It was June 18^th, 2012, and things were not going according to plan. The goal of this first day in the Canadian office with the new team was to start strong, to show these recruits that FMG was headed for success. But instead of being able to get the ball rolling with coaching and demonstrations, Publisher Jeff Hocken found, instead, that the power was out.

So, Jeff did what Jeff does best—he improvised and made it fun. This first day was not going to be what he had planned, but it would be a good day. Jeff took everyone to the pub, which turned out to be the perfect environment to get FMG to quickly transition from a group of strangers to a group of friends.

Reflecting on this day almost 10 years later, Operations Director Adam Cameron starts to describe how calm and unworried Jeff was about all this, but Jeff starts to laugh. It turns out, Jeff was panicking on the inside on this first stressful day, but he clearly had the leadership chops to project confidence, and that helped set FMG’s core philosophy of integrating fun into the workplace from day one.

“I hid my fear well, and it’s a good thing I did because Adam’s still here 10 years later, possibly because of that day and how it all started,” says Jeff. “Work has to be fun! If it’s not fun, I don’t want to be here.”

“I think I’m going to like this,” thought Adam at the time.

The early days

Focus Media Group actually has its genesis in Australia, where Jeff Hocken, his business partner at the time, and their dynamic team refined their business model.

With a degree in geography and a work history that ranged from military to sales, Jeff’s role as business owner and publisher of business magazines might not have been an obvious choice. But Jeff has always been a ‘yes’ person when it comes to opportunities. He is curious, drawn to adventure and fun, and is never the sort to turn down anyone’s idea without giving it fair consideration.

With Controller Jen Hamilton’s administrative skill and keen eye for detail, and Robert Hoshowsky’s experience as a writer and editor, the first publication, Australian Construction Focus, was born, and FMG began to refine its business model to best tell the stories of companies down-under.

As that magazine grew, the volume of work soon demanded more writing staff, and Jeff reached out to his brother, Tim Hocken (an aerospace engineer, of all things) and Jaime McKee (who holds a degree in community development) to help fill in until he could find more staff. As it turned out, Tim and Jaime enjoyed the work—the freedom to work remotely, the opportunity to learn about businesses all over the world, and the chance to work with family—and along with Robert, they formed the early editorial team at FMG and turned a temporary gig into a rewarding career.

In 2012, with the lessons learned in the Australian market, Jeff was ready to start anew in North America. Having been born and raised in Canada, the Halifax launch really represented coming home for Jeff. For Adam Cameron, however, it initially represented confusion.

When Adam first came across the job posting for Focus Media Group, he was immediately interested in the role, particularly the content research side. With an attractive on-target earnings number, he happily agreed to an interview. However, when the calendar invitation came in from an Australian email address for an interview at eight o’clock at night, Adam was certain it was just a scam, so he didn’t accept the invitation.

But, as Adam would later learn about Jeff’s personal approach, a declined calendar invite is not going to stop him. Jeff called at the proposed time anyway, catching Adam off-guard!

“So, come eight o’clock this weeknight back in 2012,” Adam recalls, “my phone starts ringing and it’s from this crazy number. I answered it and it was Jeff. I think the interview went alright—I don’t really remember it!… In the end, I think it went alright, because he set up an interview for when he was coming to Halifax! I still wasn’t sure. I still had my doubts up until we met.”

Eventually, Adam would transition into management, becoming FMG’s Operations Director—after convincing Jeff that he wasn’t, in fact, “too nice” for the role.

Modern management

The two make a good team. Adam cites Jeff’s flexibility and willingness to take risks as key to the company’s growth, while Jeff champions Adam’s compassion and sense of fairness. “I try to put myself in their shoes,” says Adam, of the company’s staff. “I do hold people accountable, but not in an unjust or unreasonable way.”

The entire leadership team share some core values that help make FMG what it is today. Employees’ ideas are always welcomed, and management is flexible and open to different ways of getting things done. Content Developer Jamal Francis-Anderson describes it as “a very close-knit community… It’s not that large of a company that you can’t just go talk to senior leadership when needed, and senior leadership doesn’t view the employees as beneath them.”

For Graphic Designer Ashley Dowling, this rings true. “Being a part of FMG means that you become a part of the team instantly. Your input is taken into consideration and we all collaborate to become better and more successful. I am trusted to get my work done so I have a lot of freedom in how I schedule and prioritize my work,” she shares. “FMG values teamwork and collaboration inside and outside of work, doing extra-curricular activities to let loose and talk with one another. We all eat lunch together and are able to reset ourselves by being in a social environment. It’s nice working in an office where having fun and being social is also important.”

As Jeff says, “every voice in the company matters.”

The FMG way

An open and supportive management style isn’t the only way FMG sets itself apart. Owing in part to a business model that has always supported remote communication, FMG has been green from the start. Business in Focus, alongside sister publications Construction in Focus, Resource in Focus, and Manufacturing in Focus, make it their mission to highlight eco-friendly organizations, initiatives, and technologies, and FMG walks the walk.

Jeff explains that, even before COVID, “I wanted to prove that we could do the business from home to reduce commuting, and I wanted to prove we could do short-run print, with the vast majority of our distribution online. That was what we started with and we’ve remained green,” donating issues to local high schools and maintaining a paperless office.

This ability for much of the team to work from home has also meant that FMG has never taken the staff writer approach. In fact, editorial is kept deliberately independent from the sales side to ensure journalistic integrity, and FMG is thus able to draw on a breadth of unique voices and perspectives. The end result is a rich, tailored finished product with the client’s voice coming through the clearest.

“We have independent journalists so that our readers have engaging articles that speak to them,” Jeff explains. “We hire people from all over the world because we want different, diverse perspectives.”

Contributing Writer Allison Dempsey found that this model was just what she was looking for. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing for FMG for the past two years and, in fact, I’m hard-pressed to think of a company I’ve liked working with more,” she says. “As a long-time freelance writer, FMG has provided exactly what I always look for: highly interesting assignments; positive, constructive feedback; the ability to work at my own pace within a prescribed deadline; and an overall welcoming and encouraging environment. As an added bonus, I’m continuously impressing my friends and family with all the new facts and inventions I learn about on a monthly basis!”

“This new way of doing things,” says Jeff, “led to clients asking more and more about using their articles as brochures, which is why we began doing just that.” Every client receives a completely custom brochure version of their feature article—a valuable tool for trade shows, branding, and recruiting, and a point of pride for the FMG team members who are able to make it happen.

A culture built on people

Adam believes that it is partly this bespoke nature of the work that draws people to FMG. “The description of the role is intriguing: searching for content for a magazine. It’s interesting and it’s different,” he says.

“And why do they stay? I truly believe it is the culture that we have here. I’ve worked a lot of jobs and I’ve never seen a group of people get along as well as they do here—and for 10 years!”

“I credit those early employees with affecting the environment and culture going forward,” says Jeff. “They helped set the foundation, they helped build the company—it’s their company as much as anyone else’s.”

Content Developer Wendy Hood-Morris agrees. “I work at FMG for the people,” she says. “The people I work with day-to-day make going to work a pleasure. We’re a close-knit team and rely on each other. Also, I love talking with business leaders across North America and learning their stories!”

Sales & Marketing Manager Luke Simms, who has been part of the team for seven years, enjoys the opportunity to learn and contribute in a fun environment. “When I was looking for a career and a place to work, I wanted to be around cool, like-minded, fun people,” he says. “With FMG, it’s been a lot of fun and a learning experience to ride the wave of a growing young company and to have a hand in some of the decisions that were made along the way. That adds value to the work that I put into the company.”

For Contributing Writer Jessica Ferlaino, “reflecting on this milestone is exciting from both a personal and professional standpoint, as I have had the opportunity to grow alongside the organization and its publications. Ten years ago, I wrote my very first article for Business in Focus, which kickstarted my career as a freelancer, and today, I am grateful to continue to work alongside the team as they strive for even greater outcomes in the future. It has been an absolute pleasure… being part of something so amazing that shines a light on some really great stories and companies across North America.”

Looking ahead

Focus Media Group has evolved over the years, and the founding principles that have always made it fun continue to make it a success. Taking calculated risks, building integrity into the business, and maintaining an open-door management policy—all set against a backdrop of fun—have been cornerstones to the business’ growth and adaptability. “As long as we’re all working together for a common goal, there’s nothing we can’t handle,” says Jeff. “That was the whole idea; if everyone assumes we’re going to win, we’re going to.”

That wild first day in 2012 set the tone, and what followed has been quite the ride. “In the beginning,” says Jeff, “optimism is all it was… We look at what’s possible.” We’re excited to see what further possibilities lie ahead.

Sidebar:

Management and the Art of Ping Pong

As you might imagine, this writer is keenly aware of Jeff’s lifelong love of ping pong. “I loved this game,” he says; “I would play for 19 straight hours and figure out food later. I couldn’t get enough. So my dream, when I opened a business, was to make enough money to justify the square footage required for a ping pong table.

“I brought it in primarily to be a team building activity… a semi-competitive, ‘have some fun before getting back to work, get the blood flowing so you’re not tired’ activity, a fun activity for lunches,” Jeff shares.

“But the cool part,” he says, “is our team invented new rules to be more inclusive… They changed it so you can’t hit the ball twice in a row when it’s your team’s turn to hit it. No matter where the shot goes, you have to back up, get out of the way, and work as a team.”

Sidebar:

Where ‘Healthy’ and ‘Fun’ Go Hand in Hand

At FMG, “healthy” and “fun” are a package deal, resulting in a healthy workplace where people can both be successful and let loose. The ping pong table is a key piece to this puzzle, as are some other fun lunchtime shenanigans!

For example, a local tavern had a promotion one holiday season where patrons who came in singing a Christmas carol would get a free beer. Somehow, the whole office ended up participating! “We took everybody,” Adam recalls. “We all went down to the Red Stag. We decided which song we were going to sing on the way in, and we all sang this entire song.” The bartender was satisfied after the first verse, and started pouring, but the team insisted on finishing the entire carol together first, before enjoying their drinks and heading back to work. How many days of Christmas are there again?

This healthy, fun attitude, nurtured in part by the flexibility and trust afforded to staff, is punctuated regularly by such memorable events, but the big company parties might have a little something to do with it as well. Many companies have big Christmas parties, and FMG pulls out all the stops for those, but it also hosts epic summer parties at the FMG Lakehouse, to let off some steam in July in the natural beauty of Nova Scotia. Singing around the bonfire, paddle-boarding out to tiny rock islands, or just chilling out on a giant ‘floaty’ in the lake—this outing has more of a summer camp feel to it than office party, for sure!

The post The Story Behind the Stories<p class="company">Focus Media Group Celebrates 10 Years</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

While the argument for recycling can be made, even the most optimistic of us realize good intentions – like separating trash from paper, plastics from metal – aren’t always enough.

Sure, recycling the black plastic containers of last night’s Chinese food feels good – except most municipalities don’t have the technology to recycle them, since machines can’t differentiate between the conveyor belt and the black plastic, which ends up in the incinerator or the landfill.

And sadly, too many don’t care about tossing recyclables in with the trash.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that every American produces about 5.91 pounds (2.68 kg) of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day, recycling approximately 1.51 pounds (0.68 kg). This translates into 4.40 pounds (1.99 kg) of garbage per day from each of us.

Over a year, that’s at least 1,600 pounds (725 kg) of trash per person. And with COVID-19 still hanging around, no one can say for certain how much additional non-recyclable trash we’re producing in the form of gloves, face masks, and disinfectant wipes.

Waste not, want not
To address the trash we throw out every day, municipalities have waste management practices in place. In its simplest terms, waste management is a system for collecting, transporting, sorting, treating, and disposing of solid and liquid waste.

According to the environmental issues Conserve Energy Future website, “The entire idea thus boils down to re-using garbage as a valuable resource and given our current environmental climate, this process is extremely vital for all households and businesses.”

Without waste management, our streets would be overrun with garbage, sewage, and rodents.

With a complex system including reduction, recycling, reuse, and composting, the objective is to haul as little non-recyclable material as possible to far-away landfills. But this has become a daily challenge for large cities.

Separating waste is no longer a matter of trucking bulky items like broken furniture and refrigerators to dumps, but involves more and different types of trash which didn’t exist in the past – especially e-waste.

Going big – e-waste
Years ago, electronics like stereos and television sets were bulky and a relatively huge investment. When they broke they were not discarded but repaired.

The rise of home computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices opened new worlds of communication and entertainment, but also new, ever-giving sources of waste, including their printers, monitors, CPUs, scanners, and computer mice.

Although many cities have designated drop-off depots and community environment days where desktop and laptops, keyboards, cables, DVD players, and other devices can be donated, it isn’t unusual to see computer monitors and printers in the trash, where they don’t belong.

Some stores accept old Smartphones, which are taken apart, and precious metals like gold and silver separated from base elements like mercury and arsenic. Despite best efforts, electronics still end up in household waste and are trucked to landfills, where toxins escape and leach into the soil.

The throwaway line
Call it ‘disposable society’ or ‘throw-away society,’ the meaning is the same: we live in a world where waste management systems face multiple challenges.

This concept goes back to mass production methods of the 1920s, and to planned obsolescence, with products engineered and manufactured to fail prematurely, or quickly become outdated and unusable. In short, many items are no longer built to last.

The boom days of the 1950s saw everything from food to household items increasingly packaged, and the term ‘Throwaway Living’ was coined by Life magazine in a 1955 article and photo essay, which shows a smiling family happily tossing paper and plastic products into the air.

Praised for their “convenience,” these single-use products ranged from the practical to the bizarre, including “popcorn that pops in its own pan,” frozen food containers, throwaway water wings, drapes, and even “disposable goose and duck decoys.”

Today, some 70 years later, the world is facing one of its biggest challenges: trash, and too many one-time-use items.

Ask California
How much is too much? Ask California. Even though the state achieved a 42 percent recycling/composting rate in 2020 – up from 37 percent in 2019 – it still fell far short of its 2020 objective of 75 percent. This prompted Director Machi Wagoner at the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) Rachel to observe, “Our goal of 75 percent needs to be the floor, not the ceiling,” during a department meeting.

While targets to reduce waste and increase recycling are necessary, they are being missed, as evidenced in the recent State of Disposal and Recycling in California for Calendar Year 2020 report.

A leader in environmental policies, the State of California knows it is drowning in waste. In 2020, Californians produced 77.4 million tons of garbage. Using terms like “falling far short,” the report added California is facing “clear evidence that an economy driven by resource extraction and single-use disposable products continues to endanger our people and imperil our planet.”

The report added that the state’s roadmap to a zero-waste future lies in a circular economy. “Consumers placing items in the right bin alone will not solve systemic problems like unrecyclable product designs and a lack of end markets for complex materials.

“To achieve our waste and climate goals, California’s strategy for waste reduction and increased recycling must continue to build on the first major laws enacted in the 1980s through supporting innovation. The state must work with local and private partners to ensure the products California produces and uses can be efficiently collected and remanufactured into new products here in our state.”

Is zero waste possible?
Although many cities have waste management systems in place, the reality is that change starts at home. The concept of zero waste is straightforward: prevention of waste, and encouraging reducing, reusing, and recycling, so waste management becomes much less necessary.

Zero waste requires changing what products we buy, and where we purchase them. Buying local means more than shopping at neighbourhood stores, it carries the injunction to spend our money on items that are also sourced locally, preferably with as little packaging as possible.

With the concept emerging over a decade ago, the idea of zero waste keeps gaining ground through starter kits including reusable glass water bottles and jars, reusable cutlery, and reusable grocery bags, with the backdrop that it is easier, cheaper, and better for the planet to re-use and refill containers multiple times than breaking them (in the case of glass) and sending the shards to factories where they are re-made.

Considering that Earth’s population has doubled in the past 40 years to almost eight billion, the concept of zero waste makes sense.

A big part of the problem is how we approach familiar products while adopting an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to the sourcing of these products. Few of us ever think twice about the fuel required to transport items, or the wasteful one-time packaging they come in.

While streamlining the system through waste management processes is necessary, it is also vital not that we stop consuming – because that will never happen – but that we consume with our wits fully about us.

The post Nothing Wasted<p class="company">Wise Waste Management Processes</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority (NNRDA) was founded a decade ago as an initiative of Moving Nevada Forward: A plan for Excellence in Economic Development 2012-2014, the state’s economic development plan. The NNRDA represents Lander County, Eureka County, Elko County, and White Pine County.

Comprising public and private members who are integral to the future of Northeastern Nevada, the NNRDA’s footprint encompasses a massive area of almost 40,000 square miles, representing 36 percent of the state.

Essentially a private/public partnership, NNRDA members are from the four represented counties, which include five communities within those counties who are members. On the private side, members include leaders in mining, hemp farms, hospitals, and other large-scale enterprises, while community partners include local chambers of commerce and similar groups.

Regardless of status, all members are important to building the area’s economic growth and sustainability.

Known for its mining, Northeastern Nevada remains the fourth-largest gold-producing area in the world.

Exempt from many taxes – including corporate (under $4 million annual revenue), and without personal, state, warehousing, inventory, or franchise taxes – the area is almost “recession-proof,” putting Northeastern Nevada in an ideal position for economic growth and prosperity, says Sheldon Mudd, Executive Director of the NNRDA since 2017.

While mining remains king in the area, Nevada is also known for its rich agricultural heritage. The state produces everything from livestock to crops that include alfalfa, corn, oats, and barley.

“We still try to maintain and take care of those industries the best we can. But to piggyback off of those, two of our target industries are directly related: value-added mining, and value-added agriculture,” says Mudd.

With value-added mining, almost all resources mined locally leave the state for further processing, something the NNRDA is trying to change. This is especially important, with lithium being mined nearby, and a vanadium mine getting ready to come online in the region. Since both elements are used in batteries powering electric vehicles (EVs), demand will increase as EVs become more commonplace.

The goal is to have these products and many others, including agricultural goods, refined, utilized, or manufactured in the State of Nevada, not elsewhere, so jobs are created and money goes back into local economies.

Making this even more vital is the recent creation of a large industrial hemp farm, with raw product being shipped elsewhere for additional processing.

To address the issue, Mudd and the NNRDA are speaking to related businesses and encouraging them to set up manufacturing in Northeastern Nevada. This includes speaking to mattress makers and building material companies who utilize hemp in their production to encourage them to manufacture products locally, as well as to livestock slaughterhouses and beef processing plants.

“What we are looking for is anything we can do to essentially have an end product before it leaves the state,” says Mudd. “To complement our existing industries, we term it value-added agriculture or value-added mining.”

For companies, setting up processing or manufacturing facilities in the area is a win-win, since it means being closer to resources and having lower costs for transportation.

The NNRDA is focused on other industries, too, including warehousing/distribution and logistics. Located in the middle of the Western United States, transportation is readily accessible via main and business routes such as the US-93 and I-80 BL.

From a base in the region, a truck traveling 60 miles an hour (96 km/h) can be in any major metropolitan service area in the Western United States within just 10 hours, including Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, or Portland.

Other sectors focused on by the NNRDA include aerospace and defense. Located in San Diego since the late 1960s, the elite TOPGUN program – a nickname for the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program (SFTI) – was relocated to the Naval Air Station Fallon (NAS Fallon) in Western Nevada in the 1990s.

For many years, starting in 1951 and continuing until 1992, parts of Nevada were used as nuclear testing grounds by the U.S. government. The state is also home to the highly classified Area 51 airbase, used for the development and testing of state-of-the-art aircraft and weapons technologies.

But although the state has a long history of aerospace and defense, none of it is in Northeastern Nevada, something the NNRDA is working to change.

“We want to see more of that happen here for two reasons,” says Mudd. “Number one is we have a vast amount of land that’s wide open and free, and the second reason is that because of this, security measures can be maintained far easier out here. You put somebody out in the middle of nowhere testing equipment or planes, the chances that somebody’s going to stumble upon them – or that a housing development is going to go up next to them – is highly unlikely. So we are trying to target aerospace and defense as well.”

Currently, 87 percent of Nevada is actually federal land belonging to the U.S. government. Nearby Lander County is looking to change that, and have lands transferred so they can be used for car testing.

This was motivated by the area’s Battle Mountain playing host to the World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC), which featured recumbent riders reaching jaw-dropping speeds of almost 90 mph (about 145 km/h).

For the NNRDA, being recently designated an Economic Development District by the Economic Development Administration means access to greater funding, along with infrastructure and development opportunities.

Moving forward, some of the Authority’s biggest goals include infrastructure projects, increasing access to existing rail, making natural gas more available, and increasing power infrastructure. Just last year alone, the NNRDA responded to about 50 requests for information from interested businesses.

“Our number one goal is trying to bolster our infrastructure so that we have the capacity to meet the demands of companies who are calling us,” says Mudd. “A lot of manufacturers that come to us have larger power demands, anywhere from 5 MW to 20 MW, and our small power companies are not always able to offer that, so we have to bolster our power.”

Together with increasing power requirements, Northeastern Nevada is facing challenges with housing. Recently, Mudd emailed officials saying that if they can get a thousand homes in their area, housing prices would be taken care of for the next two to three years; in larger centers like Las Vegas, a thousand additional homes would barely have an impact. “People want to move to Northeastern Nevada because it’s very outdoorsy and Wild West, with traditional American values – but they simply don’t have a place to live.”

Although the area’s development was based on gold, Mudd and the team at the NNRDA realize times are changing, and the area cannot continue to rely on a single industry, especially one that is not renewable and will inevitably run out.

Embracing diversification of other economic industries and establishing and encouraging companies of 50 to 100 employees apiece, is the key to future success. “We know the future is automated and digital, and we are trying to bolster that.”

The post Good as Gold and Getting Better<p class="company">Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Originally known as the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA), the not-for-profit association underwent a rebranding in 2020, changing its name and logo to its new “MineConnect” identity. With a strong presence, it made sense for MineConnect, now the voice of Ontario’s mining sector, to look to its neighbours in the south for the benefit of both countries. Seeing similarities and growth opportunities between mining in Sudbury and Nevada – one of the world leaders in mining gold, silver, and lithium – MineConnect USA was launched in October 2021.

Contracted by the Northern Ontario Exports Program through Ontario’s North Economic Development Corporation (ONEDC, which comprises Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, and Thunder Bay), MineConnect USA is managed on their behalf.

Working to promote economic development partnerships across Northern Ontario including mining supply and service, MineConnect established a legal body in the United States. Using the tagline “Ontario’s Mining Supply & Services Association. In Nevada,” an office was established in Elko. The main city of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area, its economy, spearheaded by gold mining, is legendary.

Led by Strategic Development Director Sheena Hansen, the Elko location of MineConnect serves as a legal presence for banking and other services. Hansen’s role is to help mining’s service-and-supply companies make inroads in the market and assist them with their presence at trade shows or B2B meetings.

“Sheena works with the companies to identify what their goals are for the Nevada market, and what their best bet is based on their products and services. This includes what’s lacking in the market, and the best approach for what they’re trying to achieve. She helps guide that process,” says MineConnect Executive Director Marla Tremblay.

Essentially, it’s about connecting to the right opportunities, opening doors, and making the process of Canadian companies doing business in Nevada much easier and more streamlined.

Instead of having to rent a location in Nevada, Canadian businesses have office space ready-leased at the Shared Business Center (SBC, formerly under Barrick Gold), with boardrooms and desks, providing a Nevada address so they can bid on projects and a suitable venue to meet with prospects.

“The purpose of the pilot project is to represent a cluster of northern Ontario mines and side companies,” says Trembley. Although the schedule was pushed back because of COVID, the goal is to have a minimum of 20 Northern Ontario companies in the program.

The first year saw a good number of mining supply and service companies apply. These businesses were evaluated, not only by Northern Ontario counterparts and stakeholders but also by representatives from Nevada, to ensure that selected companies would fill gaps rather than duplicate existing mining supply and services from local companies.

In MineConnect’s first year it has selected a cluster of 10 companies to make inroads into the Nevada market. The aim is to give these Northern Ontario businesses a soft landing and help them not only sell to the American market but find opportunities for expansion.

For some, this means finding a partner in the U.S. for their mutual benefit. Others may be looking for a local distributor and forming a relationship, which is much easier when a company has a base in Nevada. Some businesses are seeking to open a storefront in Elko, using the opportunity with MineConnect to test the market.

And if these mining-related companies determine over a year that there isn’t a market for them, the program will still be a success, since these companies weren’t required to invest huge amounts of money and energy.

“It mitigates the risk,” says Tremblay. “If it doesn’t make sense for them, this is an easy way to figure it out. And then they’re out, and we bring in a new company.”

Due soon to begin the second round of applications, MineConnect aims to have them completed in June for a start in fall, 2022.

When discussing MineConnect, Sheldon Mudd has high praise for Paul Bradette. A respected trade and investment specialist at the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Bradette originally served as Executive Director. The concept for MineConnect came out of conversations between Nevada and Bradette in 2015, with the concept fully defined by 2017.

“Paul’s end was to expand Northern Ontario business into the Nevada market, to help with their export programs and so forth,” says Mudd, Executive Director of the decade-old Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority (NNRDA), which represents Lander County, Eureka County, Elko County, and White Pine County. “From my end, it was a matter of simply getting supply chain products and essentially offering them locally.”

Visiting the Sudbury mining district – known as the Ring of Fire – Mudd was taken by the number of manufacturers and service providers available in the area. “And I couldn’t believe that we, being one of the largest and most profitable mining districts in the world, did not have that level of support right here in Northeastern Nevada,” he says.

“We’ve got great manufacturers and great service providers, but it was not anywhere near the level I saw there. And so my primary goal was to essentially define what we were missing in the area, what the gaps were, and then try to recruit companies to fill the gaps because, quite frankly, we’re missing a lot and have to procure products from a long way away. Any time we do that, of course, the money leaves a state and we don’t get it back.”

Discussions between Mudd and Bradette made both men realize that MineConnect would be a win-win for both Northern Ontario and Nevada. To ensure that local businesses in Northeastern Nevada would not be negatively affected by potential competition, a policy was instituted within MineConnect to identify gaps, rather than duplicating existing supplies and services.

“So, by filling these gaps and getting these companies in here creating more jobs, that would actually support the local small businesses and local providers, because every person comes into Nevada places to eat, shop, get automotive care, and so forth,” says Mudd.

With the framework together and grant money allocated, the original goal was to launch MineConnect in the fall of 2020 at the MINExpo International in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and everything was delayed until the spring of 2021 when the border slowly began re-opening.

To date, participation in the program has been overwhelming.

One reason, says Mudd, is increased efficiencies. If a Nevada mine operator can procure equipment in days from a Canadian instead of weeks or months, they have much less downtime and are more productive.

On the Canadian side, businesses benefit from having a local presence in Nevada’s vibrant mining community, and some of the money remains in Canada. Additionally, shipping costs and delays at customs are virtually eliminated.

As for the future of MineConnect, Mudd and Tremblay hope the business incubator will see at least 10 companies going through the process and setting up a presence in Nevada every year.

“Our goal is at least an 80 percent success rate, and I’m hoping the mining industry here in Nevada sees this as a beneficial tool for supply chain and service procurement,” says Mudd. “I hope the Canadian businesses who are participating see this as a useful option and opportunity to gauge and enter the Nevada market. And so I just hope this becomes a continual, steadily operating organization until we get to a point where we’ve essentially recruited all the people that we need to ensure our mining industry stays operational. And that, by then, every business in the Sudbury basin has looked at it, tried it, either been successful or determined Nevada is not a good market for them. And I hope it continues to operate steadily so that at some point it’s determined it’s not needed anymore.”

The post Mastering Mining and Building Bridges<p class="company">MineConnect USA</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Headquartered in mineral-rich Sudbury, Ontario, Jannatec Technologies has made a name for itself with mining companies in Ontario and across Canada, and will soon be doing the same in the United States through its association with MineConnect.

A long-time member of MineConnect – the voice of Ontario’s mining supply sector – Jannatec has established wide-ranging business relationships through its ties with the association. MineConnect was known as the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) until it underwent a rebranding.

Recently, the association decided to set up MineConnect USA. Based in the world-famous gold mining city of Elko, Nevada, MineConnect USA, together with MineConnect, will keep advancing the important role its members play in this vital sector.

“We were eager to participate,” says Mark Burnett, Jannatec project manager, of the decision to be part of MineConnect USA. “The opportunity to grow our business in that area is really exciting.”

For Jannatec, the new U.S. location means the Ontario company will have a local presence and the ability to provide services and generate business in the Elko and Nevada area.

“We see no reason why our products can’t work in a state and mining area like Nevada, which is similar to Ontario in the number and diversity of its mines. There are still a lot of mines that aren’t in the 5G or LTE Wi-Fi area, who still use old-school, leaky-feeder communications underground.”

Unique products

Established in Sudbury in 1983, the company is led by Chief Executive Officer Wayne Ablitt, one of the founders.

With a handful of employees, Jannatec Technologies began applying its knowledge of radio communications to mining applications. This started with the company’s first product, the Johnny Light, a combination lamp and radio made rugged for the mining industry.

Later versions saw other technologies incorporated into the product. Through innovative design, Jannatec eliminated the need for individual radios, tags for tracking, and assorted other devices to be lugged underground by miners by continuing to incorporate these into one single device.

“We’ve become experts in incorporating many devices into one, so miners are not carrying multiple devices and they can’t lose them,” says Burnett.

Burnett notes that cap lamps are mandatory for underground mining. Ruggedly designed, Jannatec’s product line today includes The ONE Cap Lamp, the TWO GO Cap Lamp, the Johnny Light Series Radio Cap Lamp, and the ENSO Generation 1 Smart Helmet, the JAWS Proximity Detection application, the SCAS Collision Avoidance system, portable and mobile radios, and more.

Unlike anything else on the market, the ENSO Generation 1 Smart Helmet is customizable, comes in different colours, and can be equipped with high visibility LED lights for superior visibility, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging, SENA Industrial’s hands-free Mesh communications and rechargeable batteries. Future versions will incorporate a camera where images and video can be transferred via USB to a computer or streamed live depending on available infrastructure, enabling operations to have the capabilities of a ‘connected worker.’

Communications and safety

To make its products, Jannatec continues working with industry giant Motorola, using its high-quality radio components. In the 2010s, Jannatec began expanding its offerings, moving from communications and technology to proximity detection technologies, and is now moving forward with collision avoidance, which has become an increasingly talked about requirement.

“I think a lot of people when they hear the name ‘Jannatec’ might think we are a communications company – but a larger part of our company now is safety,” says Burnett. “We are more of a safety company than a communications company, especially now that we have proximity detection and offer collision-avoidance systems. The things we offer take advantage of communications but also provide a much safer work environment.”

As safety becomes a bigger part of the mining industry, so do devices made to protect people and machinery. Demand for these systems has resulted in Jannatec creating new and innovative projects like JAWS, the Jannatec Advanced Warning System.

Attached to personnel, fixed hazards, and below-ground vehicles, JAWS uses a radio frequency transceiver to detect potential hazards and issue warnings, helping prevent accidents before they happen by enhancing worker and operator awareness. Since it operates as a standalone system, JAWS does not need any external infrastructure or power to function like a leaky feeder system (a standard underground communications system).

Ideal for underground and open-pit mining, the newly available SCAS (collision avoidance) system is also ideal for other applications, including improving safety and productivity in rail yards, warehouses, shipping yards, and many other areas where people and machinery work in close proximity.

The SCASII Collision Avoidance System, developed by sister company Schauenburg Systems out of South Africa – where collision avoidance is mandated – is becoming a very hot topic of conversation at many operations and Jannatec is already in the process of providing demonstrations to both surface and underground mining operations.

With safety becoming a bigger part of mining, companies, often industry giants like Vale – which has had a presence in Sudbury for over a century – have bought into the company’s proximity detection system. By partnering with Schauenburg Systems, Jannatec has increased its potential client base tenfold, since it can now provide safety systems for both surface and underground applications.

Despite considerable competition in the proximity detection and collision avoidance arena, Jannatec’s system boasts many advantages, since it suits virtually any operation.

“Our future is looking really bright in terms of what we can offer,” says Burnett. “It’s just a matter of getting out there, getting those leads coming in the door, talking to people about our solutions, and showing what our product can do.”

Safety, the flexible way

Recognizing that not every mining company has the same equipment or budget, Jannatec’s proximity detection and collision avoidance systems are flexible. Collision avoidance is costly, but it doesn’t mean it has to be implemented in one fell swoop. Clients can put in a proximity detection system and slowly build on it as needed, depending on the size of their fleet, their budget and any mandated timelines set by management.

“Depending on our clients, we look at their budgets, and what their plans are,” says Burnett. “Having a long-term relationship is what we’re looking for with all our clients. There’s so much variability in what the equipment is at the mine that we are the company which can go in and say, ‘whatever you have, we can put this system on it.’”

Opening new areas

With about 95 percent of its business in mining, Jannatec’s position in the sector is secured.

Nevertheless, refusing to sit still, the company is active in other areas, including construction and industrial communications, where the activities are ideally suited to “Smart Helmet” use.

“Part of our plan for growth is to extend our vertical markets in those areas,” says Burnett, adding that the company’s industrial line of communications is a natural for factories, manufacturing plants, and other facilities where workers can talk to one another without actually being linked to any type of network.

Since the company is in the business of safety and technology, Jannatec’s senior management keep their fingers on the pulse of new developments through LinkedIn, various publications, direct discussion with communication giants like Motorola and Ericsson and more importantly, by continuing to discuss the ever-changing needs of the mining industry with their clients.

With a relatively small staff of about 22, including an R&D department that works on software and a service team performing repairs, Jannatec has diversified itself accordingly with companies bringing in 4G, 5G, and other technologies. “We are always looking at how we can change and readjust our focus to make sure we are where our clients need us to be,” says Burnett.

As for many other companies, finding qualified staff is challenging. For Jannatec, this is especially true because of its location and the unique nature of its technology. “Not a lot of people know what leaky feeder communications systems are, or how to work with them and install and maintain them, so we train people from scratch,” Burnett says.

Loyal to its Sudbury roots, Jannatec’s radio lamps and proximity detection systems are in virtually every area mine. Not limiting itself to Ontario, the company also has clients in Manitoba, Nunavut, British Columbia and Labrador’s Voisey’s Bay. No matter the location, Jannatec professionally serves all customers, big and small.

“The big key that we stress with clients is that we are not looking to get a customer for one sale. If I get you as a client, my goal is to keep you forever. I don’t want to sell something to you and just walk away next year.

“I want to plan and see what you need next year and for the next five or ten years. We help clients plan their communications and their safety.”

The post Safety Matters<p class="company">Jannatec Technologies</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

As an electrical engineer, Boudreau wanted to work under his own power in the mining industry and did not wish to continue relying on out-of-town experts for process control and automation. He saw an opportunity to create a niche business in northern Ontario to offer process control and more to the mining industry. He also wanted to create great jobs that would live in the community and provide exemplary engineering services to the market.

In his time as CEO, Boudreau won many awards and distinctions for the company’s innovation and now serves as one of the business’ visionary leaders. FROSKR, a sister organization to BESTECH, was born through an association between Boudreau and FROSKR President Kati McCartney. Having built the BESTECH business on relationships and communities within mining, FROSKR was founded in early 2020 as an environmental consulting and technology firm to supplement the services of its partner business.

McCartney cites the unique symbiotic relationship between the two, which allows the combined businesses to show clients a great deal of vision with mining projects. This is thanks to the roles played in permitting, consulting, planning, and proprietary technology for both mining outfits and various other companies outside of the mining sector.

BESTECH Vice President of mining transformation, Samantha Espley, details how BESTECH integrates technologies with automation, process control and wireless communication to bring cost savings and safe solutions into mining operations. An example of this is the control of ventilation flows by directing air to only areas of operation. This saves energy in not sending air to inactive areas and, in turn, millions of dollars compared to the less energy-efficient practices of the past.

Another example of integrated solutions is FROSKR’s HyLoENVIRO real-time environmental monitoring system, used in Sudbury for over 17 years. Mining companies use the system to remotely monitor air quality and manage smelting processes to meet production targets while preventing harm to the environment and meeting legislative requirements, including transparent data sharing and the licence to operate.

In addition to its technology, BESTECH has also recently developed a new mining team with mining engineers, geologists, and geotechnical engineers. This team, a mix of veterans and new talent, is already inventing keen new mine designs and new mining methods. The current workplace focus is shifting toward electrification—removing diesel technology—and working with original equipment manufacturers and collaborators to help mining steer towards greater sustainability.

Espley feels that the mining industry can be prone to ‘siloed’ thinking and that many companies need to think more broadly about the mining process and the environment. This thinking also includes rehabilitating mining land to its original form. Espley adds that one can design much smarter with the Whole Mine™ approach. This can include processes like design electrification, waste reduction, and working with local communities in taking a holistic approach to mining solutions.

To this end, BESTECH and FROSKR aim to further apply Industry 4.0 technologies to mining and designing mines in a smarter fashion, referred to as Mining 4.0. The company seeks to achieve environmental and social responsibility, especially with the industry already moving in that direction. This includes assessing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering carbon footprints. McCartney adds that FROSKR and BESTECH are all about advancing any client’s environmental stewardship and sustainability goals and the protection of the natural environment.

Climate change and its relation to mining is an important topic to both companies, as each wants to encourage a net positive environmental impact. McCartney observes that much of media coverage around the industry is concerned about the adverse environmental effects of traditional practices like oil spills, smog, or acid rain, so it is crucial for those outside the industry looking in to understand the rise in demand for material that can only be achieved through mining.

Even initiatives to solve climate change involve materials made by mining, so extraction cannot continue in archaic or irresponsible ways. Rapid technology development is needed.

Major players in a new energy economy are helping to find ways to extract minerals like nickel and work with communities to find more efficient and sustainable mining methods. Work is also being done to source critical mining strategies from around the province of Ontario to offer manufacturing closer to home and not to take advantage of globally disadvantaged areas.

BESTECH and FROSKR are eager to welcome employees who align with the culture and encourage multidisciplinary growth and training. “We are driven to building long-standing relationships,” McCartney says of both clients and employees. “We grow because of who we attract and who we work with.”

In the past few years, both companies’ projects and portfolios have grown and diversified, respectively, concentrating on mining partnerships. One such collaboration saw the companies invited to support Mine Connect in Nevada, a cross-border collaboration of mining firms in an evolving mining jurisdiction. Other opportunities include working with North American companies to design-build cobalt refining process plants across two jurisdictions, as well as a liquid sulfur dioxide plant in Timmins, Ontario. Growth is also measured by the company’s ability to recruit and retain top talent and position itself in local communities, especially Indigenous communities.

With some contracts spanning seventeen years of company history, BESTECH and FROSKR are not so much interested in gaining projects as they are in fostering relationships and positive conversations around mining. “Mining is invasive and changes the environment,” McCartney explains, “but supporting clients involves adopting and understanding responsible mining practices and resource sharing with clients.”

Espley feels that mining has an aura of being an industry that is slow to change, but it is, in fact, in the middle of acceleration in terms of accepting new technology. Currently, the sector is at something of a crossroads as underground mining is embracing wireless technology, allowing operations to be done more cheaply, safely, and sustainably. Mining clients have also begun to immediately ask for technology roadmaps to follow these trends.

BESTECH and FROSKR are expanding work into Nevada currently and will also ramp up a focus on diversity, tapping into the expertise of women in the mining industry to fill in gaps in an already-skilled workforce. Throughout the year and beyond, the companies will continue to provide support with innovative mining approaches, as both companies look to define ways to push a step-change in all areas, especially the environment.

To meet global demand, mining must be done in an environmentally responsible manner. The collective vision of BESTECH and FROSKR is sustainability for the environment and future generations, with mining needing to step up to leave a net-positive impact and use the Whole Mine™ approach. McCartney observes that mining needs to adapt to meet the effects of its society and the demand it faces. Technology plays a crucial role in reclaiming mining from environmentally unsustainable practices, but it cannot be done in a vacuum. “The future of mining is collaborative. There is no other way forward.”

The post A Collaborative Approach to Sustainability in Mining<p class="company">BESTECH and FROSKR</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Creating a better world requires environmental care and green efficiency in all businesses, especially when confronting methane emissions. Unfortunately, it’s an ever-present by-product of energy-business operations, with thousands of tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) methane released into the atmosphere every day.

The substance in question – which has 80 times the warming capacity of CO2 in the first two decades after entering the atmosphere – must be removed from a pressurized system before a pig launcher is opened at a natural gas processing facility, or before an isolated section of pipeline is removed and replaced.

This usually means flaring or venting of the gas which releases methane and other greenhouse gases (GHG) directly into the atmosphere.

The fix is ready

WeldFit has a fix with ReCAP, a gas recovery system that ensures a constant transfer rate, allowing for quick and easy gas recapture and making ESG targets attainable. Environmental audits reveal that the ReCAP Emissions Recovery System reduces methane emissions by up to 99.99 percent when compared to venting or flaring.

“Sustainability to us in the gas industry is moving product from wellhead to consumer,” says Adam Murray, Vice President, WeldFit Performance Products.

Traditionally, when companies must take down a line or a piece of equipment, they lose a bit of product, that being natural gas. “By using the company’s ReCAP emissions reduction system, it allows them to capture even the remaining percentage of gas, recompressing that and keeping it in the system.”

ReCAP employs technology that does one simple but critical task in support of ESG-driven methane emission reduction goals: During routine pipeline operations, it reduces the need for voluntary natural gas flaring or venting commonly associated with blowdowns.

“ReCAP, at its core fundamental design and function, allows our customers to reach their sustainability goals,” says Eric Heinle, President, Pigging and Performance Products. “It safely and efficiently prevents voluntary venting of emissions into the atmosphere.”

For a lot of WeldFit customers, those emissions reductions and goals are part of their long-term and near-term/current strategy, and ReCAP allows them to achieve those.

Focus on the pipeline

“WeldFit, in general, is focused on the pipeline, so our mission statement is we want to make pipelines more productive,” says Heinle. “We also pride ourselves on being reliable and ready to serve as well as being very innovative.”

By recapturing gas from pipeline sections that have been isolated for depressurization, and quickly transferring it to a nearby pressurized system, pipeline operators can safely and easily minimize methane emissions.

Additionally, thanks to ReCAP’s Straight-Line Performance – a patent-pending technology from WeldFit that generates a near constant and predictable depressurization rate from start to finish – the crucial work that follows can be started on time.

“Every emission occurrence we can eliminate has a meaningful impact because methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere,” says Murray. “This also enhances the safety and well-being of the people that live nearby and of our operators. It’s important for us to be environmental stewards, but it also helps with moving forward our license to operate.”

To date, the company has saved more than 18,000 metric tons of CO2e, or more than 42 million standard cubic feet of natural gas, an amount that will grow exponentially in the next few months, making a significant impact.

“Over the past 30 years, oil demand has gone up 66 percent, and natural gas production is up 96 percent. In that same time methane intensity dropped almost 20 percent,” says Murray. “A drop like that during stagnant production would be great, but to do it with such gains has been just incredible. As bad as the industry gets picked apart, what we’ve done is remarkable.”

Sustainability is a vital part of the company’s mandate, one built into its core and one it continues to impress on its clients.

“We’re about the six Cs, and common sense and customer-focused are two of them. Our customers are certainly wanting to move into the more environmentally friendly space,” says Murray. “With a lot of our products we do have some inherent environmental advantages built in to that and ReCAP only enhances all of those.”

A changing world

That environmental awareness is being seen across the industry as changes are implemented daily.

“There are new rules to curb methane emissions in particular,” says Murray. “At the 2021 Climate Summit in Glasgow, 100 countries took the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions. That’s pretty significant.”

In fact, the U.S. led that initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions by 30 percent in nine years, mostly through tougher legislation governing methane leaks from oil and gas operations. Many of the techniques are aimed at averting large-scale leaks.

“The Build Back Better Bill, whether it passes or not, has carbon fees and methane-emission fees built into it that could severely impact the economics of methane emissions,” Murray adds. “It’s just a matter of following the technology that we already have. I think our industry has a mandate to make a meaningful impact on the environment.”

Another big challenge WeldFit faces is creating awareness and helping to bring its customers’ operations in compliance with regulatory requirements in the industry as the market evolves at a rapid pace.

“I’m sure more and more of those regulations are going to come out and as companies are now being mandated by local and state jurisdictions, obviously it would be great to have federal regulations emerge. But, state by state, they’re starting to release these regulations which will allow ReCAP to do that,” says Heinle.

WeldFit spent an incredible amount of time on awareness early on when commercializing ReCAP, which launched in September 2021, says Murray. Much was given to letting people know about ReCAP’s abilities and how it can be used to keep the gas in the pipeline.

“We spend a lot of time trying to help our customers navigate these new regulations and understand how this can apply to their current operations with minimal disruption,” adds Heinle.

Hard value, easy choice

“In some regards, this is viewed not only as perception but, in reality, as a cost or time matter. We’re trying to make sure they understand not only the social responsibility value of recovering the gas but the actual hard value of not venting or flaring that gas, of keeping it in the pipeline, and also doing it in a way that doesn’t slow down their operations and still allows them to be very efficient,” says Heinle.

ReCAP’s innovations and abilities have recently been recognized: It won the Innovation Award at the PPIM (Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Management) conference this year. The fight to create awareness isn’t done yet, however.

“Because every state has different rules and regulations, keeping up with those ever-changing targets is tough,” Murray says, and WeldFit is taking its task seriously.

Chief Strategy Officer Todd Sale recently became a certified ESG expert and sustainability officer. “He graduated from the Energy Workforce and Technology Council ESG certification program,” says Murray. “So, we’re not only committed to helping the environment where we can, we’re investing in it with our products and with our people. We mustn’t be just saying this stuff; we’re doing it and we’re acting on it.”

The key is the people, Murray adds. “We care. Everyone in the industry is outdoorsy and active. It’s a culture we go by and that’s what sets us apart. It’s all about the right people in the right place.”

And the people are up for the challenge of facing the industry and the ESG movement’s rapid change which makes it so demanding to keep up and stay ahead.

“The good news is WeldFit is privately owned and very people-focused,” says Murray. “They allowed Todd to get his ESG certification, and they allow my engineering group to help create products that make an immediate impact, rather than these big glacial companies that move very slowly.”

Much more to be done

The result is a big impact in a short time, he says, but there’s still a lot more to be done. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA) still vents or flares almost 1.5 billion cubic feet per day.

There’s good news, however: Every day companies are seeing the importance, and the benefits, of reducing methane – the same companies that WeldFit talked to maybe two months ago, and are talking to again today, says Heinle.

“They’re evolving every day and becoming more inquisitive and more receptive to the technology, whether it’s because they’re being told to or just because they’re adopting it. We’re seeing more and more acceptance across the board, which is good.”

WeldFit will continue to partner with its clients to understand their needs and challenges, developing solutions to help them achieve environmental goals with minimal disruption to operations while continuing to be profitable and effective.

“Creating that awareness is key, making sure folks understand that the solution and the technology are there and that the process is something that should be recorded and celebrated positively, versus it being just another thing they have to do,” says Heinle.

The ReCAP technology, Murray adds, is very innovative, safe, fast, efficient, and effective. People have been searching for a solution like this, and almost every day WeldFit comes upon a new application by which this technology can help the environment.

“I do think our solution is resonating,” says Heinle. “ReCAP specifically is resonating in the market because of those points. We partner with our clients, and our technology is differentiated in that it allows them to be more efficient while they’re doing all of these things. It’s pretty exciting stuff.”

The post Moderating Methane: Sustainability Through Emissions Reduction<p class="company">WeldFit</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Having “survived the worst of the worst,” in his own words, Geoffrey Joseph, President and Chief Executive Officer, understands the transportation industry inside out. With years spent in a market that is most certainly not for the faint-hearted, he knows how to calmly handle adversity.

To this end, the company seized an opportunity to enter the fuel transportation business while that sector experienced severely reduced traffic volume during the COVID-19 crisis. It hung in there tenaciously, and today, the leap is paying off in lucrative ways. It also acquired, amongst others, a sister company specializing in food-grade tanker transportation. Back in its original Joseph Haulage firm, it continues to focus on moving construction materials with an equally fast-growing focus on tanker transportation of chemicals.

“Joseph Group is coming out bigger and stronger than ever. We are actively engaged in multiple acquisitions. We have a very strong growth strategy,” Geoffrey says.

As the company only buys firms with “proven successes,” the group is always eager to learn about how these companies do things in ways that can improve its overall performance. “We acquire good businesses,” Geoffrey says, noting that the first hundred days after an acquisition is used as a “learning period,” in which no changes are made but the company is studied to discover what makes it good. “Then we start to look at the best scenarios from both companies: ours and the acquisition company. Sometimes we see great things,” he adds. These approaches are then incorporated into the group. “So we’re ever-evolving.”

He is quick to admit that the group has an incredible staff. When it comes to marrying new teams with existing ones, it is important to continuously “improve the happiness of our new [and existing] family members.”

Joseph Group Canada is synonymous with accountability and service, and as a result, its growth and evolution have been able to hit an entirely new direction. Since we last spoke in 2021, the company has focused on training its teams as well as establishing Joseph U. Its in-house university is dedicated to instilling its culture and ethics and offers leadership training and improved safety programs for its clients and staff.

Nothing about Joseph Group is traditional, and that includes how it applies technology within the organization. This push has led it to next-day billing, increased remote work opportunities, and paperless systems.

As part of this drive, its trucks now have rear and forward-facing cameras, tremendously improving driver and cargo safety. Geoffrey tells me that drivers are beginning to realize the benefits of being able to prove their innocence during disputes.

“Footage is never viewed unless there is an incident, and when that incident does happen, the driver is also present during the [review] of the footage. Our drivers see the value, and they don’t want to go to work unless their cameras are working,” Geoffrey says.

Electronic logging devices have been becoming standard in the transportation industry. Always ahead, Joseph Group already kitted out all its vehicles with the latest equipment to track and follow cargo in real time and has been keeping it updated.

The company also makes a point of listening to its drivers. In addition, its custom truck program rewards drivers by letting them personalize and choose their trucks’ extras. These include leather seats, sleeping quarters, and microwaves. Drivers even get to put their names on their trucks. “The program is about the sense of pride that our drivers have for their and our equipment,” he says.

All the investments meant swiftly adapting to the changes brought about by COVID-19 was easy. Not only could the company go into remote work mode almost overnight, but it also ensured that its people had all the support they needed. “We put people before profit. We made sure that our managers understood empathy,” Geoffrey says, underlining that parents working from home could not always be available during traditional office hours if they had to take care of children while working. The leadership team touched base regularly, “ensuring that people were adjusting well to working remotely.”

Joseph Group did not lay off staff and continued paying people during the shelter-in-place period to guarantee their financial security. “We put a couple of million dollars into that program and said that when we come out of this, we are going to have a stronger buy-in from our team because we stuck by them during COVID.” Geoffrey points out that the staff members of some of the company’s competitors were not as lucky since job losses and salary cuts were commonplace in the industry during this time.

All of its hard work and dedication have returned in meaningful ways, and the company has been the proud recipient of several awards, including Trucking HR Canada’s Top Fleet Employer. It has also made consistent appearances on the Canadian Business Growth 500-list, amongst others.

Joseph Group’s heart is even bigger than its fleet of over three hundred vehicles and trailers, and the company is particularly dedicated to charities supporting children. The team takes around one thousand inner-city children to the cinema every year. It also issues scholarships that include books and whatever technology they may need. This has led to great success stories already.

“Last year through COVID, we gave out about ten X-boxes and PlayStations to various kids. We couldn’t get enough of them, so my son ended up donating his X-box. We did home visits with people. Charity is a big thing for Joseph Group,” says Geoffrey, who says that if the company can change one child’s life, “That’s enough of a reward.”

Looking toward the end of 2022 and into 2023, the company has plans for new headquarters. The building will be constructed at a new location in its home town. “We’ll have an open and very exciting workspace. There will be a coffee shop in the restaurant, and a very open, light, and bright work environment,” he says.

Further ahead, the goal is to do even more for existing customers than before, doubling both profitability and revenue. The plan to get there is deceptively straightforward. “Zero accidents, zero injuries, service failures, zero turnover, and one team, one call, one voice, number one drivers, and number one staff,” as Geoffrey puts it. While the company continues to acquire more companies to join its portfolio, steady, organic growth remains its aim.

The post Rolling Out Safety & Service Across Canada<p class="company">Joseph Group Canada</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The NHLA publishes the hardwood lumber grading guide that has become the industry standard, trains lumber inspectors, and offers lumber grading and quality control services. While the association does not maintain state or local chapters, it recently joined forces with other hardwood groups in a broad coalition to promote common interests. These include sustainability and prudent forest management, notes Director of Marketing and Communications Renee Hornsby.

Founded in 1898 and headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the NHLA represents the entire hardwood supply chain in the U.S. and Canada. Members range from Amish enterprises that shun mechanization to high-tech lumber firms that are “completely automated. We serve the entire diversified hardwood lumber industry,” she says.

Common hardwoods include red and white oak, walnut, hickory and maple. “In grade school language, most hardwood trees lose their leaves in the fall. When you go by and see barren trees with their leaves gone, those are hardwoods. There are hundreds of species of hardwoods.” Such trees have a myriad of uses.

“For consumers, I explain that hardwoods are usually the things in the home that you can see. Hardwoods are not inside the wall; that is softwood. The framing of the home does not involve hardwoods. The hardwoods are visible in the windows, the doors, the moldings, the millwork, the staircase, the floor, the cabinets, the furniture,” says Hornsby.

Industrial hardwood products include pallets, truck bed liners and hardwood crane mats. By-products from sawing can be made into pet bedding, pellets for grills, paper goods, or fuel for sawmill kilns.

The association works closely with a group called the Hardwood Federation to lobby legislators for favorable regulations. COVID put a damper on in-person Washington, DC fly-in visits, so advocacy work has largely been conducted by other means. Unlike many trade associations, the NHLA represents more than just the interests of its members.

“We are also here to help anybody who is involved with the hardwood lumber industry. If they call on us, we are here to help. We are here to educate. We are here as a whole industry supporter,” Hornsby says.

In addition to the above tasks, the association tries to enlighten lawmakers and the public about the benefits of hardwood.

“There is a blanket misconception that using wood is bad. In fact, using wood is part of the carbon climate change answer. When you cut the tree and turn it into a product, it stores the carbon. If the tree is left to rot, all the carbon it has been absorbing gets released back into the atmosphere. So, it is better to be proactively managing the forests,” says Hornsby, noting that managing the forest removes diseased, undesirable trees, lowers the risk of fire and allows the younger trees to grow and mature.

Sustainability, she is quick to add, is a key component of proper forest management. Removing every available hardwood tree for the sake of short-term profit would be a recipe for disaster.

“You manage the forest because you want it to last another hundred years. We would all be out of a job and nobody would have anything if we cut it all down,” she explains. “We are good stewards of the forest. Hardwoods are not a crop that is grown like a pine. In the United States, most hardwood comes from individual landowners, and most of those landowners own fifty acres or less.”

Hardwoods naturally spread seeds which grow into new trees. When they mature, hardwoods are typically removed in a ‘select harvest’ process in which loggers or harvesters mark individual trees then cut them down. The largest trees usually go first.

“If you don’t take the big trees out, then the smaller trees can’t get enough sunlight, and the canopy gets too big. So [big trees] will be marked, then the logger will come in and individually take those out and leave the ones that still need to grow,” Hornsby explains.

Felled trees are generally sold to sawmills. Some sawmills own property where trees are grown and maintain loggers on staff, while other mills buy logs from independent operators. Once in the sawmill, logs are divided by species and diameter before being debarked and cut. Cut lumber is graded, sorted and stacked, and shipped to be transformed into end products.

The hardwood lumber industry used to be something of a free-for-all, with little structure or uniformity, says Hornsby. In the late 1890s, a group of lumbermen met in Chicago to bring some badly needed order to the sector. From this gathering, the NHLA was born. One of the association’s first projects was to develop a standardized grading system for hardwood lumber. Published in a guide called the NHLA Rules for the Measurement & Inspection of Hardwood & Cypress, this grading system brought consistency and stability to the hardwood lumber market.

Now called NHLA Hardwood Grading Rules, the guide is currently published in French, Spanish, Mandarin, and English to facilitate international sales. The guide is distributed to all NHLA members and its contents are reviewed every four years. New rule proposals are voted on by the membership. If accepted, new rules became part of the standards and the foundation of “the entire hardwood lumber industry,” says Hornsby.

Creating rules was one thing; implementing them was another matter. In the past, a team of National Inspectors were trained by and worked for NHLA, and performed all the lumber grading and inspections for hardwood companies. In 1948, to meet the demand for trained and knowledgable lumber graders, the association opened the NHLA Inspector Training School. The school was based in Memphis, then the “hardwood capital of the world,” according to Hornsby.

Memphis once sported dozens of sawmills within its municipal boundaries. The association moved its headquarters from Chicago to Memphis in the late 1970s, even as the city’s sawmill business declined. The training school has also remained in Memphis.

“We have graduated more than 7,500 people since we started the program. We have people who have come from all over the world,” states Hornsby.

NHLA National Inspectors have the authority to determine if lumber that is manufactured, bought, or sold is ‘on grade.’ The NHLA National Inspectors are positioned throughout the U.S. and Canada and are available globally. They help companies educate employees on the rules, conduct audits of processes and procedures and generally are available to help companies with any hardwood lumber related issues. They also manage the Association’s numerous certification programs.

Should a dispute arise and a lumber shipment appear to be off-grade, the association can intervene if called upon. It retains “a chief inspector who handles dispute claims. He will review the dispute, evaluate the product and grade, and present his finidings. His word is final,” Hornsby says.

The association also offers quality control services. Member companies can arrange for a NHLA National Inspector to review their manufacuturing processes and determine how efficient operations are. After visiting the premises, conducting extensive tests and consulting with company staff, the Inspector will issue a report with suggestions on new processes or equipment to boost profits and reduce waste.

Association members receive Hardwood Matters magazine which features member profiles, economic forecasts, and articles about industry issues and sector trends. The NHLA also maintains a blog, has a strong social media presence, and hosts an annual convention. The next conference is scheduled for September 21–23 in Cleveland, Ohio. After COVID spread in March 2020, the association developed a webinar series for members.

To be sure, COVID hit the lumber supply chain hard. Lumber prices have been wildly fluctuating, and this is compounded by driver shortages and other supply chain issues, as in many industries. “I think we’re looking at another year of supply chain disruption before it all settles back to normal,” Hornsby says.

Not counting COVID, she lists labor as the biggest challenge facing the hardwood sector. Many sawmills are based in rural locales with low population densities. Such areas lack a large pool of potential candidates for hire. This situation has been compounded by another development; with the economy returning to life, unemployment has dipped in many regions, meaning fewer people are looking for work.

To address this issue, the NHLA actively promotes career opportunities within the hardwood sector and supports programs designed to train skilled workers or establish apprenticeships. The growth of technology within the sector is also opening new career paths.

“A lot of people are thinking, ‘How can we automate some of these positions?’ With automation comes another skilled workforce set, because you need someone who understands automation, who can program the new equipment and can keep it online,” she states.

Going forward, the NHLA is excited to be part of the Real American Hardwood Coalition, a voluntary, industry-wide organization made up of hardwood associations and individual companies. Established in 2019, the coalition wants to present a united front to boost sales, promote research, and develop products. The coalition also hopes to “educate consumers and raise public awareness about the benefits of Real American Hardwood products,” according to its website.

“It’s a collective group who are passionate about spreading the sustainable message of hardwoods and increasing the consumption of hardwoods instead of replacement products. We would rather see the use of real hardwood than a plastic molding piece or bamboo flooring. We want consumers to be aware of the positive attributes of real hardwoods and the sustainable practices of the industry. That’s why the program exists,” states Hornsby. She believes that the coalition is “the biggest thing that’s going to change the association and change the industry over the next five years.”

The post America’s Oldest and Largest Hardwood Trade Group Looks to the Future<p class="company">National Hardwood Lumber Association</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The company traces its roots back to 1968 and a decision by insurance agent Rabun Beasley to try his hand at something new. That year, he and his wife Jo Claxton Beasley launched an enterprise that eventually grew into what is today known as the Beasley Group. Darrell Beasley, son of Rabun and Jo, currently serves as President and Chief Executive officer and many other members of the family actively participate in the management of the company.

“The Beasley Group employs about 1,500 employees here in the Hazlehurst area in either wholly or partially owned operations within the organization,” stated Business Development Manager Linwood Truitt. “This makes the company one of the largest employers for this part of the state.”

Beasley Forest Products offers premium hardwood grade lumber as well as temporary access mats, pallet lumber, switch/crossties and residuals. Truitt added, “the species we focus on are maple, hickory, red and white oak, ash, mixed hardwood, poplar and cypress. This is sold either green, kiln-dried or heat treated.” The company also offers southern yellow pine products.

As Beasley Forest Products approaches its twenty-fifth anniversary, the company is poised for the future, thanks in part to the recent investment in its new upgraded and optimized equipment. “This equipment has allowed us to work safer, with higher quality and productivity,” states Truitt. “We just built a multi-million-dollar sawmill that is optimized throughout each step of the process, including an automated hardwood grader – requiring very little hands-on manual labor. Automation and optimization are a big deal,” he emphasized.

These upgrades have allowed Beasley Forest to significantly increase its board footage, improving efficiencies, yields and overall cost. At the same time, due to the increase volume, the company has been able to add more jobs to handle the workload – “not only more jobs, but more desirable jobs requiring a different skill set than in traditional sawmills due to the automated and optimized new equipment,” said Truitt.

“Beasley Forest maintains a marketing strategy based on diversification and this new sawmill allows us to be flexible in what we produce,” said Truitt. He explained that as the market changes, the mill can adapt to meet the change and to levelize the natural ebbs and flow of the business.

The company is service-oriented and strives to meet every customer’s need both in domestically and export markets. It not only supplies the North American market (including Canada and Mexico), but also exports overseas. China, Vietnam and Europe are major global regions that utilize Beasley products. Truitt estimates that approximately 80 percent of hardwood grade lumber is exported.

Emphasis is placed on sustainability and stewardship for procurement and manufacturing. Land stewardship is about promoting reforestation, soil conservation, biological diversity, natural wildlife and aquatic habitat. While Beasley obtains much of its hardwood from Georgia, the company has an extended wood basket. “We reach out to other states such as South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama with our logging crews – either trucking back to the mill or utilizing the railroad,” Truitt explained.

“Our loggers and foresters are trained in the Master Timber Harvesting Program and also utilize practically every part of the log, from bark to lumber,” he emphasized. “We follow these standards to ensure the sustainability of forest products for our future generations.”

For all this impressive growth, the company officials have strived to maintain a common touch and friendly working environment that is focused on the customer, to build longstanding relationships, stated Truitt. “As we grow, we are continuously on the lookout for employees that are dedicated team players. Though experience is helpful, it is not absolutely necessary – what is most important is attracting and retaining highly motivated individuals with good work ethics,” he said.

In closing, Truitt stated that the goal was to “continue to service our customers while growing our business and maintaining focus on our employees and the communities in which we operate. By remaining focused on our business plans, we are confident that Beasley Forest Products will be serving the industry for generations to come,” he stated.

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