Beyond Built: The Future of Facilities and Asset Management

Balancing Sustainability and Cybersecurity in Modern Facilities

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Episode notes

In this episode of Beyond Built, Eric and Richard speak with Luke Knapp, Senior Manager of Corporate Real Estate at the IDA. They dive into the challenges of securing distributed energy infrastructure, the importance of standard protocols, human error management, and the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats. 

The Institute of Defense Analysis is a not-for-profit corporation that operates three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) in the public interest: the Systems and Analyses Center, the Science and Technology Policy Institute, and the Center for Communications and Computing.

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Key Quotes:

LUKE: It's in your best interest to provide security updates. It's going to be catastrophic to your reputation if the sensors that you're providing have known vulnerabilities and they're not doing anything to protect their customers.  That's one side of the house. The other side of the house is I think still inherent or  incumbent on whoever the buyer is, to make sure that you're buying from reputable manufacturers, and you're using certified supply chains that you have a high confidence  are not going to be tampered with. You're limiting your exposure to counterfeit goods. You're limiting your exposure to tampered with goods. You've got a clear supply chain from the manufacturer to your doorstep.

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ERIC: What do you think some of the common concerns are around capital planning, and around actually executing on those? Do you have any words of wisdom for those who are listening who are going through that process now?

LUKE: The most important thing is to determine what the ROI is. Particularly if it's changing from the baseline. So you're introducing some sort of green infrastructure. Are you able to articulate what that return on investment is? 

The second part is you have to be able to sell it. So you can articulate the ROI, then you have to sell it to the right people. That would include your, your CFOs, your boards. Normally most boards want to see those improvements.

The third part is, can you actually execute it? Do you have the plan in place that when you say you're going to do a sustainability project, It's not just going to be a great photo op. Having that good execution plan that can actually be pulled off, I think is of paramount importance. 

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Time stamps:

00:20 - In The News

09:52 - Luke on green energy and cybersecurity

15:18 - Luke’s journey

19:52 - Major cybersecurity concerns and focuses 

25:03 - Where to focus in real estate

31:14 - Common capital planning concerns

34:57 - Rapid fire questions

38:23 - Final takeaways

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Links:

Find Luke on LinkedIn

Find Eric on LinkedIn

Find Richard on LinkedIn
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