Latest / Business Roundtable / The ROI of Doing It Right: Sustainability, Strategy, and Energy Savings

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The ROI of Doing It Right: Sustainability, Strategy, and Energy Savings · Business Roundtable

0:31
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Around Table podcast. I have
0:34
Speaker 1: another great new guests this week, Marica Early from the
0:39
Speaker 1: Green Economy. We're going to talk about some great topics.
0:43
Speaker 1: One of them that we haven't dealt too much onto
0:46
Speaker 1: actually about sustainability in business and and how do you
0:50
Speaker 1: do this in your buildings. You're what, you're whatever you're
0:55
Speaker 1: creating out there that needs energy. We all need energy,
0:59
Speaker 1: and so one of the things we're going to talk
1:01
Speaker 1: about today is you know, thinking more long term and
1:05
Speaker 1: you know, ways of building momentum, creating a sustainable future
1:11
Speaker 1: for ourselves, for our business, for our families, for our
1:13
Speaker 1: communities instead of just short term fixes and oftentimes, you know,
1:17
Speaker 1: we're hit up with a lot of short term fixes.
1:20
Speaker 1: And we're just got a lot of great experience, and
1:22
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have her be sharing quite a bit on
1:24
Speaker 1: her background, where she got to why she creates the
1:26
Speaker 1: green economy on there and we both come back come
1:30
Speaker 1: from well, I should say I come back for an
1:33
Speaker 1: environmental consulting background. Marinka, You're gonna share your background and
1:36
Speaker 1: how you got to this space. But you know, we
1:40
Speaker 1: we have a lot of shared connections and we just
1:43
Speaker 1: had a podcast episode I just recorded last week with
1:45
Speaker 1: another colleague, Shane Silsby, where we're talking about funding and
1:49
Speaker 1: getting you know, building these capital projects and things out there.
1:53
Speaker 1: So anyways, all that to be said, you know, we
1:55
Speaker 1: want to get to why long term thinking isn't just smart,
1:59
Speaker 1: it's essential. We want and Rika is going to really
2:01
Speaker 1: share some insights here about what she does in her
2:04
Speaker 1: business and how she helps her clients in this endeavor. So, Marika,
2:09
Speaker 1: welcome to the Business Roundtable podcast. So glad to have
2:12
Speaker 1: you here. We're excited to hear from you.
2:16
Speaker 2: Thank you, David. I'm excited to be here. It's great.
2:20
Speaker 1: Thank you. So Marika, you have you know, created the
2:24
Speaker 1: Greed Economy. But let's back it up a little bit
2:27
Speaker 1: and talk about your journey, you know, in the financial
2:30
Speaker 1: world and what got you to now you know your
2:33
Speaker 1: place now as founder and CEO of the Greed Economy.
2:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. I come from an accounting background. I was an
2:42
Speaker 2: accountant for about thirty years of my life. Straight out
2:47
Speaker 2: of school. I have a business economics degree out of
2:49
Speaker 2: UCSB and then I got an MBA from Pepperdine. So
2:52
Speaker 2: very much a financial head, numbers oriented. Never really did
2:56
Speaker 2: that great in school with words much more with number.
3:00
Speaker 2: And so when I was my last position was working
3:04
Speaker 2: as a CFO for a home builder in Calabasas, where
3:07
Speaker 2: I learned an awful lot about construction. Hadn't really done
3:11
Speaker 2: anything in that world before I realized I really did
3:14
Speaker 2: like working in buildings. And having been and I consider
3:19
Speaker 2: myself an environmentalist. I spent a lot of time in
3:23
Speaker 2: my childhood in nature. I grew up as with Hungarian
3:27
Speaker 2: immigrant parents, who all the other Hungarians around me were all,
3:32
Speaker 2: you know, we're all Hungarian scouts, and we spent a
3:35
Speaker 2: lot of time in nature, and that made me really
3:38
Speaker 2: appreciate nature and want to take care of it. And
3:40
Speaker 2: when I heard that Governor Schwarzenegger in I think it
3:45
Speaker 2: was in two thousand and seven came up with these
3:48
Speaker 2: ideas to implement an energy disclosure law in California, I thought, well,
3:53
Speaker 2: somebody needs to know those laws, and somebody needs to
3:56
Speaker 2: know how to produce the reports. And I thought, well,
3:59
Speaker 2: this is a great opportunity that maybe I should start
4:02
Speaker 2: a business. I'd always wanted to start a business, and
4:05
Speaker 2: I'd kind of been burned out working for other people,
4:07
Speaker 2: so I thought, you know what, this is a good
4:08
Speaker 2: opportunity both my kids are done with college now and
4:12
Speaker 2: I can focus on something I want to do, And
4:16
Speaker 2: so I started Green Economy not really knowing what was
4:20
Speaker 2: going to happen. There was a four year overlap where
4:23
Speaker 2: I was still a CFO and I was working building
4:26
Speaker 2: this business. And one of the hardest parts of this
4:29
Speaker 2: was being a learning how to network and sell. I
4:33
Speaker 2: never sold a thing in my life. I knew nothing
4:36
Speaker 2: about kWh or kW or anything of it related to energy.
4:41
Speaker 2: I actually really didn't know anything about anything. I just thought,
4:45
Speaker 2: you know, I'm going to just try.
4:48
Speaker 1: I saw an opportunity.
4:49
Speaker 2: It's an opportunity. I got to just figure it out.
4:51
Speaker 2: And so I find it interesting now when I look back,
4:55
Speaker 2: because I mean I was in my early fifties when
4:57
Speaker 2: I did it too. So anyone who says, oh, I'm
4:59
Speaker 2: too old, I ca do this, No, it's it really
5:02
Speaker 2: doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter. You
5:05
Speaker 2: love at any time to do whatever you want, like,
5:08
Speaker 2: just do it right. So I started it, and I
5:14
Speaker 2: had to learn how to network, and now I'm pretty
5:16
Speaker 2: good at that. Actually it's pretty free. People laugh at
5:19
Speaker 2: me about that because I was always such a shy person,
5:21
Speaker 2: but you know, this is a new industry even now,
5:25
Speaker 2: sustainability is probably fifteen years old, you know, when people
5:30
Speaker 2: are really involved in it since that period of time.
5:33
Speaker 2: So I've learned a lot. I've made a lot of
5:35
Speaker 2: great friends. People have sustainability are wonderful. Generally, they're great people.
5:40
Speaker 2: So it's been a very interesting journey to get to
5:43
Speaker 2: this point of really understanding how buildings operate and running
5:46
Speaker 2: a small business.
5:48
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I commend you for that, and I
5:52
Speaker 1: echo that you know, you know, I'm fifty. What I
5:55
Speaker 1: started to do it your business a couple of years ago,
5:57
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of like, you know, who
5:59
Speaker 1: am I to do this? What? You know, how am
6:01
Speaker 1: I going to figure this out? Like you said, Marika.
6:03
Speaker 1: But I one of the concept I wanted to talk
6:06
Speaker 1: with you about is this idea of I call the
6:10
Speaker 1: gap of the game mindset, but the idea that the
6:12
Speaker 1: gain is like, there's so much we can do, There's
6:14
Speaker 1: so much we can build. You saw the gain, you
6:16
Speaker 1: saw the possibility, and I think that helps drive our
6:20
Speaker 1: long term thinking of what could be versus you know,
6:23
Speaker 1: all the things that we haven't done and sometimes most
6:26
Speaker 1: sometimes we are looking at all these the gap of
6:28
Speaker 1: like behind us, Oh my goodness, what's the loss? But
6:32
Speaker 1: what I hear hear you say, Marica, is like, look,
6:33
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity here, there's something that we could be done,
6:37
Speaker 1: and hey, why not me? Why don't I step out
6:39
Speaker 1: into this world and stretch myself and use my gifts
6:43
Speaker 1: and my talents that I've found. And look here you are,
6:47
Speaker 1: you know, so many years later, continuing to do this,
6:50
Speaker 1: and like you said, it's still relatively I mean, yes,
6:53
Speaker 1: it's been around, but it's still relatively new. We're still learning,
6:55
Speaker 1: we're still adapting, trying to figure this out. And so
6:59
Speaker 1: I just want to say I'm grateful for you. One
7:01
Speaker 1: of the reasons we have the business trying to able
7:03
Speaker 1: podcasts is other business owners and leaders can hear from
7:06
Speaker 1: each other. No, I'm not alone in this. There's other
7:08
Speaker 1: people that have gone before me and maybe haven't been
7:10
Speaker 1: known all all the answers. And that's okay. We don't
7:13
Speaker 1: have to have all the answers. We come together. We collaborate, right,
7:16
Speaker 1: And so you know, you saw this opportunity and you
7:22
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure you see clients possibly that get
7:25
Speaker 1: stuck in what I call the gap instead of helping
7:27
Speaker 1: them see that and reframe and say, here's the possibility,
7:31
Speaker 1: here's what could be. Maybe speak to that a little bit.
7:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think. I think sometimes people don't understand that
7:39
Speaker 2: when you do a lighting retrofit or something like that,
7:42
Speaker 2: which you know, number one thing you should do in
7:44
Speaker 2: a building is a LED retrofit. Not only are fluorescence
7:47
Speaker 2: band in California, but anywhere in the country. You know,
7:52
Speaker 2: going to LED is a at least a fifty percent
7:55
Speaker 2: reduction in your wattage of every lamp you have in
7:58
Speaker 2: your building. So that's a huge actually it ends up
8:01
Speaker 2: being quite a bit of money. But what people don't
8:04
Speaker 2: understand is I've had multiple times, oh, we did a
8:07
Speaker 2: retrofit and we didn't see any savings. Well, it's people
8:11
Speaker 2: are looking at the dollar value of their invoice, not
8:14
Speaker 2: just the you know, reduction and energy usage because the
8:17
Speaker 2: cost of energy continues to rise. So even if you're
8:21
Speaker 2: reducing your usage, because the utilities are going to continue
8:24
Speaker 2: to raise their prices, which now even especially in LA
8:28
Speaker 2: with the LA fires, now all these utilities are getting
8:31
Speaker 2: either sued or all these costs to rebuild. It's this,
8:35
Speaker 2: it's this, it's the user you know that's going to
8:38
Speaker 2: be paying for it, so the cost of energy is
8:39
Speaker 2: not going down. So it's really important to just think
8:43
Speaker 2: about Okay, yes, you think it's not going to make
8:45
Speaker 2: a difference, but it really does make a difference. You
8:49
Speaker 2: just maybe are looking at the wrong numbers, and maybe
8:51
Speaker 2: that's why you don't understand that there was a reduction.
8:54
Speaker 2: You just didn't see it because the costs went up.
8:57
Speaker 2: So trying to explain that to people I find very interesting.
9:02
Speaker 2: Like sometimes when I really go into a utility bill
9:04
Speaker 2: and explain it to someone, they're like, oh my god,
9:07
Speaker 2: I have no idea because those bills are also so confusing. Yes,
9:11
Speaker 2: it's almost like you can't even figure it out unless
9:13
Speaker 2: you have somebody explain it to you. And that kind
9:17
Speaker 2: of creates this gap of not understanding. You know, you're
9:19
Speaker 2: paying this bill, you don't understand it. You're annoyed, But
9:22
Speaker 2: then also you're a little worried about hiring somebody to
9:26
Speaker 2: change things because you actually don't know what's going to happen.
9:29
Speaker 2: If the things are they going to it's going to
9:31
Speaker 2: go down, like you know. So it's it's trying to
9:34
Speaker 2: develop that trust, yeah with the client, so they understand
9:39
Speaker 2: that you actually understand what you're talking about, and then
9:41
Speaker 2: they're going to trust you to make the changes in
9:43
Speaker 2: the building.
9:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I would. I would get It's one of
9:46
Speaker 1: the things we talked about before we started recording the podcast,
9:50
Speaker 1: and I would want to know is like you said,
9:52
Speaker 1: you're looking after the fact, but what is that? Like
9:54
Speaker 1: you said, be clear, like you have like a benchmarking
9:57
Speaker 1: important and there's some technical things in there, but as
9:59
Speaker 1: a an entry point, like, Okay, what is our basis,
10:02
Speaker 1: what's our understanding of what's the facts here? Because sometimes
10:04
Speaker 1: I think people like it's muddy, Like you said, it's
10:07
Speaker 1: like clarified having somebody like you or you could come
10:09
Speaker 1: in there and say, okay, let's break this all down.
10:11
Speaker 1: Let's see how this is all interconnected, right right, Yeah.
10:15
Speaker 2: And I think that's a lot of times. I mean,
10:18
Speaker 2: we do a lot of benchmarking. So that's what I
10:20
Speaker 2: started the business, and that's basically with Governor Schwarzenegger started with,
10:24
Speaker 2: was these benchmarking laws, right and use the EPA software
10:27
Speaker 2: to portfolio manager to benchmark a building, which is basically
10:32
Speaker 2: identifying how energy efficient it is by use. There's like
10:37
Speaker 2: eighty different uses against its peer buildings and itself peer
10:43
Speaker 2: buildings in the software, so it gives you a really
10:45
Speaker 2: good measure of how your building is performing. And doing
10:48
Speaker 2: that accurately, like there's a lot of people that do it,
10:51
Speaker 2: but how many people actually do it accurately is another question.
10:55
Speaker 2: We try very hard to always do it accurately. So
10:58
Speaker 2: then mean something, that data then is providing you a
11:02
Speaker 2: baseline of oh wow, this is how my building is
11:05
Speaker 2: performing against myself like period from last year to this year,
11:09
Speaker 2: or against the other software you know, other similar use
11:12
Speaker 2: of buildings in the software. It gives you a really
11:14
Speaker 2: good measure. And if you look at that and then
11:16
Speaker 2: you make changes in your building, that m NV we're
11:19
Speaker 2: talking about, where you go in and you can see
11:21
Speaker 2: the changes, the reduction, the scores you know, are adjusted
11:26
Speaker 2: to the better or worse based on what's going on
11:28
Speaker 2: in the building. It's the validation of it, right, it's there,
11:31
Speaker 2: it's not if it's done accurately. It's very interesting to
11:35
Speaker 2: see what those metrics show you.
11:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine too, America, like you're saying, I mean,
11:40
Speaker 1: so you have to have somebody that can go in
11:43
Speaker 1: there and get truly to the facts. This is not
11:45
Speaker 1: manipulating anything. It's being really clear. But you know, and
11:49
Speaker 1: then like you said too, it's comparing you know, that
11:51
Speaker 1: building with other buildings. So hopefully you know everybody's on
11:54
Speaker 1: the same page. But you know, here's the thing. It's
11:56
Speaker 1: challenging if nobody is, like said, they're all looking at
11:59
Speaker 1: it effectively or doing it, you know, accurately. Right. We
12:04
Speaker 1: can only make informed decisions if we have an accurate foundation.
12:07
Speaker 1: And if it's like fuzzy or you can't compare its
12:10
Speaker 1: you know, the app that apples to oranges analogy, that's
12:12
Speaker 1: really hard. It's like we've got to be able to
12:14
Speaker 1: talk about the same things if we're talking past each other.
12:16
Speaker 1: So having somebody like humor, you got to come in
12:18
Speaker 1: there and say, look, I know, I'll these eighty different uses.
12:21
Speaker 1: I know how to assess these things, and this is
12:23
Speaker 1: what all of these things mean is very valuable. You know.
12:27
Speaker 1: That's why we want to hire somebody like you that
12:30
Speaker 1: can help us. And for me, of the coach, I'll
12:33
Speaker 1: put my coachat up. When I'm helping people individuals, it's
12:36
Speaker 1: the same thing. We're trying to get a baseline, factual
12:38
Speaker 1: understanding because if we don't have that, really really everything
12:41
Speaker 1: else is like you can't make informed long term decisions
12:45
Speaker 1: without that baseline understanding.
12:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super important. And and people, you know, I
12:51
Speaker 2: find that we're not We're not the cheapest to do that,
12:53
Speaker 2: and so there's other people that do it for less money.
12:56
Speaker 2: But if it's not right, and then you have a
12:58
Speaker 2: second phase of it, because these benchmarkting laws is about
13:02
Speaker 2: forty something of them across the country, and about seventeen
13:05
Speaker 2: of them have a second phase a BPS, a building
13:08
Speaker 2: performance standard, which is then you have to do something
13:10
Speaker 2: else with that data. So if you don't do that,
13:13
Speaker 2: if that initial data isn't correct, then what you're doing
13:16
Speaker 2: on the second phase isn't correct. You might be paying
13:19
Speaker 2: overpaying on the second phase, even though you thought you
13:22
Speaker 2: were getting a deal because you paid nothing or very
13:24
Speaker 2: little on the first dase, but you're paying for it later.
13:27
Speaker 2: So it's that, you know, people just need to understand
13:30
Speaker 2: you kind of pay for what you get.
13:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree, That's why we have, like you hear,
13:35
Speaker 1: Marie cons so people can listen and hear and know
13:38
Speaker 1: And I one hundred percent agree with you. It's like
13:40
Speaker 1: building on that foundation, it will actually save you money
13:43
Speaker 1: in the long run. If you do that. I had
13:45
Speaker 1: had a couple of lawyers on the podcast in recent
13:47
Speaker 1: episodes make the same kind of thing. If you're not
13:50
Speaker 1: your legal financial house or order, and later on you
13:52
Speaker 1: get sued you don't have the right things in a place,
13:54
Speaker 1: you're just going to be much more costly. You didn't
13:57
Speaker 1: spend the time up front. And again it's this long
13:59
Speaker 1: term thinking versus short term thinking. And I think sometimes
14:03
Speaker 1: you know, leaders are chasing maybe incentives or patchwork solutions
14:06
Speaker 1: because they're like, oh, there's this, there's this, you know,
14:08
Speaker 1: and they're not bringing it all back together and really
14:12
Speaker 1: looking at that so they could drive smarter, you know,
14:16
Speaker 1: you know, capital planning looking at these.
14:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think some people just don't don't want
14:23
Speaker 2: to look forward and address. Like one of the biggest
14:27
Speaker 2: problems is I spoke to someone yesterday a large portfolio
14:32
Speaker 2: equity fund portfolio, and there you're having trouble getting the
14:36
Speaker 2: data from their tenants, right the tenant. In order to
14:39
Speaker 2: benchmark a building, you have the tenant. Depending upon the
14:41
Speaker 2: utility and how many meters are at the building, many
14:44
Speaker 2: times you need the tenant to authorize that data to
14:47
Speaker 2: come into the software. And if you don't have that
14:50
Speaker 2: as part of the lease, or if that's not something
14:53
Speaker 2: brought up initially with the tenant, whether you just bought
14:56
Speaker 2: the building or now it's a new tenant, but you're
15:00
Speaker 2: not bringing that story up of Look, we care about
15:03
Speaker 2: our benchmarking. We need to have this because a lot
15:06
Speaker 2: of companies, you know, what we're talking about is compliance reporting.
15:09
Speaker 2: But now we have companies that actually care about it
15:12
Speaker 2: and are reporting it as part of their ESG or
15:14
Speaker 2: environmental social governance strategies for their you know, investment report
15:19
Speaker 2: or their res reporting, whatever is going on with that.
15:22
Speaker 2: It's the whole other world that exists now that didn't
15:25
Speaker 2: exist fifteen years ago. If they want to do that,
15:29
Speaker 2: they need that utility data, and if they can't get
15:32
Speaker 2: the tenant to sign the authorization, they can't get the data.
15:36
Speaker 2: How do you make sure that that's happening. You have
15:38
Speaker 2: to make sure that the leases are accurate, the leases
15:42
Speaker 2: reflect that that communication is happening early on. But some
15:46
Speaker 2: people are worried to do that right, They don't want
15:48
Speaker 2: to ruin the deal, so they're not going to bring
15:50
Speaker 2: it up. But then later you need to get that data.
15:52
Speaker 2: So then how do you get the data. So there's
15:54
Speaker 2: like this cycle that is not really getting addressed in
16:01
Speaker 2: the leases that are out there, and I think that's
16:03
Speaker 2: one of the problems too, that people then are struggling
16:05
Speaker 2: to get that data from the tenant.
16:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean well, I mean I can. I can
16:10
Speaker 1: speak whether that's leases or any kind of getting getting
16:13
Speaker 1: people to come in alignment like you're saying, or you
16:16
Speaker 1: have to give them the bigger picture of what you're
16:17
Speaker 1: trying to achieve in the vision and get buy in
16:20
Speaker 1: and like, look, I don't want to upset them, but like, hey, look,
16:22
Speaker 1: this is all going to help us in the long
16:23
Speaker 1: run if we can get this data. It's not just
16:26
Speaker 1: me the business owner. I'm trying to help you too,
16:28
Speaker 1: because I can hopefully lower costs and other things in
16:30
Speaker 1: the building overall if we can run this well. But yeah,
16:34
Speaker 1: if if we're not doing that, like you said, there's
16:36
Speaker 1: these cycles and just not be able to communicate well,
16:39
Speaker 1: so that could be challenging. Absolutely, Man, you know what
16:46
Speaker 1: do you what would you say right now? Maybe is
16:48
Speaker 1: kind of the biggest financial myths that leaders believe about
16:51
Speaker 1: kind of any energy retrofits, Like what is your what's
16:54
Speaker 1: your thought there?
16:56
Speaker 2: I think people I think people are scared to put
16:59
Speaker 2: the money. Like I said earlier, I think sometimes people
17:02
Speaker 2: don't understand the actual savings. I think I think with
17:06
Speaker 2: so like as an example, solar solar is on a
17:10
Speaker 2: property makes so much sense. Now even if it's a
17:13
Speaker 2: if you're an owner operator, then it definitely does right
17:17
Speaker 2: because you're as the owner benefit to your building and
17:21
Speaker 2: then also you're using the energy yourself what's generated. So yeah, easy,
17:27
Speaker 2: no problem, You should definitely do it. But even if
17:30
Speaker 2: you have a triple at least where someone else is
17:32
Speaker 2: using the energy but you have it, it's on the building,
17:35
Speaker 2: you could either put the solar on and sell it
17:38
Speaker 2: back to the grid, or you could sell it to
17:40
Speaker 2: the tenant, or you could make it smaller you know,
17:45
Speaker 2: uh solar. I mean there's community solar where you could
17:47
Speaker 2: sell it on the East Coast, you could sell it
17:49
Speaker 2: back to the grid. So there's different ways that you
17:51
Speaker 2: can monetize that generation to your benefit. And I think
17:56
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't understand that there's software is
17:59
Speaker 2: out there right now where in California especially, you can
18:01
Speaker 2: sell the energy back to the tenant at let's say
18:04
Speaker 2: a lower price than the tenant is paying currently to
18:07
Speaker 2: the utility and then all of a sudden, the owner
18:09
Speaker 2: of the building now has a new revenue stream that
18:11
Speaker 2: they didn't even know it was a roof. So yes,
18:17
Speaker 2: or like, seventy percent of the solar system right now
18:20
Speaker 2: is tax benefits, even though they're frozen part of the
18:23
Speaker 2: Inflation Reduction Act in this current administration has frozen it.
18:27
Speaker 2: Still it's going to take an Act of Congress to
18:30
Speaker 2: relieve that on free to get rid of those tax benefits,
18:33
Speaker 2: but right now they're in effect, and they're like, you know,
18:36
Speaker 2: if seventy percent of your solar system is covered by
18:38
Speaker 2: tax benefits and you have a tax liability running that
18:42
Speaker 2: building or in your entity that owns that building, it's
18:46
Speaker 2: a no brainer, right. So I think it's just convincing
18:49
Speaker 2: people that it makes sense. Because you're going to increase
18:53
Speaker 2: the value of your property, you could also increase your
18:57
Speaker 2: revenue from your property you going to take you're taking
19:01
Speaker 2: advantage of tax benefits that are out there currently, which
19:05
Speaker 2: may not be there later, So why not do it?
19:07
Speaker 2: You know, it's just like convincing people they don't want
19:10
Speaker 2: to part with their money, but then they get it
19:12
Speaker 2: back next year.
19:13
Speaker 1: Anyway, you got to think a little bit. Yeah, so
19:15
Speaker 1: short term, yes, okay, you're gonna get you know, invest
19:18
Speaker 1: your money in this way and think of it as
19:19
Speaker 1: an investment. It's not like you're losing your money. It's
19:22
Speaker 1: going in there. Like you said, and I loved how
19:24
Speaker 1: you brought up some different options. There's depending on your
19:27
Speaker 1: circumstances and having something like Marica, look at your circumstances,
19:30
Speaker 1: look at the facts. What does that look like for
19:32
Speaker 1: you as owner operator or you know how it's going
19:34
Speaker 1: to benefit you know, those that are in the building,
19:37
Speaker 1: those those that are leasing the building or the space.
19:40
Speaker 1: There's different revenue stream I like you know how you
19:43
Speaker 1: there's lots of different options. Sometimes we can't even see
19:45
Speaker 1: the often of the possibilities because we get, you know,
19:48
Speaker 1: kind of a fixed mindset or I just I know
19:50
Speaker 1: this and so what I like that have with the
19:52
Speaker 1: Business cround Table podcast is creating an opportunity to kind
19:55
Speaker 1: of put those fixed mindset are what we think we
19:58
Speaker 1: know and understand and it could be right, could be wrong,
20:00
Speaker 1: but just for putting that in a space where hey,
20:03
Speaker 1: let's investigate, let's see what could be what's out there.
20:06
Speaker 1: And and like you mentioned, Rika, there's a whole bunch
20:08
Speaker 1: of different programs, multiple states, depending on where you're listening
20:11
Speaker 1: to this, Uh, you know, different incentives in you know
20:16
Speaker 1: right now, like you said, tax taxes and others, and
20:18
Speaker 1: depending on what your circumstances. To me, I'm hearing lots
20:20
Speaker 1: of variables, Marika, and so it's like taking all these
20:23
Speaker 1: variables and distilling them down into what makes sense for you.
20:26
Speaker 1: And you know, having something like you Amrica that has
20:28
Speaker 1: a specialty and looking at numbers and breaking all this
20:31
Speaker 1: down and just saying, look, here's how this all plays
20:34
Speaker 1: out for you.
20:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's it's it's interesting to do
20:41
Speaker 2: when you really look at all of it. But it
20:43
Speaker 2: really at the end of the day, when you have
20:46
Speaker 2: an energy efficient building, your net operating income of that
20:50
Speaker 2: building is going to be higher, right, It's just going
20:53
Speaker 2: to be it's just going to be higher. Your energy
20:55
Speaker 2: costs are going to be lower. When you have a
20:59
Speaker 2: higher NI, that's going to mean your building is worth
21:02
Speaker 2: more money. Right, So if you're trying to sell it,
21:04
Speaker 2: if somebody is trying to if you have a tenant
21:07
Speaker 2: that moves in and needs to report on their emissions,
21:09
Speaker 2: which that's happening, you know, more regularly now where large
21:15
Speaker 2: corporations have to report on their emissions of what they're
21:19
Speaker 2: consuming and running their businesses. If you have an efficient building,
21:23
Speaker 2: then that tenant is going to be more likely to
21:26
Speaker 2: lease your building than another building that's not efficient. So
21:29
Speaker 2: it's kind of a no brainer really to do it.
21:31
Speaker 2: It's just yeah, and you have to look at everything.
21:33
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to look at the HVAC systems.
21:35
Speaker 2: You have to look at the lighting. I mean, those
21:39
Speaker 2: are the two things that are really the most important.
21:42
Speaker 2: Building envelope is important, but it's very expensive to retrofit
21:47
Speaker 2: and payback on that is really long, So I mean
21:50
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't want to touch the envelope,
21:52
Speaker 2: but the mechanical systems and lighting is pretty important.
21:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, start where you can. I mean, and you know
22:01
Speaker 1: this idea of what you know, how do we you know,
22:04
Speaker 1: can create the momentum you keep that going. And one
22:07
Speaker 1: of the things you brought up was you have, you know,
22:09
Speaker 1: different models. One of them you said, is like your
22:11
Speaker 1: measurement and verification models, Like how do we measure this
22:15
Speaker 1: and manage it so that we know it's actually working.
22:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's one of the most interesting things
22:21
Speaker 2: that we're doing right now is we have a couple
22:23
Speaker 2: of energy modeling. Modeling and then monitoring. Those are two
22:30
Speaker 2: different things. Modeling would be how how is the building
22:33
Speaker 2: using energy right now, and it's based on the equipment
22:36
Speaker 2: that you currently have the existing conditions, and then you
22:40
Speaker 2: compare that against what you're going to be putting into
22:43
Speaker 2: the building and the efficiency of that new equipment, and
22:46
Speaker 2: you can see how efficiently the building is working. So
22:50
Speaker 2: that will validate the fact that if you're spending two
22:53
Speaker 2: million dollars by changing out your mechanical system, is it
22:57
Speaker 2: going to make sense? And what is the long term
23:00
Speaker 2: energy savings and cost savings you're going to have. So
23:03
Speaker 2: energy models can tell you that like, Okay, you spend
23:06
Speaker 2: two million dollars, but you're going to have you know,
23:09
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars less monthly, So maybe the payback
23:12
Speaker 2: is ten years, but you're going to be you're not
23:16
Speaker 2: planning to sell the building. It's going to be in
23:18
Speaker 2: your family. You're going to don't you know, your kids
23:22
Speaker 2: are going to inherit it. So it's like, well, you're
23:23
Speaker 2: going to invest in it now, why not because you're
23:26
Speaker 2: going to have that savings And I think the thing
23:28
Speaker 2: that one thing I try and push is this. Also
23:32
Speaker 2: part of the Inflation Reduction Act is the Section one
23:35
Speaker 2: seventy nine deduction where there's also an energy model. But
23:38
Speaker 2: that energy model right now is Astray ninety point one
23:41
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, which is the standard at which
23:43
Speaker 2: buildings were built in. But the comparison is two thousand
23:46
Speaker 2: and seven, which has fluorescent lighting compared to what you're
23:49
Speaker 2: doing now. In that fifty percent reduction there, that gives
23:53
Speaker 2: you a really nice tax deduction. So you can take
23:57
Speaker 2: to your you know, you do the retrofits in your building,
23:59
Speaker 2: but then you also get a tax deduction for it,
24:01
Speaker 2: so that's a nice bonus as well. And a lot
24:04
Speaker 2: of people don't even know about that. So yeah, so
24:06
Speaker 2: there's just a lot of money out there. We just
24:08
Speaker 2: you just have to find it.
24:09
Speaker 1: You just have to find it. And I think seeing
24:11
Speaker 1: this and I think, I think, you know, I'm speaking
24:15
Speaker 1: to the business owners the entrepreneurs out there that they
24:18
Speaker 1: see that, hey, look if I invest in this, like,
24:21
Speaker 1: there are models, like nothing is set for sure, one
24:23
Speaker 1: hundred percent, right, there are models. We were this is
24:26
Speaker 1: based on science. Is the best information that we have
24:28
Speaker 1: that we know and you have to make informed decisions
24:31
Speaker 1: here and and so you know, I think encouraging as
24:35
Speaker 1: you're listening to Marika talk here, like how important it
24:38
Speaker 1: is to think about the future and what could be
24:41
Speaker 1: and you know, basing that like we talked earlier about
24:43
Speaker 1: the facts and understanding and then you know, move move
24:46
Speaker 1: forward and investing in that. I really like the word
24:49
Speaker 1: investing because I feel like it will come back, like
24:51
Speaker 1: you said, whether you hold onto the building or you
24:54
Speaker 1: you know, end up selling it. You know, you're looking
24:58
Speaker 1: at I like your other you were talking about that
25:00
Speaker 1: you're aligning this with sustainability, with the financial modeling you know,
25:04
Speaker 1: right which you're not operating income that's going to come
25:06
Speaker 1: from this. And so this is where I felt like
25:10
Speaker 1: a lot of synergy with what I do as toward
25:12
Speaker 1: your business and what you're doing Marica is like, you know,
25:14
Speaker 1: how do we create sustainability and momentum and looking toward
25:17
Speaker 1: the future. And I think this is so important because
25:19
Speaker 1: I think, like, honestly, people that want to do this,
25:22
Speaker 1: if they're investing in themselves and they see the value
25:24
Speaker 1: of that, it's like, okay, well why not do it
25:25
Speaker 1: in my physical structure of the space that I've been
25:27
Speaker 1: doing because it's this is long term sustainable way of
25:32
Speaker 1: thinking and being you know.
25:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and efficient buildings too generally have better air quality, right,
25:39
Speaker 2: and we all have issues during COVID with the ventilation
25:43
Speaker 2: issues and all of that, and I mean that's a
25:45
Speaker 2: major thing. I mean, when we energy start certify a building,
25:48
Speaker 2: you have to do air testing associated with that air
25:51
Speaker 2: and you know, that could be a huge difference when
25:54
Speaker 2: you have proper ventilation and a building for people not
25:57
Speaker 2: getting sick. I mean people will say that, but it
25:59
Speaker 2: really does make a difference. And you can sense it
26:01
Speaker 2: when you walk into a building. Oh yeah, you know
26:03
Speaker 2: a tenant part of that too, that tenants will stay,
26:06
Speaker 2: you know. And with all this back to work too, right,
26:09
Speaker 2: a lot of people are having to go back.
26:13
Speaker 1: If you want to go back, you want to go
26:14
Speaker 1: back and feel like you're going into a healthy environment
26:18
Speaker 1: a pother of not some they're like building that's you know,
26:21
Speaker 1: like I don't know they're taking care of things, you know,
26:24
Speaker 1: things running well or is this being run you know,
26:27
Speaker 1: because it's like, hey, I want to come to a
26:29
Speaker 1: place that's being well taken care of. It's a welcoming environment.
26:32
Speaker 1: I know that they're doing an effort on all aspects.
26:35
Speaker 1: You know, it makes me feel better when I go
26:37
Speaker 1: into a building and see if it's a green building
26:39
Speaker 1: or whatnot, I can tell that they're making an effort
26:42
Speaker 1: to improve it. Sometimes it's hard to see, you know,
26:45
Speaker 1: right up front, but you know, I think this is
26:48
Speaker 1: this is important. I think that I like what you're saying.
26:51
Speaker 1: Earlier America. You're talking to sustainability experts and others. You know,
26:55
Speaker 1: that's just the mindset and understanding in a way of
26:57
Speaker 1: approaching the world. It's a little different and maybe some
27:01
Speaker 1: of the folks just in our day to day and
27:03
Speaker 1: having you bring this perspective and helping people see things
27:06
Speaker 1: a little differently.
27:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think there's you know, there's a lot
27:10
Speaker 2: of parts to it too, right. Trash is another part too.
27:13
Speaker 2: Around a consultant for a conference center in a camp
27:16
Speaker 2: and one of the things we're focused on is trash,
27:19
Speaker 2: like all the trash that would come in and how
27:22
Speaker 2: are you how do you deal with that sustainably? Yeah,
27:25
Speaker 2: you know, looking at that piece too, not only the
27:27
Speaker 2: water piece but crashes as well to how do we
27:32
Speaker 2: how do we do a better job with that? Because
27:33
Speaker 2: we're such a disposable society. And really, and I think
27:37
Speaker 2: one of the things I talked about in my staff
27:39
Speaker 2: meeting this week too is you know hope that you know,
27:42
Speaker 2: we got to just believe in hope and we got
27:44
Speaker 2: to do what we can, like live a sustainable life,
27:47
Speaker 2: make good choices in the things you purchase, in the
27:51
Speaker 2: way you live your life, because all of that adds up,
27:53
Speaker 2: and maybe that also spreads to your friends so that
27:56
Speaker 2: more people are doing it. Just you know, I think
27:59
Speaker 2: in this world that we have right now, we have
28:01
Speaker 2: to join together and really help each other, support each
28:04
Speaker 2: other and take care of the planet, right, like really
28:10
Speaker 2: not just say it, but actually do it.
28:12
Speaker 1: Find ways we could do it, even you know, as
28:14
Speaker 1: small as it may seem at the moment, right, I
28:16
Speaker 1: mean you've worked with schools, large commercial firms, and so
28:19
Speaker 1: many more, you know, getting this buy in across stakeholders, right, Marika,
28:23
Speaker 1: That's what I hear you saying, is like, how do
28:25
Speaker 1: we get everyone thinking about this thing not in their
28:27
Speaker 1: own isolated world. I find this too with just people
28:30
Speaker 1: and organizations that people just kind of get their own
28:32
Speaker 1: like okay, yes, but let's let's cross over because there's
28:35
Speaker 1: greater synergy and we can help each other instead of
28:38
Speaker 1: just saying siloed. And there's a I don't know what
28:39
Speaker 1: it is, our human nature or whatnot. Sometimes we just
28:42
Speaker 1: silo ourselves and we don't talk and all we need
28:44
Speaker 1: is just it's not a major thing. It's just you know,
28:47
Speaker 1: like you said, talking with I mean one of the things,
28:51
Speaker 1: I'll just bring up the trash thing to America because
28:54
Speaker 1: you know, me as a biologist by background, right, you know,
28:56
Speaker 1: just literally covering the lids of like commercial trash because
29:00
Speaker 1: ravens and other things pull out the trash. It's subsidizing
29:04
Speaker 1: you know, these the ravens which predate on tortoises and
29:08
Speaker 1: other endangered species. It's like just the fact that you
29:11
Speaker 1: close your lid can make a huge difference in subsidizing
29:14
Speaker 1: a predator. And so it's something small like that, right.
29:18
Speaker 1: But and so it was just you know, it was
29:19
Speaker 1: actually the Palm Spring Zoo and having doing initiative and
29:22
Speaker 1: sending out some people talking to restaurants and encouraging them. Right.
29:26
Speaker 1: But it's not a one time thing, That's what I
29:27
Speaker 1: find reek. It's not like you have a one time
29:29
Speaker 1: conversation and now that solves it. It just it isn't
29:31
Speaker 1: that way. It's an ongoing conversation.
29:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think it's it's I think that's a
29:37
Speaker 2: great example of the Ravens And I think it's you know,
29:39
Speaker 2: we went and did a beach clean up a couple
29:43
Speaker 2: of weeks ago with surf Rider, who is a great organization,
29:46
Speaker 2: and they even weigh the trash as you're pregnant in sorted.
29:50
Speaker 2: I mean, it was very impressive. But it's just the
29:52
Speaker 2: amount of trash, Like what do people think that somebody
29:56
Speaker 2: I mean, oh, it doesn't matter, I'm just going to
29:57
Speaker 2: leave it on the on the beach. I just can't
30:00
Speaker 2: believe that. It's just like everyone should be taught to
30:03
Speaker 2: throw your trash in the trash, can you know, simple
30:06
Speaker 2: things like that and those all that all it is important, right,
30:09
Speaker 2: it gets in the wrong the plastic gets in the
30:11
Speaker 2: wrong bodies. You know, we want to we want to
30:14
Speaker 2: take care of each other. And I think that's the
30:16
Speaker 2: message I'm always trying to to say, is you know,
30:20
Speaker 2: let's work together to accomplish good things. We're not going
30:23
Speaker 2: to be able to do it by ourselves. I mean
30:25
Speaker 2: we don't have most people don't have the expertise to
30:27
Speaker 2: do things anyway, right, have to work together? Yes, absolutely,
30:34
Speaker 2: there's no other solution, so why not and really help
30:37
Speaker 2: each other? I don't you know, I think to me
30:40
Speaker 2: that's the most important messages. Let's work together and do
30:43
Speaker 2: a better job at everything. And that's part of that
30:45
Speaker 2: is taking care of our planet.
30:49
Speaker 1: I love that. Makea I know we're getting close to
30:50
Speaker 1: the end of the episode here, we're going to provide
30:53
Speaker 1: links to green economy and any other resources. Honestly, make
30:57
Speaker 1: it you feel like our audience should be checking out
31:00
Speaker 1: because we're not just here. You and I are here
31:01
Speaker 1: in California, but our podcast goes across the country, actually
31:04
Speaker 1: across the world. We're right to rateful to have listeners, uh,
31:07
Speaker 1: checking in, following us on YouTube and providing and pretty
31:10
Speaker 1: private comments feedback because I'll make sure Marika gets at them.
31:14
Speaker 1: But Marika, you know, I really like your your last
31:18
Speaker 1: you know, Paul action are just reminders of folks. But
31:20
Speaker 1: as we're wrapping up here, you know, what can you
31:22
Speaker 1: you know, just last takeaways for whether you're a business
31:26
Speaker 1: owner or an individual you know in in you know,
31:30
Speaker 1: to state ability, uh and and how can we be
31:33
Speaker 1: a better steward of what we've been entrusted.
31:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think to me to do two
31:39
Speaker 2: things in your building that are significant free, actually significant
31:43
Speaker 2: and I think make a lot of difference is when
31:45
Speaker 2: the LEDs figure out what it is kind of complicated
31:49
Speaker 2: led I get that there's help out. That's fund The
32:00
Speaker 2: second you want to got waste buildings. The best way
32:05
Speaker 2: to manage that thermostats, so the air conditioning system isn't
32:09
Speaker 2: operating when no one's in the building, that's bad. You
32:12
Speaker 2: want to do that. The third thing is water, right,
32:15
Speaker 2: errators on procets use water out gallons per minute. That
32:21
Speaker 2: makes a difference to you know, water is how much
32:24
Speaker 2: is coming out, and they can take difference in gallons
32:26
Speaker 2: per day. And those three little things that really aren't
32:29
Speaker 2: huge expenses. I mean, yes, you're going to do the
32:32
Speaker 2: l ED retrofit, but it's going to be payback is
32:34
Speaker 2: probably less than a year. It's a no brainer. Right,
32:38
Speaker 2: you spent, your bill is immediately going to go down.
32:41
Speaker 2: So these are all things that help help your building
32:44
Speaker 2: more be more sustainable. And plus LEDs are better on
32:47
Speaker 2: the eyes as well, for you know, for people working
32:50
Speaker 2: under fluescent lights. A lot of people don't like that,
32:52
Speaker 2: so I.
32:53
Speaker 1: So many great, so many great. I mean, these are
32:58
Speaker 1: just small things, and you guys can connect with and
33:00
Speaker 1: her team at Green Economy to learn more. I'm sure
33:04
Speaker 1: you suld happy to talk with you, guide you through
33:06
Speaker 1: receive if it's how they can help you. We're connected
33:10
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn as well, so look at us, look us
33:12
Speaker 1: up there, Marika. Thank you so much for being part
33:14
Speaker 1: of the business Raindewable podcast, sharing some insights, cy encouraging
33:17
Speaker 1: us with your insights and good words for the day.
33:23
Speaker 2: Thank you, David Yep, thank you for having me.
33:25
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody again, please of course like and subscribe. We
33:28
Speaker 1: always appreciate you following us along on your favorite podcast platform,
33:32
Speaker 1: whatever that might be. And until next time, be well.
33:35
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody, take care,