There is, indeed, nothing ordinary about this young giant’s multi-brand service platform and its vigorous yet sustainable growth.

ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada’s commitment to providing industrial and commercial facilities across Canada with the advanced tools, training, and operational support needed to succeed—alongside specialized products—is truly impressive. The company’s offerings include turnkey dock levelers, overhead doors, and loading docks, as well as round-the-clock service, installation, repair, and maintenance, making it a trusted partner for forward-thinking operators. But it is perhaps the company’s ability to leverage its operational expertise to create long-term value that truly sets it apart.

The company’s sheer speed and scale have made its expansion breathtaking, but at the same time, it has maintained stability across the business. Its reputation for growth, opportunity, and long-term investment in people continues to attract experienced professionals and talent from across the industry. As a result, the company is now an employer of choice for industry professionals.

Its drive to extend its reach brings about continuous change, an aspect of the business that its teams continue to embrace. Today, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada offers customers vertical integration through a powerful network of leading industrial door and loading dock service providers, including Door Doctor, Lenworth, Pro-Door, and many others. Together, these established brands combine deep expertise, with national scale, shared resources, and innovation needed to better serve customers across the country. “We are not just servicing; we are able to install our own products across Canada,” says President, Gordie Lazare.

As a leader in an industry with a measured sales cycle, being different is neither an accident nor a gimmick, but rather a finely-honed, conscious business strategy aimed at providing customers with a level of service never before seen in this slow-to-evolve corner of the industry. Following its latest acquisitions, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada continues making a name for itself as a thought leader committed to revolutionizing its industry through sophisticated, sustainable change and strategic expansion.

Supporting industry-wide evolution in this way also serves to maintain a committed and focused environment where people can thrive. Inspired to face difficult tasks head-on, President Lazare enjoys meeting challenges in unconventional ways—and so does his team. The result is a robust and engaged workplace culture and customers who are enamored with the Direct Business – Canada offering. “Having been in the industry for several decades, being able to bring together this depth and breadth of expertise while creating an environment where people want to win together is what excites me,” he says.

“I love bringing that perspective, that structure, and that investment into organizations because it’s not the norm,” Lazare continues. “As we continue to grow and take advantage of national opportunities, it’s better for our own people to grow from within. It’s an exciting time in the industry.”

Indeed, to further secure its future prospects, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada is investing in the future with a new training facility, which will provide a steady stream of optimally qualified technicians to staff its branches nationally.

At ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada, change is intentional and measurable, and the company is proud to serve at the vanguard of modern business thinking. After all, how many companies in the dock loading space have a complete human resources team focused on talent development and culture, along with a team retention strategy that is second to none?

The company’s onboarding process serves as another example of its philosophy. As ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada continues to grow its presence across Canada, each branch is thoughtfully integrated into the organization with a focus on supporting its people, strengthening operations, and preserving local expertise that customer value. The result is a seamless transition that equips every team with the resources, technology, and support needed to thrive as part of a national network,

“We want our branches to be focused on the things they love to do and the things that they do very well,” says Lazare. Newly acquired branches get a boost from new technology and sophisticated systems, while strong supply chains provide an improved customer experience. All aspects of human resources and safety, alongside industry compliance, are brought up to standard and secured—complete with access to the highly skilled technicians who form the foundation of the business.

All these value-adds create exceedingly successful businesses that can then remain loyal contributors to the industry in the long run—all while being assured a bright future that would not necessarily have been possible before joining the Direct Business – Canada network.

As the company reinvests in itself to drive scale and commercialization, ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada’s goals are to expand its staff count of 400 (at the beginning of this year) to 1000 and its existing delivery fleet of around 220 to approximately 350 over the next two to three years, with national service coverage. To this end, the team is well on its way to exceeding expectations; this is a group that people want to come to because of that very same group—because of the people, with the backing of a large company behind them. By continuously driving value into every business in its network while providing customers with a comprehensive selection of cutting-edge services, everything Direct Business – Canada touches is underscored by its penchant for patience and continuous improvement.

At the end of the day, vision, consistency, operational efficiency, and servant leadership mark the way forward for this team of industry experts who thrive on the thrill of the chase. Lazare says it best when he praises them for their gumption, laser focus, and capacity to pivot at lightning speed in uncertain times. “I respect our team because they’re confident, because they push the limits, and because they balance aggression with professionalism very well,” he tells us.

This leaves us with one undeniable fact: joining ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada is the answer to economic empowerment, improved performance, and a lasting legacy for those in the dock loading industry struggling in a space in dire need of a renaissance.

The post Modernizing the Loading Dock: Inside ASSA ABLOY Direct Business Canada’s Rapid Rise<p class="company">ASSA ABLOY Direct Business – Canada</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded in 1978 by two brothers in Ohio, the company originally handled residential cabinetry before relocating to Florida and, under the leadership of Ethan Adams, pivoting entirely toward commercial construction. Today, as a second-generation, family-owned organization, Adams Group employs 156 team members and serves clients across a broad region in the fields of healthcare facilities, universities, sports complexes, and other complex commercial environments.

Adams Group was incorporated in Florida in 1984, and as opportunities grew, the company shifted its focus exclusively to commercial construction projects. Its geographic reach and capabilities have expanded well beyond that original footprint, and what began primarily as a casework operation now includes custom architectural millwork, solid surface fabrication, specialty solutions, project management, drafting, engineering support, and installation services, all delivered under one roof.

That integration is central to how the company describes itself: not simply as a manufacturer, but as a full-service partner capable of carrying a project from concept through completion.

Adams Group’s mission statement, “Building Beautiful Environments. Thriving Relationships,” is more than a marketing tagline. According to Human Resources Manager, Tara Szatkowski, the mission drives daily decision-making across every department, from estimating and drafting to manufacturing and field installation.

Szatkowski has spent a decade with the organization and says the people-first philosophy runs through every level of the company. “It is definitely all about our people,” Szatkowski says. That focus shapes not only how the company treats its workforce, but how it evaluates candidates during the hiring process.

“We look at whether they are humble, hungry, or smart,” Szatkowski says, describing the traits Adams Group prioritizes when building its team. Those same values, expanded to include “wise,” also form the foundation of the company’s internal playbook and guide how employees collaborate, solve problems, and serve customers. Adams Group encourages team members to listen first, take ownership, continuously improve, and prioritize long-term outcomes over short-term gains.

Szatkowski describes the company as one that has resisted the impersonal drift that often comes with growth. “We still care about each individual,” she says. “We know a little bit about each person, who their spouses are, who their children are, who’s having babies, who’s getting married, who may be going through a difficult time.” She points to the company’s willingness to organize fundraisers for team members facing financial hardship, medical difficulties, or family loss as evidence of that commitment in practice. “That’s how we as an organization help to build those thriving relationships within the organization,” she says.

Another defining feature of Adams Group’s business model is its integrated service structure. Rather than functioning purely as a manufacturer, the company provides estimating, drafting, engineering support, project management, manufacturing, solid surface fabrication, and installation, all coordinated through a single organization. Szatkowski describes this as something close to a one-stop shop experience for clients, one where they can watch a project develop from the earliest drafting and engineering stages through manufacturing and into installation, with a project manager involved throughout. “A PM is with the project throughout the process,” she says, noting that installation teams in the field are ultimately responsible for realizing the vision established earlier in the process.

Executive Vice President, Curt Bennett, expands on the benefits this structure provides to different stakeholders. For owners, the integrated approach means fewer handoffs, better coordination, and a single point of accountability instead of multiple vendors to manage. For architects and designers, early collaboration with Adams Group’s drafting and manufacturing teams allows practical feedback on constructability while preserving design intent. For general contractors, having one trade partner responsible for multiple scopes simplifies scheduling and reduces the coordination challenges that can arise when many vendors are involved on a single project.

Szatkowski credits this cohesion for much of the company’s staying power. “We would not be where we are today if it wasn’t for each piece of that puzzle working together,” she says, pointing to the collaboration between estimating, drafting, engineering, the manufacturing shop, and the departments that follow.

To keep it all running smoothly, Adams Group has continued to invest in automation and digital tools. On the production side, the company stays current with commercial equipment, including robotics and machinery that generate data used to refine workflows. On the administrative side, the focus has shifted from simply storing information toward building repeatable workflows and processes that scale as the company grows. John VanErem, Executive Vice President, notes that the real investment in digital workflows lies not in the cost of the tools themselves, but in the effort required to put them to full use across the business rather than testing them on the margins.

Szatkowski notes that artificial intelligence has been introduced in select areas of the organization rather than applied uniformly. Her own department uses it in HR functions, and the accounting team recently implemented new AI-driven capabilities to help manage monthly invoicing. “We have used it in different branches of the organization,” she explains, “but it’s not used throughout the organization.”

In a competitive commercial millwork market, Adams Group positions itself as something broader than a manufacturer. Christopher Wernimont, Operations Engineer, describes the company as a relationship-driven organization that combines the capabilities of a large operation with the personalized attention of a trusted partner. Over more than four decades, Adams Group has built a reputation for quality craftsmanship and exceptional service while continuing to invest in technology, innovation, and process improvement, and that combination is a matter of continuous improvement as much as scale. Adams Group describes itself as committed to finding better ways to increase efficiency, solve challenges, and deliver greater value to its customers, all while maintaining a people-first culture. The company places its clients’ trust as central to that commitment, with the goals of anticipating challenges, delivering on commitments, and building long-term relationships that lead to repeat business.

Ultimately, the leadership team notes, what sets Adams Group apart is not only what the team builds, but how it builds it, with quality craftsmanship, integrated services, continuous improvement, and a steadfast commitment to relationships.

With skilled labor remaining one of the construction industry’s persistent challenges, Adams Group has built a deliberate pipeline for developing new talent. The company partners closely with Pittsburg State University in Kansas, which offers degree programs in wood technology and related fields, to connect with students entering the industry.

Szatkowski describes an internship structure designed to give students broad exposure before narrowing their focus. Typically, the company brings on two to three interns each summer. Students who have declared an interest in a specific path, such as project management, can concentrate their internship there, while others rotate through multiple departments to see how each operates.

Near the end of the summer, interns are generally given the option to return to whichever department, or departments, resonated with them most, whether because of the work itself or the people they worked alongside. “It gives them the ability to see a little bit of everything,” Szatkowski says of the program’s design.

Bennett, VanErem, and Wernimont tell us that employees are given the opportunity to see the direct impact of their work because Adams Group manages projects from concept through installation. That visibility, paired with opportunities to expand skills across manufacturing, project management, drafting, and field operations, is central to both attracting and retaining talent. Retention, they say, ultimately comes down to culture and an environment built on respect, teamwork, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Bennett highlights the Naples Beach Club Market Square and the Doak Campbell Stadium renovation. The Naples Beach Club Market Square project featured high-end finishes that highlighted the installation team’s craftsmanship and attention to detail, and it required close coordination between project management and field operations to meet a demanding schedule.

The Doak Campbell Stadium renovation, meanwhile, showcased the drafting and engineering team’s ability to integrate a range of finishes and material types into a cohesive, buildable design, while the manufacturing team delivered high-end products at scale without sacrificing quality.

Szatkowski speaks more broadly about the sense of purpose the team draws from its work across the board. “Our team is proud of every project that we do,” she says, describing the satisfaction that comes from contributing to spaces built for hospitals, schools, and other community institutions. This connection to the communities Adams Group serves, she says, is a significant source of pride companywide.

Of course, client retention is closely tied to the same relationship-driven culture that shapes the company’s internal operations, and Szatkowski attributes much of the company’s repeat business to its people and its approach to customer service. “I think the longevity of some of our people and the customer service that we provide in the entire process keeps clients and customers coming back,” she says.

She acknowledges that projects do not always go exactly according to plan but says the company’s response in those moments matters as much as the outcome itself. “Even if everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, they know that we will do our best to make it right,” she says, whether the issue originates on the job site, in the drawings, or in the manufacturing shop.

In addition to this level of trust and transparency, sustainability has become an increasingly important consideration for Adams Group’s clients. VanErem describes the company’s approach as one rooted in quality and long-term performance, supporting projects that use FSC-certified materials and contribute toward LEED certification requirements when specified, while adhering to Architectural Woodwork Institute standards to ensure durability and precision.

Looking ahead, the company’s recent acquisition of Mill-Rite Woodworking has expanded its capabilities in specialty wood and stone fabrication, solid wood moldings, and high-end veneer work, positioning Adams Group for continued growth in the high-end commercial interiors market.

Reflecting on the company’s history, Szatkowski points to its longevity as an accomplishment, particularly within an industry known for its sensitivity to economic cycles. “It’s safe to say that sustaining for 48 years is a feat in itself,” she says. “Especially in the construction world, construction ebbs and flows with the economy, and Adams Group has stayed strong.” She credits that stability to the leadership of Ethan Adams, who took over the company from his father and uncle and steered it toward the commercial focus that defines Adams Group today.

Bennett, VanErem, and Wernimont close on a similar note, describing a legacy Adams Group hopes to build that extends well beyond the buildings it constructs. The company aims to be known not only as a manufacturer or installer, but as an organization that develops great people, creates opportunities, and makes a positive impact on everyone connected to it.

As the marketplace continues to change and technology continues to evolve, the principles that have shaped Adams Group since 1978—integrity, continuous improvement, servant leadership, exceptional craftsmanship, and a commitment to helping people thrive—are expected to remain constant.

For a company built on the belief that beautiful environments and thriving relationships go hand in hand, that continuity may be its most defining trait.

The post A Four-Decade Legacy of Building Beautiful Environments<p class="company">Adams Group</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded in Austin in 1971 by Bailey Elliott, the company incorporated in the early 1990s as Bailey Elliott Construction Incorporated. Scott Wilson and Keith Pool, both longtime project managers and estimators under Elliott, purchased the company from him in 2003 and carried it forward. Years later, the company rebranded as BEC, a change that let it build a distinct identity in Austin’s competitive construction market while continuing to uphold the standards Elliott had established decades earlier.

Keith Pool retired from company management three years ago, and Scott Wilson now owns and leads the business. Today, BEC has 23 employees and a reputation built across Austin’s commercial and multifamily sectors, with a particular niche in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) construction. As the region has grown, so has demand for the kind of complex, highly technical projects the company has built its name on, and BEC has continued to position itself around exactly that kind of work.

Built on trust
According to Devin Wood, Vice President of Business Development at BEC, that reputation comes down to one thing above all else. “It’s trust,” he says. “Our reputation is the most important thing we have, and that reputation is built on relationships of trust.”

Wood points to the company’s willingness to operate transparently with the owners it works for. Many of BEC’s projects are open-book arrangements, where the company shares its bids and its accounting directly with clients.

“We’re sharing our accounting books with the owners, showing them exactly what we’re costing,” he explains. “We try to be very transparent with owners.” That transparency extends to cost and scheduling updates throughout a project, so owners always know where a job stands. Combined with a track record of finishing jobs on time and under budget—not to mention strong working relationships with architects and consultants—it gives clients the confidence to return to BEC for their next project.

BEC works across a broad range of commercial and multifamily construction, and Wood describes that range as a genuine strength as it lets the company take on projects across many sectors rather than depending on a single market.

That breadth also gives BEC’s teams a wider base of experience to draw on when a project doesn’t fit a conventional mold, which, as Wood tells it, describes a growing share of the company’s work. But within that diversification, BEC has developed deep expertise in a handful of areas, and LIHTC housing sits at the center of that specialization.

LIHTC housing comes with its own layer of governmental regulation, and Wood says success in that market depends on more than technical construction skill. It requires understanding of the communities the housing serves. “Our teams, from estimating to project management to superintendents in the field, understand the communities that we’re serving,” Wood says.

Welcoming a challenge
That expertise is on full display in BEC’s newest and most ambitious undertaking, the Bloom, a seven-story multifamily development that recently broke ground after more than a year and a half of preconstruction work. The project is technically demanding on nearly every level. Its structure combines a three-story concrete podium with four stories of wood-frame construction above, meaning the building has to satisfy Type I construction standards on its lower floors and Type III standards on its upper floors (two different building classifications integrated into a single structure).

The financing behind the Bloom is equally complex, layering multiple funding sources with their accompanying legal and regulatory requirements. The top four floors will provide standard multifamily LIHTC housing. The bottom three floors, though, are something different altogether: specialty housing that will be owned and operated by a foundation serving adults with mental disabilities, replacing outdated facilities the organization currently relies on.

“That’s a really special thing to be able to do,” Wood says. “It’s not just multifamily; this is full-time care. It’s not quite a nursing home, but it’s somewhere in between.”

Adding to the challenge, the Bloom sits on a zero-lot-line site, with construction running from property line to property line with no room to spare. BEC is working on a 26-month schedule, having started construction in June, putting the project roughly two years out from completion.

Collaboration is key
Projects of this complexity, Wood says, are exactly where BEC’s approach sets it apart. He points to a common problem with the traditional design-bid-build process where architects can design a project that fully addresses a site’s complications and an owner’s needs but do so without construction cost input along the way. When the project goes out to bid, the owner can discover it is 20 to 25 percent or more over budget, with no way to value-engineer that much cost out of the design. The result is an expensive, time-consuming redesign bringing new architectural and engineering fees, months of delay, and sometimes even a return trip through the permitting process.

BEC prefers to get involved from the earliest stages of a project, sometimes starting with little more than a single sketch of a proposed building. Drawing on its construction history and strong subcontractor relationships, the company can put together a detailed and accurate cost estimate at that early stage, then continue refining pricing alongside the architect and owner as the design develops.

“We don’t want to do the architect’s job, but we’re there to help them,” Wood says. “We’re there to make suggestions that could keep a project on budget, suggestions that are maybe different design-wise than what they had originally intended but allow the project to keep the design intent and stay on budget.”

Leading the sustainability charge
BEC has spent nearly two decades at the leading edge of sustainable construction, and Wood sees that focus as a long-term investment rather than a passing trend. His reasoning is straightforward: the high-performance, energy-efficient buildings of today tend to become the standard building code of tomorrow, so staying ahead of the curve now pays off for owners and for BEC alike.

Wood has personally worked on LEED-certified projects since 2007, when the certification was still a rarity in the industry. He notes how far standards have shifted since then: work that once qualified as advanced green building under LEED has now largely become standard building code. That shift matters to the owners who plan to hold their buildings for the long term, since they tend to care most about lifetime energy costs and long-term value, both of which green building programs are designed to protect.

That long track record gives BEC’s clients two distinct advantages, Wood says. As a LEED Accredited Professional, he can walk owners through the real costs of pursuing a given certification level based on the company’s own project history and connect them with past clients who can speak to the long-term energy savings those investments produced.

On the construction side, BEC’s project teams, many of them LEED AP or LEED Green Associate certified, are well versed in the additional documentation LEED projects require, from tracking recycled material content to managing waste and recycling submittals.

Among BEC’s sustainable projects, one that stands out to Wood personally is the Lakeline Learning Center, a net-zero-energy building certified under the Living Building Challenge, a standard considerably more rigorous than LEED. Wood believes it remains the only Living Building Challenge project in Central Texas, and he served as project manager on the build.

“It was a major challenge to do that project,” he says. “It took a lot of effort to do it. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite projects to have been involved in, just because of the immense challenge that it was to bring that project to fruition.”

Embracing the future
Now, technology is reshaping how BEC and the rest of the construction industry operate, and Wood expects that shift to accelerate. The company is already exploring artificial intelligence tools for tasks like data parsing and comparing subcontractor quotes, processes that have traditionally required significant manual work.

Wood doesn’t expect AI to touch the work happening on job sites as the technology already in use for grading and site work isn’t likely to change dramatically. What he does expect to change is the administrative side of the business, compliance tracking, and submittals over the next two to five years.

“It’s going to make us more effective and make us more accurate,” he says of automation’s growing role in project management. “We’re going to see fewer mistakes through the process, and it definitely makes all teams more accurate and more efficient.”

Investing in people remains just as important to BEC’s future as investing in new technology, and the company is preparing to launch a more structured internship and apprenticeship program next summer, after running a brief internship effort in the past. With an aging workforce across the industry, Wood sees bringing in new talent from area colleges as essential to the company’s long-term strength, and BEC has already begun recruiting on local campuses.

Of course, safety runs through every part of the BEC culture as well. Rather than relying on a specific safety platform, the team works with a safety consultant who regularly inspects the company’s job sites and focuses on building a positive safety culture from the top down, rather than simply enforcing rules from the outside. “We want every single person that shows up to work on our job site to go home safely to their families,” Wood says. “That’s the goal every single day, and we take it very, very seriously.”

For Wood, everything BEC does traces back to the same idea that construction is fundamentally a relationship business. The company’s plans for growth center on strengthening the ties it already has with clients, subcontractors, and design partners, while building new relationships on the same foundation of trust and reliability.

That extends to how BEC thinks about leadership within the company. Wood believes the construction industry is evolving too quickly for anyone, individually or organizationally, to stand still. “We try to foster a culture at BEC of constantly learning,” he shares. “The day you stop learning is the day that you’re left behind. If you want to be a leader in the industry, whether that’s an individual leader on a job site or in a leadership role in a company, you have to be willing to stay at the forefront and constantly be learning.”

More than five decades after Bailey Elliott founded the company, BEC continues to carry forward the standards he set in careful, transparent work built on relationships that last well beyond a single project.

With the Bloom underway, a growing internship program on the horizon, and a widening embrace of new technology, BEC is positioning itself for its next chapter the same way it built its first: through steady, trusted work, one project at a time.

The post More Than a Building<p class="company">BEC Austin</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

A leader in the North American geoexchange market, Geosource Energy is a relatively small second-generation Canadian operation that is having a significant market impact by providing Earth Powered Solutions™ to clients across North America and beyond.

Using geothermal energy, which is generated and stored beneath the Earth’s surface, the company’s geoexchange systems provide cost-effective and highly efficient heating, cooling, and hot water for new construction and retrofit projects that seek to set the bar for sustainability and performance.

Backed by proprietary technology and a unique approach, over its 20-plus year history Geosource Energy has drilled over six million linear feet for more than 400 successful projects across Canada and the United States, establishing itself as a leader in the field and a true champion of geothermal.

Why choose geothermal?
An investment in geothermal is an investment in reduced energy use, and thus, lower demand on the grid, fewer emissions, lower life cycle costs, more predictable monthly rates, and optimal year-round comfort; it’s a win for both people and the environment, which is why a greater number of utilities and government entities are doubling down on these investments.

Geothermal systems are proven more sustainable versus conventional HVAC systems, while also being more cost-effective over the long term. In fact, users can experience 25 to 50 percent lower energy costs as a result of the investment, while the underground infrastructure can outlast the structure itself. As CEO Stan Reitsma notes, studies have shown that, “For every dollar that’s saved there, there’s nine dollars saved on the grid.”

In a market marred by volatility and unpredictability, particularly where energy is concerned, the untapped potential of geothermal to add capacity to the grid is something worth exploring. Studies are underway to better understand how geoexchange systems can be used to support the grid as it faces unprecedented demand, particularly in the wake of mass data centre expansion.

Naturally, a big driver in the U.S. is from utilities as they seek to meet this growing demand—more specifically, they are investigating the role of geothermal in cooling storage and demand side power management for data centres as they continue to come online at an impressive pace. “If they can start proving out geothermal for data centres, that’s going to create a whole different type of expansion in the market,” says Vice President Kate Cheng, an area that Geosource Energy is prepared to undertake.

Why choose Geosource?
With more than 20 years of experience offering utility grade construction services and best-in-class drilling and expertise, Geosource Energy is not only a leader in geothermal but also a technology leader who sets the bar and continues to drive the industry forward.

“One of the big differentiators we have is our drill rigs. Geosource has worked with Novamac, our drill manufacturer, for many, many years now and we have only one type of drill rig that we use across our entire company,” says Cheng of the highly flexible dual rotary drill rig which enables work to be done in even the most challenging conditions.

Since 2008, Geosource Energy has been positioning the bore field below a building’s footprint, a proprietary process referred to as At Grade, which allows the drilling to take place before excavation starts (though it can come at any point during new construction or retrofits thanks to angle drilling). Angle drilling enables Geosource Energy to go beneath infrastructure like roadways, buildings, or greenspace without disturbance, using a central location and a concentrated workspace to minimize the impact of its operations.

“When you’re in urban environments drilling next to multifamily buildings with balconies five feet from where you’re drilling, we really limit the acoustic impact of our drill rigs and we’ve developed specialized equipment that allows us to containerize all of our operations so we’re not a big messy site with spoils and grout flying around in the air,” Cheng explains.

This enables the team to get maximum capacity from a limited area, which is particularly useful for retrofit projects like 240 Markland in the Greater Toronto Area, where geoexchange not only improved overall energy efficiency, but also reduced the property’s energy reliance.

“We try to limit the amount of space that we’re actually using to do the geo by putting them very close together at surface and then spreading it out underground,” explains Reitsma, who notes space requirements can be reduced by upwards of 95 percent. “If we had not angle drilled, they would not have been able to retrofit those buildings. They didn’t have enough space.”

This patent-protected process optimizes the trade sequence and drives value from a project’s outset, and to ensure that the benefits of its use are not limited by Geosource’s own capacity, which has been tested by growing demand, the company will license out the technology to other drillers to ensure that industry best practices are being implemented.

This drive to advance geothermal is part of the company’s DNA. According to Cheng, “Our core innovation tenets being equipment innovation, process innovation, and data-driven operations means design improvements based on real performance data, new tools for geothermal field analysis, and intelligence for operational systems,” which enables the company to undertake industry-leading projects that move the needle forward for geothermal and sustainable construction.

Setting the bar
Geosource Energy has a rich portfolio of projects highlighting the value it brings to the market. At the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, Geosource Energy drilled 372 boreholes at 250 meters per borehole (approximately half the height of the CN Tower) to complete the largest operational urban geothermal/geoexchange system in Canada. The project boasts an energy capacity with a storage equivalent of 250,000 electric vehicle batteries and it has cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 17,000 tonnes annually.

The demonstrated value for institutional operations is incredible, which is why more and more such clients are integrating geoexchange into their projects. There is a desire to reap the long-term benefits, deemed worthy of their upfront costs.

This was also the case recently at the new Western Memorial Regional Hospital in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador where Geosource designed and installed the geothermal system, which included 375 boreholes spanning 600 feet below the parking lot. Recognized as North America’s largest hospital geothermal system, the geoexchange system provides 100 percent of the hospital’s heating, replacing electric baseboards with a more efficient system that has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in electricity use.

These are the kinds of results Geosource has delivered in Canada over its 20-plus year history, and now it continues to make history south of the border as well. Selected by Lendlease for the 1 Java Street project, a residential development in Brooklyn comprising 834 rental units—30 percent of which are designated as affordable housing—as well as nearly 13,000 square feet of neighbourhood-oriented retail space, Geosource’s expertise and ability to execute is in high demand, and for good reason.

Upon completion, 1 Java Street became the largest geothermal residential project in the United States, thanks to Geosource Energy’s vertical closed loop geoexchange system comprising 321 boreholes at a depth of 500 feet. This system will reduce annual carbon emissions from heating and cooling by 53 percent compared with typical residential systems and as an all-electric building, emissions will be eliminated.

This project also set the stage for additional work in the U.S. and as such, Geosource made the decision to establish a U.S. headquarters in Manhattan to support growth in demand.

For instance, Geosource recently partnered with Honeywell on the John F. Kennedy Elementary School project in Boston, the city’s first geothermal retrofit of a school in the area. Certainly, the geology of the area presents unique challenges, but Geosource was up to the task.

Cheng credits the rigs as “a big part of what makes us so flexible in different geologies because no matter what the geology is, we can tool up to do rotary drilling.”

It’s a good thing, too, because interest is being generated out west with other major projects like Oracle Global Headquarters in Nashville, which means neither geology nor geography is going to stop the company’s success.

The growing push for decarbonization
For clients, geothermal can serve as a component part of achieving net zero/low-carbon outcomes and Geosource Energy, with its acute awareness that only a percentage of the market has been spoken for, continues to push on.

“We all work together trying to decarbonize the industry and we have a solutions mindset related to that,” explains Cheng, which is why Geosource continues to experience growth in demand for its expertise around North America, and even the world.

According to Cheng, “We have the practicality and work ethic of a field-driven construction company but with the analytical approach of an engineering and technology organization.” This is backed by an unmatched depth of experience in the field, actionable data, and technology leadership that enables the company to find success no matter where projects may take it.

With interest even being generated overseas, where there is growing recognition of the potential impact of geoexchange, Geosource Energy is a Canadian company who has become a global authority in geothermal. This is a team that continues to advance the market through exceptional projects and unmatched performance, raising the bar for an entire industry in the process.

The post Raising the Standard for Geothermal<p class="company">Geosource Energy</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Boasting a fleet of more than 700 units, service assets, and accessories such as boom lifts, scissor lifts, telehandlers, mast forklifts, small dirt equipment, and more, GM leases a variety of aerial and material handling equipment, and offers custom hydraulic hoses, electrical and hydraulic maintenance, and diagnostics. Along with renting out brand-new, well-maintained construction equipment that has undergone a comprehensive inspection and received OSHA approval, and offering timely, trustworthy customer service, GM Equipment also provides repair services on site or at its facilities, with highly skilled service specialists performing boom inspections on a quarterly or annual basis.

Another recent accomplishment was the company’s ability to elevate its Hydraulix offering, a bucket truck repair division established in November 2020 as part of a continuous endeavor to differentiate itself, remain current, and carry on its legacy of variety and advancement. Hydraulix services include DOT inspections, yearly boom inspections, hydraulic repair, electrical diagnostics, lathe and mill work, dielectric testing, and custom hoses of all sizes, in addition to the hydraulic and electrical repair of various boom, bucket, and derrick trucks. Since its inception, the division has grown to serve a wide range of clients with varied needs at offices in Columbus, Ohio and St. Marys, Pennsylvania.

“As of January 1^st this year, we separated that company as its own entity and put a focus on driving that business to newer heights,” says General Manager, Drew Dobson. “So far this year, it’s been a really good story. We’re employing more people for good-paying jobs, expanding our services line, and taking a lot of pride in gaining more customers and performing good work.”

GM still has hurdles to overcome, however, including finding, training, and retaining the skilled personnel required to keep the company running smoothly, an industry-wide concern.

“It’s what I’m hearing in our industry across the board, whether it be from our customers or the contractors performing the work; they’re struggling to find mechanics and truck drivers,” Dobson says. “At the end of the day, what it comes down to is we can only be as successful as those around us. If we get full support from our employees and our vendors, we can be successful.”

While GM has certainly enjoyed success over the past 20 years, there has “definitely been a shift downhill” recently that’s making it tougher, specifically since the onset of the pandemic. GM, however, remains committed to meeting the challenge.

“It’s important for everybody to be accessible and make sure we’re turning things around quickly, because it all hinges on that,” Dobson says. “We still have great partners who help us every single day, whether they be our employees or our vendors, but it’s just been tougher for everybody all around.”

Today’s troubling economy has also served to increase expenses while slowing delivery and progress across the board, compared to pre-COVID times. “Even in the midst of those hurdles, we’re still doing everything in our power to be a top player,” Dobson, says, adding that GM’s reliable workforce plays a large part in that.

GM employees themselves remain committed to ensuring the company continues to thrive despite these challenges. That dedication to quality and service has helped employees find not only success but longevity, unusual in today’s workplace, and truly a testament to what GM is doing right.

“We know we have our share of turnover here and there, but our core group of employees have been here a long time,” Dobson says. “We have employees who have been here for over 15 years now, and in today’s market, we really think that that’s a good testament to how well we try to take care of them.”

What makes GM a great place to work? A combination of factors, with the foremost being good pay and solid benefits. “On top of that, we try to think outside the box and offer our employees some things that other businesses don’t, such as paid time off for birthdays,” says Dobson. Another is being flexible with time, offering every employee the opportunity to work 4/10s in a week in order to take a Friday off once a month, he adds. “As far as I know, there’s nobody else in our industry doing that. We’re constantly working on ways to improve benefits, such as 401(k) with a match, to take good care of our people.”

Additionally, the relationship between management and employees is one of open communication, encouraging everyone to come forward with any issues or problems. “We tell everybody here, we’ve got a job to do,” Dobson says. “This company has turned into a real machine, and it takes a lot of energy to fuel that machine, but at the end of the day, our core principles of being a family-owned company haven’t faltered. We take great pride in it being a laidback workplace, where if an employee has a question or issue, it’s an open-door policy,” he says.

“We take a lot of pride in listening to our employees. Their ideas and thoughts on whatever may be in front of us are valuable,” Dobson says. “Two heads are always better than one, and if we can work to make a better process or situation, or just answer a simple question, that’s always the way that we want to go.”

All of these efforts have successfully created a company that has not only grown for the past 20 years but will continue to do so well into the future. “Moving forward, it’s about looking to the next milestone, like the 25-year or 30-year anniversary,” Dobson says. “There are no direct plans at this moment for a large expansion, but we’re also the type of people who are never going to pass up a good deal or a good opportunity. We’re always open to the next big thing.”

Reaching future milestones will depend on maintaining quality employees, and Dobson reiterates the importance of bringing in skilled and dedicated employees who will help usher in the future of the company. If you’re one of those people, he adds, there is a place for you at GM Equipment Rentals. “If you’re a motivated individual, you want to work hard and be rewarded as such, and you want to have the ability to move up and exceed your goals, this is a good place for you. Our history can attest to that. Our other employees can attest to that, that we’re always looking to grow and expand and do the next big thing, and we need more people to help us do that.”

Finding those types of committed and eager workers shouldn’t be difficult for a company of this stature. “That’s the biggest thing: we tell everybody, it’s not that you have to necessarily be an expert in your position, but we need you to almost be an expert in motivation. We’re willing to teach, and we’re willing to help. You’ve got to be willing to put the work in.”

He adds that encouraging young people to venture into trades out of high school is also a necessary and positive step to help create a solid and secure future in industries that have so much to offer.

“I think we as a society have finally come to that realization here in the past year,” he says. “We’re in this period where everybody was being told, ‘you’ve got to go to college.’ The trades suffered from that, and now we’re realizing it, but it’s going to be a while before the turnaround happens, where we can get back to a more normal distribution of talent.”

With skilled tradespeople retiring at a steady pace, finding those younger, skilled workers will be an ongoing concern, but companies like GM Equipment Rentals provide strong incentives to enter this healthy and lucrative field of employment.

Until then, GM plans to continue on its productive path forward, serving both its loyal customers and skilled employees, to ensure a bright future, banding together to handle any potential challenges the company and the industry may face.

Dobson is assured they will succeed. “There are other factors just plain out of our control already working against us, and if we can do our best to ensure a good working relationship or a good outcome for the customer, that’s what we need to do,” he says.

And that’s where GM Equipment Rentals’ focus has stayed, ensuring success over the past 20 years. “That’s what we’ve been focusing on,” he stresses. “Despite all the other hurdles, we’re focusing hard on making sure the customer is taken care of. We’re trying to take care of our employees, keep them happy, keep them around, and keep them employed here for a long time. Our goal is for every employee to want to retire from our company.”

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At Specialty Technology and Research, Inc., better known as STAR, Inc., licensees are cared for like family and supported at every step. Founded in 1986, Columbus, Ohio-headquartered STAR has long worked on a licensee model. With a web page dedicated to Owning a STAR Seal Plant, the company outlines the many benefits of becoming a licensee. These include the provision of plant layout details, detailed engineering drawings, research and product development, technical support, quality control and assurance, technical training, and even marketing.

“It’s like a big family, and we always value the support of the licensees that we have,” says Girish C. Dubey, STAR Seal’s CEO and Founder. Dubey continues overseeing the company’s success in the pavement preservation industry and today, STAR has about 150 staff members in North America, 15 plants, and three international facilities, in Australia, China, and Mexico.

Designed for success: technology licensing
Compared to conventional franchising, STAR’s unique Technology Licensing program is much more cost-effective and is designed to set up licensees for success. As the company states, “Our sole responsibility is to support our member companies and their customers. STAR’s diversified management capabilities and strategies are highly focused and specifically designed to serve our members ensuring their future growth.” Backed by the strength of STAR, licensees benefit from negotiated prices for equipment and raw materials, connections with suppliers, directions on plant layout, equipment, staffing, and more.

“We always listen intently to all our licensees,” states Dubey of STAR, which holds monthly telephone conferences with all plants, discussing product and process development, equipment and raw material requirements, industry demand, and suggestions for improvement. These meetings are always productive, with plenty of ideas on how to prioritize projects. “There is nothing flowery; it is all meat and potatoes,” says Dubey, which makes sense because STAR licensees are on the front lines. The first to receive customer feedback, they receive full technical support and production processing support. Like a big family, every aspect of the business is discussed openly and honestly.

Built on sealcoating expertise
Long before founding STAR, Dubey studied chemistry, earning Master’s Degrees in Inorganic Chemistry from India’s Upadhyay Gorakhpur University and Polymer Chemistry from Wright State University. This saw him take on the role of technical manager at marine paint specialist Hempel before creating STAR and launching his first basic sealcoatings. These were followed by a line of additives to boost sealcoating performance and other products like STAR Supreme, STAR Aviator, and Better and Best.

“STAR Seal is the basic workhorse of the industry,” explains Dubey. “The Better grade is professional grade with better performance, and then there is Supreme. Our specialty product, STAR Aviator, is designed to meet FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) specifications for airports.”

Today, STAR is behind about three dozen different products, including sealcoatings, color coatings, crack fillers, traffic paint, primers and specialty products, and additives. Knowing its market extremely well, STAR doesn’t sell sundries like brushes, brooms, nozzles, or cleaning compounds. “Our focus is on technologically superior products in coatings and additives. That’s our main business,” states Dubey.

Along with legacy products like STAR Triton, STAR Spectrum, and STAR-Seal Refined Tar Sealers, the company has introduced two exciting products. One of them is Star LTCA, which stands for Low Temperature Cure Additive. This unique product is formulated to optimally cure in cooler temperatures, when sealcoating is usually not done. “With this additive, now you can take it down to 40°F, so that opens these seasons a bit more and gives a couple of weeks on both ends,” says Dubey. “The industry is so seasonal that this gives contractors a big advantage, having more weeks to do work early spring or late fall.”

Last year saw the company introduce STAR MAX-GRIP. An additive, STAR MAX-GRIP is based on specialty polymer latex and bonding agents and “is designed to reduce drying and cure times by 50 percent or more and improve adhesion of sealcoatings. Additionally, STAR MAX-GRIP improves the oil and chemical resistance of the sealcoating.”

As its name implies, STAR MAX-GRIP demonstrably improves the adhesive properties of sealcoating, especially in challenging areas like polished aggregates. Parking lots and driveways are asphalt mixed with aggregates and paved; over time, with age and usage, aggregates in the pavement become polished or slick, and it is hard for coatings to bond to slick surfaces. A polymer latex-based additive fortified with bonding agents, STAR MAX-GRIP is ideal for areas that must be resistant to chemicals and oil.

“It’s like painting a mirror,” Dubey explains. “Nothing will stick to it. This additive is great in those areas and all over, especially in areas experiencing more traffic, like exits and entrances.”

Marketing moves
STAR, Inc. and Girish Dubey have always excelled at marketing. Going back to the beginning, the company presented at industry conventions and shows and had a presence in magazine and print advertising. And as a sealcoating specialist, Dubey has written many technical papers. With marketing shifting largely away from print media, STAR has stepped up its online presence through its blog, which discusses advances in sealcoating, explores new products, and highlights projects completed by licensee plants. “People are talking more about our products, and it is working,” comments Dubey. “We have sharpened our marketing strategy and are putting more focus into certain aspects of that. We are launching a branding campaign for our name, which will be synonymous with quality, service, and integrity.”

As part of the branding program, the company is launching a new website dedicated strictly to persons interested in expanding into manufacturing, https://starsealmanufacturing.com/. People in the sealcoating industry tend to start small, keep growing, and, with the right support, reach a point where they have sufficient volumes of sealcoating and want to manufacture themselves, with STAR’s strong support. Others being approached include companies who do paving and subcontract the sealcoating to others. “So there are two pathways,” says Dubey. “People who do paving maintenance is a natural extension, but with hands-on experience in the industry.”

With considerable international turmoil at present, the company is emphasizing licensing opportunities in the United States instead of overseas, and is targeting locations along the eastern seaboard, the west coast, and the Midwest. There are many U.S. opportunities, and STAR is eyeing areas where it doesn’t currently have representation.

Another way STAR Seal supports its licensees is through its internal online magazine, which is distributed to all plants. The magazine showcases products and licensee activities, and contains articles on technical aspects of sealcoating, plant operations, and equipment. Plants are encouraged to share the magazine with their customers so they know about new products and activities.

At present, about 90 percent of STAR’s business is in commercial products, with the remaining 10 percent residential. Some businesses using STAR sealcoatings include big-box stores, commercial properties, industrial complexes, and homeowners associations. “Our aim is to enhance the performance of sealcoating, with very effective add-on offerings to the sealcoating,” states Dubey. Incorporating the right additives—even comprising just one or two percent of the product—makes the difference between a sealcoating performing and not performing. As Dubey explains, “We are always looking to do things in a different way and take full advantage of the known chemistry of ingredients.”

Proud of STAR Seal’s 40^th anniversary, Dubey and his team are planning promotions and celebrations, which will include recognizing the company’s many plants. “STAR is like a big family, and we always value the support of the licensees that we have, and we definitely want to show our appreciation,” he says. “2025 was one of our best years, and 2026 is tracking to be even better than last year. We are in the process of promoting for new plant locations, so I’m hoping we’ll have a couple of new plants next year.”

The post Protection and Preservation: The Importance of Sealcoating<p class="company">STAR, Inc.</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

“You could go to another company and work on a similar project with a different logo on your shirt,” McDonald says. “What makes the experience different is the people. When you have a team that shares common values, supports one another, and embraces a true foxhole mentality—where everyone is committed to each other’s success—it creates a culture that’s difficult to replicate.”

That philosophy, rooted in accountability and a quietly fierce loyalty to culture, has defined Erland’s nearly five-decade journey from a five-person open-shop spinoff in Burlington, Massachusetts, to a multi-division construction firm with a portfolio spanning student housing, life sciences, and academic institutions across New England.

Erland Construction was established in 1977 as the open-shop arm of a leading union contractor, created to deliver more cost-effective construction, particularly for Nordblom Company in Northwest Park, where Erland’s offices remain to this day. When legislation prohibiting so-called double-breasting (the simultaneous ownership of both union and open shop companies) came into effect, Erland broke away as an independent entity with just five employees.

The company took its name from its founding president, Kenneth Erland Froeberg, whose story was cut short when he passed from a heart attack in 1983. At that point, Tom Blesso and Chuck Vaciliou, both still with the company today as Board Members, faced a pivotal decision. Young, capable, and clear-eyed about what they didn’t yet know, they sought additional leadership rather than overreach.

They found it in McDonald’s grandfather, Bob McDonald, whose own story is one of improbable ascent. Growing up in Jamaica Plain, when he was 10 years old he lost his father, so he and his brother caddied after school to help their mother cover rent. In 1949, he was in the first class of Francis Ouimet Scholars, an award that paid full college tuition and enabled him to go to MIT and Harvard. Upon graduation he went to Vappi Construction for 27 years followed by a stint at Gilbane, before he joined Erland as President. “He grew up with a lot against him,” McDonald says, “but through that scholarship, he was able to accomplish things that would have seemed very unlikely given the environment he was raised in.”

Steve McDonald, Sean’s father, joined the firm in 1986 and later became President in 1997. The triumvirate of Steve McDonald, Tom Blesso, and Chuck Vaciliou each brought complementary strengths that have carried the company through decades of growth.

Sean himself worked as a laborer during summers while in high school and college, and eventually joined as an Assistant Project Manager in 2017, also serving as a Project Manager, Estimator, and Vice President throughout his tenure. He stepped into the presidential role around a year and a half ago. “I grew up around the business,” he says. “Coming to kids’ holiday parties at five years old and going to the Erland family cookouts. What always stood out was that our people never approached it just as work. They took pride in what they built, held themselves accountable, and genuinely cared about each other and the company’s success.”

Today, Erland operates in several markets. Its Residential division focuses on heads-in-beds projects, apartments, student housing, senior living, and hotels. Its Advanced Tech/Life Sciences group handles technically complex environments, including cleanrooms, laboratories, and increasingly, client-driven expansions into office renovations and institutional upgrades. The third arm, ACC, Academic, Corporate, and Commercial, covers the broadest range of work, with academic construction currently representing one of the firm’s strongest performing sectors.

In 2022, the company reached a peak of $320 million in volume, a high-water mark that was followed by what McDonald describes candidly as turbulence—a convergence of market headwinds, high interest rates, material cost escalation, and the significant internal transition involved in implementing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

“It takes discipline to remain focused on the opportunities that align best with your team’s expertise and capacity,” McDonald says. “Our goal is always to ensure we have the right people and resources in place to deliver exceptional results for our clients while creating a positive experience for all team members. When those elements come together, it sets the foundation for a successful project for everyone involved.”

The ESOP transition, which Erland completed in 2022 and announced in 2023, was deliberately structured to preserve independence rather than enable exit. Leadership made the decision to sell a portion of the company to its employees, giving them a direct financial stake in Erland’s future.

For McDonald, the ESOP formalized something he had observed since childhood: that Erland’s people had always behaved like owners. Average tenure at the company currently sits at 12 to 13 years, a striking figure given that the majority of its staff are under 40 years of age. “Employee ownership reinforces that commitment by creating meaningful opportunities for long-term wealth creation and career growth,” he says. “The goal was: how can we make Erland an enduring organization for generations to come?”

The ESOP also functions as a retention and recruitment tool at a moment when the construction industry more broadly is seeing average tenures shrink to two or three years. Erland’s workforce includes four members of the Driscoll family, three McDonalds, three Crafts, three Burkes, and multiple second-generation employees who grew up knowing the company before they ever worked for it.

Perhaps the most visible expression of Erland’s current capabilities is a $130 million student residence project underway for Capstone Development Partners at Tufts University in Medford, a two-tower, 10-story development delivering 664 beds to a campus operating in one of the country’s most acute student housing markets. “The greater Boston area has been under a severe housing crisis,” McDonald notes. “Having the privilege to help shape the student residential experience on such an important campus is something our team takes a lot of pride in.”

The project was procured as a design-build undertaking in partnership with Capstone Development Partners, an Alabama-based developer whom Erland had previously engaged on a potential student housing project at Clark University in Worcester, a project that ultimately was canceled due to FAFSA-related complications. Despite that early setback, a strong partnership was developed between Erland and Capstone.

The Tufts project marks Erland’s second use of Canam Hambro’s composite floor system, a prefabricated solution involving composite steel joists capable of spanning up to 43 feet, with larger web openings for routing of services. The system allows 3.5 inches of concrete to be poured over wire mesh and plywood, with the plywood stripped from beneath within 24 hours. The key advantage over traditional stick-frame construction is that the floor below can be worked on concurrently, accelerating the overall program.

The project is also Erland’s first to be built under Massachusetts’ passive house energy code requirements, an increasingly prominent feature of the state’s construction landscape.

“Complex projects inevitably present challenges, but they can be successfully managed when the entire team is aligned around a common goal,” McDonald says. “That collaborative approach has allowed us to maintain our schedule and budget objectives while continuing to meet our client’s expectations.”

Erland’s Advanced Tech/Life Sciences division has built its reputation through sustained positive client relationships that generate ongoing campus-wide work. EMD Serono’s Billerica facility is focused on difficult-to-treat conditions like infertility, multiple sclerosis, and cancer research, and has been an Erland client since approximately 2018, with ongoing projects as their program expands.

Vice President and Director of Operations, Matthew Combs, who oversees the division as a partner in the business, was the original project manager on the account, and McDonald tells a story that captures what long-term partnership in life sciences construction can mean in practice: a medication developed in the facility Erland built was later used to treat a member of Combs’ own family. “It’s pretty meaningful when you see that you’re not just building a project, but something that has a real impact on the community and people around it,” McDonald says.

In the independent school market, Erland is currently delivering a field house at Middlesex School in Concord, emblematic of the academic sector relationships which McDonald says are built on trust and transparency.

This kind of investment in the community also underpins the Erland Foundation, now in its tenth year of service under the leadership of Steve Craft, Chris Landry, Nicole Harrison, Chris McHugh, Melissa Craft, and Bernadette Flaherty. The Foundation has evolved from a charitable giving vehicle into a broader platform for employee volunteerism and community engagement, and has exceeded $300,000 in fundraising in the past decade, a milestone the company marks with visible pride.

A longstanding partnership with the New England Center for Children (NECC) sits at the heart of the foundation’s work. Erland’s eighth annual Strikeout Autism bowling event brought together NECC staff, students, families, employees, and trade partners in February. And more recently, Erland staff participated in NECC’s annual 5K, giving up personal weekend time to support the center’s work.

The foundation also supports housing organizations, youth membership programs, food security initiatives, educational nonprofits, and healthcare causes across Greater Boston.

Never one to stand still or lag behind, Erland’s approach to artificial intelligence mirrors its broader philosophy: measured, purpose-led, and resistant to trend-chasing. The company currently uses Voyage Control for material tracking on the Tufts site, Briq for financial automation, and Billy for insurance compliance monitoring.

“We’re not always the early adopter of whatever’s hot in the market,” McDonald says. “We’re looking for the right thing that’s going to address the issues we’re actually trying to solve.”

This caution is grounded in experience. On takeoff tools, Erland found that the time saved by automation was largely consumed by the verification process required to catch errors—missing windows on an elevation, for instance. The tools are evolving, McDonald acknowledges, but have not yet reached the point where they can be trusted without the kind of scrutiny that negates the efficiency gain.

Erland participates in a peer group of non-competing firms from across the country, meeting twice yearly to share Best Practices and intelligence on technology adoption, AI in particular. “We want to find the right things that actually improve efficiency and provide value to our clients and our team,” McDonald says. “We also focus on AI policy, making sure people are using it responsibly and that we’re protecting not just our own information but our clients’ information.”

At the heart of Erland’s next chapter is a recently revised set of core values operating under the banner of “O.W.N. It,” which stands for One Team, Winning Results, and No Excuses. McDonald is candid about the tendency of company values to exist only on websites and in welcome packs, and Erland makes it a point to do things differently.

In the past year, the company has sent 20 percent of its employees to Team Trek. This week-long program in Arkansas is centered on personal and professional development and leadership self-awareness. It is this kind of investment in people that McDonald believes will contribute to Erland’s competitive position going forward as much as any technology platform.

“If we continue to invest in our people and do everything we can—with more of a servant leadership approach than a shape-up-or-ship-out attitude—we’re going to be more successful,” he says. “Construction is still, at its core, a people-driven industry. Pick up the phone, go to the job site, be a person. The human connection is so important.”

For a company approaching its 50^th year, still headquartered in the same Northwest Park where it first broke ground, that is not nostalgia; it is strategy. And it is a winning formula that will surely stand this firm in good stead for another 50 years.

The post Built on People: A Culture-First Approach to Growth and Innovation<p class="company">Erland Construction</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

For RAWSO Constructors, a Tennessee-based earthwork and utility contractor that has grown from a single rented skid steer into an operation of roughly 200 people, that lack of glamour is part of the point. The company has built its reputation not on flashy projects, but on the systems, people, and partnerships that sit underneath them.

According to Shawn Hampton, Board Member and Chief Strategy Officer, RAWSO has deliberately stayed narrow in its scope. “‘People’ is more of our business and ‘construction’ is what we do,” Hampton says, quick to add that the company has no interest in stretching across multiple trades. RAWSO sticks to earth and utilities, site development work that includes grading, excavation, and the underground infrastructure that must go in before a building can rise. That focus, Hampton argues, is itself a competitive advantage: rather than being a generalist contractor that does many things adequately, RAWSO has built deep expertise in one demanding discipline.

RAWSO’s origin story is a familiar one in the trades, with a twist. Founder and CEO, Dylan Stephens, came through Middle Tennessee State University’s Concrete Industry Management program and went to work for a local civil contractor. What he found frustrated him—particularly, how employees were being treated and developed within the industry.

Rather than staying and trying to change the system from the inside, Stephens made a leap. With a young family to support, he bought a skid steer, started taking on driveway work, and built a small operation job by job. That early period of odd jobs, small grading work, and the kinds of projects most contractors outgrow quickly, laid the foundation for everything that followed.

By 2014 and 2015, the projects started getting bigger, and RAWSO began adding team members beyond a handful of field helpers. Crucially, the frustrations that drove Stephens to launch the company in the first place didn’t get forgotten as the business scaled; they became the operating philosophy, to build something where people are developed, not just deployed.

Early on, the company moved away from Excel-based estimating and adopted HCSS software, a platform widely used across the civil construction industry for estimating, project management, and field reporting. That sequencing mattered. By building a technological foundation first, RAWSO created a shared set of processes and data structures that new hires could plug into as the team grew. Rather than each project manager or estimator developing their own methods, everyone works from the same playbook, which means a new hire can get up to speed faster and contribute sooner.

That investment has compounded over time What started as basic scorecards has evolved into dashboards built on top of HCSS data, giving leadership and field teams real-time visibility into project performance, costs, and trends. The company is now exploring how AI tools might extend this visibility further, layering smarter, more efficient dashboards on top of the data it already collects.

Kimberly Lush, Director of Cultural Relations at RAWSO, points to the impact directly: “I feel like technology has allowed us to grow and build a team, and to achieve a consistent level of excellence,” she says. This kind of institutional knowledge, made accessible and clear, is something RAWSO sees as central to how it develops talent.

A culture of safety is also integral to employee success, with the company’s safety program led by Colton Richardson, who came up as an estimator and project manager after graduating from the same concrete industry program as Stephens. When Richardson found himself burned out in that role—but passionate about safety and people—RAWSO restructured around that passion, spending several months transitioning him out of project management and into building a dedicated safety department from scratch.

What he built goes well beyond standard compliance tracking. Field crews log not just injuries, but near misses, equipment incidents, and minor issues—a scratched piece of equipment, a close call, anything that didn’t go quite right. These get discussed in field operations meetings as lessons learned: what happened, why it happened, and what the takeaway is.

The real value, though, is in the pattern recognition that all that logging enables. If minor incidents that normally show up once or twice a week start showing up two or three times a day, RAWSO treats that as a leading indicator, a sign that crews are stretched thin or under pressure, even before anything serious occurs. When that pattern shows up, leadership responds by scaling back hours, holding all-hands conversations, and addressing the underlying strain before it turns into a real incident.

This data-backed approach is layered with regular inspections and third-party reviews, and RAWSO holds itself to standards that, in many cases, are tighter than OSHA or TOSHA requirements. The cultural framing matters too. As Hampton puts it, “We don’t have safety police; we have a safety culture.” The goal is participation, a safety culture that field crews own rather than one imposed on them.

Across the heavy civil industry, one topic comes up at nearly every conference and peer group meeting: the workforce. Specifically, the looming retirement of a generation of highly skilled field leaders, and the comparatively thin pipeline of younger workers coming in to replace them.

Lush is blunt about the stakes: “We have this entire generation of highly skilled individuals who are on the cusp, in the next 10 years, of retiring, and we’re going to lose all that information if we can’t figure out how to download it from them to the next generation.”

Rather than just talking about the problem, RAWSO hired a dedicated training professional, someone with a teaching background and family ties to the construction industry, who understood both the technical content and the people she’d be working with.

Many field employees didn’t pursue traditional higher education, so a classroom-style training model wouldn’t have worked. Instead, RAWSO built its program around partnerships with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), using existing industry-specific resources as a foundation.

But the bulk of the training is in leadership and communication. Field leaders and foremen are often spread across multiple job sites, making consistent communication difficult even before generational differences are factored in. RAWSO’s training focuses heavily on helping experienced leaders translate what they know into language that resonates with younger crew members, rather than assuming younger workers simply lack the right attitude or work ethic.

One concrete output of this push is RAWSO’s GRIT Line program, still in its early stages, which is designed to help field employees move into their first leadership roles. The company is also showing up in schools and at trade fairs, working to raise awareness of civil construction as a career path, an industry that, Lush notes, tends to get overlooked in skilled-trades conversations dominated by HVAC, electrical, welding, and plumbing.

Even the equipment itself is part of the solution. Manufacturers are increasingly building GPS-guided digital-control systems that appeal to a generation that grew up with video game controllers rather than farm equipment.

Certainly, RAWSO’s growth hasn’t been a straight line. For several years running, the company saw growth rates between 50 and 300 percent year over year, the kind of trajectory that builds reputation fast but can also outpace systems. In 2022, that growth caught up with the company. A combination of challenging projects and problematic soil conditions on one of its largest jobs caused things to unravel quickly. What had taken roughly a decade to build started to come apart within 12 to 18 months.

Hampton describes it as a humbling period, one that forced leadership to recognize that intuition and a small group of key people could no longer carry the operation. The response wasn’t to retreat, but to invest more intentionally in both people and systems.

Two leaders in particular reinforced the rebuild: Keith McBride, who came on as Vice President of Construction Operations, and Matthew McQueen, who became President. McBride is described as the kind of veteran field leader every heavy civil contractor needs, someone with decades of old-school construction experience and a reputation for high standards. What makes him different, in Hampton’s telling, is humility: rather than becoming an indispensable bottleneck, McBride has leaned into mentoring younger employees and adapting his own approach rather than insisting it’s his way or nothing.

McQueen, meanwhile, became the connective tissue for culture as the company scaled, reinforcing the values that had carried RAWSO from its earliest days.

Looking back, Hampton frames the period as one of the company’s defining moments because of how the team responded to it. “Being able to walk away from it and say we’re much stronger now, and we realize what our mistakes were and we were humble enough to fix them, I think is huge,” he says.

Today, the company focuses primarily on private-sector work, with public and DOT work historically making up less than five percent of its business. The team deliberately gets involved early, working alongside owners, developers, engineers, and general contractors well before construction begins. That early involvement allows RAWSO to propose value-engineering solutions and reduce risk before it becomes costly. It’s a more labor-intensive approach than simply submitting a number at the last round of bidding—RAWSO may end up pricing a job three, four, or five times before it’s awarded—but Hampton suggests the upfront investment pays off for everyone involved.

Earthwork and utility work occupy a particular position in a project’s risk profile. Dollar for dollar, it’s often one of the largest and riskiest scopes in a construction package, outside of structural steel, and one of the pieces most likely to determine whether a project can move forward, especially in markets with limited sites or difficult terrain.

For general contractors, particularly younger project managers who may have only a few years of experience managing dozens of trades on a vertical build, having an earthwork partner who understands those risks and proactively manages them can be the difference between a project that pencils and one that doesn’t.

Once a project moves into execution, that same forward-looking approach continues in the field, with two-week and four-week lookaheads that account not just for RAWSO’s own scope, but for how the team interacts with other trades on site.

As RAWSO continues to grow, the company’s leadership remains focused on the combination that got it here: a narrow and deep expertise in earthwork and utilities, a technology foundation that gives people at every level visibility into how the business runs, a safety culture built on data and participation rather than enforcement, and a training pipeline aimed squarely at the industry’s looming workforce gap.

For Hampton, the measure of success isn’t any single project, but the broader company culture. “I feel like that’s given us the ability to give people really great growth,” he says. “I’m so proud of the culture and the environment where we’re able to bring in young talent and see them grow.”

In an industry bracing for a wave of retirements and a widening skills gap, RAWSO’s bet is that the contractors who invest in both their systems and their people now will be the ones still standing and still building a decade from now.

The post Built on Dirt and Data: A Winning Approach to Heavy Civil Work<p class="company">RAWSO Constructors</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Approaching 20 years in business in 2026, Brush Arbor Homes is recognized as one of the top builders in Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area. The firm provides its clients with timeless luxury, incorporating hand-crafted wood floors, bespoke handrails, and classic elements paired with the latest and greatest in modern features and fixtures. A home from Brush Arbor is “designed to remain timeless as it evolves with your family and our area’s discerning real estate market.”

Yet building glamorous villas is not all this dynamic firm does. Rooted in a culture of care for people, the proudest aspect of the company’s mandate is its BuyOne BuildOne program.

Under this program, for each high-end home Brush Arbor builds, it commits to building one home for a less fortunate person or a family in need of a roof over their heads, typically in a developing country. Each of these homes is built with a designated share of the profits from the company’s builds in the United States.

Brush Arbor Homes’ efforts do not stop with the donation of the money. The team regularly travels abroad to get physically involved in building these homes, ensuring that its high standards are upheld no matter the location. The team also contributes to the construction of community centers and clinics, improving the lives of those who might be living in economically challenged regions.

Moreover, Brush Arbor Homes has also begun to collaborate on the construction of churches used by Compassion International for helping underage victims of sex trafficking. Historically, locations include countries like South Sudan, Uganda, Guatemala, Bolivia, and others in South America, where Brush Arbor Homes’ founder and owner Jonathan Smith lived for some time.

Back on American soil, the region the company serves is already highly populated; as a result, land is scarce and comes at a premium. Brush Arbor’s solution is to find and purchase land which it then offers to clients, alongside building speculatively. In this case, finding good lots typically means rebuilding on formerly occupied land. The process can be tedious and costly, but is worth it for those in search of an address in this desirable area. “Inside the beltway, there isn’t a lot of raw land, but usually, when people retire, land becomes available. It’s very competitive,” Smith says.

This, he points out, is due to a trend of foreign builders looking to protect capital from offshore fluctuations by investing in real estate in the United States, which has impacted American construction companies by driving up the price of tear-downs.

“We build for very wealthy people,” he explains, “but the guys who are working on the houses are generally not wealthy, and so we’re passionate about treating every person with dignity and respect,” Smith says, exemplifying the company’s approach of doing business with decency and empathy.

“I’m excited to show young people especially just what helping others does for you, why God calls us to help other people. It’s not just for them; it’s for you,” Smith says. His reason for sharing this precious knowledge is simple but profound: “I feel like a lot of young people are looking for a sense of purpose and mission in their life, and that God tells us to help other people because it helps us as much as it helps them.” Living this universal truth for a lifetime, Smith would know.

Having established trusting relationships with partners abroad, Smith relies on them to connect the company with individuals in need in each respective area. Story after story is touching, but some stand out, like that of a young single mom in South Sudan with two children living in a makeshift lean-to. This vulnerable living condition led to her daughter with Down syndrome being routinely violated. Their new home featured lockable doors and windows that could protect the family from criminal entry, other intruders, and monsoon-style rains.

The process of connecting a local construction client with a foreign family is relatively straightforward. By connecting with its partners across 10 countries, Brush Arbor receives the profile of an identified family whose story the company then shares with a customer ready to start construction on their American home. As the house takes shape, progress on the BuyOne BuildOne home is shared with them—an experience that is understandably precious to the philanthropically-minded.

Not everyone everywhere is as well-intentioned as well-meaning people would like, so part of the identification process includes partners assisting families in securing title deeds to land first. This simply means that the company is then assured that no third parties can lay claim to the homes it builds for the needy. Smith has many stories to tell about these situations, which explain why he and his partners make it a habit to serve as support figures in the background in case new foreign homeowners have difficulties with jealous neighbors or family members, which has been all too common.

“One time, we had built a house for a widow and her children. Her sister and brother-in-law kicked her out of that house and were making her live in the shack next door,” Smith shares. In response, Smith went the extra mile, flying there himself and explaining to the envious relatives how things would go from then on, which solved the problem.

The Brush Arbor Homes team enjoys its foreign construction projects as much as it enjoys its work on home soil. “We had six or eight employees with family members and friends who went to Guatemala in August,” he tells us. The team built several houses and repaired existing buildings for a few of its partners. “It’s a blessing to us as a team to see that and meet a family that’s so grateful for our work.”

While Smith runs the company on Christian principles, with his focus on the universal truths reflected in the Gospel, he does not expect his team to subscribe to his faith. On the contrary, people of all backgrounds tend to stay at Brush Arbor Homes because they appreciate the culture. To maintain this overall spirit, the team gathers monthly to discuss projects at home and abroad, sharing details of identified families and meticulously planning the mission.

“Not everybody in our company believes the same way that I do, and that’s okay. They know that they have the freedom to believe whatever they wish,” Smith says. “It’s free information that we can share, and people can take it or leave it.”

As a servant leader with as much respect for his team as he has for his customers, Smith is heartfelt in his appreciation. “I like my team because they get the bigger picture. They get the fact that we don’t want to just work to make as much money as possible, but that there’s an eternal value in what we do.”

To this end, the company places family values above its bottom line. In Smith’s experience, this approach makes everyone better team players, improving in turn the quality of the company’s work in the field and delivering longevity.

Smith explains that his success was not a magical rise to the top, but rather a hard-earned path of relentless commitment to his faith and his people. Working for a big-name national construction firm upon his return from South America at the age of 27, Smith soon realized that the business-as-usual status quo did not live up to his inherent sense of ethics. Following what could be described as a divine hunch, the entrepreneur set out to build himself a construction company with integrity. “It was a pretty risky proposition. But I knew that I felt like God was saying, ‘you can do this’ and that I wanted to be able to do things like BuyOne BuildOne and not live from paycheck to paycheck,” he shares.

His hunch paid off. Today, Brush Arbor Homes is an example of down-to-earth authenticity, and of how business done right can yield positive results. Today, even his children are involved in the mission. His daughters make significant contributions, and his eldest and youngest sons have both travelled with him, as well as solo, to help build some of the houses.

Coming up on its twentieth year in business, “We’re stronger than we’ve ever been just because we have great people. And I could say something about each one of them that is specific to that person just from their character,” Jonathan Smith says. “I’m blessed to have the team that we have.”

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