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� The elecTrical connecTion

The elecTrical connecTion �

opening remarks

It is amazing what a year’s difference can make. In the Fall of 2007 our economy had weakened a little and there was a tightening of credit due to mortgage failures, today, we have a major financial crisis and collapse of available credit. What will next year bring? I cannot wait to see. The new administration that starts in January 2009 will certainly have a great many issues to fill their time solving, and I pray they do a good job of it.

We are just completing another record year at Cummings Electrical. Our rev-enues have exceeded our projections and we have reasonably good backlog for next year. This issue of the Electrical Connection includes some interesting articles for these times we live in. Betsy del Monte provided a good look at Achieving Environmental Sustain-ability and how to incorporate good practices into your business. We have information about the Emergency Department Expansion at Baylor University Medical Center, the building of the Joule Hotel and the Charlie Palmer restaurant, and short articles about our safety department and special projects group.

May your 2009 be a blessed year.

Thanks,

Tim Cummings

AN EMERGENCY ROOM IN IN NEED OF TRIAGEBaylor Facility remains operational During expansion and remodel project ................................. 4

SAFETY = SUCCESS providing a safe and healthful Workplace for all our employees .................................................... 6

A JOULE OF A HOTEL Downtown Dallas highrise is Truly electric ................. 8

CORRUGATED SERVICESForney, Texas ................................................................. 11

ACHIEVING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY how to incorporate sustainable practices into everyday Business ................................................ 12

WHEN YOU HAVE A TRICKY JOB…cummings’ special Team Tackles complex Jobs in a pinch ...............................................16

The Electrical Connection is a resource for industrial end users, property managers, building owners and operators, facilities managers, general contractors, architects, con-sulting engineers, as well as potential and existing clients of Cummings Electrical, Inc. Designed to feature topics affecting the electrical and construction industries. The Electrical Connection also highlights Cummings Electri-cal’s achievements and capabilities.

The Electrical Connection is published by Oser-Bentley Custom Publishers, LLC, a division of Oser Communica-tions Group, Inc., 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715. Phone (972) 687-9035 or (520) 721-1300, fax (520) 721-6300, www.oser.com. Oser-Bentley Custom Publishers, LLC specializes in creating and publishing custom magazines. Inquiries: Tina Bentley, [email protected]. Editorial comments: Karrie Welborn, [email protected]. Please call or fax for a new subscription, change of address, or single copy. This publication may not be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Oser-Bentley Custom Publishers, LLC. To advertise in an upcoming issue of this publication, please contact us at (972) 687-9035 or (520) 721-1300 or visit us on the Web at www.oser-bentley.com. December 2008

IN THIS ISSUE

8

VolUme � • issUe 5

a publication from:

Cummings Electrical, Inc.14900 grand river road, suite 1�4Fort Worth, TX 76155(817) �55-5�00 (817) �55-5�55 faxwww.cummingselec.com

Tim Cummingspresident

Todd RuddellVice president ofpreconstruction services

Jim Thompsonsales & marketing manager

Tony Brownchief estimator

Steve LeMay account service manager

Richard Swift Demand service manager

On the cover:a swimming pool in the sky—can it be? Yes, it can! cummings elec-trical recently finished a marvelous project, which included a pool that hangs above the

street from the tenth floor and pro-trudes eight feet from the luxurious new Joule hotel. The swimming pool is lit with fiber optic cable at night, just one of the many distinct features of the ho-tel. Throughout the hotel’s construction and renovation, cummings electrical, inc. served as the electrical contractor for the project. cummings brought its usual mix of expertise and enthusiasm to the project. cover photo courtesy of scott Williams photography

The elecTrical

connecTion

4 The elecTrical connecTion

proJecT proFile

every profession has its challenges. For a contractor like Cummings Electrical, Inc., it does not get any

more challenging than the recent Baylor University Medical Center Roberts Emergency Department renovation and expansion.

The scope of the project was significant—providing electrical services for the expansion of a hospital emergency department from 30,000 to 78,000 square feet, along with a complete remodel. More challenging yet, all of the necessary work for the project had to be done while the emergency department remained fully operational. The project required shutting down parts of the emergency and normal electrical distribution systems at times, making constant communication

and immediate responsiveness essential on everyone’s part.

“This was a significant project for all involved, including the hospital, the general contractor, and our teams,” said Nathan Bubela, Assistant Project Manager with Cummings. “When you talk about cutting power over 30 times in seventeen months in an operational emergency care hospital, many, many parties are affected. As you can imagine, this was no small task.”

A COMMITMENT TO qUALITY CARE

For years, the emergency care department at Baylor University Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center in Dallas, Texas, was operating at

full capacity—a situation that made it difficult to provide consistent, effective care for the tens of thousands of patients the center sees every year. Planning for an expansion and remodel began in 2005, and work began in August 2006. The major construction phase of the project took seventeen months, with a hard finish date of January 1, 2008. Cummings served as the electrical contractor on the project, working with Dallas-based MEDCO Construction as the general contractor.

The emergency department’s capacity was increased from 34 beds to 70 patient rooms, almost all of them private. In addition, a large trauma area was created, with four triage rooms and four emergency trauma rooms equipped with X-ray. The facility’s

AN EMERGENCY ROOM IN NEED OF TRIAGEBaylor facility remains operational during expansion and remodel projectBy Mark W. Anderson

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Baylor University Medical Center Emergency Department Entrance

The elecTrical connecTion 5

technology also was upgraded and included electronic medical records, digital radiology, and two computer tomography scanners, one a 64-slice scanner and one a 32-slice scanner. In addition, a separate ambulatory entrance was created for patients referred by the Baylor medical staff, along with four consultation rooms, three sub-waiting areas, a lab work room, and a number of employee health rooms, among other changes.

“This project was a challenge because we had to work with the existing electrical systems, as opposed to creating new ones,” says Mark Harko, Project Manager with Cummings. “With something like a functioning emergency department, you never know what’s above the ceiling until you open it and start working. Plus, when you start tearing out walls and ceilings and have junction boxes open, the need to work safely becomes a critical issue.” Despite the level of demolition work involved, Cummings experienced no recordable work injuries on the project—a fact Harko points to with pride.

METICULOUS MANEUVERINGOf course, even while construction was

underway, the facility was still responsible to its patients and could not shut down, regardless of the work needed. As a result, the project had five phases, with staff and operations compressed into four of the five designated areas while the fifth was under construction. As each and every phase of the construction progressed, extensive planning was required, countless decisions had to be made, and unforeseen obstacles had to be overcome. Throughout the process, effective communication was the primary key to success.

“There were so many parties involved, so many departments and people touched by this remodel, that constant communication

with everyone involved was essential,” says Jim McSweeney, Senior Project Manager for MEDCO Construction. “For example, if we had radiology affected, and couldn’t use certain scan

rooms in the emergency department, we had to reorganize and make sure that they got transported up to other areas of the radiology department, and away from the emergency department. It got pretty complicated.”

Moving the staff and equipment around also meant having to shut off or transfer power to some critical, life-saving equipment that could be needed on a moment’s notice. As a result, many temporary power feeds and hot work had to be incorporated in order to make the whole project happen without unacceptable interference in operations.

“At one point, we had to shut down one of the transfer switches, and that meant we were going to lose power to the second floor operating rooms,” Charles Shelburne, Director of Campus Planning for CB Richard Ellis, says. “We had one of our engineering guys, with radio in hand, working with the Cummings electrician doing the reconnection on the switchgear so that we could stop the procedure within a five-minute window if a patient came in through the emergency department requiring a certain procedure.”

A pOSITIVE OUTCOME

Today, the emergency department at Baylor University Medical Center is enjoying a significant improvement in its ability to provide top-quality, timely care for the people and patients who come through its door.

“Before [the expansion and remodel], you had the same number of patients coming in to a much smaller area, with everybody stepping on top of each other,” Shelburne said. “But after the renovation, the department is seeing patients in a much more efficient manner, and overall patient satisfaction has gone up.”

For their part, everyone involved in the construction, including MEDCO, CB Richard Ellis, and Cummings, is justifiably proud of the project. As MEDCO’s McSweeney pointed out, the work done by Cummings as electrical contractor was critical throughout the entire project. “Cummings was a primary player in the success of that job,” he says. “Without having a good electrician, on top of his game, helping us to flex to the needs of the owner, we couldn’t have gotten it done. We had bumps along the road, no doubt, but they dealt with them right up front, helped us, and I think they did a marvelous job.” ■

Nathan Bubela, Cummings’ Assistant

Project Manager

Mark Harko Cummings’

Project Manager

Jim McSweeney MEDCO

ConstructionSr Project Manager

Charles Shelburne CB Richard Ellis

Director of Campus Planning

Typical Care Team Area. Inset: Treatment Room

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SafeTy

leadership can be defined as, the office or position of a leader, the capacity to lead, or the act or an instance of

leading1. Many people believe that they are born leaders. This may be true, but almost every leader has had training or mentoring to help develop their skills into the leadership role. People in a construction leadership role must hold safety as a key value.

At Cummings Electrical, Inc. safety has been the necessary component to success within the industry from the beginning. Construction has different levels of workers and tasks associated with the work. If one part of the work unit does not complete a task safely, then the entire project will suffer, insurance costs could increase or someone could get seriously injured trying to push the schedule. Cummings Electrical, Inc. focuses on its safety values to lead the way, not only within the electrical trade but on the entire project.

It is the Company’s goal to educate and train every employee to a level where they freely and actively participate in our health and safety program. Getting our employees to “Buy-In” to the health and safety program develops safety leaders for not only our company, but for everyone else on the project, as well. All Cummings Electrical employees have a “Shared Responsibility” to maintain a safe working environment. “Shared Responsibility” means each employee is equally authorized, responsible, and accountable for compliance

with all safety and health policies. This is the core value for developing safety leaders for the company.

If a supervisor does not wear his personal protective equipment, why should a field employee be expected to wear theirs? An example of a poor safety leader in management would be one who looks to meet projected goals on a project and does not set the same priority for the safety goals on the same project. What message would that send to a field supervisor or an installer? Would they be concerned with a few job-related injuries as long as they completed the project on time and under budget? At Cummings Electrical, Inc. safety starts at the top and filters down throughout the company. The same rules apply to the President of the company, as well as a first year apprentice. These expectations develop leaders throughout the organization when it comes to a safety culture.

Achievement of our objectives will allow us to provide a safe and healthful workplace for all of our employees. Safety is all about the employees at Cummings Electrical, Inc. We will continuously and tirelessly strive to make our Health and Safety Program the standard our peers will continue to follow. By doing so, Cummings Electrical, Inc. will continue to be the construction industry’s safety leader. ■

1 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Safety = SucceSSProviding a safe and healthful workplace for all our employeesBy Keith Nicholson, cummings electrical, Inc., Safety Director

Keith Nicholson

at cummings electrical, Inc. safety has been the necessary

component to success within the industry from the beginning.


coVer FeaTUre

A JOULE OF A HOTEL Downtown Dallas highrise is truly electricBy Mark W. Anderson

Gary Wright Cummings’

Project Manager

Gary Hamilton Juno Development-

Construction Manager

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Joule Hotel


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if you look up while walking along the 1500 block of Main Street in downtown Dallas, you’ll probably see something

unusual: a swimming pool in the sky. That’s because at the top of a 10-story building that makes up part of the luxurious new Joule Hotel, there’s a pool that protrudes eight feet from the building and hangs above the street below. The view provides passers-by with a glimpse of swimmers enjoying themselves way up high.

The unique swimming pool, which is lit with fiber optic cable at night, is just one of the many distinct features of the Joule Hotel, a partially new, partially refurbished property gracing the Dallas skyline as a symbol the city’s ongoing strength as a business and tourist destination. The hotel occupies a 20-story Neo-Gothic landmark building that was once the Dallas National Bank building, which had to be completely gutted and restored, as well as a new, 10-story building that was constructed next door. (The first 10 stories of the landmark building are connected at each floor to the new building via enclosed walkways.) The 129-room property boasts a restaurant operated by celebrity chef Charlie Palmer and a stylish lobby and interior scheme by world-renowned designer Adam D. Tihany.

Throughout the hotel’s construction and renovation, Cummings Electrical, Inc. served as the electrical contractor for the project. It’s a project that Cummings is very proud of, particularly given the hotel’s high visibility and the number of challenges that had to be met and overcome throughout the nearly two-year project.

THE spAcE-TiME cOnTinUUMOne of the key challenges on the project

for Cummings and all of the project’s contractors was time. After something of a slow start, the project was reduced to a 10-month window to meet a series of openings, including a November 2007 opening for the restaurant and a March 2008 opening for the hotel proper. The shortened window was made all the more difficult by the fact that in a tight urban environment, there

wasn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver around the jobsite.

“We had a lot of people working on a pretty difficult project in order to meet our deadlines,” said Gary Wright, project manager with Cummings. “Whether you’re working in downtown Dallas, downtown Chicago, or downtown wherever…the

logistics are a nightmare. There’s no area to stage or store material in, buildings are jammed up next to you, and you have to close down sidewalks. It’s just tight.”

Equally challenging were the regulations in place for working on the landmark building, which fell under the protection of the Texas Historical Commission, as well as the need to create walkways that matched floor-by-floor with the original building. “The hotel has as many as 14 different room sizes, each with a lot of interesting components to it

and all with space limitations that couldn’t be changed from a historical perspective,” said Gary Hamilton, construction manager with Dallas-based project developer

The 129-room property boasts a restaurant operated by celebrity

chef charlie palmer and a stylish lobby and interior scheme by

world-renowned designer Adam D. Tihany.

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One of the dining areas in the Charlie Palmer Restaurant in the Joule Hotel.

neeD KicKer


coVer FeaTUre

Juno Development. “In the new tower that was built on the west side of the building, some of those same challenges also existed because where the new building connected with the older one, the deck heights pretty much had to be the same.”

TUrning cHALLEngEs inTO OppOrTUniTiEs

From an electrical perspective, the project presented a number of obstacles to overcome, as well as a series of unique opportunities. For example, as part of Adam Tihany’s design, a wide range of lighting fixtures needed to be selected and installed, on both the interior and exterior of the buildings. “The hotel had a lot of their own custom fixtures that they took the responsibility of purchasing and providing to us to install,” Gary Wright said. “Also, there were two interior lighting designers, one for the restaurant and bar and another for the rest of the interior. Plus, an exterior lighting designer [also was used], and we also dealt with the electrical engineer who had a line of fixtures specified for common areas. So we had a lot of different people to work with.”

The striking swimming pool presented its own fair share of challenges and opportu-nities. “It’s definitely a challenge when you have to build a structure that cantilevers off the side of a building, especially over the public that is going to be walking on the sidewalk below,” said Jarret Click, project

manager for the project’s general contractor, Balfour Beatty. “It contains water, so you have waterproofing issues with it, of course. You have similar issues with metals…plus all the caulking and sealants that tie in together to make it watertight. Throw in all the light boxes that penetrate through the walls of the pool, and it looked like a pin cushion at times with everything going in and out of it. It was definitely a challenge.”

A rEWArDing rEsULTFor its part, Cummings brought its usual

mix of expertise and enthusiasm to the project, all the while looking for ways to save

on costs and offer added value. “Throughout the project, there were some opportunities to go through value engineering. Cummings redid the diagrams and the service, as well as put forward some ideas [to help the] owner save considerable dollars,” Jerret Click said. “They worked those up and submitted them

to the engineer for review and approval, which helped the project go smoothly.”

In the end, the work and expertise provided by Cummings and the other contractors resulted in a hotel that not only stands out in the Dallas skyline, but also helps capture the vitality of the city itself. “The word ‘joule’ itself means a measure of energy,” Gary Hamilton said. “And that’s a major design feature of the hotel—there are 15-foot-tall gears that are moving in the lobby, and the restaurant has an energy theme, too…it won’t be repeated anywhere else. The whole project was a one-of-a-kind labor of love by everyone involved, and it is a very special hotel.” ■

if you look up while walking along the 1500 block of Main street

in downtown Dallas, you’ll probably see something unusual:

a swimming pool in the sky.

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Joule Hotel’s Pool and Deck Bar

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cUsTomer serVice

cOrrUgATED sErVicEs ForneY, TeXasBy Troy Brainard, cummings Electrical, inc., customer service Manager

in the global effort to go “Green,” Cor-rugated Services in Forney, TX, is mak-ing their mark by using renewable energy

and recycled paper products to produce corrugated board stock (cardboard). Corru-gated Services has been producing cardboard products for many years using 100 percent recycled cardboard form grocery stores, dis-tribution centers and other similar facili-ties in the area. They receive the discarded cardboard in bundles in semi truck loads and process it in a pulverizing machine. The recycled feedstock and water mixture is ground into a “mush like” material which is run through a final extrusion process to pro-duce the corrugated board.

Last year, Corrugated Service began a project to build a new wood chip storage

and handling facility, conveyor line, wood fueled boiler, and a 6.6 MW steam driven generator to produce renewable power for their processing line.

The process is simple and very efficient. A “truck tipper” utilizes two large hydraulic rams to tilt the truck full of wood chips to a 65-degree angle and off-load it in a matter of seconds into the receiving hopper. From there they are conveyed to the wood stor-age area and placed in 60 foot tall stacks to fuel the boiler. A separate “drag arm system” and conveyor move the wood chips directly to the boiler. The boiler uses natural gas to bring the system up to temperature and is then switched over to the more cost-effective wood chips for fuel to maintain it. 900 PSI steam from the boiler is required to process

the recycled feed stock and water mixture into corrugated board stock and 400 PSI steam is used to power the turbine generator to produce the 4160 volt electrical power for the rest of the facility.

Cummings Electrical, Inc. was proud to be a part of the design and construction of the new facility. Often working six days a week, 10 hours a day to meet the demanding schedule, the project completed, on time, on October 1st. This project was especially rewarding for Cummings Electrical, Inc. because it was truly the construction of a heavy industrial facility, something that has become somewhat of a dying art over the last few years. For example, the entire raceway system was galvanized rigid conduit (GRC) and included massive amounts of control cabling and hundreds of terminations, often in raceways and cable tray 80 feet, or more, above the floor.

Through their use of recycled feedstock and renewable energy, Corrugated Systems has reduced the amount of discarded wood products and cardboard in landfills by hun-dreds of tons each year. ■

Troy Brainard

Truck Tipper Wood Chip Conveyor


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as the world continues to embrace the concept of environmental sustainability, it has come to be applied to every aspect of personal and business life. Accepted science has proven the link

between the increased carbon released by our society’s use of fossil fuels and the changes occurring in our global climate. Even for those who choose to argue about these findings, the effects of the increased rate of human development are indisputable: air quality, water availability, land use, destruction of habitat, the balance of food production…all these issues are found in the daily headlines.

Wise business leaders confirm that knowledge, flexibility, and adaptation to changing circumstances are key to corporate survival. Understanding and adapting to the issue of resource conservation is no different; in fact, it is a fairly obvious requirement for a well-run organization today, whether it be a business, a city, a nation, or a planet. As the cost of energy rises, we see convincing evidence of this truth.

To develop a company’s quest for sustainability it first needs to be understood from what source comes the pressure to do so. There are likely several sources as possibilities.

The likeliest is the younger generation of employees. Those who missed the eighties and the era of acceptable (and expected) excess are often amazed and disappointed at their elders’ cavalier treatment of resource use. In fact, studies of human-resource patterns show that employees in their 20’s and 30’s are more prone to believe in companies that take responsibility for the environment. According to the 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study, 83% of millennials (those born between 1979 and 2001) place greater trust in organizations that are socially and environmentally responsible. In fact, a poll conducted by Mortgage Lenders Network USA reports that 94% of all Americans prefer to work in a setting that is designed to be energy-efficient and ecologically sound.

An important source of pressure for a publicly held company is its stockholders. Many public corporations have crafted statements of corporate responsibility that educate investors about the company’s social stance. These statements typically summarize the principles of

operating the company in a sustainable way, producing environmentally friendly products or making sustainably sound investments.

A company’s clients or customers may demand a new take on previously provided items that no longer hold their place in the market. Organically grown fabrics, locally grown produce, energy-efficient appliances, and materials proven to be non-toxic are all suddenly taking the spotlight. Consumer pressure will continue to be a dominant force for corporate change.

More subtle but economically convincing pressure can come from financial and insurance institutions. Funding for a new venture is more easily obtained from some lenders if it has an environmental link, especially for construction projects. These same projects can be more economically insured with discounts provided by major insurers such as AIG and Fireman’s Fund.

A most compelling, but harder to quantify, pressure to go green may come from the personal convictions of one or more corporate leaders that this is simply “the right thing to do.” This is the kind of driver that will have the most impact, as it comes from within to permeate the entire corporate culture.

The steps for a corporation or business to come to terms with the issue in a beneficial way are the same for all sizes of companies. There are three aspects to the issue: internal business operations, external products and services, and personal choices. For a truly sustainable organization, none of these can be ignored.

inTErnAL BUsinEss OpErATiOns – WOrTHy cHAngEs

Internal operational changes are the first way to make a difference and see economic benefits. A company needs to track changes from

GoinG Green

Betsy del Monte

As the world continues to embrace the concept of

environmental sustainability, it has come to be applied

to every aspect of personal and business life.

AcHiEVing EnVirOnMEnTAL sUsTAinABiLiTy how to incorporate sustainable Practices into everyday BusinessBy Betsy del Monte, AiA, LEED Ap, The Beck group

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a baseline set of data and, if such a set does not exist, create one. A baseline set should include answers to the following kinds of questions:

What is the company’s current energy and water usage? How many employees drive to work? Do any carpool? What is the average square footage dedicated to each person? How much area is dedicated to storage? How often do personnel travel to routine meetings? What are the purchasing policies? What is the overall corporate carbon footprint?

With this information in hand, a targeted review of policies can be completed. The method used can be simple or complex, based on the nature of the business and the depth of change desired. It may be helpful to have a professional energy audit performed by an independent professional-services firm.

Simple things, such as a “don’t print unless necessary” policy, and a default to double-sided printing, can immediately reduce paper and ink costs, as well as employee time. Bigger policy decisions, such as whether to own a corporate jet, depend on a more complex assessment of time, money, geographical locations, and corporate culture.

A prime example of successful innovative re-thinking is the Texas Instruments chip-fabrication plant in Richardson, Texas. The facilities-planning team was told to reduce the construction budget for the new plant by 30% as compared to the last one built a decade earlier. The team took it upon themselves to suggest a sustainable design that would also save operating costs. Integrated design helped the team beat the 30% capital-cost goal and achieve significant, long-range operational-cost savings. The facility reduced energy use by 38% (vs. energy code) and water consumption by 35% through extensive reuse and recycling. The attention to energy recovery resulted in fewer boilers, which led to an emissions reduction of 50%. Local materials and products with recycled content were used for construction and 90% of the construction waste was recycled. Much of the landscaping was created with native plants that require no irrigation and minimal maintenance. The facility is the first LEED Gold certified chip plant in the world. The overall savings to the company is projected to be $4 million a year on a net $1.5 million investment, a savings of $2.67 for each dollar invested.

ExTErnAL prODUcTs AnD sErVicEs – prOViDing sUsTAinABLE sOLUTiOns

An equally important issue is to go to the heart of the services or products the company provides. Sometimes the strategic sustainable decision will be to consider alternative suppliers, processes, or even different product offerings. A good case study is the Interface Carpet

Company whose CEO, Ray Anderson, came to the conclusion years ago that the way his company did business needed to change dramatically. In the book he wrote about the process of corporate reinvention, Mid-Course Correction, he says: “We define waste as any cost that goes into our product that does not produce value for our customers. We’ve begun to realize that conceptually it might even be possible to take waste…below zero, as measured against our 1994 benchmark.…At Interface, we have undertaken a quest, first to become sustainable and then to be restorative.”

In addition to selling carpet squares, which he introduced to the U.S. in 1974, he started using recycled materials. Realizing that large amounts of the raw materials he needed were already on customers’ floors, and would be headed to the landfill, Interface devised the “Evergreen Lease,” now available in the UK, which allows a customer to purchase the right to always-new-looking carpet, with Interface supplying, installing, and replacing squares as needed, and using the worn material to create the new. If the customer wants to change carpets, Interface retrieves the old carpet at no charge and the customer selects a new carpet to “lease.”

As the market changes, the understanding of where it is headed is vital. The better a company knows its customers, the more successful this assessment will be. The dramatic increase in sales of healthy, low-fat, organic-food products proves that this is not just a niche market. Rising fuel prices have, of course, accelerated the demand for anything energy-efficient. The number-one-selling vehicle in America for two decades, the Ford F-150 pick-up truck, just dropped to fifth, surpassed by four smaller Japanese cars. Detroit automakers say they did not stop producing big trucks and focus on small and hybrid cars because they were responding to consumer demand, yet consumers had been ramping up interest in smaller cars for years when fuel prices began their steep climb, foreign competitors were ready. A recent conversation with a salesman of small cars revealed that they will not accept any more SUVs for trade-in, a policy change from just a month before.

As governments begin to understand the impact—and the real cost to their infrastructure—of resource-squandering businesses, then land-use policies, development incentives, and taxing policies are all likely to change. Many U.S. cities have already put into place new requirements for energy-efficiency and land use and density. This will inevitably affect the physical growth plans for many firms. Groups whose business involves real estate, construction, or renovation will need to be prepared to adapt their business models.

Many companies have established a designated in-house expert to keep track of these trends and how they will affect their specific operation. In some cases, these individuals, titled Director of Sustainability or something similar, review company policies and recommend or implement changes that are good for the company and for the planet. Small companies often bring in an outside consultant to perform the same service, but for a set fee. Large companies may opt for an upper management position of Chief Sustainability Officer.

simple things, such as a “don’t print unless neces-

sary” policy, and a default to double-sided printing,

can immediately reduce paper and ink costs.

>>


GoinG Green

These individuals are typically selected based on their own prior commitment to the issue. For the designated employee, or perhaps for all employees, many training opportunities exist. While the topic of sustainable construction is seen primarily as an architectural issue, and therefore addressed by many architecture schools, a resource-savvy approach to business combines many levels of thinking: business, engineering, international relations, and even sociology and anthropology. More and more business-oriented sustainability courses are appearing in graduate level curricula of all types, some in an executive format as certificate programs. At Southern Methodist University, for example, I serve as an adjunct professor of sustainable practices in its School of Engineering. The School recently announced the creation of an Environmental and Civil Engineering Certificate in Sustainability. The inaugural program will take place in the Fall 2008 semester. Designed to educate senior-level business professionals, the certificate program will provide specialized knowledge for the sustainable management of our people, our cities, and our economy.

Many companies are seeing that a successful change toward sustainable policies is a combination of top-down and bottom-up momentums. By combining upper management level policy communications with staff-level-implementation groups, genuine change can be implemented fairly quickly and effectively. The most innovative ideas may come from the most unexpected sources, so it pays to be inclusive.

pErsOnAL cHOicEs, pErsOnAL cOMMiTMEnT

The philosophy of not using more resources from the earth than necessary and understanding that their true value may be more than their monetary cost is a very personal one. It is this personal understanding of a commitment that sets apart the leadership of truly sustainable companies.

An ironic example of a lack of this personal understanding occurred when the CEO of a major corporation met with company leaders to hold an earnest discussion of the issue of total corporate sustainability. At the close of the meeting he said he would take a few days to think about it, and promptly boarded his private jet and flew away for a long weekend. He was followed by his wife, in her own private jet, because their schedules didn’t quite coincide. Their destination was their 5,000-square-foot mountain home which was maintained year-round for their occasional use, typically a few weekends a year.

This example does call up the difficulty in choosing to change our lives. We rightfully struggle with the notion of giving up things to which we have become accustomed and feel we have worked hard to achieve. Without politicizing the process, it does become clear that a true movement toward a sustainable society will require strategic re-thinking of many things about how our society functions today and how we as individuals will impact our personal worlds for the greater good.

Many people, when educated about the issues, are more than willing to make choices that will help make a difference. This is where a company can help its employees by providing education and action

steps to implement those choices. Instead of free parking, employees might choose sponsored mass transit. A carpool board would help workers who would like to ride-share. An employer could offer subsidies to personnel who do energy-efficient renovations of their homes. Encouraging web-conferencing instead of traveling for meetings can save time and money, as well as carbon emissions.

WHErE DO WE gO FrOM HErE?One aspect of sustainable thinking that is getting more attention is the

social equity of access to resources. While the USA is still the single greatest producer of carbon emissions, other developing countries are catching up—and fast! What is the point, the argument goes, of cutting back in America, if China is just going to keep growing in an unsustainable way? The question brings up the valid point of the global nature of resource availability. Any business leader whose company owns buildings and land has heard the loud laments about U.S. steel prices going up because of increased demand in China. China needs all those materials because it is building as fast as it can. Chinese citizens want to have a lifestyle approaching that of American citizens and, for the first time, it seems available to them.

If every family and individual in China and India had the same resource-intensive lifestyle as the average American family, our resources would be depleted, polluted, and exhausted in short order. So the question forms: What are the ethics of resource distribution? Do we, as Westerners, have the right to alter our lives just in the areas where we wish to and can do so comfortably? Or is more required? If

so, what is the role of a business in determining that equation?While there is no right answer, it is clear that businesses leaders are the

change-agents who must ultimately grasp and effectively deal with this issue. The organizations which turn a blind eye to this trend will be caught behind the market and will end up paying the penalty. The signs are now before us. The time for making excuses for not revamping our industries and real-estate practices has passed. It is time for innovative approaches to resource use. Companies which rise to the challenge are the ones who will be here to lead the next decade …and maybe the next century.

Betsy del Monte is the Director of Sustainability for the Beck Group, and an adjunct associate professor at Southern Methodist University teaching courses in sustainability. She was the 2006 chair of the North Texas Green Building Council and is immediate past president of AIA Dallas. She also led a task force which drafted the progressive green building codes that were unanimously approved by the City Council in Dallas on April 9, 2008. She is a registered architect in Texas, NCARB certified, and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She can be reached at [email protected] or (214) 303-6484. ■

Many people, when educated about the issues,

are more than willing to make choices that will

help make a difference.


ProjecT ProFile

WHEn yOU HAVE A TricKy JOB…cummings’ special Team tackles complex jobs in a pinch

By sue poremba

When Cummings Electrical, Inc. receives a job with special time constraints—the “we needed it yesterday” sort of project—it leans on the special projects team. The special

projects team allows Cummings to be a one-stop shop for electrical services and gives the company a way to work with clients on small and mid-range jobs in addition to its more traditional, long-term assignments.

“[Clients] can call and get help with any size project, large or small,” Brad Samardzija, Special Projects Senior Project Manager, said. “That way a client never has to look anywhere else.”

The special projects team, which consists of three project managers: Brad Samardzija, Buddy Varney, and John Tuminello, generally works about 15 projects or more at the same time, ranging from $40,000 to $3 million. On average, the division performs roughly $10 million a year of hard-bid, negotiated, design-build, or design-assist work.

spEED, DiVErsiTy, AnD cOMpLExiTyMost of the jobs have a turnaround time of less than nine months,

and the special projects team hits the ground running the moment a job comes in. “We price a job, it gets awarded, and we start the next day,” Samardzija says. “Just last week, we went to an interview and were asked if we could be on site in two days.”

The team’s jobs often include office remodels, finish outs, and ground up distribution/freight terminals. Even though the jobs may be short and sweet, they often are extremely complex, adding to the challenge.

“We aren’t just doing light commercial work,” Samardzija adds. “We’re doing data centers, industrial controls, and surgery centers out of our department.”

They also require a lot of quick thinking and flexibility. For example, when working on a job that was hard bid, the special projects team arrived at the site only to discover the plans they had been given were incomplete and didn’t utilize existing conditions, which required them to turn the job into a design-build project right there in the field.

Besides Samardzija and his project managers, the special projects team does not have a set staff. Instead, employees from throughout the company are chosen for the special projects based on their availability and the skills required by the job. Samardzija and his project managers work diligently to match up each job with the “right” team. “We have a constant interface with the [company as a whole] because of the multiple sites [the special projects team is] at,” he says. “I think that’s why people hire us. We have a lot of depth and resources [at Cummings].”

A HOME rUn FOr HOME DEpOTThat depth came into play when the special projects team was

awarded the Home Depot Rapid Deployment Facility. This 535,000-square-foot, 1300-foot-long design-build project (approximately a $1 million contract) was scheduled to be completed in nine weeks, with 8,000 man hours involved. It consisted of 150 loading docks, 630 light fixtures, a 3,000 amp service, and a 13-zone electrical distribution design. The entire office area was done with prefabricated electrical assemblies.

Using so much that was prefabricated definitely made a difference in the job, according to Pat Roberts, Cummings’ superintendent on the job. More than 95 percent of the boxes and cables were prefabricated, saving a lot of manpower on site.

What makes this project stand out, said Scott Gross, Cummings’ project manager on the job, was the tight timeframe, because it meant changing some ways Cummings normally approaches a job. It also meant finding light fixtures that were in stock in warehouses across the country rather than having them specially manufactured. “It’s usually a six-to-nine week wait if you order them,” Roberts says “We didn’t have time to wait to have them manufactured.”

Home Depot was so impressed with the way Cummings installed the battery charger system that it’s considering changing its method throughout the company. Gross said the job was unusual because of

Brad Samardzija, Cummings’

Special Projects Senior Manager

Buddy Varney Cummings’

Project Manager

Pat Roberts, Cummings’

Superintendent

Scott Gross Cummings’

Project Manager


the way the charger was installed, using wire ways to run the conductors so as to keep the wires neat and aesthetically pleasing. “It was a job-specific idea,” he notes, “but one that will likely be used for future Cummings’ projects.”

The Home Depot project led by Robert Brandt, Principal of Trammell Crow, and John Cicur Jr., of Fast Track Construction, attributed the project’s success to communication and coordination between the team members. Brandt said he specifically requested Cummings to complete the electrical work on the project. “This was a fairly complicated job, “Brandt says, “and I knew Cummings had the qualifications needed to do this design and build project.”

Although Brandt was sure Cummings was up to the tough job, he admits that the company surpassed even his high expectations. “I can’t stress enough what a fantastic job they did,” he says. “I wish all jobs were like this experience.”

ExEcUTing On TiME AnD On TArgET, EVEry TiME

As for other special projects team jobs, Cummings Project Manager Buddy Varney may not be faced with a nine-week turnaround time, but the Marsh Lane Data Center project does have its unique challenges. The project

consists of three data centers, all next door to each other. “[The first data center required] a new electrical room, a new utility service, and the supporting infrastructure,” Varney said. The area for the center is 16,000 square feet with an 11,000-square-foot computer room and a 3,000-amp electrical service. The contract amount is over $2 million and the electrical distribution equipment was provided by the owner, which Varney said is common on these types of jobs.

Varney is responsible not only for his electrical crews on site, but must coordinate his subcontractors with all trades and owner provided services (commissioning team, pre-purchased equipment, security and energy management team).

Another one of Varney’s projects was the Calloway Creek Ambulatory Surgical Center. This half million Dollar contract had a six month schedule. Calloway Creek was approximately 10,000 square feet. It consisted of three surgery suites along with nine recovery beds. Our efforts were coordinated with Thos S Byrne, the general contractor, and other major subs to stay on schedule. Interfacing with the surgical and sterilization equipment, security, medical gas, fire alarm and building monitoring system were crucial to the project’s success. ■

Marsh Lane Data Center Power Distribution Units

1� The elecTrical connecTion

Cummings Electrical, Inc.14900 Grand River Road, Suite 124Fort Worth, TX 76155

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