I am very pleased to have recently ‘upgraded my hard hat’ to PC Construction. It has been a pleasure to discover the depth of services and professionalism that PC offers. Our team really strives to go above and beyond for our customers!
For those of you who haven’t met me yet, I am the new Business Development Director working with clients in the Commercial, Education, Hospitality & Resort, and Manufacturing & Industrial construction markets. I am a licensed Professional Engineer and have a BSCE from Bucknell University. For the past 32 years, I have held leadership, strategic planning, business development, and engineering positions for various construction and engineering firms in the northeast. I advise small businesses and am active in the community, currently serving as a board member on Vermont Electric Company, Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, and Dartmouth Regional Technical Center. Additionally, I serve on two Governor-appointed boards: Vermont Economic Progress Council and the Workforce Development Council.
I am excited and proud to represent PC Construction. My goal is to strengthen current relationships with our clients and design professionals, as well as to introduce PC to new clients. PC Construction has significant expertise and I am looking forward to offering ‘above and beyond’ solutions to our clients.
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At PC Construction, our core values are pretty simple. We, the employee owners of PC, are committed to:
- Excellence in all we do
- DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL VALUE TO
OUR CUSTOMERS AND SHAREHOLDERS
- Personal and professional growth
- Uncompromised integrity
- Zero Accidents—No Excuses
Each of these values is important to the company in a different way. Delivering exceptional value to our customers allows us to form successful relationships which translate to positive experiences, a greater chance for successful projects, and a foot in the door for future work with clients. A satisfied client spreads the word about a job well done and a construction partner that is second to none.
When the 2011 Kilbourn-Sawyer Award was presented to Project Superintendent John Lavoie in 2011, there was a lot of talk about John’s commitment to the client and the resulting positive impacts. We decided to sit down with John and get his take on the importance of customer service.
In the eyes of John Lavoie:
To me customer service means that the client is satisfied with our output every day and has confidence in the work we do. If you truly sell that service, it pays dividends in the end when they get the project they deserve and we are asked back for additional work.
When we were selected for the UVM George D. Aiken Center project, my UVM representative said he planned to be on the jobsite 40 hours each week. In the end, I saw him maybe 16 hours out of the week. My three-week look-ahead schedule was so detailed that he understood from his own desk what was happening on the job at any given time. He was so confident in our ability to deliver that he was able to concentrate on his other projects without having to worry about ours. To me, that’s customer service.
John Lavoie, Project Superintendent, on the site of the UVM George D. Aiken Center Addition and Renovation project, which is now completed and occupied by students
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Participants in our Leadership Development Program (LDP) met in Washington, DC, for the annual LDP Academy, a two-day event that provides technical learning opportunities while encouraging networking and the sharing of lessons learned and challenges. Highlights of the Academy included presentations by PC Construction managers and executives as well as a tour of the DC Water Slurry Wall and Tankage project.
The Academy also focused on the sharing of experiences, tools, and ideas between the participants. Office Engineer Todd Riordan said, “I found the LDP conference to be an incredibly useful experience both from a team building standpoint and as an idea tank for ways in which we can help shape the company.”
Dating back nearly 40 years, our Leadership Development Program is one of a kind, providing entry level construction professionals with a flexible learning and development plan to guide their career in construction. The program builds upon the technical aptitude they gained previously in the college classroom setting by pairing it with on-the-job experiences and coaching from skilled construction professionals. Click here to learn more about our Leadership Development Program.
We are also pleased to welcome the newest addition to our Leadership Development Program – Mike Keenan. Mike is a 2010 graduate of Wentworth Institute of Technology and is currently in his office engineering rotation on the UOSA Nutrient Compliance Facilities project in Centreville, Virginia. Congratulations, Mike!
Participants of the Leadership Development Program pause for a photo during a site tour as part of the annual LDP Academy
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Construction is nearing completion on the Colby College Central Heating Plant Expansion project in Waterville, Maine. During the planning stages of this project, Colby College was adamant about reducing their carbon footprint. As a result, they selected a biomass boiler system provided by CHIPTEC Wood Energy Systems. They also opted for two equally sized systems to ensure complete redundancy, thereby dramatically reducing their use of fossil fuels.
The CHIPTEC gasification system produces gas from the clean wood fuel which is then oxidized in a boiler to produce high pressure steam for cogeneration of heat and power that is used on campus. The gasifiers were each coupled to a new high pressure steam boiler. The equipment was installed by The Cote Corporation, working for Johnson & Jordan, Inc., through a window opening in the south wall of the new Central Heating Plant building. Click here to see a time-lapse video of the installation.
The use of this technology allows for Colby College to:
- Reduce their carbon foot print
- Reduce their dependency on fossil fuels by roughly 90%
- Support the local economy by purchasing approximately 22,000 tons of locally produced wood fuel
- Continue to cogenerate electricity in the Central Heating Plant
- Save thousands of dollars per year: estimates suggest the facility will pay for itself in 6 to 10 years.
- Fix and reduce long term operation cost
- Some of the major advantages of the Chiptec technology include:
- High turn down capacity(allows for efficient operation I low load situations)
- Ability to burn green and dry fuels
- Easy ash removal system
- High fuel efficiency
- Low emissions
- Ability to idle cleanly and efficiently in low load periods
- Soot free combustion
- Reduce green house gases
- Fix and reduce long term operation cost
Installation of the gasifiers represented a major milestone in the construction of this project. PC and Colby look forward to the 2012 heating season, when the true benefits of the new biomass expansion project begin to be recognized!
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Since 2005, I have had the pleasure of participating on the board of the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross. This organization is particularly important to me because in a crisis the Red Cross is often the first agency on site providing aid and assistance to those in need. This was never more apparent to than during Tropical Storm Irene.
One of their events I really enjoy is the Bears and Friends campaign. During the holiday season, Mary Meyers stuffed animals are offered for sale with all funds raised supporting the mission of the Red Cross. When I decided to launch this campaign at PC Construction last year, Maureen O’Brien, our Controller, had a great idea. She suggested we give people the option to keep their purchased bear or donate it to the Lund Family Center – supporting two causes with one good deed!
Our employees really embraced the giving spirit. This year 88 bears were purchased and Maureen delivered 50 of those to the Lund Family Center yesterday. In response to the delivery, Kitty Bartlett of the Lund Family Center said, “With these stuffed animals, we will have enough to match each child being adopted in the next year with an adoption day gift.”
Thank you to everyone for your support. Happy holidays to you all and best wishes for a safe and healthy New Year.
Photo provided by the American Red Cross
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PC Construction has worked for Gwinnett County on several large treatment plant projects over the last decade, most notably at F. Wayne Hill WRF, Crooked Creek WRF, and Yellow River WRF. The current team on the Yellow River WRF construction project decided that it was time to give back to the local community by pitching in to help Gwinnett County Habitat for Humanity. They were seeking professional help on multiple projects. The Yellow River team, under the direction of PC’s Project Executive Rick Fisher and Senior Project Manager Bob Huie, selected a 1960s block home not far from the Yellow River jobsite.
PC supplied labor and material to install new interior walls, trusses, roof decking, gables, dormers, and shingles. Gwinnett County Habitat for Humanity did not feel that their normal volunteer core would be able to handle the construction of the new roof. It was a challenge even for PC’s skilled carpenters because the house was over two inches out of level and the top of the walls had to be built up prior to setting the trusses. PC also contributed the abatement of 40 cubic yards of asbestos material.
The home will be completed by early January for a single mother of 2.
Special thanks go to: Rick Fisher, Bob Huie, Wayne Delong, Kristin Wilson, Alta Fonseca, Jennifer Damico, Vickie Russell, Oni Ramirez, Mark Dunigan, Hector Zaragoza, Marcial Calzada, Manuel Ramirez Ruiz, Merlin Yanes, Uvaldo Flores, Helmer Victorio, Alejandro Ramirez, Nathan Cobb, Eric Carrera, Adelfito Ramirez, and Rene Belanger of PC Construction as well as Jim Grum of Jacobs Engineering.
All of these people and some very hard work led to a major step in providing a good home for a deserving family. I know that for me it was a pleasure to be involved with such a meaningful project.
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Struvite is a naturally occurring crystal of magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate. It’s composition is very similar to that of a kidney stone. Imagine millions of these stones in a pipeline, restricting flow and gradually decreasing the inside diameter of a pipe – one can see how this could be problematic.
Struvite has been a problem for wastewater treatment plants and collection systems for generations. And with the newer advanced Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) processes that concentrate phosphorous and nitrogen, it is becoming an ever increasing burden to utilities.
A company called Ostara invented a process to remove the Struvite from the wastewater stream and turn it into clean and green fertilizer. Ostara’s Pearl® process precipitates, concentrates, and recovers the phosphates from the waste stream by using a fluidized bed reactor to recover Struvite in the form of highly pure crystalline pellets or “prills”. The “prills” are collected, packaged, and marketed as commercial fertilizer called Crystal Green®.
Benefits of the Pearl® process include:
- Removes up to 90% of the phosphorous and 40% of a plant’s ammonia loads
- Generates a revenue stream for utilities
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduces nutrient loads
- Reduces sludge volumes
This is truly a win-win technology for utilities.
Accumulated Struvite in Pipeline
Pelletized “Prills” for fertilizer
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It is that time of year when most of us are knee-deep in strategic planning initiatives for the year ahead. While the design and construction economy is more difficult than most of us can remember, economic difficulties do provide an opportunity to rethink and reposition a firm’s unique strengths in an effort to gain a competitive advantage.
In this article I define strategy and some of its elements. I’m guessing the definition may create angst for some because of the quantity of varying definitions for strategy floating around in the business world. I settled on a particular definition after extensive research and an attempt to tie my findings into the design and construction environment.
A Definition of Strategy
The definition of strategy I found to make the most sense for our industry comes from Michael Porter. His conception is that strategy is about making decisions that uniquely position a firm to gain a competitive advantage. For construction professionals, strategy guides the firm toward winning profitable work and winning more work year after year. For strategic decisions to bear fruit on a continuous basis, decisions made about positioning the firm must also align such things as goals, initiatives, policies, the day-to-day actions of employees, and the objectives of the firm.
Objectives
An objective is something a firm works to attain. A statement like “Our objective is to…” or “Our objectives are to…” is simple, clean, and easy for people to understand. Your firm may have one objective or several, but probably should have no more than three or four.
Goals
A goal is a type of objective that is quantifiable and measurable. Sales goals, revenue goals, margin goals, and productivity goals fall into this category. They align with objectives and help employees determine if initiatives are having the desired result.
Initiative and Action
The rubber meets the road with initiatives and actions. Initiatives are projects, so to speak, embarked on to achieve the objectives and goals. If your firm’s employees identify with the word projects better than the word initiatives, by all means, call them projects or strategic projects. There are three important elements of an initiative:
- Initiatives align with objectives, goals, or both.
- The description of an initiative must be detailed so the team understands and agrees on what is to be accomplished – what is the desired end state of the initiative.
- Each initiative needs a project manager to lead the team tasked with accomplishing the initiative.
Actions
Actions are the detailed steps needed to accomplish an initiative. Actions are the activities, so to speak, on a project schedule. Just like activities on a schedule, actions should have a start and end date, a description, and the required resources.
Don’t get caught in the trap of attempting to accomplish objectives, goals, and initiatives on an annual cycle. Just because the overall plan is formally reviewed once a year doesn’t mean it is necessary to craft a new plan each year. Objectives and goals tend to stay the same for several or even many years. Simple initiatives may take weeks to accomplish while more complex initiatives may take years to accomplish.
In the next post I will review some ideas about simple versus complex initiatives and why they should be treated differently. I will also present some thoughts on the age-old argument about what is strategic versus what is tactical.
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Last night I was proud to stand up with my team and accept the AGC/Vermont Best Builders Award in the Green Construction Renovation category for our work on The University of Vermont George D. Aiken Center Addition and Renovation project. I truly enjoyed working with a client so dedicated to sustainability on the largest higher educational campus in the State of Vermont, and the results of the team’s combined efforts certainly show.
There are so many unique features associated with this project for the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Over 37,000 feet was renovated and a 2,300 square foot solarium was added to increase natural light and house the Eco-machine which purifies the building’s grey water for reuse. Throughout the construction process, approximately 85% (1220 tons) of construction waste was diverted from the landfill. Other green features incorporated into the design of this project include:
- Low or no VOC sealers and adhesives
- Waterless/low-flow plumbing fixtures
- A green roof which allows for the capability to test micro-watershed strategies for stormwater management
- A high performance building envelope and windows for occupant comfort
- Enhanced natural ventilation and natural lighting
- Environmental/energy monitoring systems to provide data via the web
- 66% of all wood for the project came from FSC certified vendors. The wood used for the millwork on the project was harvested from UVM’s research forest in Jericho
The most challenging aspect of construction was the building envelope. The design, which had never been constructed before, represents energy performance over 40% more efficient than ASHRAE standards. Part of the submittal process included development of a matrix where 23 products, installed or applied by six subcontractors, were verified for compatibility. Prior to construction, hundreds of hours were spent constructing a mockup of the proposed design for review and coordination. Once construction began, dimensional inconsistencies in the existing building were discovered that resulted in modification of several construction details. Our efforts paid off when Air Leakage Compliance testing performed upon completion of construction identified leakage rates 25% lower than the goal.
PC worked with 25 subcontractors on the Aiken renovation and their efforts on the project also deserve recognition. UVM and the LEED consultant for the project will be making the final submission to Green Building Certification Institute in 2012, which should result in a LEED Platinum certification. The Rubenstein School faculty and students will be moving into their newly renovated building in early January – we hope they are as excited about their new facility as we are!
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Our Director of Flight Operations, Don Ingham, has had a major goal throughout his 41 years with the company – to fly into all of the lower 48 states on company-assigned missions. On November 22, he was finally able to put a big check on his to-do list when the wheels of the PC jet touched down at Tulsa’s Riverside Airport in Oklahoma, the last of the 48 states needed to accomplish his own personal goal. Not one to bask in the glory of success, Don is already working toward his next objective – logging 25,000 hours of flight time, which he expects to reach next year.
Pilot Tom Randall congratulates Director of Flight Operations Don Ingham after landing in Oklahoma and accomplishing his career goal
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I am very pleased to have recently ‘upgraded my hard hat’ to PC Construction. It has been a pleasure to discover the depth of services and professionalism that PC offers. Our team really strives to go above and beyond for our customers!