Why Data Is King When Driving Building Efficiencies

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:

• Metrikus
• Metrikus Content Hub
• HVAC system
• One Manhattan West
• Castellana85
• FORE Partnerships

Shout outs:

• Jon Clarke
• James Palmer

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.