In an age of global warming, economic recession and foreign outsourcing, mega-companies aren’t the only ones out to make a difference. Small companies are building business plans out of “doing good” and employing project management practices to turn a profit.
Re: Vision Architecture, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Number of Employees: 15
The Business: Sustainable Construction
The Impact: 50 environmentally friendly buildings per year
How they do it: Triple bottom-line principles
For Scott Kelly, co-founder of the sustainable building company Re:
Vision Architecture, business boils down to three overarching principles: fiscal, people and planetary prosperity.
Mr. Kelly’s company makes its money by building earth-friendly structures ranging from single-family homes to industrial facilities to churches. It then invests a percentage of the profit back into Re: Vision and splits the rest equally among staff.
“It’s a way of looking at your business that isn’t based on one single bottom line of making money,” explains Mr. Kelly. “Instead, you’re making decisions based on protecting the planet and protecting your people.”
Re: Vision aims to construct all its buildings in an energy-efficient, water-efficient, toxin-free way. In fact, 75 percent of all Re: Vision structures have attained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
And between 5 percent and 10 percent of the structures are so-called “living buildings” that generate their own energy and capture and treat 100 percent of their own water supplies.
Mr. Kelly says Re: Vision projects run smoothly thanks to a cradle-to-grave project management strategy.
“For us, project management begins before we’ve designed anything,” Mr. Kelly explains. “Even before we start designing, we identify the touchstones of the project. Then it continues through design and into construction.”
The company’s project managers also help teach construction managers to build green—and then keeps an eye out to make sure the buildings stay green.
“At the end, project management continues past construction to make sure our owners can maintain their building in a sustainable way,” he says.
Renewable Energy Systems, Kings Langley, England
Number of Employees: 450
The Business:Wind Energy
2,700 megawatts of wind energy across the globe
How they do it: Pre-project research
Forget fossil fuels. Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is dedicated to promoting one of the only energy resources that produces absolutely no toxic emissions.
The wind energy company develops projects in destinations ranging from North America to Australia.
Starting off with just a few projects per year, RES has steadily built a roster of international clients, currently has offices in seven countries worldwide, and in 2008 received green business awards from both the Sunday Times and the British Renewable Energy Association.
Ted Picken, RES construction director for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scandinavia, attributes the company’s rapid expansion to the intense pre-planning that goes into each project.
“There are literally hundreds of stakeholders to take into consideration, every type of ecological group you could think of, and technical issues like grid connections, plumbing and foundations to figure out,” he says, adding that RES employs approximately 50 project managers worldwide.
“We have to have very strong communication between our development project managers and our construction project managers to make it work,” he says.
Each project starts with some basic questions:
Where would be the best spot to place a wind farm?
Who owns that land?
What will be the repercussions of placing a wind farm?
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Development project managers must also figure out how easily a wind farm can connect to a country’s electrical grid and if a wind farm might cause plumbing problems for area residents.
RES project managers carefully document each farm as it’s progressing and maintain close contact with site teams.
“We have a strong quality management and safety management system that has evolved from building wind farms for 26 years,” he says. “The key is to work in a systematic way to make sure the project is managed and the materials are delivered when they need to be.”
Revision Architecture - Scott Kelly - 215.482.1133
Renewable Energy Systems - Ted Picken - +44 (0)7900 268 212
