“That’s how Prologis plays the real estate game. We go into a community, recreate a series of clusters that become its own ecosystem. And we’re there for the long haul. We’re there in the community. We get involved. We have our people get involved in volunteerism constantly to show that, you know, you can rely upon us. If we’re going to work here in Los Angeles, we have to embrace this community and take good care of it because it takes good care of us.”

-Kim Snyder, Prologis

Whether you’re a real estate developer, a recent grad curious about job opportunities in the warehouse, or simply want to know more about the world of industrial real estate, there’s something for you in this fascinating conversation with Prologis’s Kim Snyder and Steven Hussain. Join us as we take the mid-year temperature check on the market, examine what goes into choosing real estate locations, tackle the challenges of new regulatory environments, discuss the supreme importance of company culture and community involvement, and much more.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:00:32):

Hey, good morning, everybody. Scott Luton and Ward Richmond here with on Supply Chain Now, welcome to today’s episode today’s show. We’re continuing our supply chain real estate series. I we’ve got a ton of great feedback from the first episode of this newly reinvigorated series that we ward.

Ward Richmond (00:00:49):

Yes, sir. Scott, it’s a pleasure to be back with you. I I’m hopeful. I can come down to Atlanta and see you for the next one of these. So we’re going to have to make it happen. But yeah, great feedback from, from our first episode, it’s amazing having Prologis onboard as our sponsor, and I’m really excited to tell everyone what’s happening today. Well,

Scott Luton (00:01:12):

You know, if you’re going to do a supply chain real estate series, you might as well do it with one of the heaviest hitters being Prologis. And of course, we get a double dip because I get to co-host along with ward Richmond. So we’re teed up for a great conversation here in the second installment of the 2021 supply chain real estate series right here on supply chain now. So, or are you ready? We’re going to introduce our guests. You’re

Ward Richmond (00:01:34):

Ready to go. Yeah, let’s do it, man. Alright.

Scott Luton (00:01:37):

No, Dallas Cowboys talked here today, ward. Okay. Is that a deal?

Ward Richmond (00:01:40):

I don’t know. I think we have multiple Dallas Cowboys fans on the podcast today, so they’ll come up. Football will come up. I’m sure talking about it right now. So

Scott Luton (00:01:51):

With no further ado, when we walk him in a couple of guests, we’ve had a chance and really have enjoyed the opportunity to chat with pre-show and of course share their POV with you here today. We got Kim Snyder president us west region with [inaudible]. How you doing Kim?

Kim Snyder (00:02:06):

Good. Thank you. Glad to be here. Great

Scott Luton (00:02:08):

To have you here. And I love, you know, if you’re listening to this podcast, you may not be able to see it check out the video replay, but we’ve got a beautiful train station back behind Kim because as, as, as he came on, I said, Hey, I love that concert hall. He goes, I’m in supply chain. This is a train station. Scott’s I love, I love that camp. Great to have you here. And you’re joined by Steven Hussain vice-president workforce programs and community relations also with Prologis Steven, how are you

Steven Hussain (00:02:34):

Doing? I’m doing great. Happy to be here. Excellent.

Scott Luton (00:02:36):

Excellent. As I mentioned, uh, your ears were definitely burning, uh, on a Friday pre-call and we’re excited Kim and Stephen Ward kind of bring a very complimentary and holistic overview of what’s going on in industry real estate and otherwise, and that kind of goes with the territory of what they do, their per lodge is right work.

Ward Richmond (00:02:53):

That’s right. Yeah. And I’m really excited to hear the perspective from both Kim and Steven today. And I think we’re going to start looking at the supply chain real estate market as a whole, and then move all the way over to the other side of the spectrum. Just talking about what it’s like to manage the culture of a massive global organization, that, that also only functions because of its street-level intelligence. And, uh, can’t wait to get into all of that.

Scott Luton (00:03:21):

Very nice ward coming attractions. Very nice little touch there. Ward. Before we get into kind of a one-two punch from a market update, let’s get to know Kim and Steven, little bit better. And Kim, let’s start with you. You know, we really enjoyed the, the prep conversation earlier, getting to get to know you better and where you’ve been and some of your thoughts, but for starters, tell our listeners a little about yourself.

Kim Snyder (00:03:43):

Well, so, uh, um, Kim Snyder, uh, I’ve been with Prologis since 2005. I was one of the Ambi alumni, went through the merger in 2011 with Prologis and I’ve been involved in a variety of locations, uh, organizationally, you know, the west as a whole, the Southwest for a period of time. I worked in the airport group and, uh, Mexico. And of course, so we started up a Brazilian operation with my comrade, Nick Kittredge. So, uh, had a pretty interesting experience here. I’ve seen the ups and downs and, uh, we’re definitely in the ups stage right now. It’s fascinating to watch this sort of environment we’re in. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. And it sort of breaks down a lot of the, the old school learning that, you know, you spend your career accumulating all this data, and then it goes out the window just overnight with sort of the last 90 days, uh, you know, a whole new paradigm set we’re dealing with. So it’s exciting time to be in this industry. It’s not without some challenges, but, uh, w we’re all sort of making adaptation. And I think that’s sort of the key to success going forward. I love that.

Scott Luton (00:04:45):

And, and how, how true one quick followup question on a personal side, where did you grow up?

Kim Snyder (00:04:50):

So I’m originally from Pennsylvania. Uh, my dad was a professor, so we moved a lot to different universities across the U S uh, from, you know, Pennsylvania to New Jersey, to Illinois, back to Ann Arbor. And then finally to Tempe, Arizona, where we stayed for a little while. So I lived in Tempe, Arizona, probably for about 15 years before I moved to Los Angeles. So I have a lot of roots still in Arizona. I go back there quite frequently, and, but I’ve been here in Southern California now for 30 plus years, that almost makes me a native, I’m just that close

Scott Luton (00:05:21):

Early born to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on across the country. And then some, so I love that Kemp. Okay. Let’s switch over to Steven Hussein. So, uh, Steven, same question for you. Let’s give our listeners a little bit of your background. Tell us about yourself. Yeah.

Kim Snyder (00:05:35):

So then with Prologis a couple of years now and have the pleasure to work with folks like Kim every single day and work with our customers and the broader supply chain industry. My background is actually in the public sector. So I came from the city of San Antonio and I had experienced gotten the nonprofit sector. I specialize in economic and workforce development, and really thinking about, you know, how does the public sector really work with the private sector and vice versa to build out sustainable solutions over the longterm for pretty complex problems. So background in political science, uh, not to go to law school. So that was absolutely terrible ideas that didn’t do that, which never been, I’ve never regretted. And, uh, yeah, really, really just, um, enjoying my time at Prologis

Scott Luton (00:06:16):

Wonderful. And I said, we’re can talk football, but you’re one of our resident cowboy fans, but where did, where did you grow up, Stephen as well?

Steven Hussain (00:06:23):

Yeah, I grew up in Texas, so, uh, I lived in Dallas for awhile, lived in San Antonio and then kind of back and forth and really spent the last decade in, uh, in San Antonio. But now, uh, I’m here in Dallas and, uh, you know, you have to support the Cowboys as painful as it can be as painful as it can be. You have to do it. Well,

Scott Luton (00:06:41):

I spent a little time in Texas courtesy of the air force at Lackland in San Antonio and at Wichita falls at Sheppard. So good times. Very hot back then. Okay. Well, Steven and Kim, welcome to you both. I think ward next, we’re going to kind of start diving into their POV, right?

Ward Richmond (00:06:57):

Uh, yeah, let’s get going. And yeah, so I think this podcast, uh, revolves around supply chain real estate, and we set it up on a quarterly basis. So it’s now just past the mid-year point, as we all know, and I know numbers are still trickling in and, uh, Kim, do you want to give us a rundown on what you’re seeing in terms of general market activity in the U S and I know you’re on the west coast too, so if you want to give us some insight into the micro of, uh, the Western region, but also your overall view of the U S as a whole, I’d love to hear what’s what your perspective is and this, uh, what is really just a booming market, right?

Kim Snyder (00:07:36):

Sure. Let me, uh, just sort of start off with a qualifier. We actually report earnings next week. So if it sounds like I’m being a little careful in my words, you’ll understand a little bit of my disclosures, but as a economy, as a whole, the us is on fire. I mean, there’s tremendous momentum on leasing. I use the phrase a little bit of a snapback economy, a moment we’re in to the extent that we’ve been dormant for a while, not as much activity, although in the first half of this year, we’ve seen almost 200 million feet of logistics supply being absorbed on us on a gross basis. So that’s a healthy, healthy snapback, if you would. And I think it’s broad, it’s across all markets. You know, I think about this time last year, you know, I, I was worried, uh, it looked pretty bleak in certain markets, uh, supply had gone crazy.

Kim Snyder (00:08:27):

And in Houston, for example, and you think about where Houston is today compared to where it was before. I think there’s almost almost 12 million feet absorbed a year to date in Houston. That’s huge. Right. And think about where that was a year ago, just I have a frame of reference. And then in Dallas, you know, we, we had talked about this, uh, a little bit earlier that it’s just been remarkable, the volume, I think, and I might’ve had my numbers reverse there it’s 11.9 million. Wow. This quarter, I mean, come on. Or is it, or is that year to date, maybe you guys know better

Ward Richmond (00:09:03):

That no, I, I believe it was, that was the first quarter for sure. And I don’t have the second quarter numbers, but I’m told Dallas is going to be leading the U S DFW that is leading in the U S and that it’ll actually be double that of what inland empire did an absorption, um, this quarter.

Kim Snyder (00:09:19):

Well, this is where I was going to, because I’ve got living in Southern California. Inland empire is the first market I really got involved with in terms of industrial real estate. You know, we had a, uh, just a tepid 4.6 million feet absorbed in the inland empire compared to Dallas double. That it’s just pretty impressive actually. So we, not that we’re competitive about this stuff. I mean, we kind of talk about that, uh, you know, uh, carefully, but, uh, we love to have a little bit of internal competition about who’s absorbing the most, you know, especially coming out of a hole we were in. So, uh, I think, yeah, interject

Scott Luton (00:09:50):

Just for a quick second and, and for Kim and ward, and maybe Steven from, for context, you know, for the, that level, I think 11.9 million square feet for the DFW area where we’re, I mean, roughly where we were five or 10 years ago, is that, is that like five X, 10 X four,

Ward Richmond (00:10:08):

If you want to let me take this. Um, Kim and Steven I’ve cause I live in Dallas. I know. I mean, I like to think that Dallas has been basically having 25 to 35 million square feet under construction, um, for the last five, six years or something. And then we’re absorbing plus or minus 20 million each year. So now if the numbers like that, we’re thinking are going to happen at mid year, then we might be at 20 million at mid year. So it’s like double normal, um, at the pace we’re going right now, if it keeps up and that it’s insane. So it’s, it already was insane like at 20 million every year and just consistently like, and sometimes it was more, sometimes a little less, but that’s about it. And it’s um, so anyway, that’s, that’s my,

Kim Snyder (00:11:02):

I think the, the interesting thing from our standpoint as a public read when we were doing a lot of forecasting of what, so what’s next, if you would, and I think the interesting thing about the Dallas Metro has been this volume has been huge for a long time. In fact, you know, when developers say, oh, geez is like 7% vacancy, why are you building that’s kind of normal with that kind of a continuous, uh, supply coming into the market. Versus if you have that in a smaller market, call it Denver or, or Reno, you know, you’re kind of nervous about putting spec into the equation. Um, but you know, I, I misstated earlier when I said, uh, you know, Houston was that 11 million, excuse me, was about 3.8, 3.8 million, but was like, no, no, no, no, no. Houston Dallas, Dallas is the higher number to 11.9.

Kim Snyder (00:11:48):

So, uh, that’s sort of some perspective though, on where Houston was, which is where Dallas is today. But I was going to point out this point of a continuous supply has an effect on rent change. And this is sort of a segue for maybe what I was going to talk about was the inland empire. The inland empire has suddenly got this extraordinary, uh, supply constraint phenomenon going on with California regulations, Southern California air quality regulations, pushback from the communities on issues of traffic on, uh, uh, enrichment or the sociopolitical component components of where these warehouses and distribution centers are being located. So you have moratoriums, uh, everywhere. You got moratoriums going to city council meetings, as late as last night, the city of Upland went through one and fortunately didn’t pass it, but it’s on the docket for discussion. And there might be 15, 20 different communities in the Southern California Metro area, seriously considering really reducing or making it difficult to build spec and not have to go through a conditional use permit to get an occupancy.

Kim Snyder (00:13:00):

So those are, those are big impediments with regard to the supply side. So rent change is off the charts in the inland empire. The interesting thing at the end of the year, warders for us to compare rent change in the inland empire vis-a-vis Dallas because of that supply phenomenon. And in the, in the case of inland empire, it’s just harder and harder to put product up in a community, uh, without, you know, substantial impediments or delays or timeframe. So anyway, we look at that issue when we’re looking at our markets and their strength to determine where we be investing and where should we put stuff into the pipeline. And I think, uh, the other phenomenon having worked in Dallas myself is the time from when you buy a piece of land to when you pull a building permit and start construction is a little shorter window and they let him Pyre, you know, I’ve spent seven years on one project, you know, four and a half years on another. And, and, and, uh, kind of the third year of a major project right now, just breaking ground today. So it’s, it’s a interesting bit of friction associated with our business, and it’s not just here, it’s just all throughout the U S this has become an increasing impediment to, uh, supply

Scott Luton (00:14:11):

A really interesting word, because, you know, a lot of our listeners are not in real estate or at least not directly. So I think hearing this perspective, uh, is very intriguing, but ward, I want to get Steven’s take from that labor market update, because I think there’s a ton of intriguing dynamics taking place there as well. Right, right.

Ward Richmond (00:14:28):

Um, yeah. So Steven, I mean, um, all of this activities, having all these warehouse are being built and then the space is being absorbed and then operate these facilities, especially the e-commerce facilities, which is, I think accounting for a huge portion of all this growth require lots of bodies in there, uh, to do the work. And I mean like thousand people sometimes in one distribution or, um, numbers like that. So what are you seeing, um, in the labor market?

Steven Hussain (00:14:56):

Yeah, I mean, you’re, you’re not going to go a day now without seeing a headline about the, the tightness of the labor market. And if you talk to our customers and surveyed our customers, which we do well before the pandemic, there were huge labor constraints, and it was a real challenge for them that was certainly heightened during the pandemic. And as we’re coming out of that, um, you’re seeing the same type of labor constraints and it is across all markets. There are some markets that are more challenging than others, but really across the us. Um, you’re having these kind of labor availability issues. And there’s a lot of reasons for that. I mean, fundamentally the sector is just growing very fast, right? The broader economy is shifting, uh, greater demands in e-commerce, which puts a lot of, of need across supply chains, which means you need more logistics, talent.

Steven Hussain (00:15:42):

Um, and, you know, as an example, an e-commerce facility takes three X, the labor of any other kind of traditional distribution network. So that’s a lot of people and you can see some of the largest brands in the world they’re hiring, not, you know, 5,000 people. They’re hiring hundreds of thousands of people in a 12 month period. And so labor markets just don’t adapt quickly. They move very slowly. So as you see a shift between maybe traditional retail into e-commerce, the labor force doesn’t necessarily transition in the same period of time as the private sector is going to, uh, and that puts these, these constraints. The other thing I would add too, and I think this is important is the industry is not really well understood. People don’t know what goes on inside of a warehouse. And so it’s not perceived as, as a quality job, even though the wages are greater than traditional retail is stable schedules, things like that. There’s a lot of real value to these jobs, but, uh, an average person doesn’t know what’s happening inside. So there’s a lot of community education that’s certainly required and engagement with the public sector, uh, to make sure that people really understand the economic opportunity that, that lies in these buildings.

Scott Luton (00:16:52):

That’s an excellent point. And that’s where, as some of the good news, I think over the last two years, because if you find it, you can go look for it. You can find it is the awareness gains, right? The consumers continuing to make strides from, uh, you know, how did that stuff get? How did that, those things get on my porch two days later and better yet, how can I return it seamlessly and get credited, you know, 10 days. And it really, it’s fascinating, uh, the people that make, you know, that, that have allowed global business to move forward, protecting the psyche of consumers during this, this, this, uh, these, um, uh, pandemic times. So for the sake of time, I want to move forward into some of these impediments that we’ve been talking about earlier, but Steven, I don’t want to anything else from a labor in any other points from a labor market update that, that our listeners, no.

Steven Hussain (00:17:38):

No, I I’ll talk about it a little bit, you know, kind of some of the solutions that Prologis is bringing to bear and how we’re trying to address that specifically with our customers. Wonderful. Wonderful. Um, maybe I could interject something here. That’s interesting in that, uh, a lot of young kids in the workforce for the first time, you know, graduate from college for high school in the last two years, thinking about what they faced in terms of what do I do? You know, there’s no retail opportunities, even certain, you know, restaurant and hospitality opportunities that might’ve been available to that, that, uh, group weren’t there. So one of the things that we’ve been, uh, working on, uh, CNI is trying to, what about logistics, think about these careers, think about all the things that go on in these buildings and spend a fair amount of time and energy recruiting people to take a look at this industry as an opportunity alternative to a brick and mortar or an alternative, uh, to fast food.

Kim Snyder (00:18:30):

And, uh, and I think there are some people who just aren’t ready to go to college. That’s a perfect opportunity to, uh, educate them as to what we do, but then people, even out of college, you’d be shocked if you start profiling. The typical e-commerce building in terms of the type of jobs in a building that range from the frontline, uh, the warehouse worker to the sales operations, to the, uh, engineering and, uh, computational elements of statistical analysis on supply chain is huge. That’s a math job and the forecasting and all of the, uh, technology that goes with running one of these warehouses, you know, so you have jobs that range from, you know, a $50,000 a year to $250,000 a year. Talk about wages in a single building. And that’s its own ecosystem that we need to educate people about. What is it about, how does that work? How do we get younger people and more people broadly into that arena with an understanding of what those great opportunities look like.

Ward Richmond (00:19:31):

I love that one more thing on that note is if you talk to CEOs of the largest three PLS in the world, I’d say 90% of them drove a forklift. I mean, they were in the warehouse, they started from the ground up, but it’s, I don’t see. I mean, I’d see like, so much value in starting that way. Ups is like famous for their model, like drivers becoming the CEO of ups. And I mean, to understand that logistics business, you’ve got to start on the ground floor. It’s like any other job, but that ground floor is just like maybe a little dirtier than some other jobs where you just sit in a nice office in a cubicle. But, um, like I, I think there’s so much upside there and there’s so many incredible humans I’ve met in the logistics space. Um, particularly that started that way. And now they’re CEOs and they own companies. I know people that sell their companies for a billion dollars. I love that. I

Scott Luton (00:20:28):

Wouldn’t say dirtier ward, I would say more hands-on yeah. Right. Because

Kim Snyder (00:20:31):

I think dirty, or it’s not hard building,

Ward Richmond (00:20:34):

But I think that’s right. And you know, I’m, I’m not the most PC guy, but

Scott Luton (00:20:39):

I’m just giving you a hard time, more than anything else, ward. But I think all of you are speaking to, you know, we can’t recruit like it’s 1982, right. We’ve got to act like 2030. And we also can’t, um, we’ve got to embrace those, those awareness gaps out there, and it’s not just logistics, manufacturing, and some other things, Kim, that was a commercial about why it’s cool to work in supply chain because the industry global industry holistically is competing against for the top talent. And they have to in a way that maybe it’s the first time in history. So a lot of good things there and a lot of good news there, and we all have our jobs, big jobs to do and to get out there and get the good word out. So with that said, uh, I hate to move back into some bad news, but we’re, we’re, we’ve identified at least learning from Kim and Steven. Some of the key impediments that is, is at least temporarily blocking or pulling this back. And I think there’s three in particular, and we’re going to talk about truck availability, labor availability, and regulatory, and just the political environment rant. So, Kim, we’ll start with you. Let’s talk about truck availability. What, what are you seeing?

Kim Snyder (00:21:42):

Well, there’s, there’s truck availability, then there’s trucker availability. And I think, uh, you know, truck availability in my mind, I think of, uh, electric vehicles, one of the incredible things going on in Southern California is a new regulation called the indirect source rule, a rule 2305 that was recently passed. That requires, uh, all operators of warehouses to keep track of truck trips, classification of vehicles, age of vehicles, et cetera, to determine based on a coefficient of emissions, what their impact is on the air quality. Uh, and then if you don’t mitigate that your own, oh, the, uh, [inaudible], uh, feet. So one of the big mitigators is to use electric vehicles as some capacity. Most of the electric vans that a lot of the, uh, uh, transportation depots are using are spoken for. So there might be a backlog of two, three years to get a significant quantity of those.

Kim Snyder (00:22:42):

So they’re, they’re spoken for on the large vehicles, the class eights, the over the road, uh, longer haul. Uh, I think we counted up, there’s like six of them and, uh, they’re just not readily available yet. They have very short travel distance issues. It’s in the most early stage of development to actually deliver those long haul vehicles on our electric basis. I’ve heard somebody saying that arena, you know, you got two options on the electric truck fleet is like, you can either haul batteries or you can haul freight because the weight associated with running a major vehicle is so significant that you now you’ve, you hit a maximum vehicle load issue in most of California with regard to traveling across the highway system. So it’s a challenging issue. The other factor I mentioned was trucker. Uh, there’s just a, uh, it’s, it’s a cohort of worker that isn’t replenishing itself. In fact, uh, they’re becoming fewer and fewer older and older, and there’s some horrible statistics about, you know, the health and welfare of a truck driving, uh, in general that aren’t are a little bleak. So there needs to be some strategies, whether it’s technology, it’s autonomous, it’s some other, uh, technique and, uh, uh, to, to get more truckers, uh, working in safe conditions and, uh, being available. So that’s a huge issue right now in terms of the transportation that goes. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:24:09):

Kim and Steven you’re, you’re shaking your down your head as well. Your thoughts here? Yeah.

Steven Hussain (00:24:13):

You know, on the actual trucks themselves, as Kim mentioned, right. There’s a lot of push everybody’s very interested in electric vehicles. Um, the availability is not at scale yet. I think that’s going to come soon. Right. We’re seeing, uh, large manufacturers get ready for this. Um, but there’s a lot of complications there. Um, and you’re seeing these rules come out to very interesting. Um, you know, we’re all obviously very interested in climate change. We want to make sure that we’re being, you know, environmental stewards, um, with the, the electric grid must also be ready for that. Uh, and in states across the country, the electric grid is not ready for electric vehicles. Um, so you’re talking about a 10 X increase in consumption, um, or states who are already struggling with grid, uh, capacity. Um, so those are real concerns that, uh, companies have to think about too, right?

Steven Hussain (00:25:02):

You can’t electrify your fleet and then not be sure that you’re gonna be able to power them at night. Um, and I think that’s a complicating factor there. And then again, for the long haul, um, the technology is just not quite there. Um, and I think that the major manufacturers are still trying to figure out what’s the best approach there on the driver’s side. It’s really interesting. I actually was talking to Kim earlier and I used to run a CDL training school. So I’m very familiar with this. It’s one CDL training is expensive training people to be truck drivers is not cheap because you can’t train lots of them very quickly as a school, you must own, um, your heavy duty trucks. Do you have a huge liability issues? And so the main training providers in the U S community colleges don’t have truck driving training programs, generally speaking, they can’t give a wide duty insurance.

Steven Hussain (00:25:51):

They can’t afford the programs. And so there’s not production there. The second thing that we’re seeing though, and I think this is, this is interesting is there’s this perception that autonomous vehicles are here five years from now, and all truck drivers are going to be unemployed. That’s not realistic. That’s not how this transition is going to happen. Um, but it’s stopping public sector, investment and interest into training folks for the industry, despite the fact that these are very high paid, you know, uh, middle-class supporting jobs. Um, but the public sector isn’t necessarily investing in that training and development because of this, this false belief that there’s going to be wide, widespread job loss. And it’s just not basically

Scott Luton (00:26:33):

Steven S excellent point and, and war don’t come to you. Now, we’ve talked about are our beloved truck drivers and, and a lot of things that Kim and Steven are talking to. I know it’s a passion of yours. W w what’s your take here?

Ward Richmond (00:26:45):

Well, I was going to say the other shortage is truck parking spaces. And I think that actually contributes to the trucker shortage because if you’re a trucker and you go out on the road and you need to park your truck for the night, and there’s no parking spaces, then some truckers are having to go park in abandoned lots or on the side of the streets and neighborhoods they’re getting, um, the I’ve heard stories from truck driver, friends of mine, getting the cabs of their trucks shaken by, um, by pimps, by drug dealers. It is, there’s some tough things out there on the road. There needs to be more truck parking. There’s a federal law that’s been passed called Jason’s law. That’s going to provide federal funding to be used at the state’s discretionary funding to, uh, to help with that. But I mean, I think that’s something that needs to happen.

Ward Richmond (00:27:35):

There needs to be safe, secure places for these truck drivers to park. And, uh, right now, the way that it’s set up, I just think it, it makes the job. I’m not going to say dirty again, but it makes it very tough and it does pay, I think, incredible wages, but, um, it’s not an easy life out there, especially for the long haul truckers they’re living on the road. And, um, our teams actually, we’ve been spending a lot of time lately interviewing truck drivers to find this out so that we can understand these trends a little better. And I mean, I’ll tell you, I get emotional on these phone calls. My, I hear the stories out there. So I think truck parking is something that’s really simple. It’s fairly low cost. Um, but at the same time, while our, while I think it will benefit the public good, our communities don’t want big truck, lots with big trucks parked everywhere. And, um, and then they’re not the most profitable way to use industrial land either without building a warehouse on them. So it’s, we’re all in kind of a conundrum here. So I’m hopeful the federal government will continue to pay attention because this is something that I think would really benefit the public good and help all the trucking companies with driver recruiting and retention and keep truckers safe out on the road.

Scott Luton (00:28:46):

It’s such a big equation. It’s like one of those, uh, those movie scenes where you walk into the classroom and the professors got a, uh, chalk equation with a thousand different components that fills up a full wall. There’s some different elements and, and, and levers at play here. But, um, first step is to understand it better and, and ward, uh, uh, love what you’re doing in talking with truck drivers, what to set, tee up another podcast rate from the trucking professionals in, in the weeks to come, okay. Now we were already, we’re talking about labor earlier, and then that’s the second big impediment. I wanna circle back around to Kim, beyond what you’ve already shared from a, um, you know, how labor plays, uh, that speed bump effect, your, what else would you share here when it comes to looking at the impediments that are, that are slowing us down a little bit?

Kim Snyder (00:29:31):

Well, in the kind of opening, we talk a bit about sort of the evolution, uh, what you, what you knew as the industry, uh, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago compared today. And I think, I don’t know that I’ve encountered this degree of, uh, customer pain are our tenants pain points, uh, often revolve around this labor availability. And so when they’re making real estate location decisions, the first thing they do is look at the labor availability, uh, in that particular location, they look at the location as a whole and having arts amenities and all that stuff, but that’s sort of, uh, to support their labor cause it’s expensive. When you have a lot of, uh, attrition, you have people leaving, uh, you know, to go make another 25 cents an hour. So a lot of companies have said enough of this. We’re going to raise our rates.

Kim Snyder (00:30:20):

We’re going to pay people more and fairly, we’re going to make it, uh, a good place to work. And I think, uh, uh, but that starts with having a pool of labor and talent to draw, right? So we’ve trying to figure out, you know, what can we do to facilitate that one? We make a lot of that information available. We also, when we’re doing site selection for ground up development or any kind of real estate investment, we’re looking at that same thing, what would our customer need to see here? And are we in the right spot to deliver that? Ultimately, cause we like long-term ownership. We like long-term continuity of a tenancy. And that only comes with a good stable labor force that’s available, that’s replenishable, et cetera, good community college system, college system, et cetera, at a kind of awareness of this issue. So, you know, and, and to that extent, uh, you know, we’ve started down this path of really looking at community workforce scenarios that, uh, Steve and I partnered on, uh, doing this in a number of locations now, but it’s imperative to understand your labor scenario as one of the major resources you examine when you make a real estate decision, whether you’re a tenant or you’re a real estate developer like us, oh, Steven, you want to add anything to that?

Steven Hussain (00:31:37):

We’re taking a direct leadership position here. We have a unique vantage point, uh, as a firm and given the number of customers we have and the geographies that we operate in. So we launched, uh, our community workforce initiative. So we set a target that we want to train. And up-skill 25,000 folks by the end of 2025 for the logistics sector. Uh, and we’ve launched these programs across the country. By the end of the year, we’ll be in 15 different cities. Um, we actually launched in the UK and we’re examining Mexico right now as well. Um, and the key there again is how do you bring the private sector and the private, the public sector together? Uh, so we make investments in community colleges, workforce, investment boards, nonprofits, um, to make them, uh, focus on the logistics sector and also provide our expertise to say, these are the career pathways.

Steven Hussain (00:32:21):

These are the employers that are hiring. These are the types of skills that people need to have. In fact, we even developed a curriculum. We developed a, a fully online curriculum that everybody can access for free. Um, and that’s what folks are being trained on. So we’re doing what we can, uh, to again, raise the awareness of the sector, get it to be a priority, uh, and really make sure our customers have access to that as well during this for our customers, because we know this is their number one pain point, uh, and you know, our business, we’re here for the long-term. We’re not in communities for the short term, we’re in Dallas forever. Uh, we’re in Miami forever. Uh, and we need to know those communities, uh, and that’s why we, you know, we’re really making these investments and working with stakeholders.

Scott Luton (00:33:05):

I love it. I love what you are creating and how you’re investing and how you’re providing those resources to the markets. And we’re going to share at the end of today’s episode, how, how you can connect with Kim Steven Ann Ward and, uh, Steven, you welcome folks that are curious about that curriculum. You’d welcome those inquiries, right?

Steven Hussain (00:33:22):

Yeah, absolutely. Please reach out. Wonderful.

Scott Luton (00:33:24):

Okay. We’re gonna move right along. We’ve got a lot more good stuff to talk about, including one of my favorite topics, which is leadership, real leadership, which is coming next after, uh, Kim tells us more about this, this, uh, the third impediment, third of three, this regulatory political very difficult and sometimes nasty environment that we’re in. Uh, Kim, tell us more about that.

Kim Snyder (00:33:46):

Well, you know, it’s, it’s funny, uh, success breeds contempt sometimes, and it’s interesting how the logistics sector is, is popping right now. It’s just, uh, it’s going very strongly in every community and it draws a little bit of attention because you’ve got, uh, the issue of trucking and traffic congestion. You got the issue of air quality, which we talked about earlier. And, uh, you just have sort of that nimbyism, that inevitably occurs where, uh, people would rather not, they don’t mind. They know they need logistics. They know that anywhere else in distribution, just not, it’s not my neighborhood, if that’s possible, can we just do it in your neighborhood instead? And I think, uh, you know, it’s a fundamental problem with, with, uh, you know, these, these big buildings in particular and the traffic they create, you know, we keep advocating about what the job gains are and the community enrichment from that standpoint, the tax impacts are huge.

Kim Snyder (00:34:38):

You know, the economic benefit in the overall package of, uh, an e-commerce fulfillment center in a community is massive, but it does come with the sort of this balance of traffic, maybe air quality, depending on the operator and how they run their business. Uh, but what I guess I’m getting at is, uh, this goes back to this education of all the good things that we do. Uh, then when you hear about all the negative things that are associated with the good things we’re doing, we’re trying to find this nice balancing act here. Uh, but what it manifests in, in states like California, the Republican California is pretty aggressive and progressive with regard to telling what, telling you what you ought to do, right, as opposed to allowing business to do it on their own, invest in their own, uh, sustainability practices, uh, uh, Goodwill, uh, community, uh, activities that they do, uh, California has a tendency to want or legislate that.

Kim Snyder (00:35:33):

So, you know, we live here, it’s fantastic. You know, it’s a great place to do business. Uh, if you can figure out a way to digest all these regulatory elements. So I think it’s, it’s not necessarily a horrible problem. It’s a problem. We all have to adapt to. It’s a pretty level playing field. They’re not picking on, uh, you know, you know, big landlords versus small landlords. It’s all landlords are affected by this. So we’re all working as a group, you know, I’m, uh, uh, involved with the NAOP. We do, uh, an awful lot of outreach to communities to try to explain the good things we do, understanding that we need to do better on, uh, the other things. And I think that’s a big focus, but I would just say we’re in a cycle of political cycle, uh, regulation. So there’s a lot more coming, you know, potentially in the tax arena, uh, that we’ll, we’ll all be having to digest that at some point.

Kim Snyder (00:36:29):

And, uh, so I think we’re sort of in a period of massive change from the regulatory standpoint from the prior four years. So, uh, maybe it’s just a, again, part of that snapback I was talking about earlier, we got a little snap back that might stay a little too, so we’ve gotta, we’ve gotta weave that into our, our business models going forward and continue to be very, uh, forthright as to who we are and what we’re doing, the, all the good things that we’re trying to do, the communities, you know, I’m just a huge fan of this concept of in community engagement. You know, that Stephen mentioned about, uh, Dallas and Miami were there forever. That’s how Prologis plays the real estate game. We go into a community, recreate a series of clusters that become its own ecosystem. And we’re there for the long haul.

Kim Snyder (00:37:13):

We’re not waiting until it stabilized and selling it to somebody else. We, we hold for long-term. That means we’re there in the community. We get involved, we have our people get involved in volunteerism constantly to show that, you know, you can rely upon us. You were a trusted advisor to the community at times where we’re helping them think, uh, uh, long-term as well. Uh, that’s the way we like to operate. And I think our people are that are like-minded, they’ve embraced that concept of, if we’re going to work here in Los Angeles, we have to embrace this community and take good care of it because it takes good care of us. And that’s, that’s sort of the fundamental

Scott Luton (00:37:53):

Do that. And, and we’ll get your last thoughts here around this current environment and the ward, you can lead us into the more of a leadership discussion here. So, but Steven, uh, speak to the environment a bit.

Steven Hussain (00:38:03):

Yeah. I mean, I became hit on it. It’s a very tough environment. There’s a lot of regulation that’s coming out. That’s not informed by business realities. Um, and also I think there’s just a lack of, of, of engagement, uh, with the private sector here to understand the realities, right? Logistics is not, uh, you know, an extremely profitable business. Um, there are, you know, our customers, aren’t rolling in the dough. Um, it’s, it’s a tough business, uh, and it’s hard. Um, but as you think about, you know, th the nimbyism the further that you push logistics facilities out, the less likely it is that somebody can work at that building right population centers, uh, and, and job opportunities have to somewhat align, uh, in order for there to be effective economies. And so that that’s key. Um, but I would say to the listeners is you, you better get engaged. Um, you better start getting engaged because it’s happening at the local level, what’s happening at the state level. And it’s happening at the federal level show up, um, start talking to your local chambers of commerce, your local maps, uh, whoever it is that, that represents you and get engaged, because it’s important that the public sector hears from you.

Scott Luton (00:39:11):

I love that. And it’s also to you, uh, Steven’s last few comments there. Ramana may have a previous guest here, shear Cassandra’s PhD, former, uh, uh, basically a NASA engineer, uh, big part of the, uh, efforts to identify what, what happened wrong with the Columbia disaster. And, uh, we get asked all the time, how can I advance in my career and how can I succeed and all that stuff. And her, her advice was simple. Do the work, do the work. And it became a mantra and a lot of what Steven saying, Hey, get involved, do it, you know, don’t sit on the sidelines, don’t talk about it, you know, plug in. So, okay. So that’s, uh, I think that’s a great segue because I think the leaders that are the most successful are those that do lead by example. And I think a lot of what we’re gonna talk about next are some, uh, a variety of things that Kim and Steven are seeing organizations that are succeeding are doing right ward that’s

Ward Richmond (00:40:05):

Right. Scott. And, uh, I mean, I think we were talking Kim about your local boots on the ground, and you’re here to stay in Dallas. Um, I’m happy about that because I love doing business with Prologis. My customers love doing business with Prologis. You make it easy for us to do our jobs, even in this challenging environment where there’s massive, um, you know, lack of supply, low vacancy rates, skyrocketing rents. Um, and I know I, this culture, um, is amazing to me how you, how you keep this culture with becoming such a global behemoth of a company. Um, yet you’re still so in touch with these local markets. So I’d love to hear, you know, leadership style in today’s environment. And, uh, maybe we can just start with, uh, that pro-life is culture that I know, like everyone, uh, like somebody walked down the street may not know the name pro lodges, but when you’re in the commercial real estate business, especially industrial, it’s a household name. And, uh, like, and I would love to hear what the secret sauce is to your culture.

Kim Snyder (00:41:10):

Well, uh, one of my start, uh, cause I think this is something that I can completely relate to here. And why I’ve been with this firm for over 16 years is this concept of customer centricity. We make that the most important thing, and it’s such a great rallying call for everyone in our organization. And we drive and attract and keep people who think about the customer. First, our customers, our tenant, we and our other customers are our brokers. And the two are mixed together. We need to take really good care of our customers to be sustainable and to fulfill those long-term objectives are referred to. And I think how you do that is you make that customer the priority. You keep track of them. You check in with them, we, you introduce this concept of a care visit. You know, we really care. Let’s go talk to our customer at least once a quarter, how are you doing?

Kim Snyder (00:42:08):

Is there anything we can do for you? Is there anything we dropped the ball on? How can we fix it? And can we fix it right now? And taking a sort of a proactive approach with our customer management has been a huge part of that cultural piece. But then so then there’s this listening, listening to art, our people and our field teams, what the feedback they give us, what do they say about those customer visits? What do they say about their workload? What do they say about me? Begging them to come back to the office and work in an office again? How do they feel about that? It sounds a little puffy, but you know, the reality is that’s, that’s what we need to understand is what are people feeling? What are their pain points? We talked about pain points for customers, but keeping an employee engaged comes with listening to them and responding to them.

Kim Snyder (00:42:59):

And then as important is adapting and adjusting a little bit here and there. So we have to be flexible. And I think in particularly in the stage of kind of post pandemic, uh, we’re all still figuring out what that’s gonna look like. You’re in a year, uh, getting people back into office environment. You know, some people may not come back. Some people may say, you know, I can do this job three days a week from the office two days at home, we got every scenario working. I think all companies in the us are going through the same thing. Uh, but what’s really important. I want to stress this is that, uh, that listening need to pay attention. So what do we do about that internally? We do a little pulse surveys, how people feel on we have town hall meetings to sort of engage people and just get that candid feedback.

Kim Snyder (00:43:47):

And I think what we found is when we get our, our team, just tell him the truth, comfortably, speak up comfortably, raise an objection and say, this may not be very popular, but I don’t like this. And is there any way we could do it differently? And then, you know, as important as listening is, is actually responding to it, acknowledging those objections, trying to do something about it and keep improving. So, you know, one last part of my big commercial here on the culture is that, uh, this business of innovation, it’s not just, uh, you know, uh, devices and tools and software. It’s innovating how we manage our people slightly different in a new environment. None of us have ever experienced our lifetimes. You know, a post pandemic environment is new for everybody. So we’re trying to, uh, make adaptations and adjust and be flexible, be smart about it.

Kim Snyder (00:44:43):

We still have to earn a living. We have shareholders who demand that, uh, we pay attention to the bottom line, but then find that middle ground of keeping the best employees, making sure we recruit more employees and keep them for long periods of time. That that is sort of, I think the measure of success from a cultural standpoint, if you have less than 10% attrition, you’re doing pretty good. If you have less than four, you’re doing great. And if you’re finding people fighting to come work to your, your, your company, you’re doing fantastic. So I think that’s how we sort of look at all this and try to keep that going, keep that momentum.

Ward Richmond (00:45:22):

That’s amazing Kim, and you know, something that I’ve got to bring up. And I, I’m going to speak on the perspective, my perspective of being in the industrial real estate business for 15 years. But if you go to an industrial real estate conference, there’s a lot of white males in the room and there’s a very, uh, there’s a big lack of diversity in the industrial real estate sector as a whole. And, um, I know that’s something that we’re doing at Colliers to make a big effort and a big push to, um, recruit, um, new diverse recruits. Um, and I mean, I’m in the process of recruiting new teammates right now. And that’s something that we’re really looking for, um, not, not to meet some quota or something, but to get new perspectives. Like I want new perspectives. I want to see through different people’s eyes and that’s going to make us better when it comes to listening to our customers because different people from different backgrounds are going to hear things differently. And I think it all goes with your customer centricity. Um, but I, Steven, do you want to maybe take this and, uh, let us know what you guys have been doing in terms of, uh, contributing to the diversity at pro lodges?

Steven Hussain (00:46:34):

Yeah. I mean, this is a top priority for Prologis and it has been for quite a while now. I mean, and you hit audited is it is an industry that’s dominated by white men. Uh, and it’s not an easy thing to change. It takes time to build out programs, systems, investments, uh, to do it the big way. Um, but it’s also about, uh, you know, take a leadership position. And if you look at what Prologis is doing, um, we’re putting our money where our mouth is, uh, and we’re making meaningful changes to when you recruit, we’re making meaningful changes to how we think about inclusion and diversity across the board. Uh, we’re thinking about how do we apply it to, you know, our basic management and leadership standards. Um, and that’s been, that’s been con and I actually, you know, I know you pointed to me, but Kim within the PR world has been a leader here, um, and has been driving this organization forward for a long time, um, push, uh, investments into these programs. And, um, whether that’s focusing on bringing more women into the workplace, um, recruiting a new college grad from, uh, HBC use or other universities, um, there’s an opportunity there for, I think the broader sector to do that, but can have a seat at all.

Ward Richmond (00:47:49):

Let’s hear your perspective. That’s amazing what a good intro. I’m glad I went to you first even see, give us a little background because I know Kim wouldn’t have told us all that upfront, but I’d love to hear about your name. Well,

Kim Snyder (00:48:02):

Sure. I mean, uh, we have a lot of initiatives, whether it’s a women in the workplace, you know, you mentioned white men, uh, it’s amazing what it does to your organization. When you have more than half of your, uh, staff is female. It’s different, you know, having worked in an all male company and in my current, uh, staff is about 53% female. It’s different. It’s I think it’s better because it’s balanced, it’s got different perspectives and that’s, that’s also true with regard to ethnicity and background and, you know, country of origin and that diversity breeds a more holistic thought process from different perspectives. But I think ultimately allows us to make better decisions, better investments, and have better behavior in a community. When you go into a, a big community meeting, uh, to present a project, and you’ve got a staff of the entire set of departments at the city of Los Angeles, and you look around the room and do you, is your team similar looking to those people you’re presenting to, if they are, there’s this different kind of chemistry that takes place that is often advantageous, or at least it’s, everybody’s understanding each other.

Kim Snyder (00:49:15):

If, if that’s the outcome that’s also a win. So, uh, I guess we think it’s really important and you gotta, you gotta put your money where your mouth is. You gotta walk the walk, you can’t just talk about this stuff. And as Stephen pointed out, it’s a long game. This doesn’t just transition overnight. You know, so we’ve started a number of programs. Uh, we really advocate, uh, women in the workplace. We are big proponents of, uh, you know, crew as a, you know, national sponsor for that I met, uh, mentioned earlier my involvement with NAOP, we started this, uh, NAOP Prologis, uh, diversity scholarship that we’re actually hosting, uh, young people of, uh, varying backgrounds to come to an icon event in Los Angeles coming up where every year what we’ve been doing is having a little essay contest. If you would, uh, to get people of diverse backgrounds, to submit some reasons why they’d be a great candidate to come to this program.

Kim Snyder (00:50:11):

And, uh, so we’ve known that for three or four years now, it’s been super successful. We’ve got alumni from there. We always meet these incredible people that we might not have otherwise met, and whether we’re looking to hire them, looking to promote them in our industry, uh, but just get them engaged more, uh, you know, uh, significantly in the industry. That’s part of this process, you know, so whether it’s diverse hiring, it’s promoting diversity in the workplace and in these big trade associations, you know, I’m super excited. I’m going to host, you know, I think about 15 of these, uh, young people in long beach or in about a month and a half. Uh, and we, we celebrate the heck out of them. We make sure they get to meet, uh, my peers. I grab a few and take them along with me through an entire conference, as an example, again, it’s, it’s somebody sort of dragging you along, giving you opportunity that you wouldn’t otherwise have. You know, we have so many great, talented people out there, uh, what we don’t have as so many great opportunities for them. And to the extent that for a lobbyist can push that forward a bit, create those opportunities for those people to get more and more exposure. Eventually they’re going to be, uh, leading the band in this industry, in my opinion.

Scott Luton (00:51:27):

So as we start to wrap up a wide ranging conversation here with Kim Snyder and Stephen Hussein with Prologis and my dear friend ward Richmond, you know, Minda Harts, uh, joined us for a live stream, not too long ago, she’s the author of the memo. And she had a great quote. That’s going to stay in my brain for a long time. We have an obligation as leaders to make work, work for everyone, right? All walks of life, uh, all types of whether you work from home, work in the office, Harvard, you name it, you think just a, of the wide variety of ways that can be applied. What I’m hearing here today, especially, especially from the real estate industrial real estate industry space, um, is we’ve got to make industry and sectors work for everyone as well. And, and do the work and do the work that Kim was just describing.

Scott Luton (00:52:15):

And Steven has described, um, that takes real leadership hands-on leadership. And not just, it doesn’t just take a, um, a process that ensures successful, diverse hiring, but then you’ve got, we’ve got to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome and included in the cultures that we are create and lead and in the businesses they’re within. So a lot of good stuff here. And, and I think, you know, ward, as we’ve, as we talked, pre-show you, while a lot of these best practices that we’re hearing in this segment of the interview are illustrated, uh, via the Prologis culture. This is also, this is what, you know, w uh, industry leaders are doing, right? A lot of what Kim and Steven are talking to going back, I’d go all the way up upstream to the customer centricity stuff that, that Kim was talking about. That’s so important. I mean, there’s a reason why the best retailers in the world that know their consumers, the best are constantly asking craving feedback so they can continue to tinker with, with how they do things. So a lot of good stuff here today on, or before we wrap though innovation, I don’t think we’ve touched on this. And if I zoned out for a second, I apologize.

Ward Richmond (00:53:21):

I don’t think we’ve touched on this my fault, Scott, because I’m supposed to the co-host that talks about innovation. And I got sidetracked and excited about hearing about the diversity and the culture. And by the way, I know I’ve heard this quote before, but since we’re doing quotes, I was speaking with one of my advisors this morning and he reminded me of the great Peter Drucker quote that is culture eats strategy for breakfast, like 40 pebbles. And, uh, but moving on and I mean, well, part of, I think every great company’s culture is innovation. So, uh, what’s happening on the innovation front and I’m going to go with Kim since I went to Steven last time.

Kim Snyder (00:54:04):

Sure. Well, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll try and be brief, but I think, you know, w we realize how important innovation is, uh, you know, I alluded to this earlier, but, uh, our employees love innovation. It it’s stimulating, it’s enriching, you know, it’s not doing things the same old way all the time. It’s still looking for ways to improve and looking for ways to get better and being a competitive bunch in the real estate business when we like winning. So to the extent that we can channel that, that competitiveness to innovation, uh, it’s, it’s a good thing, but we also, uh, you know, recently formed a, an entity, you know, a few years back now, uh, uh, Prologis ventures, which has really focused on setting aside some capital to go invest in these disruptive technologies that affect our industry, uh, whether it’s, uh, you know, how, uh, how four clips or are our design, uh, flexible by the pallet rental streams, you know, for, uh, using flexi as an example, uh, looking at, uh, technology for, uh, gate management or yard management systems.

Kim Snyder (00:55:12):

That’s been a fascinating thing that I’ve jumped into here recently in terms of looking at not only issues of compliance on those truck trips I alluded to earlier, but also having that information available for yard security or a yard efficiency, uh, communication between the driver and the, uh, dispatch operator at a large warehouse and distribution center, having that interaction improved and then recorded and have that data later in the month to reflect on. And how can we do things differently, understanding the flow of materials coming and going through the gate, simple things like that. We also have been incorporated some sensor re uh, information, uh, gathering, uh, devices inside the building and affect heat mapping. Where are the areas of congestion? Where are the areas of constant or areas where there is no traffic? And we be locating our material in those spots that are here for six months, rather than having them out front to make travel time inside a warehouse. So all of these things is a mishmash of a unique things that we’ve been working on trying to pay attention to what’s going on out there from a technological standpoint, and how it ties in, I think to labor is when there’s labor, uh, enrichment with tools like this, the precious labor that you have can do more things, and they also learn more skills, which is also good for retention as well. So there’s a lot of good about having innovation as part of your overall culture.

Scott Luton (00:56:43):

That’s great. That’s great. So, Steven, what else would you add to what Kim just shared?

Steven Hussain (00:56:48):

Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at, at Prologis, there’s, there’s truly a culture of innovation and that comes from the top. There is a, uh, a clear mandate to try new things and to be comfortable with learning because not everything is going to go, right. It comes from the top that you have to continue to push. You have to continue to learn and be thinking about what’s going to happen three months from now be thinking about what’s going to happen for years now. Um, and it’s important for an industry that is changing this fast to be looking ahead. And again, I think it, I think it truly comes from the topic for lodgers to say, yeah, we’re going to do this, uh, everybody get on board and get comfortable with making mistakes. Um, and, and then just continuing to push

Scott Luton (00:57:30):

Love that Stephen and Kim, thank you both for sharing and, and war before we kind of go around the horn and make sure everybody knows how to connect with our panel here, your final word on innovation. Well,

Ward Richmond (00:57:42):

I, you know what, I, I wanted to ask a question and not give a word, but, um, and I don’t know who’s the best to answer this, but tell me about innovation in terms of green building initiatives, solar panel electric for the future electric trucks. Like what are you guys doing anything on your spec buildings, um, to try to, you know, um, make, I mean, I just think these, these regulations are going to continue. I think they, they need to continue to a certain degree, um, with everything that’s happening with this amount of construction. So what’s, Prologis doing to be proactive

Steven Hussain (00:58:18):

About that. Yeah. I think if you look at us now, uh, Prologis is the leader in solar. So we’re the third largest on-site solar installer in the U S only behind Walmart and target. Uh, and we have been the leader and we will continue to lead in that space, uh, when it comes to electrification, our teams are already doing the work, uh, to begin to prepare for that transition, what it’s going to look like, including on the regulatory side. So how are we going to engage with utilities, uh, state boards, the federal government to think about infrastructure, uh, and how that will be deployed at scale. Uh, and we’ve always been there when it comes to building designs and, and, um, and, you know, I think we, we benefit and Ken can certainly speak to this as well from being an international company. We operate in countries.

Steven Hussain (00:59:01):

These are not new technologies. These are things that are big baked into the standards. Uh, and because we have that kind of global purview, you know, we can always stay ahead of what’s next. Uh, and I think that’s a really unique piece of our, our portfolio that nobody else can compare to. You know, we focus on that learning that we do globally. You know, we, we learned from our friends in Japan and Asia with regard to multi-story warehouses and how to do those efficiently and build a speculative three-story building in Seattle a couple of years ago. You may recall, um, we’ve, we’ve learned from our friends in the Netherlands about water conservation and how to recycle all water and reuse it, and really reduce the demand of fuel on the water. It’s a fascinating set of techniques using, uh, wind power and solar in a combination, you need a windy place to do this, but there are places and they do apply in certain parts of the U S.

Kim Snyder (00:59:59):

So the, the point I’m making is we use a best practices approach to what’s working here. How is it similar to where we are today? What can we adapt and apply here to actually keep improving and get the most sustainable environmental condition that we can for all of our buildings, but then what’s also, uh, that feedback. It goes back to this customer. When our tenants see this as a really neat thing, they want to know what we’re doing too. They want to know if we’re actually preparing the roof in advance for the weight of a solar array. We’re doing that, of course, right? If you don’t do that, you’ve got some retrofit issues on putting that stuff up there. Uh, are you running a cabling, uh, or conduits under the slabs under the parking lots out to the guard shack, just in case you might want to have a, a cat five cable to run to and fro to be able to create, uh, access to information that would otherwise be available and that to a sustainable, rather than turn it up after the fact, and we have gone through every, every new project that’s in the urban environment involves some form of demo is figuring out strategies to be, uh, particularly sensitive to, uh, reusability of materials.

Kim Snyder (01:01:13):

Uh, as materials are getting increasingly dear, as we’ve seen this year, got to have that as part of your equation. So again, it’s a fundamental practice of learning from across the planet, uh, reusing materials, finding those best practices that can be shared and applied in different locations than they had in the past.

Scott Luton (01:01:32):

I love that. Yeah, so much, so much good stuff here from this episode I expect, I fully expect I’ll be disappointed if it’s anything less that your inboxes are filled up with inquiries from social media, to your email, you name it, uh, the team of Prologis. But if anyone can handle that, the level of inbound traffic, I am sure pro-life

Ward Richmond (01:01:54):

If I was a real estate developer, just starting out and listened to this podcast, I’d be ready to rock. I think so you guys just dropped so much knowledge on us really, right.

Scott Luton (01:02:05):

And warden knows how to rock by the way. He is a talented Brock musician, moral gnats in a later episode, but, uh, Kim and Steve, and let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you. I really appreciate, uh, the time you spent here, you know, it’s a great kind of second installment installment of this, uh, re-invigorated supply chain real estate series. So Kim, let’s start with you. How can folks connect with you and the Prologis team?

Kim Snyder (01:02:29):

Sure, well, uh, you know, we, we have a pretty interactive website, uh, prologis.com. Uh, all of us are registered on there, uh, by name and location. And, uh, we’re easy to find and areas of interest that you might have at that a website can sort of also target where these people are, who might be available to answer questions like that. Uh, we also have a pretty significant, uh, communications department, uh, PR section we’ve got, uh, shareholder relations, et cetera, all of that. So, well, how these things impact, you know, more broadly than just the straight real estate deal or some of the cultural things. We’ve, we’ve got a big map in there that will give you the ability to contact just about anybody, but, uh, and then obviously, uh, you know, our, uh, our email format is, uh, is pretty active. I’m on LinkedIn, I’m on, uh, you know, Instagram online to hate Facebook. You can find me just about anywhere. Uh, we’re all kind of working to communicate effectively, uh, for our industry and for our company. So to the extent, uh, I think you’ll be able to find us

Scott Luton (01:03:33):

Wonderful, uh, Steven, anything to add to that as a very holistic answer to that question, Kim

Steven Hussain (01:03:38):

I’m impressed. Yeah. Yeah. Reach out, reach out on LinkedIn. Email me. We’ll we’ll respond. Cool.

Scott Luton (01:03:47):

Well, this, uh, outstanding conversation, big, thanks to Kim and Steven or Bobby remiss though. It’s been really neat to see, you know, our very first episode was had a backdrop of in-person event way long before the pandemic, and we’ve come a long way since, and really conversations like this with our friends over at Prologis are great, um, testimony to that. So how can folks connect with the Wolf one and only ward Richmond?

Ward Richmond (01:04:13):

Thanks for that, Scott. Yeah, I was thinking it’s actually like exactly two years since we met, I think in Atlanta at the, uh, the three PL um, summit that we went to. So, um, best way to get ahold of me is, uh, I have a blog called supply chain real estate.com. So that is a great way. And that has links to all my social media. I’m on LinkedIn, and I’m very active on Instagram as well. I know Scott, you and I connect on there a lot. So Instagram at ward 2, 1, 4, TX, and then you can just, uh, go.

Scott Luton (01:04:47):

Awesome. Wonderful. Yeah. And if you, if you join me on Instagram, you’ll see pictures of my dogs, my kids, all kinds of sunset sunshine know I’m still figuring out Instagram on my end, but nevertheless, uh, what, uh, how, uh, powerhouse panel here today, ton of really practical best practices really have enjoyed talking with Kim Snyder and Steven Hussein, both with Prologis big, thanks to my cohost ward at Richmond, check him out@supplychainrealestate.com and to all of our listeners. If you’d like conversations like this, be sure to check us out@supplychainnow.com. You can find us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from on behalf of our entire team here, Scott Loudin signing off for now challenging you to be like Kim and Stephen and Warren. Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see you next time right here at supply chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (01:05:40):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now, community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.