Lou Cripps

Books

I wrote Building an Asset Management Team and Legacy before I joined Jacobs. They reflect my own views.

Building an Asset Management Team

Ruth Wallsgrove and Lou Cripps. Independently published, 2020.

At the time of writing, Ruth Wallsgrove was Principal Consultant at AMCL and Lou Cripps was Senior Manager of RTD's Asset Management Division.

A practical guide for anyone who has to stand up or strengthen an infrastructure asset management function. It tackles who you need and why you need them. Long term, coordinated asset plans take real skill: business understanding, broad technical knowledge of the assets, analysis, and strong facilitation and communication. You will rarely find all of that in one person. It is easier, and better, to build a complementary team. Useful if you are writing the business case for an asset management team, deciding where it sits in your structure, or working out how to attract and keep the right people.

Legacy: A Decision-Maker's Guide to Infrastructure

Ruth Wallsgrove and Lou Cripps. Independently published, May 2025.

What kind of legacy are you leaving behind? Legacy is written for the people who carry the weight of infrastructure decisions: board and council members, executives, and public works directors. It is not a technical manual. It sets out eight core principles for strategic, budget and project decisions on infrastructure, followed by implementation guidance and ready to use frameworks. Infrastructure is a tool for communities, not an end in itself. Operating costs, risk and service levels outlast any ribbon cutting.

Working draft

The Farm Operating System

Practical Asset Management for Small Farms and Homesteads

Lou Cripps

Forthcoming, early 2027

The Farm Operating System: Practical Asset Management for Small Farms and Homesteads

Lou Cripps. Forthcoming, early 2027. Forrest Hollow Enterprises LLC.

Every farm, no matter its size, is a system of systems: water, power, access, buildings, equipment, land and people. The Farm Operating System brings the discipline that cities, transit agencies and utilities use to manage their assets down to the scale of a small farm or homestead, in plain language, with a companion binder and workbook. Developed and tested at Forrest Hollow Farm. It is built around the minimum effective dose principle: do the least that reliably works, then strengthen the practice when the stakes justify it, through three application levels (minimum effective dose, recommended practice, and expanded).

The current working structure, not final, is an eight-chapter core followed by 23 full chapters in six parts. The eight core chapter titles are being finalized.