Hudson Pacific Selects Safehub to Bring Peace of Mind to Earthquake Response

Shaking Up Traditional Earthquake Monitoring

As Li examined Hudson Pacific’s properties to prepare for the new earthquake response program, she and her team recognized that additional sensors would be required. Some properties relied on plumb bobs to measure changes in the building’s movement during an earthquake, but others relied solely upon visual inspections after an event.

The goal for Li and her team was to gain real-time intelligence into the effect of earthquakes on Hudson Pacific’s properties. By accelerating these insights, Hudson Pacific’s engineers could deploy their resources to where they were needed most to ensure tenant and occupant safety and support asset preservation.

“I am fortunate to be part of a company that values tenant and occupant safety and asset preservation, so it wasn’t hard for me to convince my team that Safehub was a great addition to our emergency response program.” -Belinda Li, Director of Corporate Engineering & Sustainability, Hudson Pacific Properties

When one of the building engineers mentioned Safehub’s solution, Li instantly recognized that a fleet of simple-to-install, scalable IoT sensors providing real-time data would provide significant value for their new earthquake response program.

Piloting Real-Time Monitoring at Hudson Pacific Properties

Hudson Pacific first piloted Safehub in one of their properties in mid-2021. With six sensors automatically sending back real-time data to Li and the team of engineers, they could easily envision this solution becoming a cornerstone of their earthquake response program.

Safehub’s automatic notifications now provide peace of mind to Hudson Pacific and the tenants and occupants of their buildings. With instant access to real-world risk assessment data for each building after an earthquake, Hudson Pacific can prioritize where to send their engineering resources to inspect potential damage.

“One of the features that I value the most right now is automatic notifications, because it’s very reassuring after an earthquake to get a list of our properties showing what’s high risk or low risk to help focus our inspection priority.” – Belinda Li, Director of Corporate Engineering & Sustainability, Hudson Pacific Properties

Scaling Safehub Sensors to Save Time and Resources for Hudson Pacific

With a successful pilot completed, Li and her team began scaling Safehub’s solution to their properties in phases. The first phase implemented between 2021 and 2022 successfully rolled out 115 sensors across 42 properties, and the planned second phase will place 35 sensors across 14 more properties.

The most challenging part of the implementation process was finding time for the busy building engineers to perform the installation. Once they had the time, the team was easily able to deploy the sensors by following Safehub’s video installation guide. They were able to get the sensors up and running quickly thanks to the clear instructions and plug-and-play simplicity of the solution.

It was so simple, in fact, that most of the deployment was done remotely, without any on-site assistance from Safehub’s team. But when an issue did arise with connectivity, a Safehub representative was at the property working directly with Hudson Pacific’s building engineers to quickly provide a diagnosis and solution.

“Safehub’s team has kept me well-informed on which sensors are online or offline, and it has made things very easy for me and my team.”-Belinda Li, Director of Corporate Engineering & Sustainability, Hudson Pacific Properties

Now, with so many properties monitored by Safehub’s solution, Li is able to quickly communicate with key stakeholders in the event of an incident. The platform’s visual maps are particularly helpful as they form their regional earthquake response plans.

Thankfully, there haven’t been any large earthquakes to address for Li and Hudson Pacific since implementing the new system. In one case, they recorded a distant 4.5 magnitude earthquake with Safehub’s data and were able to save time and resources by making the informed decision not to send engineers out to inspect a building that their data categorized as low-risk.

Li and Hudson Pacific look forward to continuing their partnership with Safehub, deploying the solution to more properties and utilizing more features like estimated loss and damage reports that will help deliver enhanced peace of mind in the face of risk and catastrophe.