It’s also one of the public spaces where you’re allowed to go on your own and participate as a member of the community in your town or neighbourhood.

Beyond our local branch or even beyond our local place in history, libraries in one form or another have existed around the world for as long as people have been writing their thoughts into books. As the saying goes, “knowledge is power,” so empires through the centuries have amassed elaborate libraries to not only collect accumulated knowledge, but to let everyone else know just how enlightened they were. More often than not, though, these collections of books and writings were not open to the mass public. That would come later.

For instance, in America, it’s a bit up for debate as to which is the first public library. Some contenders are the library from Peterborough, New Hampshire, which was the first library funded through public taxes and opened in 1833. The Darby Free Library in Pennsylvania has been in continuous service since 1793 and the Boston Public Library opened in 1854, with residents of Massachusetts allowed to borrow from its collection.

But while all these things sound good, that was a long time ago – what about the internet? What about Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and other sites? Aren’t these today’s go-to sources for information?

On the surface, libraries may seem a little quaint and maybe even past their time. But, in an analysis of libraries in the U.S. by the Pew Research Center, it turns out that millennials use libraries more than other generations. So, even though we have the internet out there, many people are still coming to libraries, both in person and online.

In an article for the Places Journal, Shannon Mattern, Professor of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York, writes, “People turn to libraries to access the internet, take a GED [high school general education diploma] class, get help with a résumé or job search and seek referrals to other community resources.”

In many ways, libraries are social integrators as well as sources of information for everyone. But all of this doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

As the internet, technology and libraries converge, the question becomes, how does the physical space enable public access to technological and social resources?

This design question is really an identity question. Are libraries just another provider of information in a sea of information providers or are they something more? What makes libraries different?

All of this is really a new spin on a very old concept. Societies need spaces that everyone can come to, regardless of their background, to research, learn and discover, and today this includes providing the latest computer technology to everyone. Today’s local libraries boast podcast studios, robotic book-retrieval, 3D printing services, and video game development labs, and these are just some of the ways that libraries are changing and adapting to what patrons are interested in.

For example, North Carolina State University’s James B. Hunt Jr. Library features technology zones including interactive and HD video screens that appear throughout the building for promoting creative spaces and thinking, bringing together the traditional concepts of a library, learning and information with new ways to apply what they learn in the actual library building.

In addition to the main areas of a library where people traditionally go to visit, connecting spaces also have relevance to library programming, personnel and visitors. Hallways can express the character of the library, whether through art or simply making the space wide enough for a message board and casual gathering space. Using this concept of flow, the Arabian Library in Scottsdale, Arizona feels more like a retail store or comfy lounge than a library. The intent of this was to encourage young people to borrow more books through convenient, self-serve kiosks as they pass through the library.

Of course, one of the most sudden changes that we have just lived through is the pandemic. In fact, libraries are really just in reaction mode at the moment. The long-term question that needs to be answered is what their role will be and how they will create spaces to make their future operations most effective. How do you encourage discovery and learning while maintaining social distancing requirements?

Amanda Markovic, architect and associate at GBBN Architects in Cincinnati, talks about how the virus is shaping the way we think about the spaces in libraries in American Libraries Magazine. “This won’t last forever, but there’s a possibility that it will happen again,” she says of the pandemic. “I think ensuring there’s flexibility, making sure there aren’t as many hard walls to allow for expansion and contraction, will be necessary when these things arise.”

At least for the near future, health concerns will be part of the conversation when thinking about how to design libraries and other public spaces. Considerations include flexibility in how spaces can be used for more than one purpose, how easy is it to keep spaces clean and how buildings can provide safety and quality of experience for the people who visit libraries.

In many ways it’s answering the question of, “what will the future look like?” that creates the biggest challenge for libraries. Building for the future means taking advantage of the latest concepts, but also thinking about what will be important to people 10 or more years out. A clue in all this may be the way modern office buildings are being constructed. More and more of these buildings are designed to be multipurpose and use smart technology to deliver greater efficiency and value. The Austin Central Library, for example, uses natural light to illuminate the space. And for the hot months when droughts hit, the building has a 373,000-gallon rainwater system that captures the rain that falls on the roof of the building.

Green innovations, smart features, access to technology, and flexibility in the design of interior space will continue to shape the environments in our future libraries. But in all of these the goal will be same: to bring people together, whether they are there to learn, connect with others, or just relax and quietly read a book.

The post By The Books<p class="company">New Spaces, New Roles for Public Libraries</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Case in point is the incredible main library of the San Francisco Public Library, located downtown in the Marshall Square Civic Centre. The building features elements of the past and the city’s famously progressive nature and spoiler alter – it’s a complete stunner.

Completed in 1996 after three years of construction, the main library is an impressive 375,000 square feet, twice the size of its predecessor. The construction ended up costing nearly $105 million, funded through a combination of bonds and private donations.

The most dramatic feature? A massive skylight at the centre that spirals upward, allowing the natural light to reach down through the five floors of the central atrium.

The building boasts meeting rooms that can accommodate 544 people and an auditorium with 235 seats. Overall, the main branch has the capacity to seat just over 2,000 people. It sees an average of 1.7 million a visitors a year.

The main branch opened at an interesting time. Back in 1996, the internet moved from a relatively new and limited resource for information into people’s homes through America Online (including the funny noises as the internet was piped through phone lines). From there, the internet advanced exponentially through broadband and then was taken everywhere through mobile devices.

All these advances had implications for all aspects of our lives, but directly impacted libraries. Before the internet was everywhere, it was libraries that were the place to go to for research, reading and getting questions answered. But, for many libraries in the age of the Web 2.0 and beyond, the question is, where do they fit in?

In a recent American Libraries Magazine article, Susan Nemitz, director of Santa Cruz Public Libraries in California, talks about the important bridge that libraries provide in their communities. “We find that more and more, our community is isolated. We’ve been moving from being a warehouse of books to being a social connector.”

This concept of being an integrator for a community has long been a part of the San Francisco Public Library philosophy. In 2009, the library became the first to bring in a full-time social worker, Leah Esguerra. In an interview with NPR, she talked about the unique situation of working in a library.

“There was no blueprint. The public library is not a traditional setting for a social worker,” says Esguerra. And coming out of the pandemic, challenges with mental health and homelessness in particular are becoming more prevalent.

“I walk around and try to talk to people who might be experiencing homelessness,” she says. “We never ask them directly, but I would just come up to them and say, ‘I don’t know if you’re aware but there are social services here.’”

When it comes to programming, the main library has a broad outreach, with workshops and readings in multiple languages, art exhibits, speaker series and a variety of accessibility resources.

Integrated, flexible spaces in the San Francisco main library are part of the building’s makeup and help facilitate these programs. The interior layout is centered on that impressive open staircase in the atrium that is 60 feet in diameter. As you climb up, you will see the glass-enclosed periodicals reading room.

Throughout this space, bridges link the different areas of the library, providing access to both online resources as well as the three million books that are available to check out. The interior design earned architect firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners an Interiors Award when the main library opened in 1996.

On the outside, there are different faces to the library depending on which street you are walking on. The two symmetrical façades of the library facing the Civic Center feature a sierra white granite that is the same used for other civic buildings in the city set in the Beaux-Arts style. The other two façades that face the commercial district are more contemporary by contrast, reflecting the technology-driven enterprises in the heart of Silicon Valley. And being a significant building in California, the main library is also designed to withstand earthquakes.

It may sound like a lot to ask to be able to withstand one of nature’s most devastating events, but there are principles that go into resisting the effects of an earthquake. The first is building a foundation on top of pads that actually separate the building from the ground. Then you want to dampen the destructive seismic energy emitted by an earthquake. The engineering for this structural technique was developed by NASA to dampen the force of rockets launched into space. Fluid-based systems absorb some of the force to reduce the impact to the building.

Once steps are taken to reduce the impact of an earthquake, the building itself needs to be reinforced to help withstand a sudden impact. The design principles here are to place rigid joints in strategic spots while allowing other parts of the building to move. The ‘bend, don’t break’ principle is applied to choice of construction materials. In this case, structural steel has the strength to support buildings in normal times but also the flexibility to give but not snap when an earthquake strikes.

The main library building itself is set on 142 base isolators that are made with rubber layers between stainless steel ones that dampen the vibrations. In fact, the building is engineered to provide resistance to earthquakes up to an 8.3 magnitude, and in the event of a sudden shock, there is an 18-inch ring around the building that actually allows the library building to move independently from the ground.

And whether it is the protection the structure provides, or the architectural principles that are applied to the shape and the space of the building both within and without, the key is how all of these elements work together to create a great experience for visitors and patrons.

The library’s multipurpose teen space, called The Mix, is a nearly 5,000-square-foot section designed by youth in collaboration with an architect. It has a quiet space for chilling with laptops and books, a room for board games, a music studio where you can record on guitar and keyboard, a maker space, study nooks and video games on a massive projector. The whiteboard on the wall posts activities like a creative writing group and book club. Programs are all free and open to drop-ins.

In fact, the library earned the prestigious national Library of the Year Award in 2018 that recognizes innovation and service.

A library, after all, really is an oasis from the whirl of cities and a place that people go to feel safe and learn more. While the San Francisco main library may mean different things to different people, the design of the building makes it adaptable to accommodate the diverse community that it’s built to serve.

The post Community Hub<p class="company">Building the San Francisco Public Library</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Established in 2002, davisREED is a general contractor operating from California, though projects have taken the team across the country. With its headquarters in San Diego and offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Palm Desert, and Napa, its diversity is its strength and the reason it continues to overcome market ebbs and flows.

Despite enduring two major recessions, davisREED remains competitive: it has the talent and the experience to service both the private and the public sectors with projects in hospitality, commercial office, public works, education, mixed-use and multi-family residential.

When the company got its start, through the good years between 2002 and 2007, it took full advantage of the hospitality boom that brought a number of four- and five-star projects its way, but the global financial crisis between 2007 and 2008 certainly had an impact. As a result, it moved away from private sector work in favor of public-financed projects between 2009 and 2014.

As happens in the market, the next two years saw the return of the private sector, and davisREED, quick on its feet, enjoyed newfound success in the hospitality, multi-family, and tech-end-user sectors with several renovation projects in addition to new construction projects.

Strength and growth
Between 2016 and the present, each of the geographic regions the company serves has remained strong. Leveraging this market potential, davisREED has found ways to grow both its market share and its physical footprint. In 2017 it was the eighth fastest-growing company in San Diego with over 500 percent revenue growth in three years and it entered the Napa market.

“Talking about growth, sometimes you’re diversifying but you’re not growing,” noted President Derek Davis. “You’re growing in different directions to maintain because things cycle, so as hospitality drops off, affordable housing picks up and you know design-build schools pick up. Office buildings and tenant improvement projects drop off. It’s all part of the cycle.”

Building on relationships established in Napa, in 2019 davisREED acquired Ledcor Group’s Napa office and expanded its team by 20 people, growing its capabilities and expertise to undertake projects at wineries, historical renovations, and other local work.

More recently, the COVID pandemic posed a unique set of challenges for the company, as it did for every other business across sectors and geographies. The most important was obviously compliance related to ensure that company people were safe and its projects safeguarded.

Davis explains what the main issues and outcome were: “Operational issues, execution in the field, health and safety, regulations, process, tracing, temperature testing – in construction, people in the field are used to working in an environment of lots of OSHA rules and regulations. So once proper procedures were established, people fell in line and the process was efficient and there was excellent compliance.” For him, the company’s success was due to a combination of being lucky and having good processes.

Unfortunately, for davisREED and the market as a whole, the challenges stemming from COVID didn’t stop there, as supply chain constraints and project viability threatened existing and future projects, especially from a financing perspective.

“We had two projects that were affected much like in 2008 when Lehman went down and the rug was just ripped from underneath the projects,” Davis says. “We started one project in January and just a couple months into it, it was suspended. It takes a while to right the ship and turn in another direction. It’s not like $80 million projects grow on trees.”

Window of opportunity
As it typically does, when the private sector doors close, a public sector window opens and again, davisREED was able to pivot and take advantage of market opportunities which presented themselves in the affordable housing sector as well as branded residential.

“There’s already a pretty formative movement into affordable housing in California, and another resource associated with the product is the distribution of tax credit financing. We’ve had several projects that we’ve been working on in affordable housing in both northern and southern California, so that’s a pretty active sector and has been a lot of infill,” Davis notes.

“Affordable housing projects that we’ve done in the past were actually for redevelopment agencies as opposed to development or affordable housing group. So we didn’t have as much of a client base in that product type because the types of projects we executed before were delivered completely differently. They were redevelopment agencies, city projects, and a mixture of different capital stacks.” All this naturally led to davisREED expanding its base.

There is also activity in the branded hospitality market with players like Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Auberge, and other brands that have product for sale as part of their hospitality projects, which has seen an uptick thanks to the strength of the residential market.

The strength of the multi-family and single-family home residential market is very hot on top of COVID supply chain issues causing unique challenges in the delivery of this product. “In addition to the cost increases that we endured in dimensional lumber, stranded materials, plywood and OSB materials, for instance, is the matter of their availability,” says Davis of the difficult supply challenges associated with COVID.

“So just because you’ve got some material locked in at a material price that you can live with, or whatever the case may be, it doesn’t mean that you would get it, so there was always another shoe to drop due to allocations within the various market sectors,” says Davis. “We, for example, had to send dedicated trucks to retrieve existing inventory materials at pre-fabrication framers in Oregon, to ensure timely delivery of materials.”

The place of prefabrication
Prefabrication is not a new approach for davisREED Inc. In fact, prefabrication projects have been a part of the company’s background for many years, leveraged in the early 2000s on projects like the Carlsbad Sheraton and the Desert Willow Residential project, as well as several design-build projects for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Hospitality projects, as well as multifamily, including affordable, lend themselves to prefabrication because of repetitive units in a large enough baseline volume.” Davis adds that the market is still in an immature state, and despite some failures, he feels that it is a viable delivery process in both wood-framed and metal gauge building systems. davisREED is dedicated to this delivery process for the next cycle of projects.

While Davis notes that there may be a stigma associated with prefabrication and its tendency to look a certain way, with entitlements, planning department approvals, and design limitations, it is perfect for the affordable housing movement, especially in the context of COVID, supply chain restraints, and labor shortages.

According to Davis, “That’s what is accelerating that marketplace – I think more so than it would have been – and we’re looking to have a couple of affordable housing projects and conventional multifamily projects that are in that category. So, as far as the future goes, that’s a feather you want in your cap.”

He also notes that davisREED was probably one of the largest purchasers of bathroom pods for hospitality projects a couple of years back and as the industry matures, that experience will be invaluable across the products and markets the company serves.

Diversity rules
For the future, there’s an expectation that davisREED will continue to diversify so as to remain agile and relevant in the market, whether that means market diversity, technological diversity, or diversity in building approach.

“I think staying in lock step with technology, as design evolves to comply with energy revisions and jurisdictional statute changes, is going to be a critical part of our services to the industry. As we move toward renewable energy, you’re going to have more of a movement toward not only self-contained energy generation but also efficiency of design,” Davis says.

Davis is referring to new legislation, like SB-100, that requires renewable energy and the move away from natural gas and other carbon forms to on-site generation of energy. This, however, will have a significant impact on the material selection and engineered power approaches in design and construction to ensure projects are in line with code changes.

“A big goal of ours,” says Davis, “is staying on the cutting edge in regard to design, and smart design, because to be a good builder and general contractor and partner who’s working hand-in-hand with the developer and the design team, you have to have a hybridized set of skills.”

This requires a deeply rooted understanding of the design, of materials, and of the integration of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems whether that be prescriptive or performance-based design to support Title 24 calculation models for all different building types.

“Sometimes,” Davis says, “I think market sector reversions might be even faster now than they’ve been in the past with new product types and code changes, and the energy policies that the State of California has. Other revisions include fire hazard-zone development criteria, which has also recently changed and is being applied to already submitted and approved projects. As veterans in the market, davisREED is prepared to adapt and serve its clients and design teams as a collaborative, informed, and experienced partner.

Diversity is the major strength of davisREED Inc. and the driving force behind its ability to repeatedly deliver project excellence. Diversity, Davis says, is also the foundation of its strong client relationships and the secret behind the company’s continued growth and success.

The post The Root of This Company’s Strength? Its Diversity<p class="company">davisREED Construction Inc.</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

The company has built strong relationships with subcontractors over the years and makes a point to partner with local builders. “We work with a lot of local small businesses in Southern California as well as small businesses that are local to the projects that we’re working on,” Nolan says. This effort goes beyond the standard federal requirements. “Straub has a strong Small Business partnering program, and we put a concerted effort toward using those small local businesses on our projects.”

It is particularly committed to supporting Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB). Recently the company formed a “Mentor-Protégé” relationship with an SDVOSB to bid, win, and perform federal construction projects together. “Straub provides financial stability, bonding capacity, and proven systems and structures to help manage the projects and run the company operations. With help from the executive team, we work with our SDVOSB Protégé to properly staff and support the projects,” Nolan says.

“We will assist and support them in bidding new projects. We will teach them how to streamline the project management functions, teach them how to create effective financial projections and how to perform all the essential steps needed to successfully bid, construct, and close out construction projects.” The SDVOSB provides “most of the major project management and on-site staffing for the contract. Our role is basically to support them and help them be the star on the project.”

The mentoring program lasts for several years to ensure the SDVOBs are fully prepared to stand on their own. “We want to give that company as many of the main leading roles as possible while standing behind them as a mentor to help them successfully perform each task and successfully manage the project. This way they can learn how to do it themselves,” Nolan explains.

“The end goal is for them to be able to find, bid, and construct these projects effectively, and also have some of the financial stability and bonding ability on the other side of that. So basically [this mentoring program] helps them get a kick-start to scaling their business.”

Straub’s goal is to provide strong support to its own people, as well as to outside businesses. “One of the things that we really try to focus on is our strong internal team,” Nolan says. “So we put a lot of resources toward training our own team members and equipping them to run the projects in a way that reflects Straub’s values and Straub’s core competencies.”

Through a program the company has dubbed Straub University, employees have access to training and development in an exhaustive list of subjects covering everything from project management, accounting, and financial management to estimating, contract writing, team building, time management, and goal setting.

Held at the corporate office as “a live interactive training,” Straub University classes “teach a full range of project management skills and both technical tasks and nontechnical,” Nolan summarizes. So far the program has produced twenty four classes ranging from under ten minutes to over an hour, depending on the subject matter. “We basically give a deep dive of each subject,” Nolan says. “We include real life examples and step-by-step walk through the how-to of construction, and we include any kind of reference documents or actual tools to use to accomplish those different tasks.” For each training session, Patrick creates a course outline to cover the most important and relevant topics that Straub’s team is faced with, whether they be on the construction site, in the corporate office, or within various teams. While Patrick writes and presents content for these sessions, he also includes many of the Straub leadership team and project level team members to present and train the rest of the team on various topics. “We have star players on our team, and the more we can reproduce their strengths by having them share their knowledge and experience, the better we all become at what we do,” he says.

Straub’s education program is just one way the company demonstrates its commitment to its people. “We do have a passion for our people and the work we do,” Nolan says. This has never been more crucial than in today’s complicated times. “In the last couple of years especially, the market’s been a little tumultuous, a little crazy. So there’s a little bit more stress than we normally see in the industry.”

The overall lack of certainty during the pandemic has been particularly challenging. “There’re just so many things that people are uncertain about—uncertain about the future, uncertain about what requirements are going to come into play,” Nolan says. “It’s really made it even more important for us to focus on our people and train them properly.”

This focus goes beyond training to “support them and help them and be there to communicate with them through all of this,” Nolan says. “We really try to focus on that.” Keeping people connected while having to quarantine and social distance has been critical. “Personally, I’ve tried to focus on meeting our people and our customers where they’re at to connect with them—especially our own employees, trying to help them feel connected and valued and cared for. That’s been especially important this past year… just communicating well and communicating openly.”

While the pandemic has presented industry-wide challenges, Straub is eager to move forward and continue its successful track record. “We’ve built some pretty incredible projects over the years,” Nolan points out. “Our office walls are full of these incredible projects on plaques and pictures—schools, universities and military bases around the country.”

One current project to watch is the construction of the Brown Field Border Patrol Station in Dulzura, California. Located twenty-five miles southeast of the city of San Diego and about ten miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border on the east side of the San Ysidro Mountains, the station lies in the Jamul/Dulzura subregion, which covers approximately 168 square miles.

The work will include several large operational and support structures to serve the U.S. Border Patrol, including two water wells with water treatment systems and storage tanks, pre-engineered metal buildings, along with drainage and utility infrastructure for the site. The $43 million project has an estimated completion date of mid-2022.

As Straub continues to win significant projects like the Brown Field Border Patrol Station, Nolan says the team will keep focusing on its people to provide the best possible work. “I see Straub going deeper and focusing more on developing its core team and its people… Having a team that knows how to execute, that can really be dependable—ultimately, that means successful projects. It means a happier customer, and it means more profits for our clients and for Straub, and that is a win-win,” he shares.

“That’s where I see us going. I see us doubling down on developing our own team, finding and developing team members that are going to reciprocate that and [who] really want to dive in and invest themselves into the company.” It is a future that employees and customers alike can look forward to.

The post Building People First<p class="company">Straub Construction</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Such is the case with leading stone wool insulation manufacturer, ROCKWOOL, and its North American President Rory Moss, who recently shared his company’s belief that it is possible to build a better business by building a better world.

It’s a big statement to make, there’s no question. After all, the world is currently facing some of the greatest challenges of modern times, including the effects of a global pandemic which continues to have deep social, societal, and economic impacts worldwide. While some parts of the world are beginning to emerge from the pandemic, another global challenge is becoming more and more impossible to ignore—climate change.

The moniker is, however, much too passive. It’s not a slow, gentle change that is hardly noticed amid the rush of the 24-hour news cycle and other pressing business. It’s an active crisis that demands great urgency, one that has rightly captured the collective attention of world leaders, policy makers, and experts.

Making more possible
In its 2018 special report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that we are already witnessing impacts in every region of the world, with harmful carbon emissions prompting an unprecedented and alarming rate of global warming. The effects are substantial, with more frequent and more extreme climate events that threaten ecosystems, put species at risk, and present great challenges to cities and industry. Although the science is clear and experts agree that we are already experiencing serious change in our climate, it is not too late to take action to limit the impacts.

Some countries and regions have moved quickly to reverse the trend. Targeting change in the building industry is front and center, with retrofits pegged as the most effective and efficient means to move the needle, since existing buildings account for 38 percent of CO2 emissions and 40 percent of primary energy demand.

As a result, throughout North America and around the world, model energy codes are evolving to deliver greater energy efficiency. In progressive cities, local code adoption and policy development have also strengthened their position to increase energy reduction targets with the inclusion of building efficiency requirements. A prime example is New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act, introduced in 2019. It includes a series of bills setting specific energy efficiency requirements and emissions limits for most buildings over 25,000 square feet, as well as supplementary financing for sustainable retrofits.

For its part, ROCKWOOL recognizes that a combination of leadership, legislation, incentives, education, and the application of innovative building solutions and technologies can help us reach our critical climate action targets. Its products, made of naturally abundant and recycled materials, are perfectly suited to help achieve even the most ambitious energy targets and are routinely integrated into high-performance buildings built to the industry’s highest standards such as Passive House, Net Zero, LEED v4, Living Building and other efficiency accreditations.

“We are uniquely positioned to make a difference in the fight against climate change, while also tackling a number of other challenges brought about by urbanization, intensification, and development,” says Rory Moss, President, ROCKWOOL, North America.

Although cities take up only two percent of the world’s land surface, they generate more than 70 percent of emissions and consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy. Moss notes that by using modern solutions such as stone wool we can help reduce the consumption of existing, energy-inefficient buildings through deep energy retrofits.

“Deep energy retrofits and renovation of older buildings are vital if cities want to tackle their climate emissions on a large scale,” says Moss. “Focusing on the building envelope and creating tighter, better insulated buildings is key. Energy renovation could provide up to 55 percent of the GHG emissions reductions needed to meet the 2030 targets and align cities with a 1.5°C trajectory.”

Typical renovation rates are 1 to 2 percent of the building stock per year, with an average energy use intensity (EUI) reduction of less than 15 percent. However, to reach sustainable development and climate targets, EUI reductions should be between 30 and 50 percent. We can’t move the needle enough with new construction alone. Retrofits and renovations must play a greater role. This is important because the global rate of urbanization and economic growth means that the primary demand for energy will likely double during this century. Approximately 50 percent of the existing building stock is predicted to still be in use by 2050. Tackling energy inefficiency could reduce the carbon footprint of the existing building stock by as much as 70 percent.

Vision: Driving the built environment—and the world—forward
“Our stone wool insulation solutions can reduce direct energy demand, cut down emissions, and provide a healthier built environment for people, while also creating safe buildings and quieter spaces that can contribute to occupant wellbeing and productivity,” says Moss.

Now is an ideal time to reimagine what’s possible. As a highly solutions-based, forward-thinking company, ROCKWOOL aims to transform communities and improve their whole way of living.

Moss, himself, is passionate about creating safer communities. He was in the United Kingdom at the time a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in West London on June 14, 2017. Starting in a fourth-floor kitchen, flames soon spread upwards, quickly engulfing the entire upper stories of the structure. The subsequent inquiry into the fire revealed that highly flammable foam plastic insulation combined with flammable aluminum composite cladding (ACM) served to re-radiate heat and flames. This contributed to the fire and rapidly fueled its spread. The air gap in the exterior wall system also created a stack effect that further exacerbated flame spread.

The tragedy, in which 72 people lost their lives, led to a change in regulations which now require the use of noncombustible materials, such as ROCKWOOL stone wool, in the external walls of new buildings including all new residential housing, hospitals, residential care premises, boarding school dormitories, and student accommodation greater than 18 meters in height.

The incident itself also sparked intense debate about material selection as it pertains to a building’s fuel load. With stricter energy codes calling for higher levels of insulation, ROCKWOOL, along with many experts in the field, urged code developers to re-examine the use of combustible materials such as foam plastics in high-rise buildings and to employ stricter testing that looks at fire behavior such as leap-frogging and vertical flame spread to better understand and prevent the rising incidents of façade fires globally. ROCKWOOL advocates a holistic approach to fire-safe building design.

“We’ve long been vocal in advocating for safer buildings,” says Moss. “We are invested in developing solutions to advance the safety of the built environment. Our noncombustible stone wool insulation products are often the preferred choice in fire-first applications.”

ROCKWOOL insulation resists fire up to 2,150°F (1,177°C), inhibiting the spread of flames, and it provides valuable extra time for occupants to get to safety. ROCKWOOL ensures its products are rigorously tested by accredited third-party laboratories. ROCKWOOL stone wool has demonstrated a smoke development index of 0 and a flame spread index of 0, when tested in accordance with ASTM E84 (UL 723). ROCKWOOL insulation also won’t contribute to toxic smoke or harmful gases in the event of a fire. It is often a key component in many NFPA 285-compliant assemblies. Additionally, it’s used to achieve fire-rated wall and roofing assemblies in tall wood and mass timber buildings, as well as in regions where fire risk is elevated, such as in wildland-urban interface (WUI) zones.

Urban sprawl and greater density have expanded the size and number of WUI areas across North America, increasing the number of homes and buildings at risk, while global warming and climate change have increased the prevalence and intensity of storm activity, further escalating wildfire incidents. ROCKWOOL understands the value of engineering products that can withstand fire. Its participation in fire testing and thought leadership in the fire safety community has earned the company a strong reputation within the industry and among fire safety professionals. ROCKWOOL is a member of National Fire Protection Association, a supporter of the National Association of State Fire Marshalls, a proud sponsor of the Fire Marshall’s Public Safety Council, and a member of Fire Safe North America.

“In addition to safety, our goal is to design products that do more amid greater challenges,” says Moss. “Stone wool provides a wide range of benefits to buildings and people by creating more durable, resilient and comfortable structures. Its products help create buildings that are fire-safe, provide excellent moisture control, resist mold and mildew, and are quieter and more comfortable, despite the trends toward density and more extreme weather.”

The company’s products are not just impacting people in residential homes. The impact of these products in commercial settings, such as offices, schools, hotels, and hospitals, is having a positive effect on tangible things such as employee productivity, speech intelligibility, student focus and learning, patient comfort and wellbeing, and guest experiences. ROCKWOOL stone wool products have been used in some of the world’s most iconic structures. Its solutions are present in some of the most recognizable landmarks around the globe, including the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Danish Royal Family’s Amalienborg residence, and all twelve of Russia’s 2018 World Cup stadiums, among many others.

Transparency is key
At ROCKWOOL, transparency and corporate responsibility are integral to the organization’s operations. Sophia Rini, Director, Public Affairs and Communications with ROCKWOOL North America, points out that, “ROCKWOOL products are exhaustively tested by five independent third-party certifying bodies: UL, Intertek, QAI, ICC-ES, and FM. As we green our buildings and our built environment, our customers are more attuned to material selection. We’re proud to share detailed information about our products and processes.”

ROCKWOOL participates in Declare, a voluntary self-disclosure product labeling program that promotes healthy building materials through product transparency and ingredient disclosure. Headed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Declare is linked to the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Red List Imperative.

The company also provides Health Product Declarations (HPDs), a standardized method of disclosing all ingredients in a material and their associated health risks, as well as Environmental Product Declarations, Transparency Bulletins and Safe Use Instruction Sheets. Many ROCKWOOL stone wool products are GREENGUARD Gold Certified. This certification places stringent limits on emissions of more than 360 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). GREENGUARD Gold Certification emission criteria incorporate health-based emissions requirements as denoted by, among others, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California Department of Public Health’s Section 01350. More than 400 green building codes, standards, guidelines, procurements policies, and rating systems give credit for GREENGUARD Certified products.

The cornerstone: sustainability
Moss notes that ROCKWOOL has built its company on the cornerstones of integrity and sustainability—long before sustainability was a buzz word. The company’s sustainability vision extends beyond the performance of its products to include every facet of its operations. ROCKWOOL’s manufacturing processes and recycling initiatives, for example, serve to reduce its environmental impact and lower energy consumption, as well as its reliance on external resources. That includes heat and water recovery processes, waste reduction strategies, and using both naturally sustainable and recycled raw materials.

“Consider that over its lifetime, ROCKWOOL building insulation sold in 2020 will save 100 times the carbon emitted and energy consumed in its production,” says Moss. “Additionally, one year’s production of stone wool insulation will save more than 200 million tons of carbon emissions from buildings and processes worldwide, over the lifespan of the product.”

From how materials for insulation products are sourced to how they are made and distributed, ROCKWOOL is proud of its role in today’s climate change conversations. The very high temperatures needed to melt rock necessitate plenty of power usage, something the company takes seriously. Just last year, after considerable research, ROCKWOOL installed a new electric melter in its facility in Norway. Since much of Norway’s electricity is generated from clean hydropower instead of fossil fuels, ROCKWOOL reduced its emissions by about 70 percent.

In Denmark, the company shifted away from coal to natural gas, and made a further shift from natural gas to biogas, which uses methane, slashing its emissions by approximately 80 percent.

“We invested heavily into this new technology and are learning from our initiatives in order to bring solutions to our different factories across the globe,” says Moss. “We are looking at how we can do so here in North America as well.”

The company’s intention is to take this learning forward in over 24 manufacturing facilities in 39 countries worldwide, particularly around energy-intensive melting approaches. At its recently-opened plant in West Virginia, which was going to be coal-based, the company switched to natural gas instead to further cut greenhouse gas emissions.

When it comes to sustainability, ROCKWOOL regularly examines its operations. The company is building on three sustainability principles of using less, greening the rest, and addressing climate hazards. Moss says the company is contributing in multiple ways, including:

• Driving increased energy efficiency, particularly of the existing building stock, to capture the multiple economic, climate, and health benefits that result from building renovation;

• Decarbonizing its business and value chain, thereby further reinforcing its net carbon negative foundation;

• Preserving the value of new and existing buildings and the materials they consist of by ensuring their durability, performance and circularity;

• Delivering healthy living environments by using building materials with natural fire and climate resilience, thermal comfort, and high acoustic performance; and,

• Engineering its products to maximize their positive benefits and minimize the negative impacts of its manufacturing processes and value chain.

Goals: Measurable, accountable
Further, ROCKWOOL has established science-based global decarbonization targets that have been verified and approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

“We are putting real, measurable goals in place, and we will have a third party validate whether we are achieving them or not,” says Rini. “ROCKWOOL’s vision is for a healthier, cleaner, and greener future for all. It’s not a trend for us. We are committed to taking a leadership position on climate policy and making sure the built environment is part of the solution.”

Key elements of ROCKWOOL’s decarbonization plans include cutting factory absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 38 percent by 2034 (relative to baseline year 2019), and reducing non-factory, absolute lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2034 (relative to baseline year 2019).

These absolute emission reduction targets, which supplement ROCKWOOL’s existing sustainability goals, equate to an ambitious one-third reduction of its lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 2034, while at the same time ensuring continued reduction in the carbon intensity (carbon emitted per ton produced) of its production.

ROCKWOOL’s decarbonization commitments build on its existing status as a net carbon (CO2e) negative company. The company’s sustainable practices also support 10 out of 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“We are in the middle of the biggest discussion of our lifetimes, and that’s climate change,” says Moss. “Our people are motivated to make an impact on that. They are really passionate about working for ROCKWOOL, promoting what we do, and basing it on our values such as ambition, integrity, responsibility, and efficiency. By doing what they’re good at, they’re also doing good at the same time, moving us toward a more sustainable future.”

The world is changing, and more change is needed. ROCKWOOL is driving important progress and demonstrating great care for local communities in the process, especially where it operates. It is proud of its commitment to its neighbors, customers, partners, employees, people, and the planet.

What ROCKWOOL stands for, how it does business, and its commitment to people and societal progress make it an impressive company. It is, unquestionably, a change-maker. In this case, change couldn’t be a more positive thing. ROCKWOOL is turning challenges into opportunities, proving that you can achieve your goals while also doing the right thing. You can absolutely build your business while building a better future.

“Our products hold great promise and even more potential to bring about positive change both locally and globally,” says Moss. “We are a value-driven company producing products that make a really positive impact on people’s lives. What we can do for the built environment, the world, and its people is fueling our momentum, and we believe the best is yet to come.”

The post Building a Better Future<p class="company">ROCKWOOL</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Super Service is the term the company uses to describe its all-out commitment to customer care. With headquarters in Ontario in the Toronto-area, an office in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a large service fleet, Metro can repair and maintain equipment nationwide, even in remote locales. It also boasts a vast inventory of spare parts and a cutting-edge waste management monitoring solution that saves clients’ money while enhancing sustainability.

“We’re a service-first company. We understand the equipment; we understand value. We believe in selling equipment that lasts longer,” says President and CEO Danny Mauti, whose parents founded the firm in the late 1970s.

Mauti is President and CEO of the Metro Group of Companies which includes a range of waste and recycling equipment businesses. The division featuring Metro Compactor Service, Wilkinson Chutes, and the iSMART solution team has around 140 employees in total, roughly the same number as this time last year.

Its products include compactors, containers, balers, bin tugs (devices for moving large garbage containers), augers, and other gear needed for waste and recycling collection. At present, Metro is Canada’s leading distributor of products from the Marathon Equipment Company. Based in Vernon, Alabama, Marathon specializes in recycling and waste compaction systems. Metro Compactor Service stocks products from other firms too and manufacturers its own containers and compactors for residential markets.

“We believe that Marathon makes a really quality product, so we tend to lead with them, but if there’s an appetite for a customer to have a different type of equipment, we can sell them that equipment,” states Sales Director Mike Smitko. “For equipment, we cover pretty much everything someone would need.”

The company will also do installations if requested. Depending on the location, installation is handled by either its staff or subcontractors.

It has clients in the residential, municipal, commercial, industrial, waste recycling, and institutional sectors. Of these markets, the commercial and residential sectors bring in the most revenue, according to Mauti.

In addition to equipment, Metro offers a pioneering waste management solution. Once connected to waste management equipment like on compactors, balers, and augers, the iSMART system records data which is then relayed to company offices over an Internet of things (IoT) network.

iSMART can gauge how full a waste collection product is by taking internal PSI (pounds per square inch) pressure readings. Once the waste has reached a pre-determined fullness level, a message is sent to alert a hauler which will then remove the garbage.

In the past, garbage haulers typically stuck to a rigid schedule, only removing refuse on specific days, regardless of how much waste or how little had accumulated. Using iSMART, haulers only arrive when their services are required. This system enhances efficiency, lowers costs, and ensures that waste containment units are not overflowing, which is a major health and safety hazard.

“What the technology does, it streamlines the [waste removal] process and addresses people’s sustainability initiatives if they’re looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Overall, it reduces costs out of their business,” Smitko explains.

The system can also be used to log information in databases and send alerts to Metro if an issue is detected. Metro and the client can then resolve the issue before it becomes a problem, minimizing downtime.

“We’re able to remotely diagnosis certain issues going on with compactors,” says Mauti. “We’re able to use the technology to help avoid service calls, make sure things are running properly, and to maximize the fullness of the equipment, reduce the carbon footprint, reduce the number of service calls. We’re able to repair certain things from our desks and make sure the right technicians are going out to the sites.”

The solution was developed in-house from existing technology. While Metro Compactor Service does not sell or install waste and recycling equipment in the United States at present, it does offer iSMART to American clients and continues to innovate and work on ways to improve the technology.

As part of its commitment to customer-service, the company recently restructured its internal operations. On April 1, the service and repair departments at Metro Compactor and sister company Wilkinson Chutes Canada were combined.

The goal is to become more of a “one-stop-shop for our customers,” explains Mauti.

Wilkinson, founded over a century ago, describes itself as “North America’s first chute manufacturer.” The firm manufactures garbage, recycling, and linen chute systems used for disposal by clients in the healthcare, hotel, residential, and mixed-use markets. It designs and constructs its own products, does retrofits, and provides service and support duties. Metro acquired the Canadian rights to Wilkinson Chutes Canada in the early 1990s.

Blending the two departments together “adds more value for our residential customers. Instead of having to deal with two organizations, it streamlines the process. We can look at their entire waste system. It made sense to tie the chutes in with the actual equipment on-site that Metro historically serviced. Now we’re more efficient and have more reach,” notes Smitko.

That reach extends nationwide; the company will service its equipment virtually anywhere in Canada. As with installation, it will use in-house technicians or experts from trusted sub-contractors for servicing depending on location, he explains.

Metro’s wide geographic reach and established network of subcontractors is one reason why some of Canada’s largest organizations are clients.

All customers, regardless of size, benefit from the Super Service initiative launched roughly two years ago to formalize core principles that infuse the company’s corporate culture. These include: “being proactive, which our technology kind of speaks to; being ahead of the curve with our predictive preventative maintenance; giving insights [to clients] about potential issues, and providing them peace of mind,” says Smitko.

Like companies everywhere, Metro Compactor Service had to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 virus last year. It quickly introduced all necessary government health measures. Some staff members were sent home to work remotely, while those who stayed in the offices were given personal protective equipment (PPE). About half of the employees are still working at home, says Mauti. COVID initially hurt business, but “bounced back just fine,” he adds.

That is good news for a family firm originally founded in 1978 by Danny’s parents. Metro Compactor Service remains family-run today, with Danny’s brother Tommy working for the company. The plan is to keep the company family-owned for the time being.

From its earliest days, Metro Compactor established a reputation for excellence. Thanks to this reputation, the company doesn’t have to do much marketing to attract new clients. It has plenty of repeat, long-term customers as evidence of its work ethic, skills, and products.

“We don’t have to spend a lot of money on marketing,” says Mauti. “Most of our relationships are based on [our] years of existence.”

Metro Compactor Service has always maintained a consistent vision and avoided the temptation of expanding into fields it isn’t familiar with. The focus has “always been about service first. Servicing the equipment has been our bread and butter,” says Mauti.

“We want people who are humble and driven, have a professional attitude and are hard workers,” he says. He says that finding new people to replace workers approaching retirement age is the biggest non-COVID-related challenge facing the firm.

Metro’s mission for the next few years is straightforward. “Our goals are to grow North America-wide and use our technology to be able to supply or service contractors across North America better than anybody,” says Mauti.

“I think the expansion would start in Canada first. With our national accounts, a lot of these customers are in the same geographical area. If we have a pocket in say Calgary or Edmonton of customers, does it make sense to be subcontracting or does it make sense for us to have a location there and start self-performing? On the technology side in the U.S., it’s such a large market, it’s hard not to think that in the not-too-distant future we would want to have some presence down there,” Smitko agrees.

While Mauti obviously wants the company to be successful, Metro Compactor Service is not just about profits and the bottom line. The company strongly supports sustainability efforts which ultimately benefit the environment.

“Our organization is completely focused on a better tomorrow,” he states.

The post Super Service and Top-of-the-Line Waste Management Products<p class="company">Metro Compactor Services</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Specializing in commercial, industrial, and institutional roofing projects that include general contractors, property management firms, and federal, provincial and municipal institutions, Nortex puts its clients first every step of the way, ensuring their satisfaction is top priority.

Although it’s a large company in terms of the types of clients it serves and the staff it employs, Nortex still operates with the tight-knit family culture that helped them succeed from the start, says Project Manager Cameron Sahadath.

“We don’t carry a lot of people for overhead in terms of all the bureaucracy you might find in a very large company,” he says. “Many of our employees fill multiple roles with a kind of ‘jump in’ attitude and go-where-you’re-needed approach. You don’t often hear people around here say ‘that’s not my job,’ which tends to happen when you have large infrastructure and multiple people involved in things.”

Over the years, Nortex has stayed true to that mandate, starting small and continuing to grow while maintaining a family culture and environment. “That’s been a big driving factor to success,” says Sahadath.

To an outsider observing the company, that seems bang on, as does its very apparent dedication to its clients.

A key determining factor when approaching any project, Sahadath says, is ensuring that the company is not sacrificing the finished product at the expense of the bottom line.

“We’ll take the time to sit down and speak with clients and make sure they’re comfortable with the work we’re doing. We educate them on the services we’re providing, and give them full understanding of the options available when we’re putting proposals out there,” says Sahadath. “At the end of the day, we want to do justice to our customers and the people we serve and work with.”

Roofing work tends to be inconvenient for people, and not something they look forward to, he adds. Although it’s essential, roofing isn’t like getting your bathroom re-done, or having landscaping installed, with nice finishing details everyone gets to see.

“Roofing is something people really have to feel confident in,” Sahadath says, “because they’ve put good money towards it and need to feel they’ve gotten the value out of it.”

And that’s really what the company’s primary focus has always been: ensuring that at the end of the job, the client feels that the money has been well spent and that they don’t regret their choice.

“It’s really been the primary focus for our company and will continue to be so,” he says. “No matter how large we get in terms of the types of contracts we’re taking on, none of that attitude has gone away.”

That attitude is reflected by a consistently low staff turnover, due in part to helping employees find the “best fit” for them within the company.

“We have people come in as project managers who really take a shine to being estimators and naturally move into that area,” he says. “Some companies take an approach where if you can’t hack it you’re gone, but here if you start with a role that maybe isn’t your bailiwick, we’ve always endeavoured to find where each individual employee’s strength lies, and help you grow in those areas.”

Senior management plays a very hands-on role in the day-to-day business, as well, which isn’t always the case in larger companies.

“Our president is on job sites to oversee things and make sure things are running well,” says Sahadath. “I work directly with our senior vice president, and If I’m here working late he’s doing the same thing. There’s a lot of that attitude that management leads by example.”

The company is also involved in a number of charities, community involvement programs and sponsorships. Whether it’s a donation, purchasing a table at an event, or just providing information on services and promotional offers to help people save money, Nortex always tries to contribute, give back and make a positive impact.

That impact includes working with environmentally sustainable initiatives that have been a big driving factor for many companies concerned about going green, recycling, and climate issues.

Whether it’s “green roofs” with vegetative infrastructure, or providing solar reflective and energy efficient roofs that help reduce heating and overall operating costs, many of the clients Nortex works with not only want to leave a greener footprint, but also desire transparency in how waste materials are handled, especially when removing old roofs, says Sahadath.

“We’ve really embraced providing transparency in our environmental sustainability initiatives,” he adds. “We’re very upfront about the materials we’re using. We don’t use hazardous or contaminating materials. Anything that we work with is properly handled and disposed of in the correct facilities, and then used for landfill or recycling.”

When Nortex does work with hazardous or designated materials, it always ensures that they’re handled by properly trained personnel and disposed of in the correct manner.

The challenge in roofing is the limitations to how much environmental sustainability is present in the type of work done, and the type of materials used. Every portion of the construction industry is different, with some sectors such as mechanical and HVAC on a “completely different wavelength” environmentally from the roofing industry.

As Sahadath puts it, “It may seem that our industry is behind, because there’s not the same leaps and bounds you might see in a more dynamic industry where you’ve got a lot of repeat traffic, and where the technology is approached in a very different manner.”

That being said, every trade is “really endeavouring” to stay as far ahead of the curve as possible. Because of the nature of roofing – with infrequent replacements and a lower rate of repeat business – Sahadath thinks the progression of the environmental initiatives for this particular industry has been slower, but Nortex provides honesty at every stage.

“If there’s something that presents a potential issue, especially from an environmental standpoint, we always ensure that we’re not sweeping it under the rug. We ensure that it’s being properly dealt with and handled, and that that’s being properly communicated to stakeholders at our client’s end, so they in turn can get back to their stakeholders, or the general public, or whoever they’re reporting to.”

Nortex also takes every opportunity to educate its clients on the types of “green” initiatives available to them. Unlike interior restoration work, exterior construction often generates a lot of waste product that can’t be re-used, which then becomes a matter of proper handling and disposal.

“It gives us an opportunity to help educate clients,” Sahadath says, “so when they go through this process, whether it’s with us or another contractor, they’re more cognizant of what options are available to them. And that’s been a very well-received approach for a lot of people.”

While the desire to embrace initiatives is encouraging, it’s also just as important to know where the limitations are, he says, and with proper explanations and understanding, clients gain a better sense of how to approach projects – both present and future – from a sustainability standpoint.

The standard lifespan of a roof is 15 to 20 years, says Sahadath, so many clients may not be familiar with what’s available today. But as manufacturing and safety and materials improve, and society in general becomes more educated, overall change will happen.

“It’s all part of a large institutional process and the whole infrastructure that’s part of environmental cognizance in construction,” he says. “Overall it’s still a very positive thing and a lot of the barriers people face – with cost for example – will go down as more options become available.”

Although the initial payment can still be expensive, it ultimately benefits both clients and owners financially when they undertake projects for environmental sustainability.

“One of the nice things with a roof is because of the options available, whether you’re going with solar initiatives or green roof systems, these are things that can be retrofitted,” says Sahadath. “If a client replaced a roof five years ago, they haven’t completely lost the opportunity and the ability to take on environmental sustainability initiatives. They may be limited in which ones are available, but they haven’t completely cut off the legs.”

As Nortex heads into its next 30 years, it looks to continue to learn and grow both from experience gained on jobs and customer feedback.

“Even if you put your best effort forward, there’s always room for improvement and our accomplishment has always been our ability to learn,” Sahadath says.

“Good, bad, or otherwise, we take experience as a constructive approach and use that to do better. We could continue to do things status quo and run flat, but that’s not good enough. If we can do better for our customers and clients and the people we service, then we owe it to them to do that.”

Sahadath says Nortex recognizes there’s always room for growth, and the company plans to embrace that challenge moving forward.

“When we grow from year to year, we show we can improve upon our processes, and that tends to be the best thing our staff takes away from anything we do here,” he says, and it is a viewpoint that’s shared across the board. “It doesn’t become one or two individuals’ limelight. It becomes something everyone is involved with. It all comes back to the process of our culture here.”

Plans include bringing in staff who share the same invested interest in the company’s overall vision, and people looking not just for a job, but a place to put down roots and build on that family environment.

“That’s something we continue to work towards, whether it’s with our office staff, or the crews in the field,” Sahadath says. “We don’t have annual meetings where we say we have to meet a certain dollar figure by a certain year. Our company takes that pressure off the employees and that’s why we’ve have the longstanding success we’ve had.”

Although growth isn’t mandated, Sahadath is confident Nortex will continue to thrive in the coming years, whether it’s bringing in new clients or additional revenue streams.

“Every year has built on the previous, and our biggest milestone would be to continue that momentum and stay current with industry changes,” he says. “We want to continually improve ourselves and not become complacent.”

It’s a matter of everyone putting their best foot forward which tends to translate to positive results, Sahadath says. “It’s all a team thing here. It’s not about any one person or one thing. For us it’s all group effort. That’s the biggest driving takeaway – more than anything. There’s not just one thing that makes this company great but a whole series of many things all working together as a team.”

The post Teamwork, Trust and Transparency<p class="company">Nortex Roofing</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Catching up with Russell Gray – founder and CEO of Nawkaw, Inc. – for the first time since 2018 is a reminder of how much the world has changed since COVID-19 first emerged.

The past three years have been some of the busiest in Nawkaw’s history, Gray says, and also the most rewarding, with pre-pandemic business growing about 25 percent each year. “Of course COVID-19 had an impact on us, as it has with the rest of the world, but we were very blessed to have matched our 2019 figures in 2020,” says Gray. “We never laid off a single employee.”

Immediately changing up operations to ensure they were meeting local standards and requirements, the team at Nawkaw left nothing to chance when it came to staff safety. The result: not a single transmission of COVID between employees to date.

Exercising safety protocols for the health and well-being of all, office employees continue working from home while meeting the needs of customers through alternative, socially distanced and virtual means.

Leading the industry
For over 30 years, the Nawkaw name has guaranteed quality. Back in the 1970s, Russell Gray got his start in brick staining in the province of Ontario, Canada, soon discovering he had a knack for “solving color-related problems,” according to the company. Gaining experience throughout the years, Gray created his first business in 1984, which led to the founding of Nawkaw in 1988.

Over 30 years later, Bogart, Georgia-headquartered Nawkaw remains committed to serving its wide base – including residential, institutional and commercial customers – with well-formulated, long-lasting and durable products.

As company owner and Chief Executive Officer, Gray is proud of the company and its deeply entrenched mission, values and vision. These include being an environmental ambassador and causing no harm to nature; innovation, integrity, and fairness; and commitment to making the world better by bringing color and beauty to the places where we live, work and play.

A pioneer in masonry and concrete stains for 33 years, Nawkaw continues to expand its product line, services and locations.

In 1996, the company opened up across North America, including Canada and parts of the American East Coast and started up its Master Franchise in Australia the following year. The years 2008 to 2018 saw Nawkaw expanding throughout the United States, New Zealand and Norway, with the company’s products sold today across 50 different countries.

“This year, we opened our first office on the West Coast,” Gray adds. “We’ve worked on the coast in the past, but we’re excited to be establishing permanent roots there and be more present in that community. We’ve also seen the proliferation of concrete construction across all markets. There are some exciting developments in sustainable concrete regarding materials and similarly green practices that are changing the industry in terms of what concrete can become,” he shares.

“I am excited to see how these developments impact architectural sustainability as a whole, and how Nawkaw can contribute. We’re steadfast in our support for initiatives like the AIA (The American Institute of Architects) 2030 Commitment, for instance, which aims for carbon-neutral architecture portfolios by 2030.”

Innovative products
Nawkaw is responsible for an extensive portfolio of high-quality color and colorless products formulated for durability and longevity. These include NawTone, NawTone-G, NawKote-PC, NawTone+Plus, and other environmentally friendly treatments that protect open-pored materials like brick and concrete yet allow them to breathe and shrug off wet conditions, while reviving and maintaining their original beauty.

Then there’s NawTone-K mineral stain. When the company launched this product market acceptance was immediate. And ever since then it has seen sustained growth in specifications and requests for use of the product on Nawkaw projects. “It’s been exciting, but not surprising given all that NawTone-K can do,” comments Gray.

A mineral stain incorporating silicate as a bonding agent, NawTone-K creates a chemical bond with substrates which is resistant to weather and ultraviolet (UV) rays, mold, mildew, and more.

Durable and odorless, it is ideal for many applications, including new builds, restoration, renovation and preservation. Highly versatile, NawTone-K can also be diluted with the company’s NawThinz-C or NawThinz-M to create attractive and tough color-wash, opaque, and semi-transparent finishes.

“NawTone-K offers building owners, architects, and designers a better class of color solution in large part because NawTone-K is innovative in how it colors substrates,” says Gray of the unique product. “It changes the color of the building on a molecular level, so, in a scientific sense, there is no difference between the color and the substrate. That’s fundamentally different from the film coatings produced by latex paints, for example.

NawTone-K is water-based so it can be washed-up with water, and has no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which can be harmful to people and the environment. “This yields huge advantages for building designers who are looking for a long-term color solution,” Gray says. “NawTone-K lets you embrace natural texture of concrete and masonry and won’t chip, peel, or fade. That’s why we can offer an industry-leading 25-year warranty on almost all our projects.”

Going metallic
Among the company’s many other top-quality offerings is NawTone-K Metallic, a recently launched mineral stain that creates looks which are nothing less than captivating.

Like NawTone-K, NawTone-K Metallic is water-based and may be diluted with NawThinz-C or NawThinz-M. A variant of the company’s flagship product, NawTone-K Metallic provides owners and designers the opportunity to embrace a metallic sheen at a fraction of the cost.

“NawTone-K Metallic is perfect for replicating polished copper, other metal, and much more,” says Gray “In the hands of our certified Stain Technicians, it is incredible how true-to-life these finishes are. In many cases they’re indistinguishable from metal paneling.”

Another of the company’s latest products is a photocatalytic finishing system that can go on a range of substrates, from masonry and concrete to glass and more. A colorless application, it makes the building’s surface “superhydrophilic”, basically just meaning “having a strong affinity with water.” This characteristic sharply reduces maintenance costs, since dirt and debris rinse off easily with rainwater.

“This is technology that’s been used with great success in Japan for decades, so we’re excited to be bringing it to the North American market and showcase how finishing systems can reduce emissions and upkeep costs simultaneously.”

Expanding capabilities
Dedicated to innovation, Nawkaw keeps growing its capabilities every year in response to the needs of its customers. The company’s recent introduction of a wide range of metallic colors with superior stability and non-tarnishing/non-fading properties in harsh environments underlines Nawkaw’s dedication.

“Those products allow us to reproduce the looks of materials like corten steel, copper, or any metal paneling at the fraction of the cost,” says Gray of the faux finishes, which enable architects and designers to extend their imaginations and creativity because, as Gray puts it, “concrete often offers greater versatility and scalability to designers than traditional metal paneling.”

Another of Nawkaw’s remarkable achievements is its state-of-the-art color-matching technology.

With the ability to replicate virtually any color, the technology is ideal for infill and addition work where, for example, the original batch of masonry is gone. “You won’t be able to tell what’s original and what’s stained,” says Gray. “We’ve been offering it for years now, and I think it’s one of our most impressive achievements. We aren’t guessing when it comes to color – and our in-house scientists support many of our color-matching projects.”

Embracing artistry
In the United States, the company is seeing a trend toward artistic and complex finishes on a much larger scale than ever before.

Nawkaw has been seeing “natural look” concrete become an aesthetic choice and a bigger selling point. As a result, Nawkaw’s color-equalization techniques are becoming more popular for correcting curing imperfections and giving clients the natural appearance they’re looking for.

Nawkaw is working on a new line of stains offering specific electromagnetic reflection profiles, which will keep building envelopes cooler and decrease total energy cost. And in the wings, one of the company’s most exciting developments is a new color solution that literally removes carbon from the surrounding air through photochemical reactions.

“Our new research and development initiatives are centered on biomimetic finishes,” says Gray. “We want to help everyone achieve net-zero green architecture moving forward. We’ve also seen the industry gravitate toward darker blacks, so we’ll be expanding our mineral line soon to include a vivid, dark black that will be stable and weather resistant.”

Future in hand
With the future well in hand, Nawkaw looks forward to expanding its vital role in North America’s commercial construction industry, public works, and institutional buildings. Mindful that the pandemic is not yet over, Nawkaw continues to focus on adjusting to new public health information, on completing projects efficiently, and on ensuring the safety of its employees above everything else.

“In the short term, we’re a growing company, so we’re steadfast in finding great talent and keeping our employees safe and happy within the company,” Gray says.

“In the long term, we want to continue to shape the trends and aesthetics of architectural finishes to create bold, beautiful, colorful buildings around us,” he concludes. “We’ve proven that this can be done by eliminating harmful chemicals and VOCs, but we’ve also proven that this can be done by enabling a more sustainable construction sector.” The future looks bright – and colorful.

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IPS-Integrated Project Services (IPS) is a global leader in the consultation, architecture, engineering, project controls, construction management, commissioning, qualification, and validation (CQV) of extraordinarily complex and technical facilities in the life sciences industry.

One of the ways in which IPS is improving facilities’ workflow, throughput, and efficiency is by utilizing process modeling. With this new and innovative tool, information can be gathered and validated on the front end of a project to prove out a concept, in advance of detailed design, to ensure desired results are achieved. It provides a visual representation of an operation or facility that a spreadsheet can not offer.

“We can show a client what we believe a typical year’s behavior of a site will be,” Swartz says. “It could be a site, a particular room, or whatever renovation we are working on. We can show that what we’re proposing is actually going to give them the result that they’re looking for.”

Using AnyLogic, a modeling software or what Swartz refers to as “a discrete event simulation software,” IPS can look at any activity within the confines of a system, input relevant data, and create a model from which they can gather information to make better-informed decisions.

“This software, it’s extremely flexible,” says Swartz. “You can do almost anything with it because it’s more a set of tools built on top of a programming language rather than a restricted software. You can take those tools or build custom tools and manipulate them into almost any type of process.”

Swartz provided an example to demonstrate how modeling can lead to significant cost savings for a client on any given project. “A model we’ve started development on is a sampling and weighing area for incoming products,” Swartz says. “Sampling booths designed to handle potent products can easily cost half a million dollars each. If a simulation can prove that only three of these booths are required versus four in a concept, it could result in savings of half a million dollars, savings that could not have been achieved without the help of modeling.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes blow-fill-seal (BFS) as an advanced aseptic liquid packaging process that is low-cost and scalable. IPS has designed a CGMP greenfield BFS aseptic-manufacturing campus and evaluated the concept with help from a process model.

“With something this large,” says Swartz, “there are so many modeling points on it that you have to make some assumptions that may not be the same as you would for a smaller model. This is a multi-hundred thousand square-foot facility with hundreds of employees moving through it, so some assumptions needed to be made. But you can program those assumptions as adjustable to try to make this as much real-time configurable for the client as possible.”

With 15 product trains in the facility, the model offered a scalable solution from which the client could assess the potential of automated, semiautomated, or manual processes, and the benefits of various warehousing and product-movement systems like conveyors and vacuum-transfer systems, and also develop and evaluate the optimal facility layout.

Included in the design are standard and ultracold (minus 70 degrees Celsius) storage facilities, as well as designated formulation, filling, inspection, warehousing, storage, and staging areas; research and development laboratories; and offices.

Utilizing this type of technology would not have been commonplace a short time ago for a small project due to the time-prohibitive nature of the software. For instance, it is unlikely that firms would have utilized it to simulate activities in a locker room to improve employee throughput at peak times. However, this was recently done by IPS who served as a partner on the project to optimize the flow of employees heading in and out of a locker room. The firm designed a model that simulated the client’s locker room throughput, adjusting parameters to reflect reality to identify areas of strength or those needing improvement.

“It basically tells you how long it takes between each step of the process,” Stephen Lane, Modeling and Simulation Analyst with IPS, points out. “So you can analyze certain steps, see where the bottlenecks might be, and then think about how we can improve those bottlenecks.”

In this case, the client hoped to have eight employees gowned and ready in a 15-minute period. Within the existing locker room layout, this was not possible, and so it warranted a redesign. This would certainly not have been as apparent using calculations on a spreadsheet.

“It’s a wholly different use for this process modeling, but there is no reason we can’t do it. It’s still a spatial layout. It’s still a number of personnel, of resources coming in, and the stations where they are actually doing things in the locker,” says Swartz.

“It’s there to prove to the client that the layout and the configuration that IPS came up with is going to give you what you want. We can change a few of those things to either decrease costs or decrease timing, or whatever is the client is looking for, and then rerun the model to see how the changes affect that output.”

While many sectors of the economy faltered during the global pandemic, IPS found a way to adjust, adapt, and thrive using digital tools to support its clients.

“We were extraordinarily busy during that time,” says Swartz of the last year and a half under pandemic conditions. “The pharmaceutical/biotech industries really put forward lots of work that needed to be done – some of it directly related to COVID.” IPS, he says, was there to offer the support the market needed, when the market needed it most.

“We had quite a lot of projects there, but even outside of COVID, it was a definite expansion of the industry and what they were doing: lots of manufacturing expansions, and new facilities, new technologies,” he explains.

IPS’ goal moving forward is to continue serving clients who are expanding and improving facilities. Modeling highly complex facilities and processes is the way of the future and IPS is leading the way.

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For Aaron McEwin, Director of Sustainability at Jordan & Skala Engineers, this kind of thinking is in his DNA – and part of his approach to every project from multi-family dwellings to hospitals, universities and commercial city blocks.

“We don’t want to deplete the resources on this earth and that’s the challenge with buildings,” says McEwin. “Concrete and steel take a lot of energy to produce and move around. There’s been a big push on reducing carbon footprint. To me, that impacts a lot of different areas, the transportation area, the construction of buildings, even the operational side of it after we designed it.”

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Jordan & Skala is a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering firm that is licensed in all 50 states. The firm is at the forefront of green building with a focus on energy modeling and energy compliance programming.

“As engineers, we’re stewards of our resources and want to do the best we can to maximize the potential for those resources,” he says.

Environment, society, responsibility
In fact, the company’s leadership in environmentally friendly projects is a cornerstone of its philosophy. Jordan & Skala is part of the U.S. Green Building Council, committed to developing buildings that are designed and built using both environmentally and socially responsible practices.

How do they do this, exactly?

As an engineer, McEwin focuses on the lifespan of a building and its impact on the environment. He admits that this approach is a challenge as many of the practices he wants to implement have significant upfront costs. So, the firm must plan for the longer term.

As the cost of energy systems designed to reduce carbon emissions becomes more affordable, consideration must be given to planning the area within a building that will house these systems, making sure that electricity and other infrastructure is already in place to simply plug and play.

McEwin knows firsthand about climate adaptation and evolving energy systems. “There is a lot of heat in Texas,” he says, recalling his early days growing up in the Lone Star State.

It was this heat and his father’s work in HVAC that inspired his own interest in climate management and green building. McEwin remembers his father installing some of the first wooden cooling towers next to people’s homes to provide air conditioning through a process known as adaptive cooling.

The adaptive cooling system is a device that cools the air of a building through the evaporation of water. These systems operate on the principle that water will absorb a lot of heat before evaporation occurs. This can cool air much more efficiently than refrigeration systems.

From finance to low-temp apps
“My dad had a degree in finance,” McEwin says. “He was planning to go into the banking industry and was offered a job at a wholesale group in Dallas as a salesperson for refrigeration and low-temperature applications for grocery stores, restaurants, and schools and so forth. He began selling the equipment.”

McEwin adds that his grandfather worked in HVAC as well as being an early contractor in northeast Texas. “I think, with the knowledge my father had working with his own dad and being around those systems, he became very good at what he did.” Truly a multi-generational desire to help people stay comfortable!

With the resources of Jordan & Skala, McEwin works not only in the hot, humid conditions of Texas, Florida, and Georgia, but also in the dry heat of Arizona and California. This depth of experience in keeping people comfortable extends to the northern climates of Minnesota as well. “We’re able to provide specialized solutions to people in many different areas of the country,” he says.

A big part of his job is really to help Jordan & Skala, including project partners, clients, and industry colleagues, learn about sustainability and how to design and implement both energy efficiency and green building practices. He admits there is still a lot of confusion and mixed nomenclature around sustainable building.

Getting the names right
“What’s called net zero could be net energy-net zero or net carbon-net zero or zero water,” says McEwin. The term is thrown around a lot and its meaning changes based on what the owner of the building is looking for when they’re developing a property.

To McEwin, net zero energy means offsetting whatever energy you are using with energy you are producing. “That’s the ideal scenario that our future depends on, so we’re not relying on carbon-based Victorian-era electricity grids. And it takes important design considerations.”

The infrastructure of the mechanical and electrical systems of the building must be able to handle the input of additional energy and protect the building from over-producing energy.

“There have to be methods to regulate the amount of production or push it out of the building so that it can maximize the production of the renewable systems in the buildings in order to achieve that truly net-zero-bill at the end of the year,” says McEwin.

The realities of what is designed, built and ultimately operational can also affect the efficiency of the finished product. As McEwin explains, there are many different moving pieces to any green energy system. Simple things like dampers getting stuck or actuators malfunctioning can affect input and output in a system.

The firm’s primary work is electrical infrastructure that allows electrical systems to deliver the required capability and capacity. While specialized contractors design and test solar and wind production systems, it’s Jordan & Skala that connects the systems to the electrical components of the building.

His team also uses energy-code testing to make doubly-sure the systems are fully compliant and operational once they’re in place.

Expanding demands
This work is becoming more and more challenging, he notes, as building owners and developers are requesting more and more green energy components such as zero-emission vehicle-charging stations.

For example, one project underway is an industrial facility that requires truck charging stations. His firm is overseeing the electrical infrastructure required to enable this significant increase in energy demand.

Another big project is Trinsic Residential’s Aura Thirty2, a five-story wood frame luxury residential development in University Park in Austin, Texas, one of the designated areas of Austin’s green energy building program. The property includes a resort-style pool, rooftop deck, clubroom and private work suites. Jordan & Skala has been able to guide the developer and construction team right from conceptual design to completion.

“With the green building administrative services we provide, we look at everything from the building envelope, and the windows and walls, to everything in it,” McEwin says.

He takes special pride in this particular development as it has allowed his team to oversee everything and to be certain that what was designed is what is finally implemented. “We are not just designing these systems and practices, we are implementing them as well. And when the instrumentation is in place, that is the best way of providing quality assurance.”

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