EPISODE 150 | Guest: Sean Matthews, president and CEO of Visix
Sustainability matters. It matters to your employees, customers, shareholders and partners. It can affect your brand reputation, the health of your workforce and community, and of course, the environment at large. Most of all, it can have a huge impact on your bottom line. So how can facility managers start to make a difference?
We continue our discussion of why sustainability matters, give you six tips on how to get started and cast some predictions about the future of sustainable facilities management.
- Learn four ways that sustainability (or lack of) affects an organization
- Explore green technologies, innovations and processes
- Understand why engaging and educating stakeholders is crucial
- Hear the most common challenges and barriers to sustainability
- Discover how sustainability for facilities and society is evolving
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Learn more about our sustainable space management solutions.
Transcript
Derek DeWitt: We’ve already talked before about the benefits of sustainable facilities management and how digital signage fits into that whole mix in a previous episode. This time round, we want to focus more on practical advice for facility managers and give some tips on how you can get started. I’m speaking with Sean Matthews, president and CEO of Visix once again today to talk about that. Thanks for joining me today, Sean.
Sean Matthews: All right. Thank you, Derek. It’s always great to be here. I enjoy this and, yeah, I look forward to covering this subject, man, because it’s quite popular.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, yeah. I find it also very interesting. I’d like to thank Sean for joining me today, and of course, everybody out there for listening to this episode of Digital Signage Done Right. Don’t forget that you can subscribe, you can review us, and you can follow along with a transcript of the conversation on the Visix website.
So, I know we covered a lot of stuff in our previous episode, but for people who haven’t listened to this, could you just kind of run down, really quickly, just some of the reasons why facility managers might want to make venues more sustainable?
Sean Matthews: I’ll point out four specific things that that stand out to us. Environmental impact being one, brand reputation, health benefits, and it’s one of the biggest motivators is cost savings.
So, if you think about environmental impact, you know, it’s a big focus for organizations of all sizes and industries at this time. And that focus obviously leads to some brand reputation, good ESG practices. They’re often attractive to employees and customers, some customers even measure those ESG practices.
Of course, there’s health benefits. I mean, we all think about just better ventilation. Lower emissions is a great example. Natural light affects employee wellness, you know, instead of working in a dark, dank facility, right? It’s not the 1920s.
Derek DeWitt: Or just fluorescent lights. I mean, you know, you spend eight hours a day, five days a week under those. It’s, it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel great.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. And in fact, even in our own building here, you know, we moved, I don’t know, almost two years ago after the pandemic wound down and you know, the lease expired on the old building, moved to a new facility. You know, the new facility is completely outfitted with LED lights, water usage control systems, AC that cuts off at 6:00 PM versus running all night. Like, I mean, lots of stuff that had a profound impact on our common area maintenance fees, right?
So, it’s definitely, you know, as I noted, the biggest motivator being cost savings, right? I mean, energy, water, waste, I mean, it all hits the bottom line. So yeah, environmental impact, brand reputation, health benefits and the biggest motivator of all cost savings.
Derek DeWitt: I’m a facility manager. I’ve listened to that previous episode, and/or your recap, I’m thinking, okay, I’m gonna go with the sustainability thing. I understand you have six different tips on how facility managers can get started in this direction. So, what’s the first one?
Sean Matthews: All right, I’ll run down my mental list here. Number one, before you can even create a plan, you have to know what’s working, what is it? So, you’ve gotta conduct an audit. You know, an audit will help you analyze current sustainability efforts and what’s working, what’s not. And then you build a plan about around those areas that you can improve.
Derek DeWitt: All right, okay. I guess that makes sense. So, what are we doing? What can we do? What should we do? What shouldn’t we do? I guess it lets you set targets too, right? And then craft sort of a plan of action towards each target.
Sean Matthews: Oh, yeah, of course, man. I mean, we have one client at Kennesaw State University that tracks all kinds of things as it relates to water, power. I mean, they’ve set targets for composting waste. And, you know, that way they’re getting students involved, they’re getting contractors, employees, like they have the whole community involved, and they’re publishing this on all these screens. And of course, they’re using some technology to help measure this, so that they can produce these goals or KPIs, if you wanna call them that.
Derek DeWitt: Oh, that’s cool. Good for them. So first, gotta run some kind of an audit and come up with targets and goals, and a plan of action to achieve those. Number two, I’m gonna guess, since you were saying about that one client, technology is obviously gonna be one of the things, right?
Sean Matthews: I mean, Derek, there’s so many technological innovations out there that are related to the measurement of, you know, environmental consumption. I mean, you’re gonna have to make an investment in those technologies, but you know, it really is important as it relates to, you know, smart building technologies, which are things like IoT sensors, visitor management systems, occupancy sensors in rooms that, you know, don’t turn the lights on unless there’s a human moving in there.
You know, there’s all sorts of things that facility teams can do better, right? Like measuring lighting, ventilation, air quality. I mean, there’s a ton of stuff out there. And there’s a ton of technologies related to managing the infrastructure itself. So how often do you conduct maintenance on an AC system or a cooler, whatever, right? All of those technologies are basically IoT ready. And so, you know, all of these sensors help better manage them, versus like in the old days when it was like, oh, every six months we change the air filters, right? You know, that kind of thing.
Derek DeWitt: Sure. And, of course, you know, I imagine AI is gonna help make those decisions down the line. As those systems get smarter, they’ll start making recommendations all on their own. And we already, by the way, we already have AI tools for building analytics available now.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. I mean, and we’re just early on in that, you know. I mean, unfortunately, building construction technologies and that facilities management infrastructure, you know, historically has been focused on general maintenance, right? So, they too are having to make that jump from, you know, general maintenance to being involved in technology, which just historically not their skillset.
Kind of the same thing that happened from audiovisual technologies moving into the IT space, right? So, they’re having to learn a whole new approach, and certainly AI will help in the future, you know, help them make decisions that they don’t have to calculate themselves.
Derek DeWitt: Number three is…
Sean Matthews: Yeah, number three, this is a big one. So, I mentioned Kennesaw State, and that is engaging employees, right? You’ve gotta engage them in the process of reaching these targets, because if you don’t, it’s kind of like just stating that we have goals and really just nobody’s doing anything about it, right? You’ve gotta have training on sustainability practices. You’ve gotta be able to explain why they matter, because to some people, like, this stuff doesn’t matter, right? They’re like, global warming, oh boy! You know what I’m saying? Whatever it might be.
Derek DeWitt: I’m 72, I don’t care!
Sean Matthews: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not my problem, right? So, you know, the more they understand what it is that we’re trying to accomplish and why, and it always gets back to why, and of course, if you can define a clear succinct why, then you’ll have everybody on board as it relates to recycling, energy saving, conservation practices, you name it.
Derek DeWitt: Sure. Absolutely. I mean, it’s something we say about a lot of things, and I think it’s especially true with this, this is not a one-off, it’s not a project, it’s a new mindset. And it really does need to be part of the company culture, basically. Like, this is who we are, and if you’re not on board with it, then maybe it’s not a good fit, bub.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. I mean, to be honest with you, man, it’s the same thing as embracing remote work, you know, post pandemic. You know, it was forced upon us at one point, but, you know, you hear all these conversations about recalling people and etc. forced to back to the office, but the mindset has changed.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. Like the remote work thing, I think that was something that was always coming anyway. The pandemic just kind of accelerated it. And I think the same thing is happening now for a number of reasons. Not least at which, because every summer’s the hottest summer we’ve ever had, and then the next one beats those records and so on. So, we’re all kind of going, oh, yeah, hmm. Forget the arguments about the causes of it. This is certainly something that’s happening. And we have the tech and if we have the willpower as well, we can make life more comfortable for ourselves. I mean, why wouldn’t we, you know? So it’s coming whether we like it or not. Better to get on board now, I think.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. And I will say to your point about changing the cultural mindset, I think that if you look back, you know, even 15 years ago, you know, LEED-certified buildings were out there, and there were some other initiatives. But I think that some people, organizationally speaking, you know, still looked at this stuff as kind of, say, frou-frouish, right? I hate to use that.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Or just a trend or something, yeah.
Sean Matthews: Yes, yeah. But when you see bottom line monetary savings and think about some of these campus buildings, you know, hundreds of acres of, it’s not small. And so, when you start talking about that kind of money, it’s a big deal.
Derek DeWitt: Right. So, three is engaging employees and other stakeholders. What’s four?
Sean Matthews: So, number four’s, really, you know, when you start to look outside who you’re going to engage, you’ve gotta find basically green partners, right? The people that supply goods and services to your organization. I mean, those are the folks that are gonna help you achieve these goals because quite frankly, you outsource a lot of things like cleaning services and catering, and we’ll call it parking lot management, for example, right? And so, you’ve gotta find partners that are focused on being green partners, because if they’re not green partners, they’re basically detracting from the performance and the progress that you’re making. So, you want to embrace those folks, so that you can continue to really develop your initiatives and have everyone on board.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. It’s also a matter of really walking your talk. And I think, especially the younger employees today, they’re, they’re watching out for that stuff. You know, it’s one thing for the organization to say, hey, we’re going green and this and this. And then somebody just, you know, they just happen to be working late one day when the cleaning crew comes in, and they happen to notice that they’re using these really toxic, you know, cleaning fluids. They’re like, hey man, has anybody looked into this? This is not doing what we said we were gonna do.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, yeah. That’s a super valid point because cleaning crews just in general, I’m just, you know, they kind of do what they’re told to do, right, in terms of employment, right. And so, if the parent partner is not engaged in that same philosophy, then you’re right, you’re gonna end up with bleach on surfaces, you know?
Derek DeWitt: Right, exactly. And, you know, you can also kind of affect the culture rippling out from just your organization. I mean, you know, we all know that if enough people; say cleaning company A, Acme Cleaning Company, isn’t using greener products or better practices that are a bit more sustainable, but enough of their clients say, hey man, we’re gonna go someplace else if you don’t change your ways, they might change their ways. And so, you know, that’s a way to….
I mean, you’ve talked about renewable things; I always think about renewable energy. Where I live, the populace made such a big stink to Czech energy that they finally said, okay, if you want, it’s a little bit more a year, it’s like, I don’t know, probably 50 bucks more per year onto your electrical bills, but we will guarantee that the electricity going to your building is generated from wind or water power as opposed to coal-fired plants, or one of the two nuclear power plants in the country. Well, I actually, I don’t know if the nuclear power plants are included in that clean energy, but certainly not the coal-fired plants. And we see this sort of thing rippling out all over the place. Enough people make enough of a stink, and suddenly, hey, okay, fine, we’ll give you this option.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, yeah. I agree a hundred percent, man. I think that, again, finding those good partners is a great way to extend the effectiveness of your policies.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, absolutely. All right, green partners is four. Five is…
Sean Matthews: The number five is almost a no-brainer, but this is the one that most organizations struggle with, and that is replacing or upgrading older equipment, right? This is the one that really can trip people up. But this is also where the big swings come in. So, I mean you think about philosophies, this is not something that, you know, the average employee’s gonna really think about, right? Might be older appliances in your break rooms or whatever, but it’s the big machinery technologies, and we’ll just use air handlers, chillers as an example. I mean, Derek, to replace one, and the range could be significant, but, you know, $100,000 investment in a new air handler or chiller, you know, which requires a crane not only to remove the old, but put up the new, I mean, so it could be quite expensive.
But the technology, you know, the compounded knowledge over time, I mean, has advanced dramatically in almost every area, right? Like 20 years ago we didn’t have electric cars, as one example, right? And so, the movement is fast. You know, 30 years ago there was no internet, right? I mean, it is just, you know, those types of things, man. So, it doesn’t take long for those technologies to age out, and it costs money to upgrade them.
Derek DeWitt: It does. But I do think that there, there is certainly a savings in the long run. Again, thinking of where I live in Prague, you know, a lot of these buildings are quite old. And, we kind of have these double windows, which are very good at insulating and also keeping out noise, but they do, you know, heat leaks. And so a lot of places, when it comes time for them to renovate their buildings, they’re using these more energy-efficient German windows, at least on the inside in order to keep the heat in, to keep the cool in, even though we don’t do air conditioning here yet, I have a sneaking suspicion, we’ll have to eventually start adopting it. But as a result, you’ll see these really, I mean, really talking 200, 300 years old sometimes these apartments, and on the outside it still looks great, but on the inside really quite modern and everything’s very energy efficient. And so in fact, that electrical bill is much lower than it would be if you kept the old stuff in.
Sean Matthews: God, it’s interesting, man. So, my house is 120 years old, which is pretty old for a, you know, American suburban home, right? But, you know, it’s very inefficient as a home. You know, insulation, windows as you noted. And, you know, that’s clearly something that I would benefit from and in my own house. And it is interesting that you say things like that because if I would just make that investment in the crawl space, for example, yeah, it’s gonna cost a lot upfront, but in five years I’ll be putting money back to the savings account, because it’ll be that much more efficient.
Derek DeWitt: Right. I mean, that’s the thing. But obviously you have to research this stuff. I mean, you can’t just go, well, I guess I’ll replace it with the first thing I came across. You’re gonna have to find the ones that work best for you and make sure that they’re not just blowing smoke and greenwashing; that these replacements or upgrades are in fact doing what they say they’re gonna do.
Sean Matthews: Yep, yep. For sure. I agree.
Derek DeWitt: All right. So, number five is replace, or even upgrade if it’s possible, older equipment. And again, I’d just like to say, since we’re a software company, you know, it’s the same thing with software. If you’re still running, you know, Windows Vista, it is time to upgrade. We know this. Things improve over time. Everything gets smarter. Like you said, the knowledge and the brain power that goes into making things better and better all the time. It just seems foolish not to. Number six, the last one is, I think I know what you’re gonna say, but go ahead and tell me; I’ll see if I’m right.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, so number six is you’ve gotta practice preventative maintenance on this upgraded or new equipment. I mean, as you just noted about the software OS. I mean, you know, that there was a period of time, certainly in American business history, that there was this theory that things, you know, over time were being made more cheaply because it was forced obsolescence, right? So if GE was making a refrigerator, they really didn’t want it to last 75 years, because they wouldn’t be selling any new refrigerators, right? So, there’s this theory about forced obsolescence.
But you know, when you mention things like software OSs, it’s not about forced obsolescence. It’s about, you know, keeping up with security threats, getting the most out of your investment, extending the life of the hardware you’ve purchased, whether it be a PC or an air cooling system, or a laundromat system in a hotel, which could be massive to maintain, you know, all the sheets and comforters and towels and all that stuff.
I mean, there’s so many things that go on in the background people just don’t think about. If you could just step back from a hotel, a cruise ship, an airliner, an airport, right? I mean, man, you’re talking about enormous consumption of resources, water, power, air, right? So, maintaining that stuff is incredibly important. And that ties back to the earlier one that I mentioned, which was number two, and that’s using technology to drive that transformation. And these technologies can help drive, improve, preventative maintenance, which will extend the life of your investment.
Derek DeWitt: To recap Sean’s six points, they are: have a sustainability audit, use technology to drive what you’re doing, engage your employees, make sure that your external partners are doing something in the green space; that older equipment, upgrade it, and if you can’t replace it with something better and newer, it’ll save you money in the long run. And then preventative maintenance, I think that’s a nice term. And that’s certainly the way forward. And then you just kinda keep on top of things.
And as you said, things are always changing and shifting, and this stuff is really happening faster and faster and faster as more brains kind of get on the problem and go, oh, okay, so this is a thing. Whether you like it or not, sustainability’s here is here to stay. Younger people want it, and you know, they’re gonna be in management within 10 years. So, you know, that’s just how it is.
So, there are some trends these days that maybe we could say, start to point the way towards what sustainable facilities management might look like in the future. And one of those I’m thinking of is net zero buildings. You know, where energy consumption is completely balanced by onsite renewable energy generation.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. I think that, you know, Derek, this is like the next stage, and I might not have this order correct, but, you know, we kind of started out with very efficient buildings, right? It’s sort of gold star buildings, which led into LEED certifications, which this is just the next stage in that cycle, which is net zero. It’s the potential for self-sufficiency and truly carbon neutrality.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s absolutely so. And you know, the dream, we started hearing this a few years ago, the dream is once you’re generating, let’s say power, for example, conceivably, your building could generate so much power that it exceeds your use needs, and you actually have surplus, which you can sell back to the network. So, in fact, it can be a profit center as well.
Sean Matthews: Yeah. I mean, if you think about the construct of infrastructure today, you know, we’ve always been reliant on some third party, right? Putting in gas lines, power lines, you know, power generation, right? You know, you’re seeing a bigger trend in people adding solar panels to their homes. You know, generating, you know, more energy to even put, as you noted, put back out on the grid. And I do believe that it’ll start with these, you know, larger enterprises, Derek, and they will produce a level of self-sufficiency that affords them to put it back out there.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah. Which I think is cool. And a lot of that really is, it is this concept of this circular economy and circular integration. You know, like, for example, I saw this at the World Expo in 2015 in Milan, the American pavilion. Normally, the American pavilion’s kind of commercial, kind of a little bit crass, but this particular year, the theme was food, and the whole side of the building was a vertical farm that also cleaned waste water while nourishing the plants. It also filtered out things that aren’t good for us humans but plants like. So at the end of that circular process, waste water from the pavilion, which was, you know, I mean, it was a good four stories high, five stories high, created a vertical farm, which they would then harvest for food at the onsite restaurants. You know what I mean?
So, we get this same sort of idea of, you know, reusing things, repurposing things, recycling things, upcycling things. Why throw something out if we can find another use for it? And I think as the economy at large starts to embrace this more and more, we may even find that, okay, maybe our organization doesn’t have any use for, you know, we’re gonna label it garbage item B, but someone else in our town would love to have that, because they can turn it into something else.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, I agree. To me, that kind of innovation is just amazing, Derek. I mean, it just really is. And so here I am as a guest today talking about some of the more simplistic things that you could do when compared to that sort of innovation. But that underscores, though, the innovation that is out there and how, you know, ultimately it makes its way out to the things that we discussed today, which you can make great strides in improving that sustainability at almost every level.
And I think, Derek, it’s important at the end of all this to really underscore, because we’re in the technology business, the technological advancements, right? The advancements, as we noted earlier, are just changing rapidly and moving forward rapidly. Artificial intelligence has come out of nowhere, and it’s still kind of a trendy fad thing to discuss, because everybody’s talking about the economics of shareholder value or whatever. But the reality is that all of us is, even as consumers, can use artificial intelligence to craft better letters, right? Gain better insight into legal systems or whatever, right? So, it is going to have an impact.
And of course, you know, the internet of things, I mentioned it earlier, about appliances and things like that. I mean, almost every, even consumer appliance you could buy today, is capable of being connected to, for performance reasons, for controlling the temperature in the device, etc. So, building automation systems, they’re gonna enable, you know, more precise monitoring.
There is all sorts of predictive maintenance, you know, which we talked about maintenance earlier, and then, you know, the optimization of energy and resource consumption within facilities at large, right? Like, all these technologies are out there. I mentioned Kennesaw as one example. It’s all out there just waiting to be utilized and deployed.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. And of course, Visix is a digital signage software company, but it requires displays. And many, many years ago, we were the first ones to really get in on the room sign thing. And now epaper signs are really taking off, and they are affordable, they’re efficient, and they happen to also fit into this sustainability push, all at the same time.
And we’re seeing that technology evolve very, very rapidly from the quality of the images to how fast it can change the images to how low battery they can go, how low power they can go, to how small they can get, how big they can get. We’re just seeing that tech really take off. We’ve come a long way since the Kindle and that’s, I think, one of the ways that we can see now how these things are being affected in every sector, honestly.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, I mean, the electronic paper thing is a pretty interesting utilization of technology to reduce the cost of ownership of traditional digital signs outside of conference rooms or class classrooms. But I will say the journey to get here, Derek, has been quite the long road. I was first introduced to E Ink paper when it was owned by Xerox back in like 2001. And so here we are in 2024. It is the fastest growing segment of our signage offering.
And really, because it’s driven fundamentally by that bottom line cost, because you can install one of these without any sort of low power connection, without any router connection. The life of the device is much, much longer than the typical electronic sign. The typical sign consumes 30 watts of power. Some consume 12, but we’ll say 12 to 30 watts. These displays consume one half of one watt only when they even change the image that’s on screen. So, it’s a very sustainable technology when compared to what’s been around for the previous, I don’t know, 20 years.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, for sure. But you know, it’s interesting. I think most of us encountered E Ink and epaper through the Kindle. The Kindle’s only 16 years old this November. It’s not that old.
Sean Matthews: Right, Derek. I think that you are correct. There was no real utilization of electronic paper. In fact, when you would look at how electronic paper was being used before, they were all just concepts. They weren’t even things you could buy. And then the Kindle shows up and it changes the entire market segment for that technology.
Derek DeWitt: So, facilities management really needs to go sustainable. If you’re not doing it already, you need to, obviously, as Sean said, environmental impact is important. It also affects how your brand is perceived. It’s also just better for the visitors, students, employees and other people who are in your physical locations. It’s just better for them. There are health benefits and, ultimately, even though you may have to pay out some money, it’s probably gonna save you money in the long run.
Six ways that my guest today has said that you can get started in the sustainability realm. First, conduct an audit, then use technology to drive what you’re doing, engage your employees, find green partners, replace and upgrade older equipment, and then have preventative maintenance ongoing to make sure that you’re always sort of at or ahead of the curve. And even though some of that may cost you a little money initially, it really is just gonna save you money in the long run. So if that reason alone isn’t enough to get you going in this direction, I just don’t know what to say.
Sean Matthews: Yeah, for sure. Derek. I think that you summed up the six reasons and those six simple things can lead to significant change.
Derek DeWitt: Exactly. I’d like to thank my guest today, Sean Matthews. He is the CEO and president of Visix for talking to me today about sustainable facilities management. Thanks, Sean. I always love future casting, and I get very excited when I see what’s going on in this field.
Sean Matthews: Well, thank you, Derek, again. I always enjoy being here and look forward to connecting again here in the future.
Derek DeWitt: All right. And of course, again, thank you everybody out there for listening. And don’t forget that you can go to the Visix website under resources and podcasts for a transcript of the conversation we’ve just had, as well as some helpful links.