In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, host Todd Miller and co-host Ethan Young engage with Josh Holleb, Systems Integration Specialist at Ceres Greenhouse Solutions. They delve into the world of greenhouse construction, discussing the design, engineering, and significant innovations in greenhouses that positively impact sustainable agriculture and local food production.
Josh offers insights into the technologies that differentiate Ceres from competitors, the benefits of local food systems, and how Ceres is expanding its reach globally. He also shares about Ceres' new residential kit greenhouses and the importance of proper design in building efficient structures. This conversation is a must-watch for those interested in sustainable building practices and the future of agriculture.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:47 Today's Topic: Greenhouses and Grow Houses
01:19 Guest Introduction: Josh Holleb from Ceres Greenhouse Solutions
01:43 Ceres Greenhouse Solutions: Scope and Operations
04:58 Greenhouse Technology and Innovations
05:59 Company Growth and Market Expansion
07:57 Geographic Footprint and Global Projects
09:25 Glazing Technology and Its Benefits
11:00 End Uses and Market Segments
12:13 Vesta: The Home Kit with an Attached Greenhouse
14:17 Local Food Production and Community Impact
17:48 Greenhouse vs. Outdoor Growing
19:03 Construction and Building Greenhouses
20:31 Future Trends and Innovations in Greenhouses
23:26 Advice for Aspiring Greenhouse Enthusiasts
24:27 Final Thoughts and Design Importance
25:42 Rapid Fire Questions
29:28 Conclusion and Contact Information
Connect with Josh Online
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-holleb-ceresgs/
Website: https://ceresgs.com/
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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.