Robby Martin

What kinds of projects are you working on?

Building sustainability tools for multiple personas utilizing building and asset data sets. Working with Brookfield, SoFi Stadium, DFW, Investa, Microsoft, and more. This includes everything from traditional energy metering to recording and reducing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, to EV station infrastructure planning and more.

What are you excited about in the industry?

Nobody needs to be convinced that the shift to digital is necessary anymore. There is still a lot of confusion in the industry around the solutions and mechanisms that provide value by going digital, but at least some really nice use cases have been proven out over the past few years.

What do you think needs to change in the industry?

The hypocrisy around DEI and bringing in diverse voices and viewpoints in our industry. It's not enough for companies to say, "we are committed to hiring a diverse workforce"... I want to see our industry help to CREATE that diverse workforce. What are we doing as an industry to help get kids in schools excited about smart buildings, IoT, and decarb? How many internships are we opening up for marginalized groups? How are we training that diverse future work force? We need to back up our words as an industry to make good on our DEI promises.

What do you wish we all discussed more?

The importance of data quality and granularity. With everyone using energy consumption data to calculate scope 1,2, and 3 emissions, all too often the quality of the data coming in is overlooked. If owner metering is used, there is a high chance that the meters are either configured incorrectly, installed incorrectly, or aggregated incorrectly. In terms of granularity, companies need to understand when monthly data is good enough, and when they need the benefits of more frequent data. I'd love to see power quality discussed more as well, but that's another topic.

What’s your hot take?  

🔥 We need to stop using the terms "ESG" and "Sustainability" interchangeably and stop assuming that sustainability is just finding energy savings in buildings. When I hear a company talk about how they can help 'improve ESG' and then dive directly into energy savings, it induces 'SPoG' levels of cringe. ESG is a lens through which to view a company, it's not to be used to describe an energy efficiency program.ESG is being used as a crutch when it comes to talking about sustainability, and we need to be hyper specific on what topic we're actually addressing. Additionally with the politicization of the term, I'd like to see the industry move away from the acronym and focus on the specific value they create by addressing environmental, societal, governance, and resiliency issues. 🔥

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