive sustainability (22.20)
Sustainability and change management (25.22)
How can organizations tangibly demonstrate their progress with sustainability in ESG? (28.35)
Are business leaders becoming scared of greenwashing? (30.33)
How can employees help with ESG? (31.07)

Key Takeaways:

“A lot of it is coming from forward-looking, courageous leaders in these organizations that know they have a role and a responsibility with respect to driving sustainability.” - Miranda
“I think a lot of people have a misconception that ESG and sustainability is this trend that's going to come and go” - Miranda
“You're going to be more successful with your sustainability initiatives if you can actually work it in and embed it into your strategy and your operations.” - Miranda
“Do you have the right reporting mechanisms in place and can you actually efficiently report?” - Miranda
A lot of the sustainability value is coming through cost efficiencies, new revenue generation opportunities and operational efficiencies.” - Miranda
“I think that your employees are one of your strongest assets. With respect to doing any ESG work.” - Miranda

Resources:

Metrikus

Metrikus is a building efficiency platform that helps organizations to make their spaces more efficient, creating positive change for occupants and the environment. Our cloud-based platform achieves this by aggregating data from multiple sources – whether it’s from IoT sensors, the Building Management System (BMS), or elsewhere – into one central place. And once we’ve helped you get your hands on the right data, our platform then transforms it to make it easier to analyze, compare and contextualize.

Michael Grant is the co-founder and COO of Metrikus. Michael is an operations, strategy and management professional with over 20 years in the technology sector. Specializing in technology, software, IoT, ESG and cloud, Michael has over 10 years’ experience working at Senior Management and C-Level and has dealt with large teams to deliver solutions with exceptional service – clients include those from banking, commercial real estate and IT sectors.

Wednesday May 10, 2023

How To Keep Your ESG Strategy Alive

Wednesday May 10, 2023

Episode Summary: In the ninth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Andres Guzman, Senior Director and Head of ESG Europe at Tishman Speyer

Episode theme: Sustainability

Episode highlights:

The progress Andres has seen with sustainability (03.36)
What impact ESG can have on the real estate industry? (05.01)
How to start measuring the impact of ESG policies (09.30)
The importance of working together to achieve sustainability and ESG targets (14.53)
The role data plays in measuring and demonstrating ESG (20.43)
Current projects Tishman Speyer are working on (23.58)
Can data help achieve net zero? (25.44)
The importance of decarbonization efforts in real estate and corporate buildings (29.27)
Will AI play a role in helping organizations achieve net zero? (31.50)
Why Andres is passionate about sustainability (37.14)
How Andres feels the real estate industry supports sustainability (38.12)

Key Takeaways:

“Not that long ago, there was the assumption that adopting ESG was going to hurt returns.” - Andres
“We need to incentivize more informed decision making and data is the key piece.” - Andres
“I think what you said there is important as ESG is not the same for everyone. It's not a one size fits all.” - Michael
“It's hugely important for people to be playing as a team rather than having individual objectives running the goals for the whole ESG strategy.” - Andres
“This is much bigger than just one simple E and one simple S and one simple G. You've got to take it as a whole strategy.” - Michael
“Ventilation I think is untapped opportunity when it comes to lowering the energy and associated carbon of buildings.” - Andres

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday May 03, 2023

Achieving Ambitious ESG and Sustainability Goals

Wednesday May 03, 2023

Episode Summary: In the eighth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Sam Wood, Head of Smart and Sustainable Real Estate at Cisco.

Episode theme: Sustainability

Episode highlights:

How can organizations leverage technology to create smart and sustainable working environments? (02.55)
Smart buildings and converge networks (06.01)
Is there a need for interoperability? (09.44)
How has the role of sustainability for Cisco and its customers changed in the last 5 years? (11.08)
Regulation and sustainability (12.54)
How Cisco can help organizations improve their sustainability (14.06)
Can you implement a strategy that accelerates the path to ne tzero and enhances the user experience? (17.10)
What are the first areas of a retrofit project to be neglected? (20.57)
Hybrid working and the user experience (24.24)
What strategies can be implemented to accelerate the path to net zero in the hybrid workplace? (26.45)
Addressing operational concerns with sustainability (29.51)
The challenges Cisco hear when talking to customers (32.14)

Key Takeaways:

“Data from a raft of different enterprise customers said that over 80% of organizations had sustainability as a key priority area. But under 20% of those had a plan.” - Sam
“Unless you can demonstrate that and show that, then your ability to attract and retain talent from the millennials and the generations that follow it is disappearing.” - Sam
“Automation driven by convergence really does drive both energy savings, but also a great experience.” - Sam
“Fewer integrations mean essentially less things can break.” - Sam
“I would say POE is the single biggest opportunity and it's also one of the most contentious.” - Sam

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday Apr 26, 2023

Today’s State Of The Building Efficiency Market

Wednesday Apr 26, 2023

Episode Summary: In the seventh episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Stephen Macdonald, Managing Partner at the PropTech Connection.

Episode theme: Efficiency

Episode highlights:

What PropTech Connection do (01.12)
Which country is leading the way on driving building efficiencies? (02.16)
The specific areas they are leading in (03.07)
The biggest challenges organizations face when trying to make their buildings more efficient (05.27)
Does the market embrace change? (08.46)
Why is commercial real estate slow to adopt change? (11.26)
What’s next for building efficiencies? (14.01)
Essential metrics for measuring building efficiencies (16.15)
How difficult is it to improve a building's efficiency? (19.06)

Key Takeaways:

“ The one that we would think has one of the most cohesive strategies is Singapore.” - Stephen
“Where Singapore has got a major advantage is 80% of housing I believe is public housing sector. “ - Stephen
“Occupiers and asset owners have got much better data governance, much better data leaks, so they can actually take that data and start making some good insights.” - Stephen
“Data is like oil, right? Unless it's refined, it's not very valuable and you can't do a lot with it.” - Michael
“The concept of smart buildings is actually poorly told by a lot of people.” - Stephen

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday Apr 19, 2023

The Importance Of Landlord And Tenant Collaboration

Wednesday Apr 19, 2023

Episode Summary: In the sixth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Michelle Landon, VP, Global Corporate Real Estate and Workplace Management at OMERS.

Episode theme: Efficiency

Episode highlights:
• The challenges commercial landlords face (02.50)
• Balancing strategic decisions between landlords and tenants (06.24)
• Ways in which landlords and tenants can work together and form a partnership (06.54)
• Where the challenges landlords are facing come from (12.42)
• Strategic decisions landlords can make that will have long term benefits (15.32)
• Michelle’s advice to landlords and tenants trying to drive efficiencies in their buildings (17.49)
• The most efficient building Michelle has ever worked in and why (22.55)
• Places that are accelerating building digitization and landlord/tenant partnerships (30.54)
• Advice for people starting out in commercial real estate (35.18)

Key Takeaways:
• “If a landlord provides a service where they can understand their spaces better, those are great opportunities for the market today for landlords and tenants to work closer together than they used to” - Michelle
• “What landlords need to be more strategic about is how to be in partnerships with their tenants and to understand the needs.” - Michelle
• “That's the way you capture the ability to have a long standing business and to have a great reputation in the business. I think landlords who do that will effectively help their brand to be seen as a market leader.” - Michell
• “I'm excited about seeing where a lot of the new technologies take us and understanding our spaces a bit better.” - Michelle
• “That's what we're trying to achieve in general. Getting the right value for the space that you've invested in.” - Michelle

Resources:
• Metrikus
• Metrikus Content Hub
• Oxford Properties

Metrikus
Metrikus is a building efficiency platform that helps organizations to make their spaces more efficient, creating positive change for occupants and the environment. Our cloud-based platform achieves this by aggregating data from multiple sources – whether it’s from IoT sensors, the Building Management System (BMS), or elsewhere – into one central place. And once we’ve helped you get your hands on the right data, our platform then transforms it to make it easier to analyze, compare and contextualize.

Wednesday Apr 12, 2023

Making Facilities Management More Data-Driven

Wednesday Apr 12, 2023

Episode Summary: In the fifth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by John Weber, Head of Asset & Energy Management at International Real Estate Partners (IREP).

Theme: Efficiency

Episode highlights:

John’s background and what he does currently at IREP (1.39)
The role Facilities Management plays in driving efficiencies within buildings (3.41)
How the digitization of buildings and technologies helps with efficiencies (7.31)
The biggest challenges for Facilities companies and Facilities Managers in the coming years (10.20)
How the industry is adapting to change (14.42)
The benefits of automating facilities processes (16.15)
Examples of innovation from within the Facilities sector (19.31)
The benefits of predictive maintenance (22.32)

Key Takeaways:

“Driving efficiencies I think needs to be led from the top, from a strategic approach. It needs to be written into the contracts in terms of performance.” - John
“We look at the operational efficiency, we look at the energy consumption, and now we're into the realms of predictive maintenance.” -John
“If you lined up five buildings next to each other, they all use the same CEM system, I’ll guarantee you get five different responses in terms of how good the system is, and the functionality that it uses.” - John
“I don't think we're very good in the industry. We often will come up with new strategies, new focus at strategic or tactical level, but I don't think we transfer this well enough to the operational level on the ground, I think we need to make it as black and white as we possibly can.” - John
“The biggest innovations will be driven by the more data that we can get and the more accurate the data is.” - John

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday Apr 05, 2023

How To Make Your Workplace More Productive

Wednesday Apr 05, 2023

Episode Summary: In the fourth episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Omar Ramirez, Co-Founder of Collective who enable progress at the intersection of work and play.

Theme: Productivity

Episode highlights:

Collective’s founding story (01.14)
What do we mean by productivity in the workplace? (03.49)
The importance of having metrics in place to measure productivity (04.56)
Burnout since the pandemic (05.52)
What can lead to burnout in the workplace? (07.58)
Different ways to measure productivity (08.50)
What makes an organization a great place to work? (13.03)
The challenges with getting people back into the office (15.34)
Top three things you need in an office for productivity (18.16)
How important is workplace design? (24.12)
Employee centric organizations and what this means (29.01)
Biggest myth about productivity in the workplace (33.18)
The relationship between employee experience and workplace experience (34.09)

Key Takeaways:

“We surveyed workplace leaders when we were starting to gestate this idea, and found that 97% of those that replied were getting all of their future of work information from LinkedIn, which had us a little bit concerned because that's not necessarily the best source of all of your information.” - Omar
“There's not one type of productivity, which is important for people to understand. It's different by industry, by segment, by team.” - Omar
“The future forums recent polling shows from their Winter 2022 survey that levels of self-reported burnout are higher than they ever been during the course of the pandemic.” - Omar
“I think it's very hard for large scale enterprise organizations to change their ways of working and to do that across 40,000, 50,000, 80,000 people requires a massive amount of change management and a massive amount of work.” - Omar
“If you can make it a seamless experience, if you can make it a frictionless experience, and I'll keep using the word experience cause that's what I believe in, but like frictionless, seamless, and a truly enabled experience, then I think that you have hit the marks of what makes a workplace effective.” - Omar
“Most employees need your assistance and they would probably appreciate some assistance in understanding how to be effective and how to be productive.” - Omar

Resources:

Shout outs:

Metrikus

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Clear Success Metrics Are Key For Smart Building Projects

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Episode Summary: In the third episode of The Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Salma Kayali, Vice President | Innovation at Aldar Group who create real estate developments within Abu Dhabi.

Theme: Productivity

Episode highlights:

How Aldar approaches indoor air quality within their properties (02.39)
The solutions they have implemented and progress they have seen (03.45)
The importance of setting clear success metrics at the beginning of a project (05.00)
How they are able to help startups scale (06:12)
How to get stakeholder buy in with startups and innovation (07.27)
The challenges with proving a return on investment within air quality projects (10.52)
How their work on air quality is not just about ROI but also value creation (11.48)
The advice Salma would give organizations trying to prove success on a Smart Buildings Project (17.37)
Myths Salma would like to break about the PropTech industry (21.24)

Key Takeaways:

“The value add is huge. It's creating efficiencies, reduction in energy usage, improvement of wellbeing. An increase in productivity, safety, and security.” - Salma
“There needs to be KPIs to be measured, and if they're not existent, not present, even if the pilot or project concludes, and it's fine, then how can we show the value that's being created for the corporation?” Salma
“Innovation is absolutely the opposite of that. It's breaking that mold, it's bringing new ways and improving the ways that we do. And with that, there's obviously an innate resistance. However, the way we have tackled this at Aldar is by finding the champions, the 10- 20% of people who are willing to try, who are always eager, enthusiastic to do things better.” - Salma
“We have developed a framework for economic value measurement that tackles over 25 variables. So ultimately it's nice to tie it to a financial figure, whether it's cost saving or revenue generating, but in some instances, the initial variable it’s tied back to is not a financial figure. It could be repeat customers.” - Salma
“For us, air indoor quality and actually outdoor quality to a certain extent, and the temperature around that is absolutely crucial for the wellbeing of all the dwellers. And it does hit our goals of ESG, which you could ultimately tie back to green financing or a sustainable credit and all these other cool metrics that are being designed now to support and encourage big corporations to take on these initiatives that don't have immediate financial return.” - Salma

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Indoor Air Quality Is Killing Your Workforce Productivity

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Episode Summary: In our second episode of the Measure Podcast by Metrikus, our host Michael Grant is joined by Liam Bates, CEO and co-founder of Kaiterra, who create connected devices to monitor and improve the environment around us.

Theme: Productivity

Episode highlights:

Why it’s so important to monitor indoor air quality of buildings (03.18)
The indoor air quality project that Liam is involved in (04.56)
The challenges with data collection on indoor air quality (5.58)
Ways you can measure indoor air quality (10.28)
The adoption Liam has seen from organisations wanting to improve and track their air quality (15.13)
What indoor air quality data tell us about the workplace (17.12)
Indoor air quality footprint and how this can help companies plan how many people can fit into a building (19.43)
The gap between the theory and reality with HVAC systems (24.41)
How indoor air quality data can inform decision making (30.59)
Simple policies that can be introduced and have a huge impact on air quality (35.53)

Key Takeaways:

“There are 3 million premature deaths every year due to indoor air pollution. So just the air pollution inside our buildings. That's not even looking at the impact on productivity, the impact on how we feel.” - Liam
“The challenge is that it's often very hard to understand what the root cause of a problem is when it comes to the indoor environment.” - Liam
“That's personally where I spend a lot of my time on, saying how can we transfer the expertise that exists within people on our team that have been working on this for 10+ years into a piece of software that does the work for you, because otherwise it's going to be hopeless.” - Liam
“The reality is that if you're a building owner, operator, or an employer and you are not measuring your air quality, somebody in your building probably is and you do not wanna be the last person to find out if there's a problem.” - Liam
“If you're trying to add 10 people to a floor, that's going to change the indoor air quality, fundamentally, unless you've got the exact systems in there to cope with that. So you want to know beforehand, are the HVAC systems going to be able to cope with this?” - Liam
“With clear occupancy data you can look at the quality of occupied spaces, because there’s an argument that I really don't care about the air quality of unoccupied spaces.” - Liam
“If you want to take something away, leave the phone booths open, or the small booths that you have in your office open when you leave them so that whoever's coming in next, the CO2 can drop as much as possible. I mean, no joke that can lead to a 20- 30% increase in air quality for users.” - Liam
“The reality is air quality is complex. There are many different parameters that have many complex interactions. But the reality is that if you can find the patterns, sometimes the solutions are dead simple and they're very low cost.” - Liam

Resources:

Metrikus

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Why Data Is King When Driving Building Efficiencies

Wednesday Mar 29, 2023

Welcome to the first episode of our new series of The Measure Podcast, where we explore the three key topics of the series: productivity, efficiency and sustainability.

For this episode our host Michael Grant is joined by Michael Przytula, Managing Director, Intelligent & Digital Workplaces at Accenture. Here he is responsible for helping organizations transform their workforces through the application of digital technologies.

Theme: Productivity

Episode highlights:

The examples of overselling Michael has seen within smart building technologies (02.21)
The aspirations for where some of the technology may develop to (04.25)
The importance of using technology to streamline processes whilst also recognising its limitations (06.34)
The biggest misconceptions around indoor air quality (07.12)
The opportunities the industry has for driving efficiency (10.18)
The benefits greater data collection can have on efficiencies (14.23)
How important efficiencies will become in the valuation of buildings (16.39)
Why it may take time for new technologies to appear in builds (18.38)
Examples Michael has seen of innovation within smart building technologies (20.21)
What businesses can do to avoid greenwashing (26.42)
How to use PropTech to improve a buildings environmental impact (32.06)
Which area Michael expects to see the most growth over the next 5 years (42.43)

Key Takeaways:

“It's a great vision and it's definitely not something that isn't achievable. But the reality of it is that in the buildings that are built today, it's extremely hard to achieve, without re-engineering, HVAC systems, re-engineering, you know, the way that the whole building was originally designed and built.” - Michael Przytula
“I think now with the technology that's getting deployed and we're seeing more and more clients deploy as well. It's that transparency that people start to understand, what air quality is and what affects it. And being able to deal with it on a personal level.” - Michael Przytula
“An area we still haven't seen many organizations and even the PropTech sector, from a product perspective really focus on, is how do we the employee side of PropTech or the user side drive efficiencies in the people that are in the building, not just purely in the operation of the space.” - Michael Przytula
“How can we use technology to, going back to the friction that we talked about, make people's days more effective in how they get into buildings, how they move around buildings, how they find places to sit and places to work. That's still a huge opportunity.” - Michael Przytula
“There's this huge opportunity as we gather more and more data to understand how combining that data can solve different problems.” - Michael Przytula
“We're prioritizing everything for our customers, but there is a lot more data you could pull out of buildings to make it more efficient.” - Michael Przytula
“The real estate industry as we know it has been around since the dawn of time and it's generally a space that is slower to innovate just because of the rhythm of how long it takes to build something new, right?” - Michael Przytula
“There is a lot of great technology out there that can drive efficiency, but getting things to scale and then making sure you measure them right, so being able to continue to make the savings justifies the continued investment in those technologies.” - Michael Przytula

Resources:

Shout outs:

Metrikus