Built Environment Matters

Redefining Data Centers: Innovation, Sustainability, and the Future of Construction | Lincoln Wood, Edged

• Bryden Wood with Lincoln Wood | Edged • Season 1 • Episode 32

Share episode

Welcome to another episode of Built Environment Matters! This month, Jaimie Johnston MBE, Head of Global Systems at Bryden Wood, is joined by Lincoln Wood, Director of Design at Edged, to discuss the transformative power of data centers in the digital age. With his extensive background in complex projects, Lincoln brings a wealth of knowledge on how Edged is approaching data center design with an engineering-first mindset. In this conversation, they delve into the rise of AI, the increasing energy demands, and how sustainable design practices are shaping the future of data centers. Discover how industrialized construction and cross-sector collaboration are driving innovation to meet the growing challenges of our time. Tune in to learn more about the future of the built environment and the critical role of data centers.

You can now watch this episode on Bryden Wood's YouTube channel.

Send us a text

To learn more about Bryden Wood's Design to Value philosophy, visit www.brydenwood.com. You can also follow Bryden Wood on LinkedIn and X.

Intro:

Hello and welcome to Built Environment Matters, a monthly podcast brought to you by Bryden Wood, an international company of technologists, designers, architects, engineers and analysts, working for a better built environment. Bryden Wood believe in design to value, to cut carbon, drive efficiency, save time, make beautiful places and build a better future.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Hello there and welcome to this edition of Built Environment Matters, the Bryden Wood podcast. I'm your host, Jaimie Johnston, Head of Global Systems here at Bryden Wood, and today I'm delighted to be joined by Lincoln Wood from Edged.

Lincoln Wood:

Hi everyone.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Great to have you. Um, bit of context, Lincoln is a design and construction executive with over 20 years experience delivering lots of projects, complex projects across all sorts of sectors, including uh, commercial high rise, utility plants, data centers, professional sports stadia and multifamily residential. Um, he's led teams across all facets of the delivery process from design, supply chain, construction, and lots of innovation. Uh, currently, and the reason why we met Lincoln, he's the director of design at Edged, leading the strategy and delivery of data center design, which we're going to talk a lot about today. Before joining Edged, he was head of delivery at real estate developer Juno. where he overstores supply chain and construction of mid rise prefabricated buildings using mass timber. So sustainability and innovation, I think the through line of, um, uh, Lincoln's work. Uh, while he was at, uh, WeWork, he's fought over two billion projects, two billion dollars of projects across multiple operational roles. Uh, and served as vice president of construction for the in house general contracting company. Uh, he also worked for Turner, who are a big U. S. general contractor, where he was director of innovation and technology. Uh, and prior to all of that, he studied at University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on architecture, city planning, and psychology. So you can probably see why, why we, we get on, uh, studied architecture, lots of innovation, worked across sectors. So, um, yeah, Lincoln, thanks. Thanks for joining us.

Lincoln Wood:

Great to be here.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Um, so yeah, that's quite an interesting CV. It's quite a journey you've been on. Um, I think it's quite interesting that you're not a, you didn't grow up in data centers, but, but like us, you've kind of found your way into this, this space. It's probably just a level set for people who aren't, um, in this space. Be good. If you could explain what an Edged data center is. Why that's different to other types of data center, what Edged as a company is specifically interested in, and the kind of context of Endeavour, which is the, the sort of broader, um, company background.

Lincoln Wood:

Absolutely. So to give kind of a broad view, you know, Edged is a data center developer with a global footprint where we're building, Data centers, um, currently in Europe and all over the United States, and that's growing. Um, and we operate very much like a colo developer, um, as far as that, that particular space. Uh, we take down land or we take control of the land, we, we develop the design, we, manage the construction, and then we operate that facility with tenants. Um, and those tenants are, are the people that are our customers. Um, and so that's the business model for a colo developer, um, doing, doing data centers. Um, where we're a little unique is that we have a company that oversees us, or on top of Edge, which is our mother company called Endeavour, And Endeavour's bigger purpose than just data centers is really trying to solve global climate challenges that we're facing right now with regards to the access to energy to meet the demands of these colo tenants while not continuing to hurt our planet. And so technology beyond just building and designing these facilities is a core requirement to be able to innovate in this space that we're currently in. We're in right now, which we'll obviously talk more about. Um, so when I talk about hard, hard technologies, I mean, the engines, um, you know, the ability to, to cool these facilities that takes deep manufacturing expertise, design expertise, mechanical expertise, um, to know how to address some of these challenges, uh, to be more efficient with our use of water or, uh, our ability to, to utilize the energy more efficiently, um, to meet these demands. So. Endeavour has been set up to, to support uh, Edge as a data center developer by providing these unique technologies into our platform while also staying focused on on what needs to be developed um, for the future of these data centers as we keep evolving as a company but also for the broader landscape um, of other types of businesses and, and use cases for those technologies. Yeah, it's a really interesting example. We've talked about this on the podcast before, this sort of convergence of what used to be different sectors, so energy and data center particularly started to converge. So again, so just as a part of a level set, um, for those who aren't familiar with this space, so data center typically measured in megawatts, which is the amount of power they consume. It used to be back in the day that was kind of measured in the low tens, it's risen. Certainly for hyperscale datacenters, some of these big things into the kind of low hundreds. There's lots of talk now about the future datacenters, specifically the AI first ones, which will be measured in gigawatts. So the order of magnitude increase. So a couple of figures that someone sent me earlier today, Uh, data centers are projected to consume 9%, over 9 percent of US electricity annually by 2030. So nearly 10 percent of the power in the country will go into one building type, which is an increase from the previous estimate of four or five. So AI, we'll talk a lot about, has taken the industry, has taken everyone a bit by surprise. McKinsey thinks the data and demand, or each 35 gigawatts by 2030. So, you know, gigawatts is the equivalent of a small city in terms of power consumption. So obviously that, as Lincoln says, is putting a huge premium on. How do you make these things more efficient and more sustainable? But perhaps going back a step, um, we think it's interesting in this market. Data centers probably more than any other are kind of living the industrialization, uh, sort of process. Perhaps you can unpack why data centers particularly lend themselves to industrialized construction and, and what are the kind of the factors that are coming together to make that, make that true. I mean, I think you touched a little bit on my career, right? You know, there's an arc or a narrative that, that, that has been a common thread and that's really trying to reduce the silos, create more efficiency on the value chain from project design or the onset of project, all the way through the turnover process to, to the client. Um, you know, witnessing that, uh, my first job out of college was, was a carpenter for high end residential and saw some, some brutal mistakes and, and, and wastes of material, um, you know, on those projects firsthand as I was, I was, I was out in the field, um, and then quickly came in and, and, and did some, uh, development work in the SOMA region of San Francisco doing multi family, uh, working for a developer. That was the architect, the developer, and the contractor all in house. And then, so I kind of cut my teeth on, on projects, whether I was on the design side, the construction side, or even in the field. And just the blatant, you know, intense inefficiency, whether it was wasted materials or, um, you know, the silos and the steps, the process to deliver that work. It was a big, it was a big passion of mine that started then, um, to really kind of figure out how can we solve some of those, those, those big opportunities. And so, when I worked at Turner, I, I, you only get, you only get, it only gets magnified some of that waste. Um, but with a company of that size, it offered me an opportunity to explore different innovations, new technologies, things to think about things a little differently. And that was a A great launching pad to really a product focused career path that, that really turned towards thinking about how can we build and design for more of a product approach? Um, it's not for every project, right? There's going to be projects that are site specific, that have a particular set of requirements that will be unique for that project, but there's a lot of examples in the world where products have been a successful platform to gain that efficiency, the opportunity to really. Um, leverage the repeatability of design, the repeatability in the supply chain. And ultimately the steps in the field for the contractors and the subcontractors to install more efficiently and have better quality hand over to the client. So that, that mission, let's call it personal mission. I went to WeWork and, and did that on a TI, uh, kind of platform, tenant improvement, you know, office fit outs, um, cause we were designing and building products there as well. Uh, went over to Juno and did that on a multi family level for, um, you know, mid rise, mid rise and high rise buildings. Um, and now at Edged, what's interesting is, you know, my time at Turner, I had exposure to, um, a program, a large hyperscale program, uh, working on the innovation side, but had a lot of exposure with, with that work. And so in my mind, it was always a great place, a great platform to really experiment with some of the, the ideas around a platform, the ideas around, um, leveraging repeatability and design, and, and a more detailed. Coordinated design, um, that then most, most projects you see, uh, given the ability to, to harness the, the economies. Um, so finding Edged was, it was a great, was a great spot for me to kind of take that, that journey and, and apply it back into the, the data center space. So really from day one at Edged, my role as, as director of design is really trying to develop our language, our, our, call it our kit of parts. Um, that are agnostic to site, that can address, uh, you know, as much of the range of constraints, limitations that a site can provide, um, that allows us to have, uh, you know, repeatable, call it kit of, kit of components that we can, uh, manage, condition, and learn from as we deploy them in projects and see the, the, the site adaption that occurs when we do that. So, really defining the, the process to do that, uh, hiring the people to do that. And then going and executing on that in an operational way is kind of where, where my focus is at, Edged at the moment. With everything we talked about earlier in regards to the space and, um, just the unique moment in time that, that the data center space is, is, is facing and, in a way, ramping up for, um, amongst other technologies and everything that's involved with what we talked about, um, it's a really exciting time to be in the space. So, yeah, I'll, I'll stop there, but I think, I think the point being that data centers are standard can be very, very, um, well suited towards standardization. I guess that's, that's the other piece that I wanted to mention is that through the journey of building a lot of different projects, uh, you can, you can find those patterns in the design that makes sense. Um, and for a data center, it's an industrial style building. It's less aesthetically, um, driven from an architectural standpoint. There are still the requirements for egress and life and safety and all the things that must be, Um, considered given that there are people that, that occupy these spaces and work within them, but, but it's a tech, it's a building filled with really, really complicated and unique technologies. It's more of a machine than a, than a home or a place where, where, where you're, you're considering, um, you know, people as much as you would on the conditions and the execution of that space from an energy standpoint. Um, to process the data. So it's, it's a great platform for that and I've been, I've been successfully, um, working on this and finding the right partners who, who are well suited to do it. Um, and obviously the company at Edged is, is, is very interested in doing this because of our growth and our scale up, which is so aggressive that, so we need a plan that can help us to, uh, move fast and, and have a, and move, you know, move into markets quickly.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Yeah, you made a, you made a comment that I, I, I noted down actually, that you said that because the sector was developed. To deliver kind of one off projects, lighthouse projects. That's how the skills have developed. And so everyone has got good at doing one off things and adapting, you know, on the fly, creating these new teams. And so that's not surprisingly, that's how the industry has developed as a response to the way we used to build things. This is a different thing. You use the term engineering first, which I think kind of, yeah, that's that, that comment about it's a, it's a machine, it's a, you know, it's a piece of industrial design.

Lincoln Wood:

Yeah, yeah, I can talk a little bit. I can, I can, I can fill that in a little bit, Jaimie, because I think it's, it's important to say again, like I, um, the, the time when, when a lot of these data centers started moving into cloud and, and, and, and this large scale up even occurred, you know, I remember when I was at Turner, um, our data center portfolio grew substantially, uh, right around, I don't know, the 2012 timeframe, I think, was when it really started to, to, to boom. Um, and that was a moment. And, um, you know, the players that can develop these large hyperscale data centers are the, the contractors, the design firms that are been doing complex work, right? Those are the people that are highly qualified, that can bond those projects, that can, um, support it from a labor perspective or the, uh, you know, have the, the foothold in that market for the subcontractors. to mobilize teams to do the work. And so I think some folks had done them before, but a lot of them were learning themselves. And, and, but they're, that was one part of their portfolio. They're, they're building a lot of other projects at the same time. And those people that in those organizations have been trained on traditional deliveries, uh, methods like design, bid, build, or design, build, or design assist. And those are all, those are all good, good methods to deliver a project. But I would say, um, the traditional team makeup, org chart, let's call it, um, always had the architect as prime, um, sitting as job captain or manager of the team. And that's not always to say that that's not the case in the data center world either. My. Experience with an Edged and what we're doing with regards to the component system is, um, is I'm working more with folks that are on the engineering side that have more industrial project experience, uh, that overlap with Oil and gas or, um, you know, heavy civil projects, you know, folks that do windmills, for instance, and the, the folks that are doing that work within these firms are very, um, let's just say trained and, and are comfortable thinking about a standards environment, thinking about detailed information at the design, uh, stage, which, which is oftentimes less invested or not as I have an investment within the traditional conventional projects because you're not going to design it again that ever again. So you, you push a lot of that work into the, into the construction phase, whereas when you're doing standards, you design things to a high level of detail and fidelity early, because You want those details to work in the field, for one, but you also know that you're going to reuse those details. Um, that's a mind shift and you have to have full commitment in, in that journey as an organization on the client side, but you also need partners that can deliver on that. Um, so oftentimes as a developer, you RFQ and you go meet these teams, whether contractors, design firms, and, and I go to great lengths to really get to know these firms, to know what's their, What's their DNA as an organization? Have they really made the choice? Do they have the talent in house to go and execute on this? Have they done, had the reps at doing it? Have they learned? Because I need, I need the learnings from each company who's done this as much as my own. to know we're in the best position to, to be successful. So yeah, you always can say it's the team that's on your project that matters most. The company, obviously you start there, but, but there's unique, uh, you know, I think there's, there's, there's definitely a strategy in selecting your partners. And then you can also say different parts of the world have different strengths around, um, that background, that expertise. So we found that, you know, for instance, Bryden Wood, you guys had a unique skillset. Um, um, Well, you weren't you know, based in the United States. So, so. There's, you can't just look within the world that you, that you know, you sometimes have to explore a bit more. And, um, and cause this, this isn't all, cause I wouldn't say it's cutting edge, but it's not something that everyone does. And because of that, um, there isn't a tremendous amount of experience, uh, I would say in, in, in the, in the world at doing this.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Yeah, that's a, that's a nice segue into the next thing I was going to, I was going to pick up on. Our experience, we've seen. We used to go and talk to US clients and the way we do data centers in the, in certainly in Europe, because science are constrained, there's not enough lands, things tend to be multi story. So a lot of those skills were perceived to be, or experience was perceived to be less relevant in the US because again, we've got these massive sites, we build single story, we don't have the same constraints. That seems to be less true now, certainly as the kind of intensity of some of these things is ramping up, certainly through AI and things, and Yeah, I was looking at Edge, um, data centers, you're getting closer to city centers, you're using more urban sites, and so suddenly a load of things that we were, yeah, the difference in the different types of data centers is starting to blur, and the difference in the experience of, you know, uh, very constrained, compact, you know, Buildings in Europe versus, you know, large sites in the US, all of those things are sort of blurring. Is that a fair sort of statement that, you know, everyone's facing challenges and they're all starting to converge on the same sort of constraints and same sort of problems now?

Lincoln Wood:

Yeah, I mean, I think what you're speaking to is, well, one, in that, you know, we have a European group, um, that's, that's doing projects, right? And they have to often, you know, Uh, deal with the fact that there is less land, uh, available to just develop a site and oftentimes they have to deal with an existing building which offers, you know, all, all levels of complexity that, that aren't, aren't in a, in a, in a ground up project, um, which are constraints, right, which just means that kit of parts approach, Um, has to be that much more flexible, uh, to adapt to those types of constraints. In the US, we're, we're, we're not as, uh, constrained to that, those space limitations as we are in Europe, so we often look for ground up sites. Um, that being said, uh, depending on the type of data center, um, with, with the edge being kind of a low latency, um, Low latency requirements for processing from some of our clients, which we would refer to as like a dead edge data center. That's a whole new, uh, space where, you know, the type of data center, the size of the data center, um, the ability to interface within neighborhoods, communities, if you're considering things like noise, um, just security, uh, a lot of those factors in the U. S. are becoming much more. Much more of a thing as we, as we build closer to these urban markets. Um, and, but, but yeah, a lot of the sites have a lot of land and a lot of space to operate within. So you're not worrying about, um, there are multi story data centers, but nothing, nothing too aggressive. And, and, you know, the site logistics of things that would always enter into an urban infill site with, um, all the complex scenarios to consider from safety, et cetera. They're still there safety wise, but not because of that tight logistics challenges of shipping deliveries. Um, trains, moving materials over, over, over cars and, and other buildings, etc. So,

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

yeah. And then the two big, um, driving forces which are transforming everyone's experiences, just the focus on sustainability and linked to that, the, the, the rise of AI. So perhaps let's talk about, uh, about AI a bit. You made a comment that I thought was really interesting. Um, Recently, you were saying the fact that you're not a data center veteran doesn't particularly matter because everyone's on a learning curve. AI is transforming everything, you know, all the metrics are different, the whole design approach. So maybe you can, you can unpack that and talk, talk about that a little bit.

Lincoln Wood:

There are parts that, yeah, we can, we can, we can maybe agree that, that people are all learning for the first time, which is a, which is a cool thing. Um, I'll, I will not say that, that I am not disadvantaged by not being a veteran. I, the fact that we have people on the team with, With decades of experience is, is, is incredible to have on my team. Um, I'll be the first one to admit there are certain things where there's gaps because I haven't been doing data centers my whole career. But there is this, once again, this unique moment on the AI design, um, things focusing on things like liquid cooling. Um, you know, many, many points of view, um, many business models are being created around this. Um, you know, from the client side to the, to the service provider side, people are very busy trying to support this growth. And what that does is it's a knock on effect on the systems, the equipment to support that. That AI, that density, and that, um, increased, uh, IT power that's required, um, on that footprint that, that otherwise wouldn't be. So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's pushing the needle. Uh, it's, it's pushing all of us to, to innovate pretty hard. Um, and so, yeah, I'm in conversations all the time, uh, whether or not it's a new client that's asking for, you know, 100 plus KW per rack, uh, which is, uh, a, a big lead. In density since, since the days of, you know, not so long ago, where we're, you know, in the tens, 10, 10, 10 KW per rack is, is not, is not, is not a unusual number and still isn't in some use cases, but, um, the increase in that demand per rack is, is, is applied pressure on our, on our mechanical cooling systems. You know, and just the design to do that. And so, so everyone is, is, is designing, but it's really going to take a lot of built projects, um, with record data, um, and to get, to get much, much better at this over time. at the scale of Hyperscale, right? Which is, which is the bigger deployments. Um, so yeah, it's an exciting timeframe. I think people are energized because, uh, the people I work with at Edge are, are, are innovators. And, and, and, you know, we're all, uh, you know, mission driven here. So, uh, you know, solving some of these problems and then also having the, the drive to solve them with a sustainability approach. Uh, mindset is, is, is, it's inspiring and, and I, yeah, I'm seeing, I'm seeing the learning take place between everyone. Um, all, all the engineers in, in house and out of house around how we can do things and do them, do them better.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Yeah, can you, can you talk through some of the, um, The technology is, because that point about, yeah, it's a phenomenal time where people are having to learn how to do this stuff at the same time they're physically deploying the project and it's not like you get, you know, a long duration to try a thing, see what you learn from it, deploy it on the next one, iterate, it's not happening like that, it's happening Almost in real time, the old analogy of like trying to change the wheel on the car while it's driving down the motorway. But some of the technology, particularly around cooling, the sort of liquid versus air, waterless data sensors, all of those sorts of things, people are trying to experiment but also not leave themselves exposed to massive risk that they deploy technology too quickly. Can you talk around some of the things that are happening in, in that sort of experiment? Well, I think,

Lincoln Wood:

I think this is an interesting tension because with density, um, assuming it's the same amount of power you're providing to that, to that facility, um, with that density, you could decrease the footprint of your form factor, of your data hall, let's call it, um, pretty substantially. Um, it's actually pretty shocking how small it could get, uh, which can open up opportunities on the land side, right? So we could look at other deals that maybe weren't possible previously. Um, where we wouldn't have had the, the acreage to support that data center. Um, that being said, I think that, that tension or that overlap around, you know, future proofing or having a risk mitigation plan in the mind of that client or in the mind of, of us as the developer, is, is having a backup plan or have the flexibility to, to go back and forth, uh, from a liquid solution that would support that AI high density rack, um, but also have the ability to, to go and support those racks with an air cooled solution, which is really what's going on right now. Um, that's the conventional approach is an air based cool, cooling solution. So oftentimes we're thinking about the design as being able to flex between both. Okay. Thanks. And we support that larger data hall for now, um, you know, just to have that ability to, to not, uh, let's call it, uh, box ourselves in into a high density play when, when we may still need to have, um, some air in the building or some, you know, air supported cooling for a lower rack density. I'll say that we're seeing still even the, even the low, lower rack densities, uh, requests coming in from clients. are still higher, uh, than they were several years ago that are just kind of the standard. Typical cloud, um, KW per rack density. So even the low has gone up pretty substantially. So, um, but that's still being able to be supported by air.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Yeah. And the, the other, um, sort of lubing thing is, is so cooling is one thing. Obviously power is, is the other sort of massive problem. So I know industry wide from the figures I said earlier, the, the, the amount of power that's going to be needed for these things. It's not like the grid has endless spare capacity at the moment. So the other. Sort of looming problem is this sort of power availability, energy security, and those sorts of things. But yeah, there's all sorts of interesting things happening in this space at the moment where, uh, you know, there's examples where energy companies are partnering with, data centers and other providers to start looking at, you know, creation of power. Uh, Microsoft put a thing out in the public domain recently about looking at SNR. So the idea that data center companies might have to become their own utilities providers or start again that idea of blending different sectors. I think that's really interesting, this idea that data centers have become Not just recipients of power, but potentially participants in the grid, more active parts of the kind of energy network strategy. Perhaps you can talk about that a bit, because obviously Endeavour has got a strong interest in this, this aspect.

Lincoln Wood:

Yeah, and that goes back to building technologies that play within the ecosystem, um, which the data center is one piece, right? It's, it's actually an end user, right? And, um, you know, the way I understand it is that our grid, um, you know, that there's more than enough, Power, per se, it's really in the distribution to the data centers, the transmission lines, um, that are where the blockage is between being able to, to get power out to these sites at the rates and at the demand that's increasing. So you see the utility companies, um, you know, backed up with requests and it's a major, um, constraint to just being able to develop the data centers at the pace. We want to, so, so you can do one of two things. You put pressure on the utility side, or you can kind of think about your own sources of power outside of the utility grid, uh, which we call the micro grid. Um, and your call it suite of solutions can range from, you know, energy storage, um, fuel cells, uh, solar. Um, and then your typical, like, reciprocal energy sources, like a generator, uh, for you, that uses diesel or natural gas, which are the conventional uses at the time, at the moment. And that's how people really set up their, um, their ability to have the core redundancy requirements that, that allow for us to, um, you know, maintain operations and, and uptime in the case of the utility, um, false or there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a block there. So this, this goal, this, this call it roadmap of being able to develop our own grid that sustains itself without dependency on, on the utility is absolutely where a lot of attention is being placed. And then it's about once you've gotten stability and even excess of that energy, because you're developing more efficient ways to do it. Um, I mentioned some ways to do it, you know, there's, there's discussions about hydrogen and. Even there's talks of, you know, nuclear in some, in some, in some circles. Um, these are all focused around the idea of being able to be behind, behind the meter, you know, on, on the, on the data center side of the conversation. And how can that, how can that energy be, um, support a microgrid? So you're not, not dependent solely on that utility distribution constraint. Um, so Endeavour, like I mentioned, is, is working on that on the engine side. on the interconnection side back to the utility, because if we were able to um, be super optimized on our end, there's a way for us to even push, push energy back into the utility grid. And that's a whole other opportunity in business models. So, that's the, that's the road map that creates our, call it, you could argue that's a business model that helps us differentiate edged, uh, because we are Essentially, we have exclusivity with those, with those technologies and with that access to that expertise, um, that's not going out to other data centers. I think that makes the Edge, the Edge platform quite, quite attractive. Um, but it also is, is a business model that is, I think, really compelling for other types of customers, whether or not it's utilities or, uh, folks that want to use these technologies for other applications, whether it's the government or, you know, Something else. So the range of possibilities is quite significant. Um, but the data center focus is where we'll scale up those technologies first, um, get them piloted, tested. And, um, you know, at a price point that works to scale up beyond into those other, other verticals.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Yeah, that's, uh, super interesting. It's probably a good, yeah, it's probably a good, good note to end on, actually. This, again, you mentioned this, um, recently we spoke about this idea that one of the Uh, sort of prerequisite to being able to properly industrialize construction is a sort of consistent pipeline. It's a need for standardization. Data center clients, I think you were talking about, have the pipeline, they have the money, they have the long term investment needs to, to keep iterating and going on this path. But I hadn't thought of it in those terms before, the idea that you might use data centers as a, uh, A way of testing and developing other technologies that might have a life well beyond the datacenter market, but you use the desperate need for datacenters and their need to industrialize and decarbonize to develop a load of other things that you might solve some other global problems whilst cracking datacenters. That's amazing.

Lincoln Wood:

One of the biggest reasons why I'm in, why I like to think that I like my role, why I'm in this role, is I've always lived in operations, but I've always been an innovator in my, in my, called craft or career. And so I feel like the best way to make an impact, uh, and, and, and moving the needle and, and, and making, you know, innovating, uh, you kind of have to be in the, on the execution side. Um, and so what makes Edge really unique is that we have to be obviously very strategic about when and what projects to deploy. a new technology just like any other company goes through an engineering development process and ensures that that, that new product introduction is, is correct and ready. Um, those gates all have to exist for us that maybe wouldn't for a typical, uh, more typical developer. Um, but it is exciting because Edge has that mandate as a part of the Endeavour ecosystem to be a deployment partner of those Endeavour technologies. And yeah, I had a conversation internally about how. The people who join our company are coming from some of the best companies with the greatest experience. I ask them a lot, like, what, what gets you jazz? Like, what, you know, we're a growth stage. It's exciting. We're got real work. We've got support, like, it's all happening. And oftentimes it's like, well, I, I'm, I'm excited about the overall vision. I'm excited about the sustainability piece. I'm excited about the new technologies that Endeavour has its hands in. They're not just, you know, Waiting for what the market provides. We're upstream thinking about what needs to be developed to solve the, the goals and the challenges that we're all facing, uh, across the world. And, and that, that all goes back to, you know, this nexus of demand for IT, given all of our technologies and the, you know, going to 5G and everything is, you know, becoming more and more instant from our screens and our experiences, uh, Personally and in our work world. So all of that is pushing on the needles of those particular business models that deliver those services which influence their need for IT, which influences the data center space, which is all putting pressure on this on this energy question. It's one of, like, I forget the percentage you mentioned, but it's a high percentage that the data centers will have. There's a lot of other things Demands in that pie, but, but overall it's a, it's a significant piece. And I think with AI, it's, it's, it's only continuing to increase.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

Fantastic. Yeah, no, that's, we love things on this podcast. The whole point of podcast is sort of looking at this convergence and the kind of cross cross fertilization across industries and things. But yeah, you're living it. You're, you're absolutely embodying it. So, um. Yeah, always exciting, always inspiring to talk to you. So thank you ever so much for joining us. We could talk for a lot longer, but um, yeah, I need to go and have a think about that, but thanks ever so much, Lincoln.

Lincoln Wood:

You bet. Thanks for having me.

Jaimie Johnston MBE:

So thanks everyone for listening, and please join us for the next episode of Built Environment Matters.

Intro:

Thank you for listening to Built Environment Matters, a podcast brought to you by Bryden Wood. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcast, and you can follow Bryden Wood on LinkedIn and Twitter.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jaimie Johnston MBE

Host
Head Shot

Lincoln Wood

Guest