KRP and Future-Proofing Commercial Buildings

May 9, 2022

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Dan Seguin 00:06

This is thinkenergy, the podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, and my co host, Rebecca Schwartz, as we explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey, everyone, welcome back. On today's show, we're going to talk about buildings and the critical role they play in our country's transition to a lower carbon, and eventual net zero future. They're where we live, work and play. But buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy consumption, and about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Rebecca Schwartz 01:00

That number is pretty significant. But becoming net zero is going to take money, and new technology, new infrastructure, and a complete overhaul of how we construct, heat, and cool our buildings.

Dan Seguin 01:11

As we talked about on the show, many times technology is evolving at an accelerated rate. So much so that even today's most highly evolved smart buildings may be considered just the norm or standard a decade from now. So when is the right time for property developers and owners to jump in and lower their emissions and environmental impact?

Rebecca Schwartz 01:37

The majority of commercial buildings we see now are more than 30 years old. So, there's a desperate need for energy efficient retrofits and upgrades. A lot goes into retrofitting an existing building to make it smart and attractive, comfortable, sustainable, and of course cost efficient. It involves much more than just updating your aging HVAC or stepping up the lighting by putting in a few fancy things you may have bought off Amazon.

Dan Seguin 02:03

So, here's today's big question. What kind of planning needs to take place today to help future proof or new and existing commercial buildings, so they can lower their carbon footprint and eventually achieve their net zero target later?

Rebecca Schwartz 02:21

Our special guest today is Terry young. He's the Vice President of Operations at KRP Properties. Terry manages a portfolio of more than 30 commercial properties in Ottawa's high tech hub in Kanata. Welcome to the show.

Dan Seguin 02:35

Hey, Terry, how are you? We know that buildings contribute 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions globally. What are some of the steps that developers and property owners should consider or be aware of when it comes to future proofing their buildings and why?

Terry Young 02:52

So, I think one thing is understanding the current state of your building. Many of us, we've run pieces of real estate, but we really don't know how it's running or where it sits, or how efficient it is. So, I think the first thing you got to do is understand where your building is, in terms of your carbon burn, your energy burn, etc. And, you know, that's probably the first step to start with today. How much energy are we using? And can I be more efficient?

Dan Seguin 03:20

Now, how practical is it for building owners to adopt these new technologies?

Terry Young 03:27

So I think it's quite practical actually. And like we've been, we've been very fortunate to have a really good relationship with Hydro Ottawa, and we've actually been involved with Envari, and we monitor our utility burns in real time. So, with every 15 minutes, or whatever it is, I can tell you exactly how much energy we're burning- both utility wise, energy being electricity, gas and water. Now, you can't, if you don't monitor, you can't change. So basically, the first step is to start monitoring. And we've been very fortunate. Likewise, the software that they we've provided, they can, you know, there's some analytical data that we provide, to understand trends, to understand where your building is moving, etc. So, yeah, it's quite practical. Now, it's not cheap. And, but, you know, I think it's so worth it.

Rebecca Schwartz 04:18

Maybe a good place to start is what exactly is a smart building? And what are some examples of how technology can connect tenants and property managers in ways that matter?

Terry Young 04:29

So, I think there's a lot of definitions on smart buildings because- talk to five people, you have five different answers. But, I think, if I were to give you a definition of what a smart building is it is centralized control. Basically I can control pretty much anything in the building from one central area. We have the temperature, the humidity, the HVAC systems, the electrical systems, the lighting systems. And so, I think that's what I would call a smart building. That's such, Rebecca, this can be scaled as well. But you can have a really small amount of smart so you can have very large amount of smarts, but it's the same kind of linear path what you're trying to get to, right.

Dan Seguin 05:08

Terry, is it fair to say that we're not only talking about the health of the building, or its impact on the environment, but also the health and comfort of its occupants? What are some of the positive ways smart buildings impact the people who use them?

Terry Young 05:25

There's so many things that- the quality of the environment is you know, there's studies out there, and I've read 50 of them, if I've read 100, about, you know, you're going to increase your quality of work, your air quality, your ability to quickly get to the office, your ability to department quickly, all of these things actually adds directly to productivity lines. There are many companies out there that can actually monitor how much and what product can be looked like. And there's a direct correlation to building help. Absolutely, technology can easily assist you in that. Now, when I say assist, you still need to have a lot of background. And, yes, you're building has to be intelligent to do this. But, there's direct correlation; absolutely between, you know, how, how well you're running your building, how smart your building is, and productivity of the occupants inside that building. Right.

Dan Seguin 06:19

Okay, here's a follow up question. Do you think future proofing may now include reducing the spread of germs in buildings? Have you seen anything that might stick around after COVID-19? Like, temperature readings before employees enter the building, maybe even ventilation standards,

Terry Young 06:40

The ASHRAE Standard. So ASHRAE is an organization that sort of monitors, and regulates, I suppose, how air gets distributed within a facility, a very, very good organization. When COVID first hit, they actually put out a different way of running your buildings, and they set parameters on how to do that. I think that's going to be part of the course moving forward. For sure. I'm not sure heat or temperature, taking your temperature, anything, if that's going to continue. However, you know, we have- there's a lot of face recognition currently available right now, that actually are coinciding with your door passes, and your fob keys, as soon as they see your face, it opens your door. It's easily known. And it's already built into a lot of these platforms that it takes your temperature, whether that's going to be moving forward, I'm not sure. I do think that how people are running their buildings is going to be at or will continue to be at a really, really higher level than it was in the past, because our clients are demanding this. The unfortunate part is, you know, back 30-40 years ago, when we built a lot of these buildings that the systems that were there were built very much to code at the time, but they don't exceed or they aren't to code now. So what we're having to do is as the asset needs to be replaced, we do and we are able to put in that bigger, better system. But the ductwork and the existing spaces are only so big, so it can't do what a hospital does, for instance, and not to bore you or your audience here, but you know, a hospital can actually do a many, many air filtration changes any like they literally take all the air out of one space and take it out and put fresh air in much more effectively and efficiently than a normal commercial building would because that's the way it is. So, we, you know, we have some work to do for sure. We have put a number, when I say a number, it's probably 20 or 30 things that we've done to test and fine tune because we were always kind of doing them. And these are like special MERV rating filters through mechanical air filtration units, humidity control, all of this stuff, we fine tune. And now we monitor and are very aware, on a, you know, a real time basis on the quality of that air that gets pumped in there and how many times we can actually filter that air out. So we're very, very aware. And I think that's going to be something that you're going to see building owners and property owners really having a cognizant awareness of how that works.

Rebecca Schwartz 09:18

As climate change continues to evolve, the demand for space heating and cooling rises along with it. Many organizations are seeing their heating, ventilation and air conditioning system taking the most significant bite out of their bottom line. So my question to you is, what options exist? And what does the future of smart HVAC tech look like?

Terry Young 09:39

So I can speak for an hour here. I know we don't have an hour. But you know, in the last two or three years or maybe last five or six years now we've taken up three or four gigs off our grid out here, just by running. I shouldn't say that- in conjunction with asset replacement, but just by running our buildings better and faster, more efficiently. So you think about it, you know, three gigs is a lot of electricity, right? So, and this is through our analytical software, and this is all, and I should, I should say probably 60 or 70% of that savings, this has come from our ability to run things more efficiently. And basically, you know, to simplify it. We have a bunch of data that we get fed in and we have analytics that actually feed that data and understand it a million times a second kind of thing. No human could do it. But they create efficiencies in the system. So if you look at, you know, from a climate change perspective, and if you're not running these analytical platforms you're behind. Likewise, the minute you turn these things on, it's an instant 15 or 20% savings. So I think that's a huge thing. Likewise, your energy and carbon are very directly correlated. So the minute you save energy in our world, you're saving your carbon burn as well.

Dan Seguin 10:59

Great segue to this next question, Terry. Wondering if you could expand on how data from HVAC systems improves energy management through automation, and predictive analysis that forecasts adjustments based on historical data to enhance and manage overall energy consumption.

Terry Young 11:22

So your, your eyes are gonna glaze over now. So just pause. Because I'm gonna get tactical, or another thing go on. And I enjoy this kind of thing to love. So it's like, and I'll try to put it down to two words, everybody can understand. But in a building, there, there's a bunch of relationships, so there's a big HVAC unit on the roof, and then there's a box that's down there in the ductwork kind of thing that opens and closes and stuff. And then there's a thermostat right there on the wall. So, basically, that's one relationship. Okay. So, basically, if you turn up, you go to 70 degrees, that means the little baffle in the VAV box opens a little bit and pushes enough air in so you're comfortable. Okay, now the fan needs to work at I don't know, whatever percentage that is. So, what happens is with the analytical data, and the analytics, it creates an efficiency within that system. So that's one relationship. Now, if you're in an office with 30 offices, there's 30 different relationships. So the software sits on top there, and it's like an umbrella, and understands in real time, all of these demands on the system. So if you have a 60 horsepower motor, and you have reheat coils, and you have a whole pile of systems working in conjunction and simultaneously with one another, what this software does, it goes, how can I minimize the the use of all of this system to maintain its comfort. So instead of run at a 60 horsepower, so 15 years ago, I turn on that motor, I got 60 horses or 30 horses, whatever it is full bore. And basically, I fill the system full a static pressure, and I just opened it ever so slightly, but I've run the entire system for my office, which is 200 square feet. So now with these new systems, I don't need to do that anymore. There's variable speed drives, which basically means it's like a gas pedal now, so I only press the gas, the amount of kilometers and the speed that I want. So that relationship from the thermostat that's on the wall, says I only need to go five kilometers an hour, which is five horsepower. So also my office next door, if they need five horsepower or five kilometers an hour, that might be five simultaneously. So they'll take that same sort of static pressure, that same temp air and dump it in his or her office as well. So you see how efficient this is throughout the entire system. So, and again, this is, in theory, after I explain it, it's so simple, but we weren't running our real estate like that 15 years ago. But when you do that, two things happen. One is I save a massive amount of energy- actually 3- two, I maintain really, really comfortable spaces and three, and this is the big one here, from a cap x perspective and if you're a finance person, you're looking at this stuff and you saying well, "I don't need to replace that motor anymore". And usually lifespan these motors are pretty defined; definite, right? So it's 17 years. Now I can push that out to 22 years or 27 years, that kind of deal. So it's good. It's good every which way but loose right.

Rebecca Schwartz 14:40

A short time ago, the federal government introduced new funding and new initiatives to help support the commercial sector. They promised $3 billion to establishing a net zero accelerator fund to help large emitters reduce their emissions. What are some of the highlights and what should clients know?

Terry Young 14:59

So, I'm not the guy to be talking to about this, really. But I mean, there's three criteria- three pillars, I suppose. There's one for, they call it decarbonisation. And so this is like, for large emitters, these are big manufacturing plants there. And there's a, there's new technology called carbon capturing as well. So it's big machines look like big dishwashers. Not really, but they're giant, and it takes the bad thing. And they actually can make that into either a brick or something that can be utilized in a cement factory, or whatever. So it takes carbon out of the system, which is good. The second pillar is it's clean technology and industrial transformation. And I think third one is a huge push for battery ecosystem. One of the big things we have here, we have really cool technology, but our batteries, and the battery technology has not kept up. And I say that there's huge advancements, but we're still not there. You know, you look at the cars, for instance, you know, the Tesla gets 600 or 700 kilometers out of a tank, in a perfect condition world. That's still not good enough for Canada. It might be okay for California, but where we have a geographic issue, we need 1000 or more out of one charge, right? So we need a lot of technology pushing out deeper. So I think that's where they're in the short term, this is where the candidate, most of that money is gonna go. And there's a there's actually there's five or six funds that you can actually apply for as well.

Dan Seguin 16:28

We've tackled some of the pros, what are some of the barriers to the adoption of smart building solutions and reducing emissions? Are the fears or concerns you've heard valid?

Terry Young 16:42

So yeah, I, I think the barriers is twofold. One is financial. And this has to be tied to a financial place somewhere. And if it's not tied to costs, it just won't happen. And it's, it's very expensive. But number two is you need a corporate champion, you need somebody at the table at the C suite to really understand what that means to the company to the world to whatever. And so ultimately, that's where the issue is right now. We got a lot of guys at the at the C suite are a little older, they're they got more gray hair or less hair depends which side of the table you're on. But you know, so what's important to me is not what was important to my son who's 22. And so what you're seeing is, you know, with the cost of everything going up supply chain issues, the cost of labor going crazy, all this kind of stuff- this is going to be very expensive. This also, from a carbon costing perspective, with our new- with our federal government plans implemented, you know, in the in the ready, I suppose, are getting more expensive every day, you better have a plan in place, or you're going to get hit really, really quickly. And so I think that some of the biggest barriers are, or fears are, they don't really understand it. So there's a C suite kind of need to change from a championship and again, the financial component of this stuff.

Dan Seguin 18:14

Okay, now, care to expand on some of the biggest opportunities for return on investment in smart building solutions that folks either haven't thought of, or even considered- is there anything you would recommend?

Terry Young 18:31

So, two really is two of the things are energy savings- and we talked about that full stop real quick and easy. Turn, turn the page. Number two is tenant retention. And this is from a financial place. So the better you run your building, the more efficient you run your building, you've got a better chance of attracting and keeping the tenant. So if you look at what our world is looking like now, where is the new office going to be right? So you need to make sure that your space is as good or is better than any other of your competitors. And one of the ways of doing that is to for sure, making your operating costs lower- decreasing your energy. So in our portfolio, in most portfolios, it's probably 25% of your operating costs. It's quite chunky. So you got a 30,000 square foot building, and it's 25% of your costs. It's a lot of money. So if you can shave a point or in our case, 20 points, it, you know, that client can actually push that money to someplace else. So it's a very, very good thing. Likewise, if you're running your buildings very, very well, people want to be there. And the productivity again, is up and thus they make their more money as well.

Rebecca Schwartz 19:44

So what about your building? What are some of the advanced building technologies that you've implemented in your properties? And how did you get buy in from decision makers?

Terry Young 19:53

So we've we've probably played with a lot. Data analytics, we've done with artificial intelligence, a lot of IoT devices we played with, you know, data points, it comes back down to how can we run a better building? It's best practice. And we're very much trying to be leaders, we're trying to be industry leaders, not just in Ottawa, but in the world, on how better you can run a piece of real estate. So we've tried pretty well, if it's out there, and we could afford it, we've played with it. What the problem is, it's very easy to implement new technology in to new real estate. Anybody can do that. What's difficult is when you have an aging piece of real estate be it 30 years old, in our world that aging, by the way. How do you implement and how do you overlay with the backbone and the front end of a new piece of technology? It's very costly, and very impacting of the actual building and its tenants, as well. So this is what we've done, we've actually started taking four a year, for instance, so we've actually digitized four per year. If there's seven years, and we had seven floors, that sometimes happens when the building can't necessarily afford it. So you know, we've probably tried everything that's out there are pretty close to in our in our repertoire, and some of the cool stuff. And I'll get back to the analytics. I mean, you know, we have one of our facilities a few years ago did the AI to take over. And the certain department would go for pints on a Thursday, and that whole department would shut down, the lighting would shut down the building, HVAC, the air conditioning would shut down. So the bosses would walk by and wonder what's going on with the building had taken over knowing that there's a repetition. So every Thursday, if they went for pints with the boys, the building would actually understand that and decrease the lighting areas and decreased energy. So it's very, very cool technology. Not necessarily for the guys, but it's, yeah, so there's I mean, lots of huge energy savings as well. So, lots of cool stuff.

Rebecca Schwartz 22:01

In terms of ability to implement these solutions. Is there enough of a skilled workforce ready and available? What's your experience been like on the operational side?

Terry Young 22:11

Yeah, so quick answer is no. We're really, that's a struggle just like it. It's a trade, it's a skill, it's a skill, you have to be half an IT guy, you have to be half an HVAC mechanic, you have to be part electrician. So they're not, you know, we have one, two on staff maybe, and they're about 10 years older than I am. So they're not going to be here forever. So and we're not being able to back stop that very well. Our universities and colleges certainly are putting out good tradespeople. But this is a very unique kind of niche market. So people usually get into this by mistake. And so it's very rare. So that being said is there are some really cool companies out there that we work with, you know, and I'll shout out to Modern Niagara are very, very, they're a contractor they work for, they have a team dedicated to this stuff specifically, which is awesome for us. So we just call when we have an issue, we don't have to need in house expertise. So some contractors are leading the edge in that space. So we don't necessarily need an expert on staff, we can call somebody.

Dan Seguin 23:24

Now, Terry, what piece of advice will you give to large commercial property owners, and those in large industries about their emission reduction target dates for, let's say, 2030, even 2040 and 2050?

Terry Young 23:39

So I'm not sure I'm the guy to give advice on this stuff. There's certainly companies and people out there, you know, a lot further along in their journey than we are but you know, you have to have a plan. And, you know, I was at a conference on Thursday of last week and a really smart guy. He was telling me a story about a blog he read, he said, if you're not at the table today in carbon reduction strategy, tomorrow, you will be on the menu. Okay, put that on a bumper sticker, because I did. But that's very, very intuitive and smart. So again, if you're not at the table today, when it comes to carbon, and energy reductions, you will be on the menu tomorrow. Get and know what you're burning. Know what carbon where you stand and where you want to go. It's going to be so expensive to do business tomorrow and the next day, you know, carbon price is going to be, you know, most of our buildings and this is the other issue. And I won't get into too deep but we got lots of government agencies here and bless their heart and I love them all. They're sucking and blowing. Right? So we have one side- we have the people given us a rebate to take electricity out and put gas units in that same year. I'm getting double the bill for burning gas and they want me to turn back to electricity. This is the same bunch of guys. Nobody's seeing from the same song book. So it's like, what do you do? These, also, these programs, when you put in an HVAC unit, it's good for 20 years. So you can't you can't just tomorrow turn around and spend 300 grand to change an HVAC unit, it doesn't work that way, right? So now we have to bear that carbon pricing, or whatever that is for a long, long time. So the government needs to really get on the same page, both provincially, federally and municipality wise locally, to really- let's actually get a plan together. And although you know, Mr. Trudeau may be quite aggressive to what he's trying to do, it's going to be very detrimental to business too, as well. And this is where we don't know the net effect. We in Ontario has the highest energy prices in North America per capita, there's no other place to have more. The cost of electricity here is more than anywhere in North America. So we have to compete for talent we have to compete for, for anybody- clients, operating costs, manufacturing facilities, etc, etc. When they look at Ontario, we're not as aggressive in that area. Now, are there other ways of doing it? Absolutely. You know, I think we really are doing our part. And I think we're batting well above our weight class, when it comes to carbon emissions, because we only, you know, we're this much in the in the world of what, you know, we impact. So I think we're way, way above our weight class, for sure.

Rebecca Schwartz 26:30

Ultimately, what do you hope these emission targets will achieve for companies and municipalities? Will they be required to innovate and plan for a sustainable future? And control costs?

Terry Young 26:41

Yeah, the world? The answer is yes, they, you know, these carbon targets, good, bad or ugly- we will have to bring those into our business model. They're going to be very expensive. So somewhere the cost has to sort of balance itself, right? And at the end of the day, it's my son and my son's son, you know, it's my grandkids that we're trying to help out here. And, you know, we've not necessarily done an okay job. I think there's many, many companies, and you know, it wasn't something that anybody thought of 30 years ago. My dad's generation, it wasn't, it wasn't there. It was, you know, it's climate change is no such thing kind of deal, right? And but it really is. It's real, the data is real, science is real. And we don't nip this and control it or try to mitigate it, we're going to be in a lot more trouble than we are. And again, it comes back down to that corporate champion that I was talking about earlier. We really need some corporate champions at the C suites to make this something important. Balancing finance, balancing cost. This is where the government comes in, you know, you can't put all of this on the backs of industry, it's going to be impossible. Industry will fail. It's financially not doable in some circumstances. So there's going to have to be a give and take; there's gonna have to be relationship, there's going to have to be "how can we get there together"? And it's going to be, it's not going to be easy, it really is not going to be easy.

Dan Seguin 28:19

Now, let's fast forward to post pandemic. What is your prediction for commercial real estate? Will people return to their office towers like before? Or has there been a shift? What's your prediction?

Terry Young 28:36

I think- I think there will be a back to the office thing. I don't know what it's going to look like, I'll actually I'll even I'll even put five bucks on it. That's how confident I am. It's the right thing for a human being to be, okay? There's a number of studies and again, you know, I'm quite well read up on this research and development of patents, for instance, patents are down a decrease. There's a reason for that, you know, when a human gets involved with another human, there's magic, there's chemistry, when you're down in your basement, that doesn't happen. It needs to be closed quarters, you know, and I give the analogy, if you play golf, when you actually golf with a person who's a lot better than you, you may be, say a 15 handicap and you're, you're playing with sixes, your game instantly goes up. So everybody's game just goes a little bit sharper, a little bit faster. That's where the magic happens. You know, and there's a term that they pegged, I think is social malnutrition, where people need or lack the social interaction. And we're social creatures, right? And I'll tell you the water cooler banter that you know that whole social going hockey every Thursday night with the boys, that is magic. And that's what happens. You know, if you look at a de-stress, and you look at the, you know, the emotional intelligence and understanding how your office is working and stuff, you know, in the past how you would deescalate really hard week, if you're not in the office, and you can't have these normal rules or normal things that you do, the stress seems to build, you know, and that's where that's where, you know, that's what scares me the most, I think, when it comes to tomorrow, and the next day, so I really think people will be back in the office, I think there might be a hybrid model, but I think it's going to be the exception, not the rule. So I think you're going to have, you know, two days, three days in out, whatever. And, you know, if you need a day or two to get your paperwork done, and get out of and get a bunch of work done, absolutely. But you're going to come back to the office, and you will want that. And I think companies and you know will require that as well, because that's where the productivity and that's where magic happens.

Rebecca Schwartz 31:00

All right. You mentioned that feeling of stress. Can you elaborate a little bit on what keeps you up at night? And what makes you nervous?

Terry Young 31:09

So, I mean, I sleep like a baby. So I don't- I'm not a big stressful fella. But I think if I were to say one thing is knowing, you know, the pressures that are on our people and the stresses, I mean, the mental health tally and toll this has taken is going to be a generation to really comprehend. And that, you know, if I would look at one thing, that's probably the biggest thing that I worry about, I suppose when it comes to, you know, this whole post pandemic thing, it's a toll. It's a toll on a lot a lot of people and I only wish that that wasn't the case. But and you can feel it in your workplace. It's not it's not a good thing.

Rebecca Schwartz 31:59

And what about things like cybersecurity? Has that been a top priority for the commercial real estate industry?

Terry Young 32:04

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a big, big question for sure. And the answer is yes. Yes. And more. Yes. You know, because the more you know, we talked about smart buildings, we talked about IP, we talked about protocols and all of this smart technology, it speaks a language that language is on the internet. Likewise, when I said that describe what a smart building is, it's centrally controlled. How do you centrally control? It is centrally controlled by the on the internet, there's bad people, bad guys on the internet. So you know, most hits that have happened in modern day has either come usually comes from a building automation system back door somewhere. So we very much share on that space. There's a couple of really cool technologies out there local by the way, that that sort of they call it covalence is the type of cybersecurity and it understands the language and the pathways in which this data travels; very much analytical base as well and AI, and its local, local guy, local firm, really, really smart bunch of guys. And so they actually can take your building automation systems, and sort of give a level of protection that normally you wouldn't have. So we've created a bit of a lock and key process on how you enter and exit some of these networks and, yeah, so it's very, very top of mind. And it's every year. It's not when- it's not if it's when.

Dan Seguin 33:39

Okay, Terry, I know this isn't your first podcast rodeo. So, as a result, we came up with some new rapid fire questions. I hope you are ready, sir.

Terry Young 33:51

Not really,

Dan Seguin 33:52

Terry. What are you reading right now?

Terry Young 33:55

So this is funny. This is funny because it doesn't, I'm not a big reader, but I'm actually reading 21 Things That You May Not Know About the Indian Act. Funny enough, my son who's an avid reader on this the really good piece of literature and disturbing by the way it's a pretty good read. I'm about halfway through it's not it's not good. But anyway, it's good and bad. Whatever.

Dan Seguin 34:02

Now I'm looking forward to this answer. What would you name your boat if you had one? Do you have one?

Terry Young 34:28

"She'll do for now". Yeah, no, I'm a big boat person, buddy. I'm always able to boat and everybody’s got to put a date; every year you need extra, so to speak, so it's so my dad came up with this many years ago. Well she’ll do for now, boy and I'm from Newfoundland- so she'll do for now meaning that it's okay till I get my new one because the boat is like it's like it's not good because you got to 16 footer, you need 18. You got an 18, you need a 20. So yeah, she'll do for now.

Dan Seguin 35:03

Who is someone that you admire?

Terry Young 35:07

I just said him, my dad, he's a really, really good guy. Retired when he was 62 and went back to school and became a paramedic. And now, yeah, and now he's 74 and still active. Just one of those guys. He just loves life. And he, you know, I've never he's just the best human being that I know.

Dan Seguin 35:28

Now, what is the closest thing to real magic that you've witnessed?

Terry Young 35:33

Yeah, I, I'm not a big magic fan. I'm not sure. I thought about this one. I really don't know.

Dan Seguin 35:42

What has been the biggest challenge to you personally, since the pandemic?

Terry Young 35:47

So two things came to mind when this question came up, is, for me, the challenge isn't, I live in a cabin, by the way, and up on the water. And so this pandemic thing, I'm out in the bush, I'm an outdoorsy guy. So this pandemic, it meant nothing to me, like when it came to light, I was very fortunate to work for an amazing company, we didn't have to lay anybody off. So we're able to work from home. And yeah, so my world, it started off in the bush anyway. So I didn't, I'm not a big in the city person. So, you know, that didn't affect me, but come back to the mental health of our folks, you know that- the relationship stresses that I see the, you know, how can we, as a team make our company better? So if you look at the challenge here is this cause the big problem? And now how can we make it better? How can we create plans? How can we put in place you know, in our company, we're developing a very, a wellness strategy, it's called Care Plan Meets. And it's based on this new world. So we had, what I consider, a pretty good plan before, now we're making it better. And because of the new changing circumstances, you know, everybody, you know, their benefits are here, the company has been like this for 35 years, it's all the same, well, the world has changed. And the view as a company, or as the leader that runs a company, if you don't understand that what you had yesterday is not good for today, you're going to lose people you're going to there's going to be a shift. And you're not only going to lose people to other companies, you're gonna lose people to other issues. So we're really trying aggressively to put a plan in place, but that doesn't happen.

Dan Seguin 37:33

Okay, we've all been watching a lot of Netflix and TV lately. What's your favorite movie? Or show?

Terry Young 37:41

So, my- I don't know what this says about me. But my favorite movies Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell. That movie ever boy best movie ever. Shake and Bake. Yeah.

Dan Seguin 37:53

And lastly, Terry, what is exciting you about your industry right now?

Terry Young 37:59

So, I think, it's a great question. The industry, what's exciting me is this new generation of people we got coming up. And it's, and I'm talking about my son's generation, he's 25. Actually he's 23 going on 24. He just got his first job. And he started to look at where he wanted to work, not where, what, who would accept him. But so he started looking at what is the company's culture, what is the company's sustainability practices, etc, etc. Now, he has a degree in International Business. He speaks three languages- this kid is, I mean, I'm partial too but we also have here, three or four of those young people who are articulate, they're extremely smart, they have a work ethic, they have balance, everything that I, you know, there's things that I sort of, if I wish I could have had back then. So I think there's a generation of young people that are brilliant. And that's what really, I see as exciting. You know, we were at a conference with Tony, last week, we had two young, younger staff members there. And, and I was proud to sit in the middle of them, that, you know, just they got up and they they walk the room, they can work the room. And they're passionate about sustainability. They're passionate about business. And then they also have this balance that we may as my generation, we may have went a little bit further on the one side, so they don't have that balance problem. So they know what's important and their families, they know how to do a good job. And you know, you hear them all the, you know, generations coming up. It's not it's not good. You've heard all these old timers and stuff. That's, that's true for every generation. There are bad apples everywhere. But I'll tell you, these young people that we got coming up, there's there's there's a really good vibe out there. And I'm really excited to see what they're going to do what the world is going to be looked like. So we look at and we can sum up here with the carbon sustainability and stuff, it's going to take that generation, that that's important to them. So when my son or your son gets at that C suite level, he's going to be his wallets already full. He knows exactly what and how he's going to run that company to make sure that for his kids sustainability and carbon and all of this stuff, that's the only saving grace, they're going to be able to reverse some of the damage that we've done, because that's how they operate. So that's what makes me excited about the industry. You know, the technology is, is great. And I mean, we can play with that, but, and it comes down to good people running the technology without the good people, that technology is relatively useless to a point, right? So that's what I'm excited about.

Rebecca Schwartz 40:46

Well, Terry, this is it. We've reached the end of another episode of the thinkenergy podcast. If our listeners want to learn more about you and your organization, how can they connect?

Terry Young 40:56

So krpproperties.com. For sure, reach out and there's a there's an info page, and there's a connect page slot there on the website. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty simple stuff.

Dan Seguin 41:08

Again, my friend, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you had a lot of fun.

Terry Young 41:12

Hey, I did. Thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it.

Did you know buildings as a whole make up for 40% of global energy consumption? When you consider the majority of commercial buildings are more than 30 years old, it’s clear energy-efficient retrofits and upgrades are needed to help bring these buildings into the 21st century. Terry Young, Vice President of Operations at KRP Properties, joins this episode of thinkenergy to talk about the planning needed to future-proof commercial buildings to help reach net zero targets and reduce their carbon footprint.