Getting it wrong
It’s a little-known fact, but in early 19^th century England, women, along with girls and boys as young as five or six, worked underground in coal mines in deplorable conditions, for up to twelve hours a day, and, of course, for lower wages than their menfolk.

A colliery disaster in 1838, in which 26 children died, came to the attention of Queen Victoria who ordered an inquiry, which resulted in the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, forbidding women and girls to work underground, along with boys younger than ten.

The results of this Act of Parliament, aimed at protecting women and children, had, in hindsight, some negative effects. In the short term, by not allowing women to work underground, economic hardship was worsened. A better solution would have been to legislate safe working conditions for both men and women and to introduce child labour laws.

In addition, arguments used to pass the act negatively influenced society’s ideas about women working in male-dominated fields for years to come. It seems the Act was less about concern for the safety of women and girls than it was about their role in society. To get the Act through the House of Lords, where some members who owned mines opposed it, Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper appealed to Parliament’s prudery.

Instead of focusing on the working conditions which were equally unsafe for women or men, he focused on “girls and women wearing trousers and working bare-breasted in the presence of boys and men, which made girls unsuitable for marriage and unfit to be mothers.”

It should be noted, however, that the actual report mentioned only one woman working bare-breasted – because of the heat – and that most of the women were already wives and mothers.

But it was variations on these notions that pervaded the resource sectors on both sides of the Atlantic through the rest of the 19^th century, on into the 20^th, and even into the 21^st. No matter whether it was forestry, oil and gas, or minerals, even when other sectors of the economy were making strides toward gender equality and diversity, natural resources lagged behind the prevailing trend.

Simply put, they were male-dominated industries and women didn’t fit. But that was then, and this is now, and in the 21st century, women’s presence in those fields is on the rise, albeit slowly.

What the stats say
By the Numbers: Gender Diversity in Canada’s Natural Resource Industries and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), a document published by Statistics Canada in 2015, reveals that while progress has been made, it has not kept pace with other sectors.

Despite progress since the 1980s, women holding positions in STEM remain a minority. In 2011, women comprised 66 percent of graduates in non-STEM subjects, but only 39 percent in STEM. By 2014, only 22 percent were still working in STEM fields.

Natural Resources Canada faced a similar gender imbalance, notably among researchers, with only 19 percent being women.

While women account for nearly half of the national labour force (47 percent in 2015) women’s share of employment in the forestry, mining, and oil and gas industries remains under 20 percent, with 70 percent of those women working in business and financial roles. And, although average weekly wages for women in these sectors have increased, women are still under-represented in high-earning leadership roles.

It’s also interesting to note how women’s participation has evolved differently across the primary sub-sectors of forestry, oil and gas extraction, and mining. Between 1996 and 2011, employment opportunities in the forestry sector dropped significantly; however, the proportion of women working in it increased from 9 percent to 15 percent. The number of women working in mining between 1996 and 2011 increased by similar amounts, from 10 to 14 percent.

The oil and gas extraction sector, however, presents an anomaly. In 1996, it was by far the smallest of those three sectors in terms of employment numbers, but women accounted for 27 percent of employees. By 2011, that sector had doubled in size, outstripping both other sectors, but women still only accounted for 28 percent. What was going on?

Before taking a closer look at an international initiative to address gender diversity, we want to introduce Sarah Morse, who has worked as a geotechnical engineer since 2000, and who graciously agreed to describe her career trajectory and the challenges she faced.

Meet Sarah Morse, P. Eng., PMP, Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Throughout school, Morse was more interested in STEM subjects than in the humanities, so engineering seemed a natural choice at the University of British Columbia. She considered civil engineering – “I wanted to build bridges,” she says – before geological engineering captured her interest.

About 20 percent of classmates in first-year engineering were women, although stats showed that in 1996, while Morse was studying, only 10 percent of mining sector employees were female. Once she switched over to geological engineering, the class was much smaller, and out of 20 graduates, four were female. Three women, including Morse, have continued to work in the field.

“The work was challenging but not too hard,” she says. “Some students were friendly toward me, and some weren’t accepting, but you learn to stay away from those people and manage.

“I was quite shy, and I found it intimidating to speak with the professors, but I think that was just me. I don’t think they were doing anything that wasn’t inclusive. Students were there to succeed, or not, and it wasn’t their job to help you along.”

Numerous studies in every field of career development have shown the importance of role models and mentoring, but Morse says there were none when she was younger. “When I got further into my career, I had some role models I could look up to, but not in the early times, so it was all about forging my own path,” she says.

“What I found has changed over the last 22 years that I have been doing this work, is that while there aren’t necessarily any more women entering engineering, there are definitely more senior women. When I started there were none. Now there are and that is a big change.”

Student summer jobs, however, were important in her professional development. Her first was as a field assistant for a consulting company that was assessing soils and terrain stability in forested areas so that a forestry company could decide where to build access roads. Then she spent two summers in Fort McMurray, Alberta with one of the oil sand mining companies, “working in the engineering department, doing drawings for tailing sands and dam stability.”

Together with company engineers, she met on-site with construction monitors who required an opinion regarding the soil that was being brought in to construct the dams if they suspected that a change in moisture levels would affect soil stability. This involved soil analysis and an assessment of the design of the slope to rule out any ensuing environmental issues. “The work was hard, and the days were long, but it was a good community to work in,” she says.

Hard work and a positive attitude stood Morse in good stead in 2000, when upon graduation from UBC, she applied to work in the Vancouver office of an international consulting company. Although the interview went well, she says they were hesitant to hire her, “because I am a woman, and at five feet, a very small woman.”

She ultimately landed the job, because “someone in the company was really good friends with my summer position supervisor, but if it hadn’t been for his glowing recommendation, they probably wouldn’t have hired me.”

She did construction monitoring for tailings dams for that company for three and a half years, similar work to what she’d done as a co-op student, but on her own, without support from a senior engineer. “I would head out to the mines to tell the men who were constructing the dams they were doing it wrong,” she laughs. “They were used to engineers telling them that, and it wasn’t the first time they’d had a young engineer, but it was the first time they had a young female engineer in a position of authority. So it required me to be a lot more confident about my decisions than I truly felt.”

Morse was assigned her own projects, mines in Montana, Washington, and the B.C. interior, which she visited regularly. There were also opportunities to go to such places as Cuba, Romania, and South America, “but they didn’t send me, and I feel that was partly because I am a woman and there were safety risks associated with those places, so I never went even though more junior male engineers did.” Still, she calls the consulting company a great place to work and would have stayed had she not relocated to be with her husband.

There she joined another international consulting company in their infrastructure department, doing “a little bit of mining work, but mostly things like roads and buildings associated with the resource sector and other development areas.”

Three years ago, after working there for 16 years, Morse resigned, “as it didn’t seem to be a welcoming place for senior women, and I didn’t see a good path forward for my career,” and accepted a position as Senior Geotechnical Inspector with the B.C. government. There she works as part of a team of seven geotechnical engineers, four of whom are women, including a classmate from her graduating class at UBC. “I feel we are doing good work and we review each other’s work,” she says. “We do mine inspections, and we review permitting applications and technical documents submitted by the companies.”

Were it not for COVID restrictions, she would be spending approximately one week per month away from home at the mine sites, something she feels comfortable about now that her sons are growing up.

Morse takes pride in knowing that “the materials being mined in B.C. are critical to moving forward with clean energy, with electric vehicles and solar energy, because some of the required components, such as copper, need to be extracted from the ground. At the same time, the mines are working toward becoming more efficient and using more renewable energy for their activities.

“We are moving forward, helping to make mines more efficient and environmentally friendly, and a big part of that is ensuring the mines and the dams that are constructed are safe, and that we are safe in everything we do.”

Equal By 30 – advancing diversity and inclusion in the energy sector
Two years ago, just as the pandemic struck, Natural Resources Canada launched Equal By 30, an international initiative to advance both gender and ethnic diversity in energy under the umbrella of the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) International Initiative. Involved are over 135 energy companies and 12 national governments, including Sweden, which has taken a leading role, along with Canada, the U.K., the U.S., France, and Japan.

Research conducted by Diversio, the Toronto-based platform that tracks and improves diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and applied to Equal By 30, indicates that to meaningfully advance diversity, it’s important to focus on five inclusion metrics: the development of an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued; fair and unbiased management practices; career development; workplace flexibility; and workplace safety, which means ensuring that no employees are experiencing sexual, psychological, or physical harassment (see www.equalby30.org and www.efficiencycanada.org for more).

In the Canadian context, being Equal By 30 refers to three goals as articulated by Efficiency Canada, the national voice for an energy-efficient economy, housed at Carlton University. The goals include equal pay and equal leadership, with 50 percent of leadership roles held by women, and equal opportunities through the creation of policies to support flexible work hours, telecommuting, and part-time work, all of which should be accomplished by 2030.

Equality and diversity in the resource sector have been a long time coming. Now it’s on the horizon, while at the same time questions surrounding energy sustainability are more critical than ever before. We hope, by working together, women and men can bring their own perspectives to the table to solve the most pressing issues facing our planet.

The post Women on the Rise<p class="company">Challenge and Opportunity in the Resource Sector</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Dressed in traditional ribbon skirts, ten women from Little Red River Cree Nation were recently photographed proudly holding their framed certificates. All were newly graduated as heavy equipment operators, and their backdrop was not the typical curtained stage of a presentation, but the frozen tundra under an overcast sky, multi-ton trucks and bulldozers just a few feet away.

For these women and the 5,500 members of the community located about an hour and a half east of Northern Alberta’s High Level, the graduation ceremony represented not just individual accomplishment, but a collective hope, and an inspiration to other women for the future.

Long viewed as the domain of men, the operation of excavators, graders, loaders, and other large equipment is drawing women into the industry who are quickly establishing themselves as confident and talented operators. For the resources sector, it is a welcome sight.

For decades, women have been underrepresented in natural resources, in some nations much more than others. Worldwide, less than 14 percent of women are landholders, and the holdings they own are often smaller and of lower quality than those of their male counterparts, “although more women than men are working in agriculture and natural resources management, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa” (A Gender-Responsive Approach to Natural Resources, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs).

However, studies have shown that enabling greater access to land or title for women has resulted in much improved environmental sustainability, more productive soil, and more sustainable tree planting, water harvesting, and food security initiatives.

In developing nations, unequal access to – and gender inequality in the control of – natural resources create hardship and struggles to survive; in Canada and the United States, it means women are shut out of a workplace where they can excel while making a living, supporting themselves and their families.

According to Statistics Canada, women continue to be underrepresented in natural resources, including forestry, oil and gas, and mining. Although the industry is making efforts to address the gap, there are not enough women working in these sectors. Historically, these industries and others, such as construction, have a poor track record of training and hiring women at all levels, both in the field and at the executive levels.

Now, with so many seasoned workers reaching retirement age, hiring more women to future-proof mining, for example, simply makes sense.

The issue of not enough women in natural resources – and concerns over how to best manage water, soil, and the environment – is far from recent. Thirty years ago, a paper from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources titled Men, Women, and the Environment: An Examination of the Gender Gap in Environmental Concern and Activism stated, “surprisingly little has been done to examine the extent of environmental activity of women and factors relating to it,” adding, “Ironically, what information exists has tended to show that even though women may be somewhat more concerned about the environment than men, they are less politically active on these issues.”

Despite being published in 1992, the paper by Paul Mohai highlights the key difference between women and men in resources that exists to this day: women, being caregivers, approach the environment with a “motherhood mentality.” “Men, however, view the environment and natural resources with a ‘marketplace mentality’ that gives priority to economic growth and development and that may portray environmental pollution as a necessary tradeoff for growth.”

These days, we carelessly toss around the words “diversity” and “inclusion”, but what do they really mean when it comes to putting them into action?

Studies show that businesses that hire a higher proportion of women and minorities tend to be more creative, because they encourage more viewpoints and often come up with interesting new products and new ways to attract customers and motivate staff. For mining, oil and gas, and other resource sectors, how can women be better represented? While better and more available education is an obvious choice, what else can be done to make natural resources a more viable career option for women?

A multi-pronged approach is necessary, one which encompasses training opportunities, mentorship, and financial and moral support. Norms need to be challenged, and most times, shattered. As the recent all-woman graduating class from Little Red River Cree Nation shows, women too can operate dump trucks and bulldozers, the kind of things that have long been the domain of men.

The same is true for other disciplines related to mining. Most metallurgists – who perform a valuable role in testing and analyzing extracted metals – are male. Yet in Canada, one of the most prominent metallurgists was Ursula Martius Franklin.

Born in Germany, she later immigrated to Canada, was hired by the University of Toronto, and became an associate professor at the institution’s Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science in the Faculty of Engineering. She was designated as a University Professor in 1984 – U of T’s first female professor to receive the honour.

Franklin was regarded as a pioneer in archaeometry, and inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 2012.

Then there’s Deshnee Naidoo. Late last year, she was named Executive Vice President of Base Metals at mining giant Vale. In 2018, she had been recognized by Women in Mining as one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining.

Prior to her current role, Naidoo served in other key mining roles, including six years as Chief Executive Officer of the Zinc International business at Vedanta Resources, and 16 years in various executive roles at Anglo American, including Chief of Staff and Chief Financial Officer for the company’s thermal coal business.

Although key positions in mining and natural resources are traditionally held by men, more women like Naidoo are bringing about change.

In its recent report, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Journey, Vale described the milestones the company has reached in just the period 2020 and 2021. Becoming a signatory to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles for Women in 2013, Vale later included diversity and inclusion “as central strategic pillars of the business” in 2019, creating Five Principles, including the promotion of an environment of respect for all, a process free from prejudice, and the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion. This includes six priorities covering gender – doubling the number of women represented in the next decade, LGBTQIA+ awareness, ethnic-racial, inclusion, people with disabilities, and local talent.

“We have brought forward our target to double the number of women in our workforce, compared to 2019, by five years, to reach 26 percent of women in the workforce by 2025,” the company said in a release. “By November 2021, the percentage of women at Vale was 18.7 percent, up 5.2 percent from 13.5 percent in 2019 when the company established our target for employing women as part of our global diversity strategy. There are now 4,500 more women working in our company.”

From female property ownership and management, to workers in the field, to executive leadership roles, more women in natural resources means better lives and more diversified points of view – for the benefit of us all.

The post Mind the Gap<p class="company">Growing the Role of Women in Natural Resources</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Named for Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, Borea began in 2006 and has constructed nearly one-third of Canada’s renewable energy projects, leading the charge in this necessary transition.

Over 70 large-scale projects, comprising over 6800 MW of completely renewable energy, have been completed or are in process.

Borea’s staff boasts over 200 skilled and experienced professionals, with an estimated five hundred site employees across Canada. Thanks to its experience and ability in renewable energy, the company can focus its skills on bringing cost-effective, turnkey alternatives to move the nation’s entire energy grid forward.

Putting the ‘new’ in renewable
Despite the pandemic, Borea’s mission to “deliver renewable with care” is moving ahead without interruption. Borea is using new technologies to improve renewable energy as well.

A major recent example is the Suffield project in Alberta, completed in October 2020. The plant utilizes both bifacial panels and solar tracking technology, generating more power in a smaller space compare to a monofacial panel and fixed tilt racking system.

The union of these two technologies heralds a bold new development in solar energy and may prove instrumental in future plant design.

Suffield’s location in Canada’s Energy Project is no coincidence. Although Canada’s Western provinces are facing a moratorium on coal-fired power plants, they have a far greater resource available; thanks to the flat terrain, they boast the sunniest weather in Canada.

Alberta alone enjoys an average of 1,900 hours of sunshine in the north and 2,300 hours in the south, making it the nation’s sunniest province—and a natural hotbed of solar development.

The Suffield project, boasting 90,000 solar panels organized into ten blocks, will help Canada move down the road toward its renewable energy future and it demonstrates bold new technologies as well.

As their name implies, bifacial solar panels display photovoltaic cells on both sides, substantially increasing their output capacity. But more practically, the bifacial panels mitigate the blockage caused by accumulations of snow. This technology significantly improves the reliability of the solar farm during the frigid winter.

Making light of snow
With many types of solar panels, snow accumulation can at the very least necessitate tedious cleaning, and potentially take whole power plants out of commission. But with bifacial technology, power can still be generated on the panels’ reverse side from sunlight, even from the light reflected off fallen snow.

This advantage provides enough power and heat through the power generation process to melt the snow and hold power generation steady.

Project Engineer Moran Wang explains that as our planet faces the extreme weather that will result from climate change, it will be more essential than ever to maintain a resilient power grid during these events—and bifacial technology can help provide that.

But the bifacial panels are only one half of the Suffield project’s new advantages. Panel tracker technology, which adjusts the panels so that they remain permanently perpendicular to the sun on a single axial, helps the panels maintain constant optimal power production. The result is that their output is far superior to static panels, which in comparison enjoy full sunlight only for a limited time each day.

The second function of the solar tracker is to facilitate the snow removal process. Wang explains that, “If we detect snowfall, the panel will be triggered into a ‘snow-dumping’ mode. That makes it more reliable, in the sense of facing a more extreme environment.”

Tracking technology and bifacial panels could produce as much as 30 percent more energy than traditional panels. This helps achieve more power production in a similar footprint than monofacial with fixed tilt racking.

Or as Wang prefers it, “To achieve the same amount of energy, you have a smaller footprint.”

Bird’s eye view
As project engineer on the Suffield project, Wang also oversaw development of the plant’s weather station, Suffield’s eyes and ears, plus another innovation: an aerial drone outfitted with infrared cameras.

“It’s a huge asset,” says Wang, who pilots the drone himself. The bird’s eye view can highlight panel problems instantly, saving time and money during diagnostic procedures.

“We used to spend a huge amount of money to call in actual aircraft with human pilots and human camera operators to do this kind of service,” Wang recalls. “Now, we can use a tiny little drone operated by someone on-site.”

With the success of the Suffield project, Wang says he believes the next step in renewable energy is increasing energy storage capacity and reliability; keeping the power flowing so energy grids don’t need to fall back on fossil fuel backups.

“I think one missing piece of the puzzle is making it more reliable,” he says. “From there, we can only improve it.”

Advances in battery technology can ensure wind power and solar continue supplying grids even during night hours or inclement weather, bringing renewable energy more in line with Canada’s ever-increasing energy requirements.

But while the Suffield project highlights Borea’s embrace of new ideas, it is but one of the company’s recent projects.

In Saskatchewan, approximately 10 km south of Herbert and approximately 40 km east of Swift Current, the Blue Hill Wind Energy Project is a 175 MW facility comprising 35 wind turbines with a capacity of 5 MW each. This project called for careful planning, as environmental constraints and hot afternoon temperatures presented some unique challenges, which Borea rose to meet.

Carbon-neutral coming
As Borea continues to advance these renewable energy projects as well as the relevant technology involved, the company is still committed to building a carbon-neutral energy grid in Canada.

“I do think renewable energy is the way of the future,” Wang says. He adds that although wind and solar power are hardly cutting-edge ideas, it is only recently that they have become really practical.

He agrees that with the additions of bifacial panels and tracker technology production and implementation costs may increase, but he argues solar technology is still very much an industry in its infancy.

“With everything in human history, we have to let it grow,” he says. “I’m proud to be at the forefront of this.”

The post Innovation in Alberta: Bringing New Technologies to Solar Power<p class="company">Borea Construction</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

With markets ranging from OEMs in rail, agriculture, material handling, forestry, off-road construction and mining to infrastructure, energy, and fabrication, the company’s dedication to quality is upheld by a team of dedicated experts.

Brannon Steel’s long and proud family history began with Tom Brannon who, at the age of 40, left his job at Dominion Bridge, sold his house and used the money to launch the company.

“Tom basically saw an opportunity back in the ‘60s to help a small guy out,” says President Kirk Brannon. “Dominion Bridge was a very large company where the small guy couldn’t get service, so that’s really the early roots of Brannon Steel.”

Tom was quickly joined by son Al, who continued to advance his own skills and knowledge of the business world through both night classes and hands-on experience.

“Those family roots were important then and are still important today,” says Kirk. “Al took over from his father in the ‘80s, and it was under his leadership that our biggest growth started taking place, with a focus on the larger OEMs.”

A cousin of the family, current president Kirk started at Brannon Steel in 1988 and considers himself “the holding generation”. Al’s sons, Tomm and Dave Brannon, the current owners of Brannon Steel, have been working in various roles within the company for over 25 years.

While leadership has changed over the years, the company’s dedication to providing exemplary customer service — a mainstay of its commitment and a key to its ongoing success — has remained steadfast.

“Customer satisfaction is a thread throughout the company,” says Dave Brannon. “Our employees are committed to customer satisfaction. They take responsibility to make sure the customer always gets what they need. The customer is key and when everybody understands that, everyone pulls together and gets the job done.”

Success involves not only listening to customers over the years, but the willingness to invest both time and money, adds Kirk.

“We’ve grown as a result of understanding what our customers’ needs were, and they’ve evolved and continue to evolve,” he explains. “We’ve grown our company from what was originally a cutting house, and over the years we’ve gone into more value-added offerings. I think that’s what our strength is now.”

The company’s growth can also be attributed to ongoing loyal partnerships with various OEMs over the years, a growth that’s organic, Kirk adds, and not reliant on mergers and acquisitions.

“It’s definitely a two-way relationship,” he says of the company’s clients. “The good thing about us is we’re able to adapt and move fairly quickly, unlike large organizations where it’s tougher for them to transition. We don’t have to answer to our shareholders. If it makes sense to us, we’re investing.”

That customer relations side of the business is one of Kirk’s more active roles as President, and one he thoroughly enjoys.

“At the end of the day you have to be willing to take the good and the bad,” he says. “It’s not always rosy. When things aren’t going so well you need to listen, and I think that’s the one thing we’ve always done.”

Customer service, he adds, is how you go about solving problems, and how you deal with issues: it’s picking up the phone, resolving the problems and moving forward so you don’t encounter the same problem again.

Along with maintaining quality customer service, Brannon Steel also remains dedicated to Al’s original vision of serving the local community. Just a few of Al’s positions over the years include two successful stints as campaign manager for the mayor of Brampton, chairman of the Peel Memorial Hospital board, founder of the Progress Club in Brampton in 1980, and president of the Brampton Board of Trade in support of the business community. Today, Al’s passion is seen in the company’s support of numerous organizations including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Oak Ridges Hospice, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the William Osler Health System.

“Al has always displayed a commitment to our local community and has a deep sense of civic duty,” says Kirk. “Growing up, that’s what I saw, and what his boys saw. Their father was actively involved.”

That drive to support and give back has carried over to the employees as well. To celebrate its 50^th anniversary in 2018, the company launched the Brannon Steel Family Foundation, and encourages employees to donate to their own personal charities each year. “Brannon Steel is in Brampton, but a lot of our employees live in surrounding communities,” says Kirk. “Whatever community they’re in, we tell people to get involved and if you need support, come back to Brannon Steel and we’ll help.”

This atmosphere of support, teamwork and cooperation within the company has also extended to dealing with the ongoing effects of COVID, which has of course wreaked havoc on supply chains and labour.

“Finding quality people and retaining them isn’t easy, but we’ve had success,” says Kirk. “In the front lobby we have our service recognition board that lists 10, 20, 30 and 40 year employees. As you reach each milestone, your name moves up the chart and it’s pretty impressive. We’re proud of the fact that we have many people who have chosen to spend their entire careers with us.” Brannon Steel has a long established service reward program which recognizes 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 year anniversaries with gifts and travel vouchers.

Those types of accomplishments continue to outweigh pandemic challenges, and aside from celebrating an impressive 50 years in business, the company received the Silver Award in 2020 and, in 2021, was recognized with the Gold Supply award from Caterpillar.

Looking ahead, Brannon Steel strives for continued growth, perhaps following in the footsteps of Magna International, a Canadian-based, worldwide automotive parts supplier. “We want to continue to be a significant parts supplier to OEMs,” says Kirk. “That’s our niche market and that’s what we want to be recognized as in North America.”

On that front, the company has met with great success, with customers including Caterpillar, Hitachi, JLG, John Deere, Skyjack, Tigercat and Volvo, to name a few. “We want to continue to grow in the upcoming years and create more jobs in Brampton,” Kirk says.

When asked what makes the company stand out, Kirk looks to the employees and the team spirit displayed throughout the company.

“We have an all-hands-on-deck approach,” he says. “Whether it’s your internal customer or your external customer, it’s working together with everybody to make everybody’s job easier and safer. It’s that culture of responsibility and ownership.”

When it comes to the company’s longevity, Dave says, “I have to go back to customer satisfaction — understanding their requirements and making sure people are satisfied.”

The company also has no commissioned sales people, instead preferring to provide a salary to further build teamwork. “We work with a bonus system, but it’s non-commissioned,” says Kirk. “That way you’re not just looking after your customer — you look after all of our customers.”

Promoting that sense of camaraderie makes a difference. Brannon Steel recently had its ISO audit, and after interviewing all employees, the auditor made a point of commenting on the company’s positive atmosphere and culture.

“If you’re here all day it can be stressful, but there’s that honesty and integrity and passion,” says Kirk. “We’re only steel, but people are passionate about it. And it is seen throughout the organization.”

That atmosphere is paramount to the company’s ongoing success, he adds, especially during the past few turbulent years, with employees working at home and later returning to the office. “Being home is good on one hand, but you lose that whole teamwork feeling,” says Kirk. “But you have to look at safety first, and that’s what we do.”

Protecting employees has always been a priority at Brannon Steel, not only during the pandemic’s upheaval, but throughout several previous recessions. The company has remained dedicated to riding out the tough times, preserving a family atmosphere, and not only growing, but thriving.

“What does this company do? We cut carbon steel plate with Oxyfuel, Plasma and Laser technologies. We make parts to print and add value along the way by forming, machining, beveling, rolling and kitting. That’s what the company does, but the culture is the true success of this company,” says Kirk.

Now, he says, one of our customers’ biggest concerns is, can Brannon Steel keep up with continuous growth in their business?

The answer to that is a resounding yes. In the late ‘80s, the company had one building with 20,000 square feet; after continued expansion and re-investment, today Brannon Steel occupies three buildings covering 200,000 square feet.

“I always say to people, we recognize as the market’s growing we will grow with it, and we recognize the downturn,” says Kirk. “When the downturn comes it gets really ugly, but we have experience with surviving recessions. We’ve gone through several and every one is slightly different.”

Brannon Steel, he says, has seen it all, has learned a lot from each, and has become a stronger company for it.

“It’s our honesty, our integrity, and there’s a passion we all have here,” says Kirk. “It’s not just a brand. When people come to Brannon Steel and talk to our employees, when we do tours, you hear it from them, too; it’s not just us paying lip service to it. It’s about teamwork from the plant floor all the way through the office.”

The post All Hands on Deck: Committed to Customers, Community, and Collaboration<p class="company">Brannon Steel</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Virtek was established in 1986 in Waterloo, but now boasts a reach extending across North America and even the world, with customers in Europe and Asia as well. This extended reach is thanks in part to its association with parent company Gerber Technology, a designer and developer of engineering software. Across its 30+ years in business, Virtek has become adept at addressing the needs of prestigious companies worldwide and applying its own brand of precision, reliability, and innovation.

Virtek Vision’s product offerings are primarily designed to make projects and work much simpler, and streamlined for whatever industry a client may be working within. Virtek uses 3D VPS (Vision Positioning System) technology to assist in fabrication work and with alignment, while its inventory outfitted with Spatial Positioning Systems (SPS) is chiefly used for location-based services in assembly. Laser Projection Systems (LPS) can be applied in both three-dimensional and flat, two-dimensional spaces for precise measurement, assessment, and inspection, among other processes.

Indeed, diversity of application is a strength inherent to the company’s approach to business, as these unique laser solutions are routinely applied to varying purposes and for wildly different markets. Virtek counts itself as the largest laser manufacturer in the world across industries like aerospace, automation, construction, and more, lending credence to its identity as a trusted name in laser solutions.

The company is quick to cite innovation as a cornerstone of not just its growth but its very identity as a business. Virtek has new product releases practically every month, with an eye toward increasing product and process efficiency across the manufacturing sector and its many market spaces. The company also aims to lead the way in the laser market by embracing what is referred to as Industry 4.0, the term associated with the continued interconnectivity between automation and computing software as industries worldwide embrace modern forms of technological integration. This will allow laser technology like that at Virtek to continually evolve in smarter ways to both better serve the end user and stay connected with robust and sophisticated automated systems as they continue to evolve and upgrade.

What’s more, a move toward greater automation in manufacturing can help customers experiencing a recent negative trend facing many sectors, that being the lack of skilled labour. Many businesses today are reporting challenges in finding enough skilled workers to execute tasks and deliver results, a gap in the market that recent trends in automation look to ease, if not outright fill, as time goes on.

For Virtek Vision’s part, the company continues to seek individuals who will take advantage of the environment of opportunity and exploration it provides. Virtek offers a great deal in the way of diversity, benefits, and team-building events to encourage a sense of camaraderie and a collaborative environment in the workplace. Vision is not just a part of the company’s name as much as it is a key value that the long-tenured business has made that name on.

Laser technology is a field that demands a high level of competency and knowledge, and to this end, the offices of Virtek Vision offer comprehensive support to those both within and outside of the company itself, a must for the complex solutions it offers. Virtek’s global service team is always ready to serve a client’s needs, offering three levels of customer assistance and product assurance worldwide. The company also sets itself apart by offering a solutions-based webinar series on its website, as well as remote demonstrations of all its products to ensure clients are always sure of the best use of a piece of Virtek technology. On the philanthropic level, Virtek extends regular charitable support to the United Way, which provides aid on an international level to various nonprofits.

From beginning to end, the team at Virtek are committed to the ideals of trust and reliability when it comes to the relationships they’ve built with their customer base – relationships perhaps better identified as partnerships, a meeting of ideals to always determine the most effective and preferred course of action.

In 2021, Virtek appointed Dietmar Wennemer and Chris Rasmuscak into new positions of CEO and COO, respectively. These appointments last year came following Virtek’s new ownership under AIP (American Industrial Partners) and will fuel further innovation-based company growth going forward. Moving ahead into 2022, Virtek will be hitting the road to be a part of trade shows like JEC World 2022, the leading industry show for international composites. The company also finds itself amid an important anniversary, as Virtek celebrated 35 years in business in 2021. This distinction is one that the company feels is worth celebrating with the current state of the world, especially when it comes to how its growth and market leadership have evolved in these challenging times. In an online press release, Virtek acknowledges the hard work of both its suppliers and partners, as well as the longtime support of its customer base, for getting the company to where it is today. The company further tips its cap to employees throughout company history who have aided its commitment to innovation and growth: “The best is yet to come; we are very excited for all that 2022 has to offer.”

With renewed motivation and always-evolving solutions to meet the needs of an eager customer base, Virtek Vision’s future and place within manufacturing circles seems as bright as it was some 35 years ago.

The post Leading the Way in Laser Manufacturing Solutions<p class="company">Virtek Vision</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The company performed projects in dredging work and dock wall construction for its first few years until landing a large contract for the City of Milwaukee in 1921 for work on Jones Island, a man-made island encompassing the wastewater treatment facility for the greater Milwaukee area. This project is remembered as the one that established McMullen & Pitz and enabled it to ascend to the next level.

Oliver McMullen left the business less than a decade after its inception, selling his interests to contractor Emil Weber but keeping his name on the banner. Weber would become the company’s secretary-treasurer, and Arthur Pitz took over running the company with Weber until the former’s death a decade or so later, with Arthur’s son Willott taking his place.

Willott ‘Bubby’ Pitz fully took over as company president in 1959 and remained so until his death in 1997, a period noted for bringing the company forward into the modern age. During his three decades as company head, Pitz is credited with introducing newer models of cranes, hiring a new staff of engineers, and landing contracts for new projects for marine infrastructure (i.e. barge work, dredging) and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Willott’s son Erich eventually took over for his father in 1997 and, unfortunately, passed away himself in October 2020. Until Erich’s children can take over management, Vice President Ted Jennejohn is working to bridge the gap between the two generations, as McMullen & Pitz still stands as a family-owned company with over one hundred years to its name and a pillar in its community.

It has always operated as a small company—today sporting around fifteen employees—but it manages to compete successfully with hundred-million-dollar corporations on construction bids. This competitive spirit gives its customers the personal touch of a small business without losing out on large-scale construction services.

The company’s family name has also given it a lasting positive reputation. “We put the results over the profits,” says Jennejohn. “If we did our job, the profits will be there.” Close, personal attention is what he feels separates the company’s approach to customer service. As a client’s main point of contact, he meets one-on-one to develop solutions and offer support from beginning to end. He finds that many customers like the single point of contact approach to service, and it inspires the company’s mission to be as good as its word.

Over the past few years, McMullen & Pitz has increased its revenues by around 50 percent, allowing it to invest further in its equipment, its employees, and the business overall. This success has also permitted it to move forward in modernizing its equipment and approaches, which improves both employee and customer satisfaction.

These upgrades are always necessary, especially where the marine industry is concerned, because a lot of the work is underwater and has obstacles such as low visibility. This is one of few companies in the construction industry with the experience and equipment to overcome these challenges as well as the ability to self-perform nearly every job without the need for multiple subcontractors, making it an in-demand solutions provider for its market and area.

McMullen & Pitz continues to keep busy, with its recent projects ranging in size and complexity. One of the company’s most recent involvements was upgrading the terminal for The Lake Michigan Carferry, the SS Badger. The terminal, an extension of US Highway 10, connects Wisconsin to Lower Michigan across Lake Michigan and is a key piece of state infrastructure. The SS Badger itself is also one of the last steam-powered ships in existence, imbuing it with significant historical and economic value.

The workforce had to rebuild the crumbling dock terminal during the winter of 2020 to be ready for May. The $4.3 million job is the largest single contract in company history. The complex project went swimmingly as the company completed its work on time and within budget, amidst a lot of public attention.

Other successful projects include a contract in the fall of 2019 for the City of Wausau to upgrade its wastewater system pipelines under the Wisconsin River. This was done while dealing with record rainfall levels and a short project window, challenges the company met on time to the delight of the community. McMullen & Pitz also continues to work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, including a recent project involving the installation of over four thousand feet of steel sheet piling along the Fox River. This project also faced material procurement challenges and difficult underground conditions but was also completed ahead of schedule, a feature that is a signature of the business.

These approaches are nothing without an able workforce, and Jennejohn feels that the company’s relatively small size is what helps it nurture this type of atmosphere. “If I hire someone, I am committing to them as they are making a commitment to me to do a safe job,” he explains. “We rely on each other.”

This commitment helps to deal with external challenges such as an ongoing national labor shortage in the construction field. With McMullen & Pitz’s low turnover rate, Jennejohn is relieved not to have to look for workers who may prove unreliable when the existing workforce is so experienced. He continues a commitment to both customer and worker that has been a company value for over one hundred years.

Over 2022, McMullen & Pitz will investigate expanding its foundation services. Currently, not much drilling work is done by the company, but as equipment continues to be modernized, new machine attachments allow for deep foundation and geotechnical work. The company wants to expand its services to take on any job necessary in the industry and even larger projects.

Jennejohn notes that construction will always have a constant flow of ups and downs, especially when factoring in recent developments like national inflation and widespread material shortages, which can make procurement and meeting project schedules difficult. Long-lasting relationships with trustworthy vendors are always a great help to mitigate such challenges, and Jennejohn credits the company’s business relationships for helping to deal with these problems head-on.

The goal of McMullen & Pitz is not to expand too rapidly as the company is unwilling to sacrifice quality. Instead, further expansion will permit the company to accept more projects and bring its brand of construction solutions to more customers in need. “From land-based construction, to marine construction, to dive work, we can wear a lot of different hats and provide a lot of different services,” says Jennejohn, summing up the company’s multifaceted approach to the construction sector.

The post Over a Century of Diverse Construction Solutions<p class="company">McMullen & Pitz</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Meeting this need, Gainsborough Waste began its operations in 1994, investing in its first new Mack truck in 1996. A few years later in 1999, the Carls courageously moved forward with the formation of their portable toilet company titled Texas Outhouse, which has become a staple of exemplary service in and around the gulf coast. Fast forward over 20 years with Texas Outhouse, a newly identified market segment led to the purchase of its first high-end restroom trailer in 2016. Quick success in this new market led to the 2017 creation of a new standalone division adorned with its own logo, social media platforms and website, titled Luxury Event Trailers (LET).

Privately held, both businesses are under the same ownership, with Noble Carl serving as Gainsborough’s President and brother Paul R. Carl as Vice President.

With some overlap among employees in areas such as accounting, sales, customer service and maintenance, all entities have a strong company culture, which allows for decisions like purchasing new trucks to be made fast and easily. “It makes a great environment for growing your revenue,” says Larry L. Wheeler, Gainsborough’s Business Development Manager.

Today, Gainsborough has grown to about 30 drivers, half a dozen mechanics, a dedicated office staff of over a dozen, and two dispatchers. On the LET side, the division runs under Special Events Director Craig Ray, who operates the division with an assistant, three drivers, and three technicians.

Pandemic pivot
For some businesses, COVID-19 resulted in chaos; for others, it created new opportunities and a way to step up and help others. Known across Texas for its professional service and ability to handle virtually any customer need, Gainsborough Waste continues to work with customers during the worst pandemic in a century.

With a disaster-relief function in place dealing with crises like hurricanes, floods, and fires in Greater Houston, and providing services to relief workers setting up camp in states like Florida or Louisiana, Texas Outhouse was already well-equipped. Able to provide 200 toilets and 10 roll-off dumpsters in just 24 hours, the company is large enough to respond in times of emergency without affecting its existing customers.

“In the toilet division, we have 17,000 to 18,000 toilets, about 75 pump trucks, and six high-volume tankers,” says Wheeler. “In a small or medium-sized company that has far fewer trucks, that would affect their normal business, so they couldn’t do it.”

At its 23-acre key site at 950 McCarty Street in Houston, the company has masses of room for storage and also has the only private wastewater treatment plant in Texas. Accommodating a Type 5 transfer waste disposal station, the site is also large enough to park about 125 trucks.

Growing through the challenges
Before 2020, hand wash stations and hand sanitizer stations were small business segments for Texas Outhouse – but that all changed with the onset of the pandemic. With COVID-related protocols in place, job and construction sites that previously ordered just one handwash station or hand sanitizer station were now asking for many units. Two years later, demand for units and consumables remains high.

“Instead of just once a week, customers now want you to service them multiple times. It’s kind of a new category that sprang up, and it has really blossomed,” says Wheeler. He adds that about 99 percent of the units are rented on a temporary basis. Customers specify the duration of the job, with stations priced accordingly.

Previously used mainly at construction sites, manufacturing plants, and refineries, these wash and sanitizer stations have seen widespread use at COVID testing or injection sites such as NRG Stadium (previously Reliant Stadium) in Houston, where there may be hundreds of people in line at any one time.

Along with delivering and setting up these stations, Texas Outhouse drivers also handle cleaning, water tank and paper towel refills, waste disposal, and more. “It’s a big part of the business across the United States. People who used to manufacture a small amount of these products are now manufacturing a lot, and a lot of new companies have sprung into business.”

Luxury Event Trailers has also shifted gears during the pandemic. Pre-COVID, it was the company’s fleet of 50 luxury trailers – outfitted with high-end amenities such as marble, wood finishing, air conditioning, and piped-in music – that was in high demand, rented by wedding planners and other customers.

Now, the company’s fleet is growing into a more diverse mix of sizes and interior formats – enabling LET to answer the call for virtually any requirement from both existing and new customers.

Lockdown on price
Despite the industry-leading quality of its range of offerings, LET keeps its pricing largely in lock-step with its local competitors, whose fleets are usually composed of far less expensive models, often with many accumulated years of wear and tear.

“We also service brick and mortar stores and restaurants during restroom renovations and water/sewer outages,” says LET’s Craig Ray. “Chemical plants and refineries are another common customer of ours, in addition to school districts and film production companies. The list goes on.”

During the early days of the pandemic, the market for LET’s rentals shifted. Although customers hosting events like church gatherings and barbecues sometimes put things on hold because of social distancing, the healthcare market skyrocketed. “During COVID, the Texas Outhouse division and Luxury Event Trailers just boomed completely,” says Wheeler.

Now that special events are opening up again, the company is being called upon for luxury trailer rentals, and still has equipment at COVID sites.

None of the company’s 50 trailers are brand-identified, a deliberate move on the part of LET. “If somebody’s having a million-dollar wedding, and they hire us through luxury event trailers, they don’t want our name splashed on the side, they want it to look generic,” says Wheeler. “When people go in, they are shocked at how nice they are.” See LET luxury trailers at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxrACtzNhyI.

Looking to the future
The team at Gainsborough Waste, Texas Outhouse, and Luxury Event Trailers looks forward to the future and a post-pandemic world. LET has reached the point where it not only leases out trailers but now has a business segment selling new and used units.

Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse are both expanding, and on the lookout to acquire smaller toilet businesses and roll-off companies, and when the time is right, a site to build a new transfer station.

Along with frequent updates to its website, the company uses a marketing firm to promote itself and is active on LinkedIn and social media sites like Facebook. In keeping with the company’s spirit of genuine Texan generosity, it often answers calls for help from competitors.

“We’re big enough where, if our competitors get in trouble, they’ll call us and say, ‘Hey man, I need a couple of your roll-off boxes, can you help me out?’ or ‘I need 100 toilets,’ or ‘I need 50 ‘handicaps’, can you help me?’” says Wheeler, “and we absolutely help our competitors. It’s been a really great way for us to grow in this market.”

The post Always Moving Forward<p class="company">Gainsborough Waste</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

And as Sascha Deri, Co-founder and CEO of altE Store, sees it, “It’s far easier and more affordable for us to take care of our own planet than trying to force some other planet to be hospitable to humans.”

True to his word, Deri is doing his part. At altE, a Massachusetts-based company that designs and sells DIY solar power systems and renewable energy products, Deri is committed to a greener future. His team is making clean energy generation more accessible and affordable for homeowners and businesses.

A world together
With his ideals he is in good company. In a pretty-well unanimous push by global leaders to be good to our home planet, practically every country on earth has joined the Paris Agreement on climate change to achieve carbon neutrality – or “net zero” emissions – by 2050.

Those greenhouse gas emissions will continue, but they’ll be balanced by absorbing an equal amount from the atmosphere. This way, climate change won’t see temperatures rise to levels that threaten people’s lives and livelihoods, and to the point of no return.

As it is, India, one of the world’s most populous countries, is already facing rising sea levels, melting glaciers and extreme weather events. Climate refugees may soon be a reality.

Green mindset
A greener world is a mindset Deri embraced early on, growing up in a remote cabin in Maine without running water or electricity, completely off the grid. He remembers his dad building a solar air heater to help heat the cabin that relied on a wood stove, and his parents bringing in water from a nearby spring in the forest to heat up for his bath.

(Now he’s in a suburban house where he says he prefers hot showers and won’t go back to compostable toilets.)

The absence of video games and lack of screen time didn’t have a negative impact on his youth. Instead, the challenges of self-sufficiency fired him up in a good way.

“I have a real passion and curiosity for the universe and how it works,” he says. His second business is a rocket company that develops launch vehicles powered by bio-derived, non-toxic fuel.

“Growing up, I developed an appreciation for nature and it put a heavy bias on how I conduct my own life and what I see as responsible.”

It’s that sense of responsibility he wants to see others adopt, with ease and with the right tools for powering everything from their home appliances and electronics to business computers and the office HVAC.

Bringing the right tools
“I wanted to find a way in which technology could benefit humanity and our planet,” he says. With degrees in physics and electrical engineering, he co-founded altE in 1999 and saw the company grow 50 to 70 percent in the first few years (head cheerleader and first salesperson was his father.)

Back then, solar and wind power weren’t widely understood and he had to tackle a lot of myths in bringing the message of how clean, alternative power can be stored and why it makes sense. Today, he’s still producing popular how-to videos on YouTube for the company’s customers and wholesale clients around the world.

“The cost of solar panels and the systems have come way down,” he says of the numerous benefits for the pocketbook and the environment.

In the early 2000s, you would need to spend $50,000 to $60,000 on an independent system and live very frugally off the energy. Whereas today, you could spend $20,000 or $30,000 and almost do nothing differently in terms of your power consumption, although Deri would like to see people reduce demand and live more sustainably.

“So if you look at it as a way of making a future purchase on your electricity, at a certain point it’s paid for itself and it really becomes close to free electricity, except for maintenance costs of the system. It’s a great way to invest in your future. You’re going to need electricity down the road. Whereas, when you buy a property or a car, you don’t know if you’re going to need it and you don’t know what the return on investment is going to be.”

A few months ago Deri installed solar panels on his own house, which now cover 80 to 90 percent of his family’s power needs – a significant boon when you consider that residential electricity rates in the U.S. are expected to rise by 1.3 percent between 2021 and 2022.

KiloVault technology
On that note, his altE team has had a hand in introducing products like the KiloVault range that uses lithium iron phosphate battery technology for energy storage. These unique systems provide higher current and peak power ratings for demanding applications like clothes dryers and electric water heaters and will charge your electric car. Bonus!

The company also offers portable energy-storage units and handy wall-mount units like the popular KiloVault HAB series that offers a 7.5 kilowatt-hour battery in a single unit along with built-in WiFi for smart performance monitoring.

The advantage here is that instead of sending solar power produced during daylight hours to the electrical grid, these hybrid systems can easily store the energy produced for flexible use.

“We’re finding more and more customers are choosing to have their own lithium storage-battery bank in their home. So they’re able to store any excess energy and use the electrical grid as their backup power system.”

Banking on batteries
Some customers have moved completely off-grid and rely on renewable energy power and storage, a move that’s gained momentum during the pandemic. In fact, altE has seen business thrive as people re-evaluate their lifestyles and become more environmentally aware.

And as power blackouts become more common – through the knock-on effect of climate change, more destructive storms, and toppling trees taking out power lines – having a battery bank makes a difference.

“When my neighbors have to go start up noisy, smelly generators to get the power back on, we don’t even notice it because there’s just a flicker of light for a second,” Deri says. “Sometimes we don’t even know that a blackout has occurred.”

Another evolution in renewable-energy systems that makes them even more cost-effective is that you don’t have to start with a battery-based system that adds to the cost. You can begin with solar panels and add batteries later when battery system prices drop further, as they likely will.

All in all, Deri feels his company is an integral part of helping people navigate the future of power generation – which may look a whole lot different from today’s.

The cloud in our future
“Eventually we will see the electric utility grid go the way of the internet or computers to cloud computing,” he says. “I think the way forward is a distributed network where we’ll see people producing power independently, getting to the point where everybody has an intelligent enough system where we are like a gigantic cloud computer.”

He envisions a day where every home is generating electricity and is interconnected. When a home requires power to do the daily chores, like vacuuming or dish washing, it would draw on its own smart systems. Then when additional power is needed for high-demand things like air conditioning or swimming pools, it would seamlessly draw from a home around the block, for example.

This system would be intelligent, efficient and far less prone to the system-wide outages experienced by grids conceived and developed in the early 1900s.

“We have these gigantic central sources of power that are very expensive and where half the power is lost in transmission as it is being transmitted halfway across the country or even halfway across the state,” he says. “So not only does a home-based system reduce the waste, it creates an incredibly robust network.”

The post Shine On – How DIY Solar Power Pays Off<p class="company">altE Store</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.