I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
Todd Miller:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Todd Miller:And today my co host is none other than Ethan Young, the chill guy
Todd Miller:who's always fun to have on here.
Todd Miller:How you doing, Ethan?
Ethan Young:I'm doing pretty good, Todd.
Ethan Young:Thanks for that.
Ethan Young:How are you doing?
Todd Miller:I'm doing well, also.
Todd Miller:I'm glad to be here today and get, get this show recorded.
Todd Miller:I've been looking forward to this one.
Todd Miller:So once again, we are doing our challenge words where both Ethan
Todd Miller:and I and our guest, have a.
Todd Miller:top secret word that we have been challenged to work into
Todd Miller:the conversation somehow.
Todd Miller:So our audience can be listening to see if you can figure out
Todd Miller:what our challenge words were.
Todd Miller:And at the end of the show, we will tell you what our words were and whether we
Todd Miller:work them into the conversation or not.
Todd Miller:So you good to go, Mr.
Todd Miller:Young.
Ethan Young:I am Todd.
Ethan Young:Let's do it.
Todd Miller:Let's do it.
Todd Miller:So we cover a lot of ground here on Construction Disruption from design to
Todd Miller:tech, and sometimes we dig into products.
Todd Miller:Sometimes we look to different types of training.
Todd Miller:In fact, we've built quite an archive of past shows, but today's show is
Todd Miller:a topic that the more I dug into it, the more interested I became in it.
Todd Miller:And that is the proliferation of greenhouses, grow houses, sun chambers.
Todd Miller:Ultimately more greenhouses are beneficial to our food chain,
Todd Miller:as well as to other things.
Todd Miller:And today our guest is an expert in that area.
Todd Miller:Our guest today is Josh Holleb.
Todd Miller:Josh is the Systems Integration Specialist at Ceres Greenhouse
Todd Miller:Solutions based in Boulder, Colorado.
Todd Miller:And he has the full scoop for us on how these structures, work, how they are
Todd Miller:impacting construction and our world.
Todd Miller:Josh, welcome to Construction Disruption.
Todd Miller:Pleasure to have you here with us today.
Josh Holleb:Thanks for having me, happy to be here.
Todd Miller:Good deal.
Todd Miller:So let's just dig into it.
Todd Miller:So tell us what Ceres does.
Todd Miller:I mean, I understand that you folks engineer, various types of
Todd Miller:what I'll call growth structures.
Todd Miller:But do you also supply the parts?
Todd Miller:Do you get involved in construction?
Todd Miller:What is the scope of work that, that Ceres does?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, we are heavily a design company, um, we do a lot of
Josh Holleb:engineering work, so we do detailed design, engineering, we also supply
Josh Holleb:materials, and then we also support in construction, so we'll ship the majority
Josh Holleb:of your building to you, and then we will help you build it, but we don't
Josh Holleb:build it, um, becoming a construction company is a whole nother level and for
Josh Holleb:really big projects we will take on a GC and manage the entire project, but
Josh Holleb:for the most part we are designing, supplying, and then aiding and guiding
Todd Miller:So on the supply of product for the structures, I mean,
Todd Miller:you're, are you doing some of the prefabrication or having some of
Todd Miller:that done or what does that look
Josh Holleb:We are not a manufacturer so we are we are very
Josh Holleb:much a design engineering company.
Josh Holleb:We do a lot of R&D as well, but we do not have any like on the ground, you know,
Josh Holleb:rigid manufacturing Um, A it's expensive to get into and B kind of it it kind of
Josh Holleb:put you on a path that you can't really get off of if you own a certain kind
Josh Holleb:of manufacturing type of manufacturing.
Josh Holleb:So we have a bunch of manufacturing partners, but it
Josh Holleb:allows us to be really fluid.
Josh Holleb:So things change we can find a new partner.
Josh Holleb:And so that's been pretty great for us
Todd Miller:That probably allows you to be sort of regionalized, too,
Todd Miller:based upon your various manufacturing
Josh Holleb:you'd be, you'd be surprised.
Josh Holleb:Um, but yes, it does.
Josh Holleb:Um, if we're doing a West Coast project, have, uh, manufacturers closer to West
Josh Holleb:Coast versus an East Coast project.
Josh Holleb:So you save some in shipping costs, but it's, it's minor.
Todd Miller:So I'm curious I mean a lot of our audience members are
Todd Miller:folks in construction and I mean some design but a lot of construction.
Todd Miller:Is there any way for them to even get involved with some of your
Todd Miller:structures as you erectors or builders or what does that look like?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, um, we have a ongoing list that's constantly
Josh Holleb:growing of local erectors.
Josh Holleb:Um, smaller projects can be just any general contractor, larger projects
Josh Holleb:we look for steel specific builders.
Josh Holleb:Um, but we're using light or heavy gauge steel framing, um, sandwich
Josh Holleb:panel, insulated metal panels, you know, we basically, when we designed
Josh Holleb:our product, we looked for what was available and what people knew how to
Josh Holleb:build as well as what works for our need.
Josh Holleb:So I, I, I, I was a general contractor residential for a decade.
Josh Holleb:And so I very much in the mindset of not only is this a cool design, but is it
Josh Holleb:buildable and is it efficient to build?
Josh Holleb:Because sometimes in design, you know, building is a secondary thought.
Todd Miller:Yeah, that happens sometimes.
Todd Miller:You're right.
Todd Miller:Sometimes you get a little carried away with the design and,
Todd Miller:oh, this isn't too practical.
Josh Holleb:So, so oftentimes our, our buildings, you know, sometimes we were
Josh Holleb:like, can I, can we make it a little more custom or appealing, and we can,
Josh Holleb:but it's not, it's not uh, main focus.
Josh Holleb:The function, the focus is efficiency, effectiveness, and, and
Josh Holleb:ease of building and maintaining.
Todd Miller:Yeah, love it.
Todd Miller:So, Ceres, who your company is named after, was, I had to
Todd Miller:look this up, I confess, was a Roman goddess of agriculture.
Todd Miller:And, you know, that was chosen for your company name.
Todd Miller:I'm kind of curious, how does having that as your company name kind
Todd Miller:of impact, the overall ethos or philosophy and culture of your company?
Josh Holleb:I think if anything, it puts it in perspective.
Josh Holleb:Um, all we're doing here is trying to help grow food and people have been
Josh Holleb:doing that for a really long time.
Josh Holleb:And so, you know, hopefully we're just kicking the ball down
Josh Holleb:the road a little bit farther.
Josh Holleb:And hopefully the ball rolls a little bit better because we're efficiency minded.
Josh Holleb:Um, but really we're just part of a much bigger story of how
Josh Holleb:we get food to the people.
Todd Miller:That's cool.
Todd Miller:And something most of us don't think about very often, that's for sure.
Ethan Young:If I could chime in here too a ceres is actually
Ethan Young:where we get the word cereal.
Josh Holleb:That's right.
Todd Miller:Oh,
Ethan Young:Yeah that's another little tie in there for you.
Todd Miller:Gosh, you're teaching me all kinds of things.
Todd Miller:I thought we got serial from serial killer, but, you know,
Todd Miller:I don't know, maybe not.
Ethan Young:I
Todd Miller:So I believe Josh, you were the company's second
Todd Miller:employee after the founder.
Todd Miller:I'm kind of curious.
Todd Miller:I mean, that was 12 years ago.
Todd Miller:What sort of growth and change have you seen and is the company on the
Todd Miller:path that you envisioned 12 years ago, or did it have to change some?
Todd Miller:Cause I know sometimes businesses are that way.
Josh Holleb:Yeah, it was, it was, it was just two of us.
Josh Holleb:Um, my partner and the founder, he's a PhD chemical engineer.
Josh Holleb:Um, he's a really, you know, a brilliant guy and an amazing guy.
Josh Holleb:Um, and that, and that's kind of what brought me in, but I was pretty
Josh Holleb:deep into growing in greenhouses at the time when I met him, but I had
Josh Holleb:a completely different skillset.
Josh Holleb:And so I said, you know, I can do things that you're not doing.
Josh Holleb:You're coming up with all these great ideas.
Josh Holleb:I can build and do practical things.
Josh Holleb:And I know plants.
Josh Holleb:And we worked together, you know, in the home office at his house, I was
Josh Holleb:just with his family for several years.
Josh Holleb:Um, and now, you know, we've been up to 30 something people.
Josh Holleb:We're at 25 or 28 employees right now.
Josh Holleb:So it's quite different in the day to day, but we started doing little
Josh Holleb:greenhouses in people's backyards.
Josh Holleb:They slowly got bigger.
Josh Holleb:Cannabis legalized.
Josh Holleb:I, through building, had some experience in cannabis because I was helping
Josh Holleb:people build facilities for cannabis.
Josh Holleb:So we never really saw that coming, but but now where we're at is
Josh Holleb:finally we've designed our kit house.
Josh Holleb:We have a, we have a residential kit house.
Josh Holleb:Um, that was always part of the goal 8 years ago, but we couldn't
Josh Holleb:do it then and we can do it now.
Josh Holleb:So the path, while bumpy and weird kind of is going where we thought
Josh Holleb:it was going to go, but we're also doing some really large projects.
Josh Holleb:We've done big canvas projects.
Josh Holleb:We're doing really large, ag projects now that we never saw coming.
Josh Holleb:And so the progression of our work has been very cool.
Josh Holleb:So some, what we expected and some, not so much.
Todd Miller:So I'm curious, what sort of geographic
Todd Miller:footprint have you served so far?
Todd Miller:Are you shipping product and working with structures all
Todd Miller:over or what's that look like?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, I mean, you know, we're Colorado based, our
Josh Holleb:first few projects were in Colorado.
Josh Holleb:Our product works really well in northern climates, and so we basically we've
Josh Holleb:built in all over the United States.
Josh Holleb:We've built, in Canada, a fair amount, we're doing commercial
Josh Holleb:lettuce grows in Canada.
Josh Holleb:We can grow year round lettuce, no problem, locally in Canada.
Josh Holleb:We've got some greenhouses in Alaska.
Josh Holleb:We're now working on, projects in Portugal and Greece.
Josh Holleb:We have some of our systems that we've engineered are in Bahrain,
Josh Holleb:And now we're starting more and more, to work in climates like in
Josh Holleb:the Middle East, Kuwait currently.
Josh Holleb:You know, like, like a like a camel, our greenhouses can be sealed and reuse
Josh Holleb:their own water for a very long time.
Josh Holleb:So with really minimal input they can go a really long distance.
Josh Holleb:And so that that works well in the Middle East.
Josh Holleb:We also have cool new glazing technology that we're using that
Josh Holleb:can passively cool a greenhouse.
Josh Holleb:So we're designing for hotter and hotter temperatures based on what the
Josh Holleb:environment is doing, and in places like the Middle East where they need
Josh Holleb:food, but they can't really grow it.
Josh Holleb:We can recirculate water and reduce heat with, you know, no energy inputs.
Josh Holleb:And so we're starting to see our, our market change and expand
Josh Holleb:in, in pretty interesting ways.
Todd Miller:So tell us a little bit about the glazing technology, the glazing
Todd Miller:that you're using, because I understand that kind of differentiates you from
Todd Miller:a lot of your, of your competition.
Josh Holleb:Yeah.
Josh Holleb:a lot of greenhouse manufacturers, especially in the, in the U S
Josh Holleb:use a polycarbonate, which is, which, which degrades with UV.
Josh Holleb:So that usually has a UV blocker on the outside.
Josh Holleb:which allows the polycarbonate to last a long time, but it, it takes away the
Josh Holleb:UV, which is actually something that is a stressor for pests and pathogens.
Josh Holleb:And so it's good to let it into the greenhouse.
Josh Holleb:Plants live outside and they use UV.
Josh Holleb:it's a stressor and it's oftentimes a positive stressor, stressor for them, but
Josh Holleb:it limits mildews and bugs and things.
Josh Holleb:So we've, we've strayed from the polycarbonate in our higher
Josh Holleb:productivity greenhouses.
Josh Holleb:we have an acrylic glazing that we use.
Josh Holleb:It's, UV transmissive.
Josh Holleb:And now we have an ETFE film, which, is we import it.
Josh Holleb:And it is, it is a ethyl fluoride, don't even get me started on what it is, but
Josh Holleb:it's a, it's a tensioned film, that allows light and UV to pass through it very well.
Josh Holleb:And now we're starting to add added technologies onto it where we can infrared
Josh Holleb:block or infrared absorb, so we can still get the light in, but not the heat.
Josh Holleb:And so we're starting to use that, in single and multi layer which is a real
Josh Holleb:leap in greenhouse glazing technology.
Josh Holleb:They use it in Europe somewhat, but we've been pushing it a little bit
Josh Holleb:harder here because we have more extreme weather events than they do in Europe.
Todd Miller:Pretty amazing stuff.
Todd Miller:Absolutely.
Todd Miller:I'm curious, the end use of your greenhouses.
Todd Miller:I mean, food, cannabis, you mentioned the at home kit,
Todd Miller:which I want to hear more about.
Todd Miller:How does your business typically break down as far as what
Todd Miller:those end uses look like?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, you know, per project, it's, it's probably
Josh Holleb:predominantly residential, small commercial, on a number of basis.
Josh Holleb:A lot of people just want to grow food and, you know, especially during COVID,
Josh Holleb:it was kind of wild, but, but we do a lot of smaller greenhouses, you know,
Josh Holleb:we have small kits, 18 foot by 30 foot, you know, which for a backyard is
Josh Holleb:pretty significant, but in the scheme of things, it's small, A lot of 3,
Josh Holleb:000 square foot, single greenhouses for small commercial growers who are
Josh Holleb:kind of feeding their community in places where there's not great food,
Josh Holleb:Revenue wise, you know, it's, a single big project puts all those to shame.
Josh Holleb:We have large ag projects, all over the U.
Josh Holleb:S.
Josh Holleb:And, and we have a bunch of big cannabis projects all over the U.
Josh Holleb:S.
Josh Holleb:Our, our cannabis growers are in Massachusetts, they're in Maine, they're,
Josh Holleb:they're all over the place, places where you wouldn't be able to grow in
Josh Holleb:a greenhouse year round and they're just cranking out product year round.
Todd Miller:Interesting.
Todd Miller:Well, tell us a little bit more.
Todd Miller:You mentioned earlier that you have a, you know, a home kit.
Todd Miller:I think you called it, you know, where it's a house with a greenhouse.
Todd Miller:Tell us a little bit what that looks like and who, who is attracted to that?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, well, so it's, it's a, well, it doesn't feel new to
Josh Holleb:me, but it's a new product for us.
Josh Holleb:We've been working on it for a few years when we had time.
Josh Holleb:It's called Vesta, which is the goddess of hearth and home.
Josh Holleb:We got a theme here.
Josh Holleb:And it's, it's a passive inspired house, with an attached greenhouse.
Josh Holleb:I don't know if you guys know what an earthship is, it
Josh Holleb:might be more of a west thing.
Josh Holleb:But, an earthship is a design that came out of New Mexico.
Josh Holleb:It's rammed earth into tires, and you know, it's this whole crazy thing.
Josh Holleb:And it's cheap to build, but it takes years.
Josh Holleb:But it has an attached greenhouse, it heats it, and it stays cool, and all this.
Josh Holleb:So, our mindset was, how do we take what we have, steel frame, and Insulated
Josh Holleb:panels, same supplier, same supply chain that we're using every day for
Josh Holleb:our greenhouses and change the shape.
Josh Holleb:So it's passive, passive style house.
Josh Holleb:We have appropriate overhangs for shading in the summer on the south
Josh Holleb:facing windows, but allows heat and warmth in, in the winter, attached
Josh Holleb:greenhouse that will heat it in the winter and allows you to grow food.
Josh Holleb:And, we've built one and it's amazing.
Josh Holleb:It's just about done.
Josh Holleb:And, you know, you learn a lot when you build the first one, but we did pretty
Josh Holleb:good considering the clients happy.
Josh Holleb:We're happy.
Josh Holleb:And now we make some tweaks.
Josh Holleb:We're about to build the 2nd 1.
Josh Holleb:But it's a cool remedy for, excessive housing costs and construction
Josh Holleb:is just very expensive right now.
Josh Holleb:And so this, the kit is relatively cheap.
Josh Holleb:It's pre engineered and it's fast to build.
Josh Holleb:I mean, we are dried in shell of a house in 3 weeks.
Josh Holleb:Probably.
Josh Holleb:Yeah.
Josh Holleb:And it's super efficient.
Josh Holleb:So once it's built, you're off, you know, you're, you're going
Josh Holleb:to have small bills, if any bills for the duration of the house.
Josh Holleb:And it's a steel house.
Josh Holleb:So we assume 50, 100 year house.
Josh Holleb:So it's a cool experiment that we're just learning about.
Todd Miller:Well, I love it.
Todd Miller:I mean, I saw it on your website too.
Todd Miller:And, you know, I'm thinking home sweet home.
Todd Miller:I mean, that's, that's, it's a great concept.
Todd Miller:So another thing I heard you say on a podcast that really interested me
Todd Miller:or, or, you know, struck me was that commercially grown food typically
Todd Miller:travels 1500 miles from where it's grown to where it's consumed.
Todd Miller:And, that, that was just pretty staggering for me.
Todd Miller:And I know in some cases, it's probably 4 or 5 thousand miles if it's coming
Todd Miller:out of South America or something.
Todd Miller:But, what do you see as problems with food having to travel that far?
Todd Miller:And why does more local growing make sense to you personally and as a business?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, I mean, it's, it's kind of endless.
Josh Holleb:I get to do a lot of traveling.
Josh Holleb:And I've seen it, you know, I've been in Yuma, Arizona in the winter where
Josh Holleb:all the lettuce comes from all winter.
Josh Holleb:And it's crazy to see it, but then that lettuce has to move.
Josh Holleb:so a, you know, we see it with COVID.
Josh Holleb:We've seen it, you know, if there's a natural disaster, what
Josh Holleb:if the lettuce can't get there?
Josh Holleb:Then you don't have lettuce.
Josh Holleb:You know, it's like, you're just a little bit helpless.
Josh Holleb:The same goes for tomatoes or something that are coming out of Mexico.
Josh Holleb:they're harvested early.
Josh Holleb:They're not so good.
Josh Holleb:I'm huge advocate for eating with the seasons.
Josh Holleb:So maybe we shouldn't be eating tomatoes in the middle of winter, but
Josh Holleb:we can, and we can do it by growing them closer to home, in greenhouses.
Josh Holleb:And so I, I've got, I've just, I have local growers, like I
Josh Holleb:was just in, outside of Madison, Wisconsin, small farm, organic farm.
Josh Holleb:She grows lettuce all winter and sells to restaurants, the chefs love her.
Josh Holleb:I mean, she's the only one producing it, and she doesn't heat the greenhouse, and
Josh Holleb:she doesn't add lights to the greenhouse.
Josh Holleb:She could grow more faster if she did this, more inputs, but she doesn't
Josh Holleb:and she's still able to do it.
Josh Holleb:And, and, you know, when the chefs are like, I want your lettuce, you
Josh Holleb:know, you're doing something right.
Josh Holleb:and then the other thing that like, it's harder to quantify is nutrition.
Josh Holleb:I mean, food matters and food matters because we like the way it
Josh Holleb:tastes, but it fuels our bodies.
Josh Holleb:And, uh, early harvested tomato out of Mexico is less nutritious
Josh Holleb:than a, you know, fully ripened on the vine tomato that you got from
Josh Holleb:15 miles away from the local farm.
Josh Holleb:And at some point, you know, food is medicine and, and we're going to have to
Josh Holleb:start realizing that and and where the food comes from and how long it takes
Josh Holleb:to get to you really is going to matter.
Todd Miller:Wow.
Todd Miller:Well, well you also talk a lot, and I think this kinda leads into that,
Todd Miller:this sense of community that can happen when food is grown locally.
Todd Miller:And, and I know you even have a couple of videos where, people who've bought
Todd Miller:the greenhouses talk about how that that community has sprung up around it.
Todd Miller:Can you expand a little bit on that, you know, what, what that sense of
Todd Miller:community means or how that happens?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, I mean, people want to, people are curious about where their
Josh Holleb:food comes from and when they can go see it, it's very cool for everybody.
Josh Holleb:I mean, we see it more and more now, with schools.
Josh Holleb:So we do a lot of like, a lot of elementary schools, high schools.
Josh Holleb:We're actually in Boulder building a new greenhouse at the main community garden
Josh Holleb:site, which is absolutely the coolest for us because, people garden there.
Josh Holleb:They have their little, you know, whatever 10 foot by 10 foot community
Josh Holleb:garden plots and now they can see this next level of gardening and
Josh Holleb:it's just really about education.
Josh Holleb:And so we've learned that like when the kids are in the greenhouses.
Josh Holleb:It truly is a different world, but they are focused.
Josh Holleb:They are excited about what they're doing, and it's amazing to see it.
Ethan Young:So you talked about some of the benefits of just kind
Ethan Young:of introducing people to growing and growing in greenhouses and stuff.
Ethan Young:What's kind of the comparison from using a greenhouse garden from just typical,
Ethan Young:like outdoor growing, like you're talking about, like community garden plot.
Josh Holleb:I'm personally a huge advocate of having outside
Josh Holleb:garden growing food outside.
Josh Holleb:You know, in most parts of the US and most parts of the world were season
Josh Holleb:seasonally limited to when we can grow outside and what we can grow outside.
Josh Holleb:And so what we can do with the greenhouse, because these are built
Josh Holleb:environments is we can, depending on how many systems we're putting into
Josh Holleb:each greenhouse, some have very few, some have a lot, we can really control
Josh Holleb:the environment to a certain extent.
Josh Holleb:So, in a, in a place that's too hot, we can cool it down potentially
Josh Holleb:to grow lettuce where you normally wouldn't be able to grow lettuce.
Josh Holleb:You can't grow lettuce in Yuma, Arizona in July, but you can in January.
Josh Holleb:and so it's not greenhouse better than outdoor.
Josh Holleb:You know, what we see mostly with outdoor is we are not a soil focused culture.
Josh Holleb:Soil health is, is food health.
Josh Holleb:We grow at such large scale that we're really depleting this soil and then we
Josh Holleb:spray it with stuff to make it grow again.
Josh Holleb:And so it's a whole cycle and it's a whole other conversation.
Josh Holleb:But to be able to supplement with, your own little greenhouse or community
Josh Holleb:greenhouse, is, is a really nice way to diversify where your food comes from.
Todd Miller:I want to talk a little bit more about the construction
Todd Miller:and we, you know, we mentioned because we work with a lot of guys
Todd Miller:who do metal work and so forth.
Todd Miller:So, you know, what's that learning curve for someone to build a greenhouse
Todd Miller:that's never built one before that, you know, is typically using two by
Todd Miller:fours and, all that type of stuff.
Todd Miller:I mean, can they pick up on this fairly quickly?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, it's, it's pretty straightforward.
Josh Holleb:I would, I would actually say it's easier than traditional construction.
Josh Holleb:For the most part, we're using a 14 gauge steel frame that goes
Josh Holleb:together with bolts or tech screws.
Josh Holleb:It's pretty straightforward.
Josh Holleb:Sandwich panel is a screwed on sandwich panel.
Josh Holleb:It's caulk and panels.
Josh Holleb:when you put up a sandwich panel, the interior is finished, the installation
Josh Holleb:is done, the exterior is finished.
Josh Holleb:It's, it's pretty awesome.
Josh Holleb:The roof of our greenhouses, That's not glazing.
Josh Holleb:Same deal.
Josh Holleb:It's interior is finished with metal.
Josh Holleb:The insulation's on and your metal roof is installed, all
Josh Holleb:with a single panel placement.
Josh Holleb:So that's easy.
Josh Holleb:The unique part is usually the glazing installation.
Josh Holleb:That's where a contractor is usually like, I've never done this before.
Josh Holleb:And, and we have detailed drawings and we have architects on staff.
Josh Holleb:We've been doing this for long enough where we're learning
Josh Holleb:what they need to see.
Josh Holleb:And then we walk everyone through the process as well.
Josh Holleb:So in general for construction, it's pretty straightforward.
Josh Holleb:Water in, power in, build the shell, install the systems.
Josh Holleb:For construction, it's pretty easy.
Josh Holleb:It's never easy.
Josh Holleb:Like boots on the ground.
Josh Holleb:It's never easy, but for construction it's relatively easy.
Todd Miller:That's good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, are there any trends that you're seeing or potential
Todd Miller:changes on the horizon?
Todd Miller:I mean, I'm not even sure what this might relate to, but things that you see are
Todd Miller:going to impact the greenhouse industry.
Todd Miller:I mean, obviously, cannabis has been a huge impact.
Todd Miller:Anything else that you're seeing having an impact?
Josh Holleb:Yeah.
Josh Holleb:I mean, cannabis was interesting because it was a bunch of money.
Josh Holleb:quickly, which isn't normal for greenhouse design.
Josh Holleb:And so we got to push some technologies and we learned a lot.
Josh Holleb:And now we get to spread those technologies to other, to other areas.
Josh Holleb:Cannabis has really fallen off from where it was, you know, five, six years
Josh Holleb:ago, as far as how busy it makes us.
Josh Holleb:I think the most exciting thing right now is, is the glazing technologies.
Josh Holleb:We've got some glazings, you know, plants look green because
Josh Holleb:they reflect green light.
Josh Holleb:It's the one light, light spectrum they don't really use.
Josh Holleb:We have glazings that can turn green light into red light.
Josh Holleb:You know, make, you know, it's nanotechnology.
Josh Holleb:It's in the in the glazing.
Josh Holleb:It can change the light spectrum.
Josh Holleb:Mostly that what we're excited about is the infrared blocking
Josh Holleb:or absorbing technologies.
Josh Holleb:Greenhouses overheat.
Josh Holleb:That is just a thing.
Josh Holleb:No matter what in Colorado we get, we need to cool in the middle of the
Josh Holleb:winter when the sun's out when we can deploy a glazing material that will
Josh Holleb:block infrared and especially block it only when we want it to block it.
Josh Holleb:We can cool a greenhouse without any mechanical systems at all,
Josh Holleb:which is a huge energy saver.
Josh Holleb:And our goal is efficiency in growing.
Josh Holleb:And so these are the things I think that we're most excited about.
Todd Miller:I'm curious, are there any particular colleges or universities
Todd Miller:out there that seem to be on the leading edge of, you know, building
Todd Miller:science technology in terms of glazing?
Josh Holleb:Well, CEA is a term controlled environment agriculture,
Josh Holleb:that's kind of a driver in this field.
Josh Holleb:The University of Arizona has a, has a Biosphere.
Josh Holleb:They have a really cool CEA program.
Josh Holleb:And I believe Ohio State University is also doing a lot
Josh Holleb:of really cool work with CEA.
Josh Holleb:And then we're just this little family run organization that's
Josh Holleb:cranking things out on our own.
Josh Holleb:Not, I'm not comparing us to these huge universities by any means.
Josh Holleb:We are a little, we are pretty globally connected, for a commercial business.
Josh Holleb:And so we are able to go around the world and find technologies and then,
Josh Holleb:and then help to make them commercial, which we found to be successful for us.
Josh Holleb:And it, you know, just because we're curious, it keeps us on the
Josh Holleb:cutting edge of what's going on.
Todd Miller:Yeah, and I love that because you guys have that ingenuity
Todd Miller:and that, you know, drive to, to learn things and to go out and find them.
Todd Miller:I know that as I look at building science, you know, I'll see
Todd Miller:certain universities just really also have kind of that passion.
Todd Miller:So, thank you for mentioning a couple and that's cool.
Todd Miller:So, if we had younger folks out there who are intrigued about, You
Todd Miller:know, the greenhouse industry, what advice would you have for them?
Todd Miller:I mean, you know, think of, think of them as you 12 years ago.
Todd Miller:What, what advice would you have for them today?
Josh Holleb:I think it's twofold.
Josh Holleb:the first is to learn plants.
Josh Holleb:You know, in the end, this is all about plants.
Josh Holleb:And so we think so much about the built environment that
Josh Holleb:we're designing and creating.
Josh Holleb:But if you understand what the plants need, you can build a pretty
Josh Holleb:cool building for the plants.
Josh Holleb:The other thing is, is to study it.
Josh Holleb:I think had I known that there's an amazing, CEA program at the University of
Josh Holleb:Arizona, I probably would have made a few different life choices, on my, on my path.
Josh Holleb:or send us an email.
Josh Holleb:We have interns all the time who come work for us and then turn into employees.
Josh Holleb:So if it's something that you're interested in, then I think follow that
Josh Holleb:passion, whether it's through the work or studying buildings or studying the plants.
Todd Miller:so It's been great talking with you, Josh.
Todd Miller:It's been very informative.
Todd Miller:We're close to wrapping up kind of what we call the business end of things.
Todd Miller:Is there anything we haven't covered today that you wanted to
Todd Miller:be sure to share with our audience?
Josh Holleb:You know, I, I mentioned earlier that we do a lot of design and,
Josh Holleb:and I think I just want to reiterate, I probably in building, but definitely in,
Josh Holleb:in the building that we do, Doing the design 1st, before a shovel touches the
Josh Holleb:ground is so important for the building to function the way that you want it to.
Josh Holleb:So we're really design focused because we often see people who
Josh Holleb:are halfway through a project or maybe almost done with a project.
Josh Holleb:It's too hot.
Josh Holleb:It's too cold.
Josh Holleb:It's not doing the thing that we want to do, but they're too late.
Josh Holleb:And so we really try to encourage just like, take the time, do the
Josh Holleb:research, design it appropriately, try not to skimp if you, if you can.
Josh Holleb:And, and make sure the thing you're going to try and do works the way
Josh Holleb:you want it to, because in the end, we want the buildings to work the
Josh Holleb:way you want the buildings to work.
Todd Miller:I love that, and that's part of our advice, too, is figure out
Todd Miller:what it is you want to accomplish, and then kind of back that into whatever
Todd Miller:design or products or whatever it is you need to accomplish that, but
Todd Miller:you set, set those criteria first.
Todd Miller:I love that.
Todd Miller:So, Josh, again, that's been great.
Todd Miller:Before we close out, I do want to ask you if you'd like to participate in something
Todd Miller:we call our rapid fire questions.
Todd Miller:So these are 7 questions.
Todd Miller:Some may be a little silly.
Todd Miller:Some are more serious.
Todd Miller:So, all you have to do is give a quick response to them.
Todd Miller:Are you up to the challenge of rapid fire.
Josh Holleb:Yes, I'm ready.
Todd Miller:Cool.
Todd Miller:We will, trade off asking questions.
Todd Miller:Ethan, you want to ask the first question?
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:I can do this one.
Ethan Young:This is kind of for a fortuitous one, but what's your favorite vegetable?
Josh Holleb:carrot.
Todd Miller:Carrot.
Todd Miller:That's interesting.
Todd Miller:I like, I like roasted carrots.
Todd Miller:We enjoy roasting them.
Todd Miller:That's
Josh Holleb:Yeah, I had to go through, I had to think fruit
Josh Holleb:and vegetable there for a second.
Josh Holleb:I like carrots.
Todd Miller:We roast carrots with radishes, actually, and the
Todd Miller:radishes take on a real sweet taste.
Todd Miller:pretty cool.
Todd Miller:Okay, next question.
Todd Miller:Cat or dog person?
Josh Holleb:definitely dog.
Todd Miller:Dog person.
Todd Miller:That's our most common answer.
Ethan Young:question three.
Ethan Young:Do you have a pet peeve you can share with us?
Josh Holleb:Bad audio.
Josh Holleb:I hope I sound okay.
Todd Miller:You
Ethan Young:that sounds pretty
Ethan Young:good.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Todd Miller:No, you do.
Todd Miller:That's funny, because, Ryan, who does our production, that's, that's
Todd Miller:one of his biggest pet peeves, too.
Josh Holleb:I shoot a lot of videos on my iPhone,
Todd Miller:yeah,
Josh Holleb:but I have a audio setup.
Josh Holleb:So at least it sounds okay.
Josh Holleb:Even if it doesn't look great.
Todd Miller:good for you.
Todd Miller:Well, you're a man after Ryan's heart for sure.
Todd Miller:Um, what do you enjoy most about your work and, you know, about
Todd Miller:what you're doing in your career?
Josh Holleb:it's food focused in the unhealthy food focused.
Josh Holleb:which is cool.
Josh Holleb:I've done this longer than I've done anything else and it's still
Josh Holleb:exciting somehow so I'm on the right, you know 13 years later.
Josh Holleb:I'm on the right track.
Todd Miller:That's cool.
Todd Miller:You think of the lives that you're impacting.
Todd Miller:I love that.
Ethan Young:All right.
Ethan Young:Oh, this is a classic question for us.
Ethan Young:If you had to eat a crayon, what color of crayon would you choose?
Josh Holleb:Ooh, I mean do you go by your favorite color or what
Josh Holleb:you think would taste the best?
Josh Holleb:I guess i'm just gonna go I'm going to go blue because it's kind
Josh Holleb:of my color and maybe it tastes like a blueberry or something.
Ethan Young:Nice.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:We've heard all sorts of reasoning for this one.
Todd Miller:Yes.
Todd Miller:A lot of people say white because it won't show up on their teeth as bad
Josh Holleb:know, appearance isn't my thing.
Josh Holleb:So I didn't even go there.
Todd Miller:Next to last question.
Todd Miller:How long does it take you to get up around and out of the house in the morning?
Todd Miller:Of course, right now, I think your house may be traveling with
Todd Miller:you a little bit, but, how long does that take you in the morning?
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Josh Holleb:I have a two year old now, so it's a little slower
Todd Miller:That changes things.
Josh Holleb:but I can be pretty fast.
Josh Holleb:I mean, I can just make a coffee and be out the door.
Josh Holleb:So it could be 10 minutes,
Todd Miller:Wow.
Todd Miller:That's fast.
Todd Miller:I, I found as I get older, it takes me longer.
Todd Miller:I guess I'm just slower.
Todd Miller:I don't know.
Todd Miller:Your
Josh Holleb:but I don't, you know, I, what I do now is I just wake
Josh Holleb:up earlier and take my time and I still leave at the same time.
Todd Miller:good deal
Ethan Young:All right.
Ethan Young:Last one.
Ethan Young:what has been a new product or service you've purchased recently?
Ethan Young:That was like a game changer for you.
Josh Holleb:I mean.
Josh Holleb:I hate to promote this, Starlink Satellite Internet, assuming this interview is
Josh Holleb:going okay, has been a total game changer.
Josh Holleb:We've been on the road for two months, visiting clients all over the
Josh Holleb:country, having some life experiences, and I can work the entire time,
Josh Holleb:basically flawlessly, because of it.
Todd Miller:I always love it.
Todd Miller:When someone in their community sees the Starlink satellite go over
Todd Miller:for the first time at night and they're like, we're being taken over.
Todd Miller:What is that all about?
Todd Miller:Yeah, don't worry.
Todd Miller:It's just Starlink.
Todd Miller:It's good.
Josh Holleb:Well, I don't know if we don't, I don't know if you need
Josh Holleb:to worry or not worry, but I do know that on the day to day, it allows
Josh Holleb:me to have internet in weird places.
Todd Miller:Cool.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you again, Josh.
Todd Miller:This has been great.
Todd Miller:for folks who may want to get in touch with you or learn more
Todd Miller:about, Ceres Greenhouse Solutions, how can they most easily do that?
Josh Holleb:Yeah, our, our web address is www.
Josh Holleb:ceresgs, that's C E R E S G S dot com.
Josh Holleb:Ton of information on that website.
Josh Holleb:And again, we're a small company, so just send an email through the website
Josh Holleb:and it will either get to me or the person who can best answer your question.
Todd Miller:Yeah, you guys got some great content out there
Todd Miller:and I love some of your videos.
Todd Miller:They're, they're very inspirational.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Josh Holleb:Thank you.
Todd Miller:Well, okay.
Todd Miller:I think we all made it through our challenge words.
Todd Miller:Ethan, your word was
Ethan Young:Mine was fortuitous and I kind of waited a while, but
Ethan Young:I think I had an all right spot.
Todd Miller:got it in there.
Todd Miller:I
Todd Miller:should have switched up the order of the questions.
Todd Miller:That would have thrown you,
Todd Miller:Josh, your word was
Josh Holleb:Camel.
Todd Miller:camel.
Todd Miller:You worked it in there.
Todd Miller:Well,
Ethan Young:Very good.
Todd Miller:And I had home sweet home, which I worked in there.
Josh Holleb:It was great.
Josh Holleb:Seamless.
Todd Miller:well, thank you again.
Todd Miller:Um, Josh has been great
Josh Holleb:Yep.
Josh Holleb:Thank you guys.
Josh Holleb:That was fun.
Todd Miller:And thank you for tuning into this very special episode of
Todd Miller:construction disruption with Josh Holleb of Ceres Greenhouse Solutions.
Todd Miller:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Todd Miller:We're always blessed with fantastic guests.
Todd Miller:Don't forget to leave a review on Apple podcast or YouTube.
Todd Miller:Till the next time we're together, keep on challenging, keep on disrupting,
Todd Miller:looking for better ways of doing things.
Todd Miller:And above all, don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter.
Todd Miller:Just make their life a little bit better.
Todd Miller:So God bless and take care.
Todd Miller:This is Isaiah industry signing off until the next episode
Todd Miller:of Construction Disruption.