At the tail end of December, Congress passed a COVID relief bill that included a number of important packages targeted at renewable energy. While the bill didn’t include everything that the industry needed, it did extend and expand some important elements of what is growing the market into 2021, just in time for a new administration to rev things up. Continue reading “What’s In The COVID Relief Bill For Renewables”
We don’t sell services, we find solutions. We’ve learned a lot over the past several months that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions for businesses facing the risks and challenges of COVID-19. In addition to air purification, design plays a critical role in keeping people safe. Continue reading “Design Combines With Purification In COVID-19 Fight”
Finally. Around the country, US cannabis companies breathed a sigh of relief last week. Regardless of their political leanings on other issues, the results of the Georgia Senate run-offs contests are exciting for an industry that has been hamstrung since its inception. Continue reading “Senate Changes Offer Cannabis Industry Bright Future”
When it comes to energy storage, California is leading the nation in implementing grid-scale, forward-thinking strategies to meet energy needs and save the planet. The rest of the country, and the rest of the world, should be taking notes. Continue reading “California Leads The World In Energy Storage”
Across the country and around the world, coal is being set aside as the primary energy producer for grid-scale suppliers. In Indiana, that’s meant a sizeable investment in energy storage that will save consumers millions. Continue reading “Indiana Might Be The Next Energy Storage Hotbed”
Healthcare workers have been the real heroes of the pandemic. There are many reasons why healthcare workers around the world have been consistently identified as the top priority in receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. As countries work to protect hospital workers and healthcare providers, we need to do more to protect them until they’re all safe. Continue reading “Healthcare Workers And Air Purification”
California is a big state with even bigger energy needs. That means many of its green and sustainability goals appear daunting, but the technology is there. What will it take for California to go carbon neutral? Storage. Continue reading “California’s Energy Storage Road Map”
Commercial real estate is hurting, and you can look at Keen to see how much of a problem it is. Even our office is quiet. While a few of us might stop by throughout the day to take care of some housekeeping, retrieve notes or tools, or maybe just to water the plants, Keen HQ is now scattered across the state and the country working to save the planet.
That quiet, echoing empty space isn’t unique. Office buildings all over the world as sitting empty, and for commercial real estate agents, the phone line has been equally dormant. Companies of all sizes have chosen to invest in remote work during the pandemic, and more of those companies are looking to move to remote work long term. Companies like Twitter, Google, and Microsoft have offered and even incentivized their workforces to stay home and work wherever they can, even if that happens to be on the other side of the country. Commercial real estate is in a free fall as a result.
So, how can real estate brokers bring workers back? Give them peace of mind.
To revive the market, the spaces that bring people together need to be safe enough to bring people together. That doesn’t just mean dividing up the trendy open workspace concept that workers have quietly hated for over a decade. It’s going to mean investing in creating distinct rooms, barriers, and reshaping the look and feel of office buildings to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, but also other diseases that put a dent into productivity even in a normal flu season.
But the reality is that the real answer is much smaller. So small, in fact, that the answer to fighting the virus is to directly address the virus, not just how it’s getting around. It may have taken months, but commercial realtors are finally getting the idea. In Dallas, for example, landlords are scrambling to implement the best HVAC filters and ventilation systems, plus integrating needlepoint bipolar ionization to kill over 99% of airborne viruses. Health and safety has become a sales pitch for real estate agents in addition to being a sign of concern and respect companies have for their workers.
At some point, federal and state governments will have to introduce more loans to support businesses across the country. One vital part of that relief legislation should include grants for facilities and property owners to improve the health of employees so that we can get back to work. Vaccines might be coming, but for tens of thousands of businesses, those vaccines will be too late.
We’re here to help. If you’re looking to bring back tenants to your building or workers to your office space, let’s talk.
On January 20, Joe Biden will take the most powerful office in the world. The White House certainly doesn’t have the ability to unilaterally change energy and cannabis policy, but experts are trying hard to peer into the future to see what the President-elect has in mind. Continue reading “Cannabis And Energy In 2021”
Sometime last year, our Monday morning meeting got a little off track. Normally, these meetings are designed to kick off the week and set out a road map on how to get everything done, and give our teams the resources they need to go above and beyond. The topic that got us off topic was microgrids. Continue reading “Microgrid Island: Tasmania’s Small Sustainability Project”
