Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: I gotta say there's a story that I'm obsessed about.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about in the newsroom. Three years ago,
Speaker 2: a group of sixteen youth climate activists decided to take
Speaker 2: the state of Montana to court, challenging a provision in
Speaker 2: a law that limits climate change considerations during environmental reviews
Speaker 2: of proposed fossil fuel projects. This week, Tim, they won
Speaker 2: that's right.
Speaker 3: On August fourteenth, a judge there ruled that the current
Speaker 3: state law violates the youth plaintifts right to a clean
Speaker 3: and healthful environment I write spelled out explicitly in the
Speaker 3: state's constitution, Carol, was a sweeping, one hundred and three
Speaker 3: page decision. The judge also in that decision determined that
Speaker 3: climate change is hurting the young Montanas and that their
Speaker 3: injuries will grow with increasingly severe climate impacts.
Speaker 2: It's a big deal. Climate change, we know, impacting everything
Speaker 2: increasingly well, stressing our infrastructure. We see that impacting investing,
Speaker 2: taking a lead on decision making and strategy. So with
Speaker 2: that in mind, it's kind of where we wanted to
Speaker 2: start with our next guest, Kim ver Hiling, is with us.
Speaker 2: She is president of National Buildings Practice at STV and
Speaker 2: Engineering and Infrastructure firm. We talked last October from a
Speaker 2: broadcast at NJIT and so we are delighted to have
Speaker 2: Kim back with us. Kim, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good. Thanks so much. It's great to hear from
Speaker 1: both of you again.
Speaker 2: And thank you for giving a bit a leeway because
Speaker 2: we did kind of want to start with you that.
Speaker 2: I am curious the conversations Tim and I both are
Speaker 2: about what you are having within your firm about climate change,
Speaker 2: the impact and how that might be in terms of
Speaker 2: future building, future construction, infrastructure build out, how we maybe
Speaker 2: have to be dealing with it and thinking about.
Speaker 1: It absolutely well. Climate change is integral and we're thinking
Speaker 1: about it on every single project. Obviously STV does a
Speaker 1: lot on the transportation side, but we also do a
Speaker 1: lot and the building side, and so we're all always
Speaker 1: thinking about while we're designing or renovating, how are we
Speaker 1: going to be making sure our buildings are energy efficient?
Speaker 1: How are we thinking about and impact to the climate
Speaker 1: as well as resilience, And we see that a lot
Speaker 1: with some of the storm conditions that have been happening
Speaker 1: across the country, especially the Sulmar we've sainted, right, and
Speaker 1: all of that is really incumbent on us as professionals
Speaker 1: to take the lead in thinking about better solutions for
Speaker 1: how we construct our facilities in the future.
Speaker 3: Kim I was talking to a colleague of mine and Carol,
Speaker 3: I don't think I told you the story, but we
Speaker 3: were talking about he's looking for a new place in
Speaker 3: Brooklyn and he was on the first floor and he
Speaker 3: asked about flooding and you know when the sewer's back up,
Speaker 3: because it's a normal thing when it rains now and
Speaker 3: the super told him, Oh, don't worry. We'll give you
Speaker 3: these special doors that you put on the bathroom when
Speaker 3: the suit when it rains, so the overflow stays in
Speaker 3: the bathroom and doesn't come out of the bathroom.
Speaker 2: See the sand bag.
Speaker 3: How wonderful, Yeah, how wonderful. Right, not a solution.
Speaker 1: Well, that's right. Well, and obviously those structures that are
Speaker 1: already in place. It's about prevention, but we want a
Speaker 1: design so you don't have to do those sorts of
Speaker 1: things right, that we have the right infrastructure in place
Speaker 1: so it never comes to the point where you have
Speaker 1: to put in those those flood barriers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Having said that, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the other things that you guys think about
Speaker 2: a lot is bringing the world into buildings and making
Speaker 2: kind of you know, bringing nature into environments. We work
Speaker 2: in an incredible office where there is tons of light,
Speaker 2: tons of glass. People walk in and they're like, this
Speaker 2: is where you work, and I'm like, yeah, it's pretty
Speaker 2: amazing because I've worked in a basement studio in a
Speaker 2: New York building where there were no windows and I
Speaker 2: had no idea what was going on outside. That is
Speaker 2: also a big part of what you guys do and thinking,
Speaker 2: whether it's schools, whether it's correctional facilities. Talk to us
Speaker 2: a little bit about daylighting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so in daylighting is really the idea that you're
Speaker 1: letting natural sunlight either directly or indirectly into a building,
Speaker 1: but you are correct daylight and is one of our
Speaker 1: top design philosophies, irrespective of what building type we're looking at,
Speaker 1: and I think for those of us during COVID when
Speaker 1: we were scrambling to create offices in our homes, we
Speaker 1: realized if you were in a space where you weren't
Speaker 1: getting daylight, and you weren't also having that connection to nature.
Speaker 1: It really did impact your mood. And so when we
Speaker 1: think about daylighting, especially on the educational side, it does
Speaker 1: help improve both student health and we've seen that it
Speaker 1: impacts student achievements, so math and reading scores directly. And conversely,
Speaker 1: if you don't have that amazing daylight come in, we
Speaker 1: have discomfort, which can reduce learning, and it's also detrimental
Speaker 1: to mental health. And that's kind of how it ties
Speaker 1: over into as we think of justice and correctional facilities.
Speaker 1: It's on that side, it's about providing a normative environments
Speaker 1: so that occupants can thrive and not have unsafe conditions,
Speaker 1: both for staff and persons in custody.
Speaker 2: TIMV, I don't know about you. Oh you were working here.
Speaker 2: You didn't really work from home, right, But when I
Speaker 2: were here, when I worked from home for six or
Speaker 2: seven months, I actually mind we were doing our live broadcast,
Speaker 2: but I set up right next to my window and
Speaker 2: it was just really kind of nice. But I wanted
Speaker 2: to be by daylight. So I totally get that, Like
Speaker 2: that makes a lot of sense, and I think it
Speaker 2: made a real difference feeling that you really couldn't go
Speaker 2: anywhere but to at least have kind of a beautiful
Speaker 2: view outside.
Speaker 3: But one challenge here with this idea is that so
Speaker 3: much of what we see with where kids are in
Speaker 3: school and the existing infrastructure, this is stuff that's built,
Speaker 3: you know, Kim, more than one hundred years ago. Can
Speaker 3: you retrofit this stuff to make it to bring the
Speaker 3: daylight in or do you have to start over?
Speaker 1: No, you're absolutely right, but it is true. Obviously, new
Speaker 1: construction is much easier because then you can orient the
Speaker 1: school towards to north light, which is always the nicest
Speaker 1: light to bring in. So renovation is a little bit
Speaker 1: more challenging. But of course we can look to the
Speaker 1: exterior wall to really maximize the window and how much
Speaker 1: light comes in. And then we also use other technologies,
Speaker 1: meaning that outside you may bring in all that light,
Speaker 1: but you also don't want glare. Right, there is a
Speaker 1: point where it gets to be too much light and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, the temperature goes up in
Speaker 1: the classroom and it's uncomfortable, right, and then there's a
Speaker 1: different problem. And so what we do on day lighting
Speaker 1: strategies is we think about maximizing the glazing, but also
Speaker 1: putting in shading controls that will monitor and limit depending
Speaker 1: on the amount of light coming in during the day.
Speaker 1: And we also tie that to artificial lighting in the
Speaker 1: classroom with sensors so that we can also be energy efficient,
Speaker 1: which goes back to our earlier conversation about climate change. Right,
Speaker 1: And those are some of the moves we're doing to
Speaker 1: try and lessen the operational costs for school districts.
Speaker 2: Hey, Kim, just got thirty seconds. If you had to
Speaker 2: talk about, like, what is the biggest trend when it
Speaker 2: comes to building right now? What is it?
Speaker 1: Well, let's say the trend to building, I would say
Speaker 1: it's about a holistic experience and human and mental health
Speaker 1: and making sure we're providing in by aments that help
Speaker 1: people thrive for the task at hand in that environment.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I feel like our boss definitely got
Speaker 2: that memo years ago. I'm very lucky this is not
Speaker 2: one of them old We're like, the windows don't open them,
Speaker 2: just door there are now for years. Yeah, the old
Speaker 2: Excellon building that was the basement of.
Speaker 3: The New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2: Right, and you're like, I have no idea, what's going
Speaker 2: on outside. Hey Kim be well, have a great rest
Speaker 2: of the summer. Kim Varhollig, she's president of National Buildings,
Speaker 2: practiced at STV, joining us on zoom there. This is Bloomberg.