The M Files

Amid the energy uproar concerning Marcellus Shale drilling practices, a new green building bill quietly slipped through the Pennsylvania legislature. On January 25, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the High-Performance, State Buildings Standards Act by a vote of 170–18. The legislature gave the bill the following short description: “An Act requiring the design, construction and renovation of certain State-owned or State-leased buildings to comply with specified energy and environmental building standards; and providing for the powers and duties of the Department of General Services.”

The new law will be administered by the Department of General Services (DGS). It will apply to all new and major renovation building projects on buildings larger than 20,000 square feet. Major renovations are defined as those affecting more than 90% of the building’s total floor area.

The law mandates certification by “an organization that has a track record of certified green buildings in the United States and uses a consensus-based rating system.” Of course, the dominant green building rating system is the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED.

The bill states 11 goals of the legislation, which span the scope of green building certification systems from environmentally preferable materials to occupant health and productivity to job creation and economic vitality. The word “energy” is mentioned five times in those 11 goals.

Perhaps of greatest note are the legal teeth given to energy performance. According to the law, the newly certified buildings will have to be designed to achieve an EPA Energy Star rating of 75 or greater. This is fairly respectable performance. The burden of developing procedures to attain the standards and then monitor and report results will fall on the shoulders of DGS.

What I find encouraging about the legislation is that the energy goals are clearly stated and quite reasonable. Additionally, it appears that DGS will issue report cards on how the buildings perform as compared to pre-construction expectations. Bravo!

What I would caution would-be designers and project managers against is green energy over-exuberance. Let’s keep these projects simple. Simple is sustainable. Let’s also treat the tax dollars used to fund the projects as if they’re our own… because they are.

By example, I’ll share our experiences with the energy retrofit of the Ashkar Elementary School in Hughesville, Pennsylvania. The EPA awarded the school district an Energy Star award for boosting the school’s score from 30 in 2002 to 83 in 2009. How did we do it? Renewable energy? Daylight harvesting strategies? A green roof? The answers are no, no, and no.

The renovations were simple. They included things like basic lighting replacements, HVAC efficiency upgrades, and improvements to the building automation system. The school sips energy because a simple design led to a simple and sustainable operation. Our results coincide with the findings of a recent New Buildings Institute (NBI) study which suggest that “green education” plays as big of a role in energy performance as installed assets.

As the green building industry evolves into an era of greater transparency, we’re likely to discover that less is actually more, especially as it relates to sustainable, reliable energy performance.

by Lynn DeSantis
Marketing Coordinator

McClure Company employees were delighted to join nearly 1,200 people at the Lancaster Convention Center on Thursday, December 1 to celebrate the Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania. We were honored to rank 8th overall in the large company category.  In an impromptu moment we asked some of our folks why they believe McClure Company is among the best places to work. The responses were so entertaining that we decided to share them. Enjoy!

The following M Files contribution was written by James Dixon, vice president for Legal & Compliance Services at Con Edison Energy and chairman of the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO). I co-signed the letter, which appeared in The Harrisburg Patriot-News on Sunday, October 16. I’ve been entrenched in the building energy business for 20 years and strongly believe GESA programs provide entirely unique win–win outcomes for the public and private sectors. Do you have views or questions on the subject? If so, please post them in the comments section below.

The Energy Efficiency Industry is one of the only industries to grow during the recession, hiring people at a time when unemployment seems stubbornly stuck at levels not seen since the early 1980s. According to statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, there are more than 106,000 Pennsylvania jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries.

Energy efficiency is an economic winner. This is not wishful thinking—it’s based on actual market experience.

Currently, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has the opportunity to create 19,000 high-paying jobs and provide $2 billion of upgrades to its state and local government buildings without any tax increases, through a process called energy savings performance contracting.

Under an energy savings performance contract (ESPC), energy service companies provide technical, engineering, and managerial expertise, while private-sector financial institutions fund the retrofit projects. This makes buildings significantly more energy efficient.

The costs of design and installation of new technologies, as well as equipment upgrades, are to be paid back out of the energy savings over the life of the contract—at no net cost to the government.

Every $1 million of ESPC project value is estimated to create 10 direct jobs in engineering, construction, and equipment manufacturing; professions hardest hit in this recession. The multiplier effect of the income created by these direct jobs provides another 10 to 12 imputed jobs per $1 million of project value.

ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING = Jobs Period!  Not maybe, not possibly, but certainty: ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING = Jobs.

This new economic powerhouse is the direct result of innovative public policies like Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA), which enables job creating energy performance contracting. But now, it’s all at risk.

The Corbett Administration is currently evaluating GESA and has suspended any projects currently under development. This has put on hold the proven job creating benefits of the GESA that can continue putting Pennsylvanians to work in this tough economic environment at no expense to the government.

At a time when all policies are being measured against the yardstick of job growth, we encourage Governor Corbett to support GESA and allow energy service companies to get back to business—putting people to work, saving taxpayer money, and reducing energy costs for their customers.

Bad news for stereotypical engineers: Personality matters as much as technical aptitude.

In a post titled Design-Build Discussion Generates Buzz, PC Construction Company concisely captured what those of us immersed in successful Design-Build practices already know (bold underlines added by me):

When asked the question “What one piece of advice can you give to improve our future success with Design-Build?” the panel agreed that selecting the people with the right personality traits is key. This was a bit surprising to some who have never been involved with a Design-Build project. They imagined success would relate directly to engineering, technical, or organizational skills. Mike Cecil of PC Construction added that those skills can be learned, whereas personality traits are inherent. Collaboration, communication, and trust are just as important to the success of a Design-Build project as are technical aptitude.

And so we have our predicament. Collaboration, communication, and trust aren’t traits we associate with the stereotypical Dilbert-esque engineer. Successful Design-Build scenarios require those with sharp analytical skills to step outside the comforts of their womb-like offices and to listen and engage.

My alma mater used to invite me to speak to sophomore engineering students about what it’s like in the real world. The students would invariably ask, “What are my most important classes?” or “What are you looking for when hiring engineers out of college?” Highly educated professors would spit out their coffee at my responses. I would tell students that getting into and graduating from the arduous engineering program was enough evidence of technical aptitude. I wanted folks who could read, write, and carry an intelligent conversation. That viewpoint didn’t exactly make me a candidate for a distinguished engineering alumni award.

Good Design-Build practices encourage open conversation among stakeholders throughout the project’s life cycle. Trust is an essential element for win-win outcomes and only develops out of relationships. Relationships only develop through honing the soft skills of communication.

In 1995, I was a young engineer charged with designing factory certification test stands for a major manufacturer’s largest water-cooled chillers. It was the project of a lifetime, requiring intimate knowledge of national testing standards and mechanical engineering principles. It also involved installing many thousands of feet of circuitous large-bore steel piping.

As required on competitively bid projects, it was my job to tell the bidding installers through specifications how they should hang, support, weld, and generally put together the pipes. I was faced with the same unspoken dilemma that all young college-educated engineers have: I didn’t know jack about installation methods for large-bore piping. My expertise was in fluids, thermodynamics, and heat transfer. Nothing in my personal experience could have possibly taught me anything about installing heavy pipe. Yet, our contracting method demanded that I specify how that ought to be done. So I pretended to understand the AIA Master Specification and did my job.

Luckily the project was awarded to a company with a strong field crew. Their superintendent was a seasoned veteran named Ken. Instead of following the normal rules of contractor-engineer engagement on competitively bid projects by firing off RFIs or issuing change orders, he would ask me to visit the site, where we would take the time to interact. Ken would show me how the piping layouts could be designed for the better, to reduce installation time, and save the customer some money. It was fun and very revealing.

Our respect for each other made the outcome a positive one for all stakeholders. Ken had knowledge that college-educated engineers didn’t, and we valued his specialized expertise. Correspondingly, I knew the technical rationale and physical laws governing the design, and sometimes Ken counted on me to offer those insights in return. It was freeing for both of us. Our mutual trust allowed us to completely focus on what we knew. And we felt equally free to admit what we didn’t know.

The job came together beautifully, ahead of schedule and under budget. And it was all because we discarded traditional contractual barriers in favor of valuing open communication. This is the desired norm of great Design-Build practice.

A couple of months ago Matt Dixon, McClure Company’s State College branch manager, wrote the following article as an internal company pep talk. His inspiration was an embarrassing November 14 home loss by the Pittsburgh Steelers to the hands of the seemingly invincible New England Patriots. Given our mutual passion for the Steelers and their pending playoff grudge match against the Jets scheduled for this Sunday (since they beat the Patriots), it seemed like an ideal time to share Matt’s insights into business fundamentals. Thanks, Matt, for your willingness to share. And Go Steelers!

On or Off the Field: Fundamentals Matter

By Matt Dixon, State College Branch Manager, McClure Company

I had the good luck to acquire tickets to the Sunday night Steelers vs. Patriots game this week (Nov. 14). After the opening kickoff, the good fortune turned away from Pittsburgh and the results were not so good for us black-and-gold fans. I did, however, pick up a few ideas from this experience to share in an article. It all comes down to Fundamentals.

 

Preparation. Pittsburgh displayed a lack of preparation evident from the very beginning of the game. Preparation is essential in our energy business, whether it’s being prepared for the time-and-material service call, the hard-bid project, the negotiated job meeting, or the scheduled preventive maintenance inspection. The details in how we prepare for each operation will differ, but our clients expect us to be prepared regardless of the situation.This should be evident in even the smallest of details: How we handle our client phone calls, the response we provide when we are asked questions that we don’t know the immediate answer, the tools we bring to the job, the way we handle adversity in a difficult situation. It all matters.

Personal Conduct. The second fundamental that came to mind from last nigh’s disappointing outcome is personal conduct.  Judging from the number of fines levied this season, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems to think it’s important. We, too, need to keep our conduct at the center of every company interaction. Four Patriots fans directly in front of my wife and me gave a first-class display of exactly how not to conduct oneself in a public setting. Much to my surprise, the burly, bearded Steelers fans in our section handled this display in a professional manner (at least from what I saw inside the stadium). At times our personal conduct can slip to the back of our daily radar, but the importance of our conduct is always on display.

Company Conduct. Our reputation wins us work at times when we are not the low price. This is a fact.  The expectation that precedes our company needs to be met day in and out, without exception. Our conduct with a difficult customer, or on a difficult project, or when we are driving a company vehicle is always noticed by someone. I’m proud of our company conduct. A few disorderly Patriots fans were a great reminder of the importance of that fundamental concept.

Resolve. The last point I took away from this painful, 39-point dismantling of the Steelers’ defense involves resolve. Listening to the postgame interviews, watching the thousands of disappointed black-and-gold clad fans disperse back into their daily life responsibilities reminded me of the resolve necessary to succeed in our business. I said to a coworker yesterday that it is amazing how much time and effort it takes to lose a job. The work that we pour our time into and are not awarded takes a direct route to the lost jobs files. We cannot retrieve that time; yet we do and will continue to bounce back with conviction to acquire new opportunities. The resolve to bounce back each new morning and put forth our very best efforts to our clients and with our coworkers differentiates us from our competition. I am fortunate to hear those kinds of remarks directly from our clients. These comments are the validation as we carry on, at the front of the pack in our industry, when the future is always unknown but rife with opportunities.