Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] Then there are the companies like Schneider Electric, who have made it very clear that sustainability is a core of everything they do, and today they reinforce that message with Life Is On, focusing on electrification, decarbonization, and efficiency. 0:19 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:39 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. Today on the show, I'm going to be talking all about sustainable homes. 0:49 If we want to meet our climate neutrality goals by twenty fifty, I would argue we need to start at our homes. Residential homes are responsible for up to thirty-four percent of carbon dioxide emissions. 1:06 On the first segment, I will look at a study by Schneider Electric, and that study shows many Americans are embracing technology. But are they being sustainable? 1:19 Now, I'm gonna discuss that in the first segment, but I will also have some very exciting news to share with you as well. So I wanna make sure you stick around for that. 1:29 So, uh, but before we get to our discussion, I wanna tell you about the guests I'm gonna be interviewing, because I always have some amazing guests. 1:35 I'm gonna be interviewing Christina Lamp Unarrod, who is the founder and CEO of Cadenza Innovation, and then I'm gonna wrap up the show with Gary Salmon, CEO and co-founder of Black Talon Security. 1:50 Uh, we've got some really great discussions. There's been a lot going on in the world, so great guests to really dig into a lot of different things. So I hope you'll stick around for those guests. 1:59 But first, let's get into the discussion and dig into a report from Schneider Electric, and it shows forty-eight percent of consumers in the United s-States believe it is their personal duty to reduce energy use at home. 2:18 What's more, though, less than one in four feels guilty about the amount of energy they use. That means only twenty-five percent. 2:28 Still, forty-five percent are looking for ways to reduce the amount of energy they use, and thirty-one percent would like to find an easy way to track their energy use at home. 2:44 If we're going to reduce consumption in our home, we need to know where we are consuming, right? That makes sense. 2:53 As I always say, we need to always look at the data, and that means what is really telling us all about us as consumers is we need to be looking at how we're using the information. 3:07 Active energy management is essential to making a change in anything we do. So let's take a closer look by digging into the report that I mentioned earlier. 3:20 Escalating energy use at home has generated two growing concerns. The first involves electrical faults. 3:29 Home electrical problems cause an estimated just slightly over sixty-seven thousand eight hundred home fires of an estimated eight hundred and sixty-eight million in property losses. That's astronomical. 3:44 Much of this can be avoided by making homes more resilient. The second concern relates to sustainability and the impact of carbon emissions. 3:56 The study found sixty-seven percent of consumers place safety and savings at the top of the list of smart home benefits. 4:07 Next up, reduced energy consumption and cost, which are mentioned by sixty percent. An obvious solution here is an energy management solution. 4:20 Now, baby boomers are most likely to focus on the benefits of cost savings in their consideration of smart home technology. 4:30 Now, if we think about that, still forty-eight percent of consumers say that smart home technology makes a home or a rental more desirable, and thirty-six percent of consumers believe smart home products should be standard in a newly built home. 4:49 Today's buyers want personalized experiences too. This is true in all of our homes, and the timing for providing this is right now. 5:01 The Schneider Electric study found that forty-three percent of people have considered changing the location or the structure of their homes since the onset just of the pandemic. 5:14 People are flocking to less densely populated suburbs. New construction is on the rise, as is retrofits of existing homes. So what is this all telling us? 5:27 Now is the time to put in technology into our homes to give us the data that gives us the insights. Another option for being more sustainable is a net zero home. 5:42 These homes produce as much energy as they consume. Now, did you know that? Again, let me repeat that.These homes produce as much energy as they consume. The result is a zero energy bill and a carbon neutral home. 5:59 These homes are not just for the sustainability enthusiasts, and I think that's what's really important we need to talk about because research suggests net zero highs- housing stock is expected to increase by 28% between what was 2019 and 2028 from just fi- 57,800 households to 534,500. 6:26 Think about those numbers. We are soon going to move out of the early adopter phase, which we've been talking about with net zero homes. 6:35 In order to enable this, there are a number of tools and technologies that can help make this possible. Things like, which you've heard us talk about, solar, energy efficient appliances, geothermal pumps, 6:51 smart thermostats, which we've been talking about for quite some time now, weather sealed doors and frames, radiant floor heating, and again, home energy management systems, just to name a few, and there's so many other things we can talk about. 7:07 I would argue one of the most critical components is an energy management system. In my opinion, this is the brain of the home. It provides data for how to make change happen in our homes. 7:24 It is essential to be able to give all of us homeowners the information needed in order to better monitor and control all of our energy use. But this is only one part of a net zero home. 7:39 This is only one part of a sustainable home. How these homes are built is critical as well, and that's what we need to understand, and here's the challenge. There's a cost barrier to making all of this happen. 7:54 When building a sustainable home, I'm discovering there are some companies that don't want to contribute to making it equitable or even affordable for the average person or even enterprise. 8:06 The word greenwashing comes to mind in some cases. We all have to do our part, and these companies have made a pretty strong statement that they are putting profits over societal good. 8:19 As I see it, in time these companies will not be the ones that will prosper because most certainly will not be the ones that you want to join. 8:29 Then there are the companies like Schneider Electric, who have made it very clear that sustainability is a core of everything they do, and today they reinforce that message with Life Is On, focusing on electrification, decarbonization, and efficiency. 8:47 And that brings me to my big announcement, which I'm really excited about to share with you today. 8:52 I'm embarking with my husband on this journey to understand what works, what doesn't, and how to make our homes more energy efficient. 9:03 We're creating a living lab to understand how to best leverage technology to build a greener home. You just can't do it overnight. 9:14 It will be a model for sustainable, resilient, and efficient residential home building practices, and we're going to be a part of that living lab and showing you from the ground up what it takes. 9:28 This individual project will incorporate the most advanced products and systems from leading manufacturers and technology companies to demonstrate and educate both industry and consumers alike. 9:42 We're all consumers first, but we've gotta understand it because that's the challenge that we're discovering. We forget what it's like to be a consumer. So here's my opinion for today. 9:54 We need to create a sustainable, clean, and green future for all homes and future communities for which we live, thrive, and prosper. We need to understand that. 10:07 We need to develop and design and restore and regenerate natural ecosystems. We need to move from gray to green, as I've been saying, and we need to do it in a cost-effective manner for all of us. 10:23 We need to make it equitable. As always, I'm going to do the research for all of you so you understand what it takes to do this, and I'm going to uncover which solutions and approaches work best. 10:38 They might not work for everyone, but at least I wanna help all of us understand. 10:44 My objective is to build, prioritize, educate, demonstrate a model for sustainable living that can be replicated from community to town to city, so that we all can have a sustainable green living if we want it. 11:01 This is not going to be a quick or even an easy approach for anyone or for everyone by any stretch of the imagination. I get it, but if we don't try to start doing it now, we're never going to do it. 11:18 We're always gonna find a reason why we can't do it and to postpone it, and it's even going to take the utility company some time to make the transition. Consider a utility company, for instance. 11:32 It's going to have them-- It's gonna make them-- They're gonna have to make some decisions. Think about this. 11:38 And those decisions are going to have to be based on what is actually, action, actually, I should say, reasonable, affordable, and even prudent in the eyes of all of their stakeholders.And as most of us know, that is never a quick task, but it's a doable one and one we all have to start now if we want to achieve the goals we're all striving for as a country, as a nation, as the world. 12:08 We all know we have to walk before we can jog or even run, and that's what we hope to show with this emerging and disruptive technology that will be a part of the Living Lab. So here's my tip. 12:24 Consider what sustainable living might look like for you. What would you think about it to be? Little steps make a big difference, and we can all do something today to do our part. 12:41 But what does that n- have to be? What, what would it look like? What do you believe is the next step to ensure our homes are smarter or even more sustainable? How can we bring this to everyone? 12:57 And how do we bring it to everyone in a way that is affordable? Because that's not gonna be easy either. Is it only in doing this that we will be able to meet our climate neutrality goals by 2050? 13:14 And I get that, and I'm sure many of you listening get that. 13:18 We are starting with the transportation grid in some areas, moving to the energy grid in other areas, and building to even bigger solar, wind, and more for a whole house solutions in other. 13:35 This is just the beginning of the conversation and sustainable living both inside our homes and outside. But my hope is that you will join the conversation and share solutions, ideas, thoughts. 13:52 It's only when we are all coming together that we can build a brighter, cleaner future for all of us, for all generations and all people. 14:04 But we have to wanna do it together, and we have to think about it now and not put it off today, you know, and think, "Well, we'll focus on it tomorrow." We have to focus on it now, and that's what's most important. 14:17 So I hope you'll stay tuned. More is to come, but we really wanna hear your thoughts on maybe things we're not thinking about. 14:24 I don't think I know all the answers, but with all of your insights, we'll certainly avoid some of the hurdles because we would love to hear what you have to say with it. 14:34 So with that, that's all the time I have for this segment, but as always, I'd love for you to share your thoughts with me on social. 14:41 Send a tweet at me at connectedwmag or post something to me on LinkedIn because that's where we engage, we learn more, and if you can help me avoid any hurdles and any mistakes along the way, I'd love to, uh, uh, get better at what we do and, and any of those thoughts. 14:56 So check out our website at connecttheworld.com or constructek.com or our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 15:03 All right, we're gonna take a quick commercial break, but don't go anywhere because we've got some great guests we're gonna have on the show. 15:09 As always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back.
