The Climate Gap

The smartest buildings don’t just run on data — they run on people. From intern to Operations Manager, Reed Powell has spent his career helping MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions evolve from a regional mechanical contractor into a leader in smart building service and energy innovation. In this episode of The Climate GAP: Quick Cuts , Reed shares how the company balances cutting-edge technology wi...

Smart buildings aren’t about gadgets — they’re about outcomes. From “digital twin” hype to fragmented vendor promises, owners are often told their buildings are intelligent when they’re really just connected. In this episode of The Down Low with Joe, Jay Wratten, Global Smart Places Lead at WSP, unpacks what true digital transformation looks like at enterprise scale — and why success starts with u...

AI won’t fix your building if your data is scattered. Work orders in one tool, cleaning in another, room booking in a third, BMS alarms in a fourth. AI can’t infer what it can’t see. In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts , Ben Muwoki speaks with Brett Fisher, Senior Director at ServiceNow, who is a leader in the Workplace Platform Stack. Together, they get practical about what must live i...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Timothy Miscovich, Chief Commercial Officer at wtec, to unpack one of the biggest go-to-market decisions in smart buildings and climate tech: Do you scale through partners, or do you build direct? Tim has built teams and channels across 30 countries, leading wtec’s smart lighting and sensor business through direct, channel,...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Danielle Radden, VP of Global Revenue Operations at Facil. AI, to talk about what it really takes to build trust in AI for buildings and why the conversation shouldn’t start with fear. When people hear “AI in buildings,” they often imagine extremes: shiny dashboards or sci-fi robots. Danielle brings it back to reality. This...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki interviews Omar Tabba, Chief Product Officer at BrainBox AI, to explore what true building autonomy looks like, and why most smart buildings still aren’t there. Omar’s view is that the industry doesn’t have a data problem; it has a control problem. Dashboards keep multiplying, but systems still can’t act safely, measure value, or scale wit...

From intern army to industry leader: How Alex Grace built one of climate tech’s top commercial machines In this episode of The Climate Gap's, In The Weeds segment, Lewis sits down with Alex Grace, Chief Commercial Officer at Clockworks Analytics, to unpack his 15+ year journey scaling one of the most effective commercial teams in the built environment. Starting as a political science graduate with...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Shahar Peleg, a veteran product and innovation leader in the smart building and IoT space. Shahar’s view: corporate real estate keeps optimising the wrong line item. Energy savings are easy to measure, but people and space drive far greater impact on performance, retention, and the bottom line. We dig into: - People + Real E...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki interviews Andy Frank, founder of Novant and a 25-year veteran of smart-building tech. Andy's POV is that most smart-building failures aren’t technical; they’re human. We chase dashboards and pilots, but skip coordination, outcomes, and the basic question: why are we doing it this way? We dig into: “Closing the loop” beats dashboards: data...

In this market-update episode of The Down Low with Joe , Joe Aamidor and co-host Lewis bring on Elizabeth Redmond (R-Zero) to unpack the headlines reshaping proptech, HVAC/services, and compliance in NYC and beyond. 🔎 Topics Covered: AirThings’ strategy reset and what it signals about post-RTO demand Legence’s IPO: why roll-up MEP + data centers ≠ “energy transition” (and why it still works) OEM...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki interviews Ben Dwyer, who is SVP Global Sales at KODE Labs. Ben explains why pilots must now prove readiness for scale, not just technology, as CIOs and CTOs become the new power brokers for smart-building decisions. He shows how platforms can relieve staffing pressure, deliver finance-grade ROI, and avoid the classic trap of pilots that c...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki interviews Elizabeth Redmond, Head of Sales at R-Zero. Most healthy building pilots don’t fail because the technology isn’t promising. They fail because they can’t prove value beyond a teaser. Elizabeth shares how R-Zero pivoted from health-only pilots to energy-first pilots that validate kWh savings and flip cleanly into portfolio-wide ro...

In this episode of The Climate Gap: Quick Cuts, Ben Muwoki sits down with Andy Schonberger, VP of Client Services at Intelligent Buildings. Too many smart building pilots stall, not because the tech fails, but because the support does. Andy has seen it from both sides, as an operator managing facilities at scale and as an advisor guiding Fortune 500s through digital adoption. We dig into: How to s...

In this episode Ben Muwoki sits down with George Rushin, VP of Technology at NavigatorCRE, where he leads platform development, data engineering, and technology operations. With a career spanning Deloitte, Microsoft, and consulting for global brands like Walmart, Marriott, and Airbnb, George brings a risk-focused lens to scaling enterprise proptech. We dig into how risk, adoption, and data governa...

In this episode Ben Muwoki sits down with Andy Boliek, Founder & CEO of BLUME, who has helped over 150 climate tech and proptech companies crack their go-to-market strategy. We break down why the old sales playbook is broken, and how founders can rethink messaging, outbound, and buyer engagement to actually scale. What You’ll Learn Why mass outreach is dead and research-led targeting wins How...

“You can’t launch a product in a building unless the incumbent engineer is on your team.” Saheel Chandrani, CEO PingCX In our latest Climate Gap Quick Cuts, Saheel flips the GTM playbook upside-down. Rather than chasing CIOs or VPs, he courts the people who actually touch the pipes and wires because true adoption (and real ROI) happens underground. Key takeaways • Institutional knowledge is your s...

Justin Segal, President of Boxer Property and Co-Founder of Stemmons Enterprise, joins Joe Aamidor and Ben Muwoki live from Realcomm 2025. We explore how Boxer’s vertically integrated model gives it an edge in scaling smart building tech, why most CRE firms are still outsourcing their outcomes, and what it actually takes to unify operations, data, and ownership. Justin shares his take on energy up...

Is fusion still the holy grail—or finally within reach? In this episode of The Climate Gap , we go inside Tokamak Energy’s S40 facility in Oxfordshire for an exclusive look at the company leading the race to deliver commercially viable fusion power. 🎙️ Host Lewis sits down with Michael Ginsberg , President of Tokamak Energy US, to discuss the physics, funding, and future of this multi-trillion-dol...

We’re thrilled to share the latest episode of Down Low With Joe, where Joseph Aamidor and Ben M. sat down with Darlene Pope , CEO of Brava Systems at Realcomm Events to trace her journey from commercial real estate and broadband to smart buildings and today’s AI frontier. Some takeaways: ↳ People-First ROI : Why employee experience now drives tech spend far more than energy savings. ↳ AI-Powered I...

In this episode, Lewis and Joe discuss the current state of the smart building market, focusing on recent trends, investment landscapes, and emerging technologies. They explore the fragmented nature of the market, the impact of capital efficiency on investment decisions, and the ongoing M&A activity shaping the industry. The conversation also delves into future predictions for the market, high...

What happens when a global architecture firm acquires a boutique smart building consultancy? In this episode of The Down Low with Joe , we sit down with Eric Larsen (Cannon Design) and Owen Dalton (Clarient Group) to unpack their recent merger—and what it signals for the future of smart buildings, building lifecycle services, and integrated delivery models. 🎯 Topics covered: ↳ Why Cannon is expan...

Can software truly scale in construction, or is it time to invest beyond the app? In this episode of The Down Low with Joe , Joe Aamidor is joined by Raja Ghawi, founding partner at Era Ventures, to break down what’s really needed to transform the built environment. 🔎 Topics Covered: Why construction and real estate are saturated with software fatigue The three real profit pools in the built worl...

Most buildings still don’t know how much energy they’re wasting - or why. In this episode of The Down Low with Joe Series , Brad Pilgrim, CEO of Parity, joins Joe Aamidor and Lewis Martin to break down why building decarbonization is stalling, and how AI-driven insights can flip the script. Brad shares lessons from leading Parity through the messy middle of building operations – from HVAC failures...

Why has there been so little consolidation in the energy management software space? Why do so many promising startups plateau at the same level? And how can investors or buyers tell which ones are built for the long haul? In this episode of The Climate Gap Podcast , Joe Aamidor and Lewis Martin are joined by Shaun Stewart — formerly VP of Product at Noda and Dalos — to reveal the findings of a new...

Too much time spent reporting carbon. Not enough spent reducing it. In this episode, we sit down with Christopher Naismith , founder & CEO of Audette , to talk about decarbonizing real estate - at speed and scale. Chris explains why: Energy audits alone can’t meet today’s climate deadlines Owners need capital planning, not just carbon reporting Smart software (and smarter data) can reveal the...