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[Music]
welcome to scaling up sub podcast for
water traders by scale college so we
don’t scale up our systems everybody I’m
trace Blackmore I am the host of scaling
up and I am delighted of all of the
comments that I’m getting on the website
where you guys are saying you like the
show you like the format you like what
we’re talking about and keep it coming
Its not easy being green
that means a lot to me and I want to
thank you for it today’s show we’re
going to be concentrating on being green
what the heck does that mean anyway
being green I think Kermit the Frog says
it’s not easy being green and you know
what it’s not easy being green as a
water treat well what the heck does it
even mean to be green as a water treat
think about what our job is our job is
to know what’s going on in the water
figure out how we can maximize that
water so we don’t bleed it out any
sooner than we need to and we’re making
sure that our heat transfer surfaces are
clean that’s being green that is making
sure that the system is running as
efficiently as it possibly can I would
argue that the water treatment industry
was the original green movement before
there was even a green movement there
was water treatment and water treatments
job was to be green now hopefully your
water that you’re treating is in green
because that’s a topic for another show
but we as water treaters that’s our job
it’s to be green so let’s explore what
that really means when I’ve talked with
people especially in the water treatment
industry they kind of set up two camps
one camp says I think being green is
taking care of the planet responsibly we
only have so many natural resources we
have to make sure that we are utilizing
them responsibly and we’re not wasting
them so as a water trader we do that by
making sure we’re not using too much
water we’re not wasting too much water
and we’re not using more energy than we
need to like I said before we’re keeping
those heat transfer surfaces clean so
we’re not using any electricity thereby
reducing our carbon footprint all right
let’s look at the other side of camp
they say I don’t believe in this stuff
there’s as many resources today as there
were a million years ago so I look at
green on that side of the camp as money
hey somebody’s got to pay for that water
if we’re needlessly wasting water it’s
going to be more expensive to operate
that system if we’re scaling up the
system or if we have a bunch of dirt and
debris in the system that’s gonna
insulate the heat that we’re trying to
get out of those surfaces so somebody
has to pay for that extra electricity in
order to overcompensate for all that
insulation that’s in the system so if
your goal is to make sure that we’re
responsible caretaker on this planet or
we want to make sure that our customer
is paying the least amount that they
have to to run that system that’s being
green so it doesn’t matter green you can
apply either way but the bottom line is
that if you do your job properly as a
water treat you are being green in 1993
the United States Green Building Council
was founded to promote sustainability in
building design construction and
operation they did this through the LEED
program LEED stands for Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design and many
water treaters myself included have
decided to become credentialed within
the lead system I personally hold my
LEED AP O&M which stands for accredited
professional in operations and
maintenance specifically for existing
buildings now before that I was actually
a LEED Green Associate now why did I do
this and why do other water treaters
bother to get this desk
nation well it’s simple when I work with
building owners and managers I want them
to make sure that they know that I speak
the same language they do when they are
trying to get their building certified I
also believe for those of you that are
studying for the certified water
technologist examination that the LEED
Green Associate examination and that
process gets you started as a nice
stepping-stone on your way to becoming
credentialed as a certified water
technologist now truth be known there is
not a lot of similarities with that test
but what it does it gets you in the
mindset of studying again and you don’t
have to study as hard for it as you do
the certified water technologist
examination so my tip for you is that
that might be a good way to get you
started on your way to the CWT today I’m
interviewing Charlie cicchetti and
Charlie Cecchetti has been a friend of
AWC for years he’s spoken at a couple of
our conventions and his programs are
actually the ones that I teach at the
technical training seminars when I do
the lead GA courses now Charlie owns two
companies he owns the green building
education services which is actually the
company that provides the training
material that I was just speaking of and
then he also owns sustainable investment
group and this is probably one of the
best companies out there they go out and
they certify our help buildings get
certified in lead he knows what he’s
talking about in fact he’s told me
stories that people will come to him
after they’ve been denied something in
their lead process and Charlie knowing
what he’s doing he’s gonna go out there
and get it fixed and he gets those
buildings certified Charlie’s gonna
define exactly what the lead program is
what water traders should be aware of
when it comes to getting credentialed
and all the things that I think you’re
gonna have questions about Charlie’s a
great friend of mine he’s agreed
on the show so I hope you enjoy my
conversation with Charlie cicchetti I’m
Introduction
here today with Charlie Cecchetti of the
sustainable investment group and green
building services and Charlie’s unique
Charlie holds every lead credential that
the US GBC has to offer and Charlie is
also a great friend of mine Charlie
welcome to the black more enterprises
studio how are you today
trace thanks for having me I’m doing
great and this is before the
conversation well I’m really glad that
that’s you’re here I did want to ask you
well what exactly do your companies do
What do your companies do
yeah my background is construction and
real estate here based in Atlanta that’s
where I’ve been most of my life I grew
up in the North Georgia Mountains but
after Georgia Tech and went on to
construction real estate then I got into
green buildings and so fast forward to
today what’s happened is I’m focused on
the lead if you want your building
stamped as a green building you go
through this rigorous process you can
design and build a new building like the
new Atlanta Falcons Stadium here is
going to be LEED Platinum so you can do
design and build it to a green standard
but we also do a lot of greening of
existing buildings and let’s go LEED for
existing building straights no we’re
gonna get to that a lot of points on the
leap program for water treatment
so my two companies one of them we
delete consulting and engineering so we
do a lot of energy audits so that’s
business-to-business we’re really
helping buildings go green get the LEED
certification and then my website
gbes comm we help people pass the LEED
exam so they can advance their career
and it’s a lot of fun it’s ever-changing
but I’ve been doing this now for a
little over eight years between these
two companies well Charlie and I don’t
know if our listeners know this but
Charlie’s website was the reason that I
have my LEED AP own him it’s just
incredible materials I could have not
been more prepared to take that test and
I thank you for all the work that you
did there because it really prepared me
to go in there and pass it on the first
time a lot of our customers Trace maybe
you want to take the exam and get the
letters after your name or maybe you
just want to know what’s it take to be a
green building and so it’s really a
comprehensive program what do we do with
our site
in our transportation what do we do with
our water in the restaurants what do we
do or water on our cooling towers what I
do with our energy and our energy
efficiency immaterial so even if you’re
not quite ready to go for the exam the
100 question exam you know at least go
through a LEED course if it pops up you
need to know what’s going on with the
green building movement well Charlie
US GBC
we’ve mentioned a couple of acronyms
already one would lead the other was us
GBC and I’m sure we probably have a
couple of listeners out there that don’t
know what those are can you give us a
brief explanation about the world of
lead and u.s. GBC sure yeah a lot of
people just think it’s government but
it’s not that you ask Green Building
Council it’s a nonprofit based in
Washington DC it actually started way
back in 1993 the first LEED buildings
came out in the year 2000 so we’ve got
17 years almost 17 years worth of LEED
buildings out there LEED stands for
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design if you want a green building you
go through this process to make sure
we’ve really crossed the t’s dot the i’s
this is a more eco-friendly building so
the u.s. GBC that’s the US Green
Building Council they invented the LEED
program a lot of buildings are doing it
to be marketable to save energy to save
water to make sure that it’s just a
healthier building that’s one of the big
upcoming adjustments in the green
building movement it’s not just an
eco-friendly building it’s good for the
environment but how about the people in
the building so there’s a big push
towards wellness but yeah lead and the
US CDC I’ve chosen to make a career out
of it and I’m a big fan why should some
Why LEED
of the listeners some of the water
traders out there why should be coming
LEED credential be on their radar
yeah it’s a differentiator
you know honestly when we work with
property managers for example jll or
Cushman & Wakefield sometimes they
require you to have a lead professional
on your staff when you’re bidding on
that work because it’s important to them
that their lead building be Ryan
efficiently they don’t want to lose lead
points they don’t want to lose their
certification on the building so LEED
professionals it really can help your
career you know maybe your that’s in
house league or so that makes you even
more
there it makes your company more
competitive tres I know you have a LEED
AP o plus M there’s only 700 people in
the world that have that one and I hope
that’s been a differentiator it really
means wow they really understand more
detail on these lead projects so it can
help career-wise it can make your
company more competitive you know but
frankly it proves you’re up-to-date on
what’s going on with the green building
movement and with lead I will tell you
that personally I know a property
managers that will not speak with
vendors that do not have some sort of
lead credential whether it’s the lead GA
or the lead AP so I’ve definitely
experienced that firsthand
you mentioned points for water treatment
can you can you talk about that yeah
absolutely so about every five or six
years leads gonna updates gonna raise
the bar because if we did a LEED Gold
building five years ago you know what at
the time that was pretty strict
standards but fast forward to today we
need to raise the bar or else we’re not
getting even better with our building
performance so it used to be worth one
point on an existing commercial building
if you have you know water treatment in
place you have to follow certain
training certain protocol and you want
to make sure that we comply that was one
point fast words it today though Trace
you can get three points now that might
not sound like a lot it is if it cost me
a hundred thousand dollars to put some
solar panels on my building
but you as water treaters are actually
already hitting these cycles and I can
get two or three quote free points I’m
gonna do that and save the hundred
thousand as much as you want to solar
and so it’s important and it’s been
interesting to see and I know AWT as an
organization really helped write some of
this when LEED made an update but now
water treatment is actually valued as a
part of a building operations that can
not only save water but it can save
energy too so yeah I think it’s a game
changer
I’ll be honest a lot of people out there
when it comes to a LEED project we do a
lot of work in New York City even though
we’re based here in Atlanta Georgia we
do work all over the country you know in
New York City you really want to make
sure that when you’re talking about your
water treatment it’s not just oh yeah we
have water treatment we get one
we point it’s now with the new standard
it’s not just we do water treatment we
get one point it’s are we hitting the
right cycles how good how effective is
our water treatment when you can go to a
property manager and a building owner
and say look I found two or three LEED
points that’s a big deal that could be
the difference between LEED certified or
silver or silver to gold so the nice
thing is it’s becoming more a part of
the conversation so it sounds like
Getting LEED
somebody really needs to have getting
lis credential on their radar if
somebody chooses to do that it sounds
like they have every reason to become
elite credential
how would they do that yeah I mean I’m a
fan of helping people pass the LEED
Green Associate exam it’s a 100 question
multiple choice exam we’ve got online
practice study material Tracy I know you
trained within the AWT ecosystem on hey
here’s what you need to know about LEED
and how you would pass that exam so you
definitely want to take a course you
want to take some practice tests but you
actually go to your local testing center
and you’ll pass a 100 question multiple
choice exam you know for those listening
it’s not impossible yeah it’s tricky
it’s a little tricky you know why don’t
we put a white roof on the building okay
you’re focused on water treatment here
but the white roof we’re gonna save
energy we’re gonna reduce the heat
island effect it’s fun to read up on
this what are we doing with our
buildings how can they be more
eco-friendly but you have to pass a 100
question exam then you have those
letters after your name
so after somebody does get those letters
Market yourself
after their name what are some
recommendations that you could make that
they can market themselves yeah
absolutely
I mean on your business cards on your
email signature be proud that you have
kama Li gar leat Green Associate or
maybe you’ve gone on and you’re a LEED
AP and you’ve specialized so once you’ve
earned those letters there’s this card
your email signature your LinkedIn
profile honestly as a company you know
you know we work with a lot of
architects and a lot of contractors they
might have hundreds of lead ApS in-house
like we work with Turner construction
they have over 1500 lead ApS but when it
comes to water treatment and your small
and medium-sized business it’s important
to say look we’ve got lead professionals
on staff
so if I’m talking to again a property
manager or a facility manager and you
really have said look we’ve got lead
folks in the house you don’t have to
have a lead consultant like Charlie on
the project that’s gonna really be
making sure water treatment is right you
know what needs to happen here is we’ve
got lead professionals we understand the
latest version of lead and we’ve got you
covered
I just brings comfort to a property
manager a facility manager well you
LEED V4
mentioned the the latest version of lead
can you speak around that yeah every
five or six years leads to get an update
we’re on LEED v4 LEED version four so of
you listing you’re probably working on
lead projects in your various cities
most of your Class A office buildings
but not always there’s a lot of
facilities doing it a lot of
owner-occupied buildings you know
there’s schools doing it you can do lead
on any of these projects LEED v4 we’ve
really raised the bar with more
technical side of things data we do have
to be more energy efficient more water
efficient so we want to make sure we
have higher performing buildings so if
Getting involved with LEED
somebody wanted to get so involved with
with lead and what the future product
looks like how would somebody do that
yeah I mean I think one of the first
steps is just to go to the US GBC org
that’s the nonprofit that invented lead
and just take a look at some case
studies but when it comes to what are
you gonna do for your career what do you
do for your company you definitely want
to take a course maybe just an info
session you know I think if it’s okay
Trace I’ve got like an hour just hey
what is LEED when I start we could put
that recording maybe in the notes and
just make sure that people have access
to that but I think you want to read up
on it understand and your market is it
important to your clients and just ask
are you gonna go for LEED certification
because remember certified is for your
building and accredited or a credential
that’s for the person that asks your
clients you know are you gonna go for
LEED have you thought about it and I
think what you’ll find is some of them
it’s very important and it would impress
them if you had that credential so you
Future of LEED
mentioned that lead changes every four
to five years what are some of the
changes that you see coming in future
leads yeah so you know lead it’s is
going all in on the data side and I
think this relates here to your audience
there’s a lot of software on our
buildings we can get a lot of data out
of our buildings right we choice you and
I talk KPIs key performance indicators
data and one thing we all need to be
aware of is we’re trying to automate a
lot of data but in the mean time is yeah
how many cycles are we hitting so with
what you guys are doing we’ve got to
report that to lead so how do we make
that a smoother process so I think as
lead continues to go through iterations
it’s gonna be very data heavy how can we
you know take that information look at
trends and truly measure performance
some of the early parts of lead may be
in the early 2000s we were like okay if
we change out these lights they should
be this efficient you know but now that
we actually have the backend data it’s
here’s how efficient our building is
compared to other buildings it’s less
prescriptive and it’s actually more
performance based is how lead is
shifting separate than that I mentioned
wellness and there’s a new standard and
it’s called the well building standard
it’s interesting on a leap building we
want to have a really water efficient
restroom toilets urinals faucets we want
to save water that’s good for the
environment with the well building
standard it’s the water quality that
people are going to be exposed to so on
that program someone literally tests the
water and you’re either gonna pass/fail
on some of those requirements so those
are the trends I see performance and
eventually wellness now how do you see
Education
education changing for lead sure I have
a website that gets a lot of visitors
every month
gbes comm we’ve been doing that since
2007 and we help people pass the lead
exams advance their career I mentioned
and then you have to do continuing
education so with lead yes every two
years you have to do continuing
education how we’re seeing that shift
I’m very excited about instead of just a
PowerPoint with a voiceover even though
we might have like this really good
British accent no you know what we want
a differ
format for that content I think it’s
about 45% of the internet bandwidth in
the United States Tracy goes to Netflix
and YouTube so if people are consuming
video let’s give them video tours of
elite building what did that Falcon
Stadium do to go for LEED Platinum and
there’s the solar and there’s the
materials they built out of honestly
podcasts like this we’re seeing a lot of
write-ups with blogs video podcasts like
this I want to see a time very soon
we’re starting to see it a little bit
with the US Green Building Council where
education partners that they’ll approve
podcasts for continuing it because you
want to meet people where they’re
already consuming information you don’t
want to force them to have to get to a
computer and watch a PowerPoint and log
their hours you know how about we give
you a video or how flow we give you a
podcast with some really good
information here’s what you’re going to
learn you know two or three podcast
episodes that gives you an hour or two
hours with a continuing education it’s
upon us we’re doing some of that with
the US Green Building Council and I’m
excited about that pivot what one tip
One tip
can you give our listeners today that
you feel is going to help them the most
in their careers absolutely you know
maybe you do go within your company and
try to get a lead credential we’ve
pushed it a lot on here twice you’re a
lead professional I am I hope you can if
even if you can’t do that though make
sure you’re updated on the different
building certifications because there’s
gonna come a time when you’re gonna need
to understand what is LEED what is well
what are these programs out there
because in commercial real estate and
owner-occupied facilities which i think
a lot of your listeners probably focus
on even in school city of Atlanta public
school is a car LEED Silver on
everything they do they build and
renovate there’s gonna come a time if
someone’s gonna ask hey have you worked
on a LEED project even if you haven’t
but you say you know what we’re well
trained on lead and we have a lead
professional then you have a good answer
for them it’s like you know what we
don’t work on a lot but we absolutely
are up to date on it
I think that’s gonna really help them
with their business and their careers
great information so you’re ready for
the lightning round
let’s do it alright so if you could have
Teddy Roosevelt
a conversation with anybody throughout
history who would it be and why I listen
to a lot of business books and you know
but I thought about this I also like
autobiographies and I thought about
Teddy Roosevelt you know he was just
tenacious I mean talk about someone
that’s tough not just physically there’s
a story about him getting shot in the
stomach and then just moments later
going to give a campaign speech
literally the guy got shot he’s bleeding
but he goes and delivers a speech off
the back of the Train cuz you would do
that back then you’d go city to city
town to town on the back of a caboose
but to be physically tough like that guy
Teddy Roosevelt I think you got to be
mentally tough you know hey wife saw her
businesses are and so I’d like to just
have a conversation with him he did some
great things with the National Park
Service hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of acres preserved but Teddy
Roosevelt just tough guy all right
what’s better book I don’t have a just a
Book
one favorite book I really have become a
fan of continuous improvement that would
be if we went back to your other
question kind of career-wise just make
sure you’re always curious about the
certifications out there that are
directly in your niche industry water
treatment but also on your buildings
like what are your clients do but I
think personally I just continually
improve continually and lard I’ve got
three boys and I always you know I want
to make sure I’m teaching them to love
to learn there’ll be better students if
they like to learn and so continually
learn a book you know I guess what comes
to mind we talked about it earlier so
I’ll go with this when it’s a recent
release it’s called tools of titans Tim
Ferriss he’s written several books and
he also has a podcast your listeners
might want to check out but it’s a it’s
a great book that it’s very short
excerpts from all of his interviews over
the last several years and there’s one
in particular about him talking to
Arnold Schwarzenegger about one of his
early movies and Arnold gave up some
salary as an actor in that mainstream
movie for some upside and meaning if the
movie did great he would actually make a
lot of money and it did and next thing
you know he made more money than the
door
actors and the producers but he was just
smart he’s like you know what it’s not
always about what are you gonna get up
front is there’s some upside if this
really could pay off so tools of titans
is a good recent release I really get a
lot of Tim Ferriss well thank you you
Final comments
know when it comes to water treatment
any final comments that you have Charlie
you know I’ve had the privilege of
speaking out a few AWT conventions and
I’ll tell you what I mean a great group
really impressed you know you take your
niche industry I mean heck green
buildings is a niche industry sure
constructions big real estate commercial
real estate it’s big but you know we’re
talking about some smaller slivers of
that I just want say AWT was really
impressed the few times I got to speak
there and and I really appreciate what
you’re doing here trace getting the word
out on a newer format I know I think
there’s only five hundred thousand or so
podcast but think about this if you can
be the voice within this industry I
think people are gonna be learning as
you tell I like to teach I teach a lot
of lead classes I love to actually teach
now sure I love to be a consultant and
go for a lead certification on a
building and work with big real estate
in New York City or Atlanta or DC but I
really love to teach and so I think this
is great I hope the audience is really
listened to this when they’re driving
between meetings and appointments and
improving the buildings so I just think
you’re doing a great job and let me know
if you need anything as your as your
doing well here on your podcast so
thanks well thank you I definitely
appreciate you coming here and
interviewing with us today yes one last
time in case they didn’t get it
everybody’s driving around but if they
wanted to learn more about getting their
lead certification what’s that website
again yeah I probably just go to gbes
comm and there’s some frequently asked
questions there’s some free resources
and again we’ll hopefully put a link
maybe in the show notes if you get back
to work and you want to click and read
more later but in the meantime hopefully
this was a value I had a lot of fun
thank you all right well thanks for
coming so how great was that for Charlie
to join us and tell us a little bit more
about the lead program for those of you
that are interested in getting some of
the information
that Charlie mentioned I know we’re out
driving around servicing accounts so
don’t worry about that go to scaling up
h2o comm go to my show notes page and
you will see every link that he
mentioned is right there on the site
it’s my hope that many of you will
choose to get this designation giving
yourself just a little bit extra that
your competitor may not have and thereby
letting your customer know that you
cared enough to go out there and get an
extra designation to show that you know
what you’re talking about when it comes
to their buildings here’s a scaling up
insider’s tip nobody else knows this
except you guys so here goes the last
couple years I’ve actually been teaching
the lead program at the training
seminars for AWT for some reason it was
not very well received so we
re-evaluated we’re going to try to bring
programs that get a little bit more
response so I am NOT going to be
training liji a next year with AWT now I
know what you’re saying hey trace you
just had this show you had Charlie on
you’re getting us all jazzed up to get
this designation and now you’re taking
away our training so what are we
supposed to do well don’t worry because
I’ve worked out a deal with Charlie and
for all you scaling up listeners out
there he has agreed to offer a discount
for you to sign up directly with his
training program so you can take those
classes online at your leisure and folks
these are actually the same classes that
I took in order to get my lead AP o & M
they work he is a tremendous facilitator
he knows what’s going to be on the exam
he prepares you for it I tell ya I
passed it on the first time and there is
not much water treatment on it I don’t
know much else besides water treatment
and I was able to pass it so that’s a
huge testament to his classes so go to
my website scaling-up h2o comm you’ll
have all that information to go ahead
and get yourself started down that
journey I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s
show
I hope you’ve learned something I hope
that you have a little bit extra spark
inside that says hey what can I do to
make myself a little bit better so
tomorrow I want to be a better water
treated wisdom thanks for joining us on
you