“There is a myriad of different reasons that the company has grown over the past fifteen years. We started out as a distribution company; then we focused on a niche market in the renewable energy sector, and over the years, we created some pretty incredible relationships with our dealer network. As a result, we acquired certain dealers through the years to help create our market approach.”

Dwight recognizes that by observing the needs across the energy market, the company was able to build a healthy growth plan. “We were a distribution company originally until we realized that there was a distinct lack of education and expertise in the market space to be able to implement the technologies. We sought out and acquired dealers and contractors that were capable in these different market spaces and integrated them into our approach.”

The company has also needed to look inwards and is comfortable making changes to processes. This is something that Dwight feels has brought customer satisfaction. “We have developed a lot of internal software that is proprietary to our business which allows us to have a unique approach to our clients’ needs, and we can address those through our software and return a comprehensive solution to them.”

However, the company has experienced, along with all other sectors and industries, a severe shortage of skilled employees. Owing to the positive employment levels nationwide, the company has had to try different approaches.

“Growth is always challenging in any industry. In our industry specifically, there was a real lack of education and places to go to find qualified individuals in our Region. We are in the Midwest, and so compared to East and West Coast markets, there were a lot less renewables and energy-efficient technologies being implemented, so that obviously makes it more difficult to find qualified people to do the job. We created internal processes to take people that were in our electrical industry and train them specifically for our market.”

Making real changes in the way we produce and consume energy is not as easy as many companies would have you believe. While advertising may refer to efficient, ethically-produced and environmentally-minded products, this, in many circumstances, is just lip-service. Dwight believes that, regardless of the intentions and values a company has, real sustainable views and products are hamstrung by the much bigger challenge of profitability.

“Renewables are becoming more mainstream over time, but honestly, to have true sustainability, you have to start with the economics. In the past five years, we have started to see the economics of renewables become the main driver in the adoption of our technologies; it is no longer just an environmental or social choice.”

It is disappointing, but it seems as though true change only happens if it has a monetary value. While it would be ethically and socially reassuring to see companies make changes for their own sake, Dwight accepts that is not the case. “These technologies are being implemented because it makes financial sense. It changes formerly negative attitudes when people are making decisions based on financial drivers.”

On the other hand, the result is sustainable energy which is a positive thing regardless. One factor that plays a large part in the financial appeal of sustainable energy is that the industry is now old enough to have grown itself. “Part of it is that technology is changing and evolving. There is a lot more capability in terms of production. It you compare the cost of a producing a solar cell with that of twenty years ago, it is completely different. It is less than ten percent of the cost that it was. Also, the cost of energy continues to go up from traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas, so it is now a more viable solution when they are competitive with traditional energy sources.”

In business, it is important to stand out. That can be a challenge in itself when a company is in a market as competitive as energy. However, GenPro Energy allows the customer to come to it, adapting its products and services when needed.

“We are involved in multiple markets and the challenges we face differ because of this. We design projects around technologies of our own choosing so we can assure reliability.”

This approach means that, while it may not be in a position to flood the market with standard products, the company can instead work with its customer to identify a specific energy consumption design. This allows for a more tailored solution for the client. “In the lighting and energy efficiency sector, this is a very competitive sector which can be challenging. However, we have developed proprietary software that allows us to go in and address very specific customer challenges that may or may not be able to be quantified by a competitor. We are able to go in and show exactly what the savings will be for the customer, exactly what sort of performance they can expect, and we guarantee both. That is a distinct advantage that we have over many of our competitors.”

This customer-led approach is one key factor that sets GenPro Energy apart from its competitors. Dwight has built a company that is responsive rather than aggressive, and there is a genuine drive to work for the client to produce the most cost-effective and sustainable solution for their particular set of circumstances.

“We tend to look at a customer, what their goal or objective is, and then we apply the particular technology that solves their specific challenge. So for example, if a customer is simply looking for energy savings, we don’t just go in there and install a solar system to produce power for that customer. We look at how they are actually consuming the energy, what technologies they are currently using, and if there is a more cost-effective technology to perform the same duty or function. The goal is to provide better performance top to bottom.”

This full product solution, from approach through design and execution, is at the heart of GenPro Energy’s journey to the top of the energy solutions’ market. “I think the key is that we provide the complete package. We provide auditing, product selection, energy savings analysis, and the full installation.”

The post Sustainable Energy for a Global Community<p class="company">GenPro Energy Solutions</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

It was at the turn of the 20th century that early mines were established in this gold-rich region; by the end of the century, they had all closed. Like most gold mining communities, Kirkland Lake certainly experienced its cycles of ups and downs. Some communities never recover from the lows, but this was not the case for Kirkland Lake. Foxpoint Resources, today known as Kirkland Lake Gold, came to town in the early 21st century and re-opened one of the major old mines, the Macassa. As the company settled in with mining operations, it found additional sources of gold, and other gold mining companies soon followed. Today, Kirkland Lake Gold (KLG) employs approximately 1,000 people, and mines some of the richest gold ore in Canada.

“That’s where today’s prosperity comes from,” says Wilfred Hass, the town’s manager of economic development. “Since 1911, there’s been about thirty-four million ounces of very high-grade gold pulled out of the ground here.”

Kirkland Lake has been diligent in its efforts of diversification, which have been especially geared toward companies that want to take advantage of the town’s location alongside the Trans-Canada Highway that traverses the country from coast to coast. “The town’s successful diversification efforts include, for example, the forestry industry. In 2009, the Town partnered with a local entrepreneur to establish a sawmill producing specialty cuts. That partnership has weathered the ups and downs of the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute to emerge as one of the most successful small mills in Ontario, with a full ‘stump to market’ capacity.”

Tourism and hospitality are another sector that Kirkland Lake is bolstering. The town “pursued and secured a new hotel largely on the strength of the weekday demand generated by the mining industry and the weekend demand generated by a robust events-based tourism strategy that has seen the town play host to popular acts including the Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Gordon Lightfoot, and more.”

Kirkland Lake’s location also makes it a prime site for logistics operations. FedEx recently decided to locate to Kirkland Lake in September 2018, with a planned 29,000-square-foot distribution centre. According to FedEx officials, the town was selected because “of the ease of access to the major highways, the proximity to customer distribution centres, and a strong local community workforce.”

California based Artisan Vehicle Systems, a manufacturer of battery-powered underground mining vehicles, recently selected Kirkland Lake as its Canadian headquarters earlier this year with the long-term intentions of building a sixty-thousand-square-foot facility to include a service centre, product research facility, and a vehicle assembly shop. All this is to accommodate the company’s biggest customer, Kirkland Lake Gold, which was instrumental in initiating Artisan’s interest in the town.

Wilfred says that with respect to diversification, “You never turn your back on your main industry.” To this end, Kirkland Lake Gold is undergoing a major expansion. In 2009, the mine identified a major new high grade break that increasingly has been the focus of its operations. In 2017, KLG announced it would spend $325 million to sink a new shaft, upgrade and expand its mill and build other required facilities, including a new dry. This expansion will extend the life of the mine by an additional 15 to 25 years, and result in an additional 450 new direct jobs. It is also significant to note that Artisan’s battery vehicles are responsible for more than eighty percent of Macassa’s gold production according to an article from Northern Ontario Business (November 2017).

Wilfred explains further that Kirkland Lake Gold’s mining operations involve mines that are very deep with extremely hard rock. The company was looking for new technologies that could better deliver positive results of such operations, and Artisan was the ideal choice to supply electrical underground equipment.

Artisan’s newest technology, the Z-40, is a cutting-edge electrical scoop capable of working underground at great depths. The Z-40 is, “causing a bit of a revolution in the mining industry because, with the cost of power and difficulty at working at great depths, you have to constantly exchange the air that’s down there, resulting in tremendous hydro costs.”

Artisan’s presence is, “extending the life of the mine. It’s making the mine safer, and it’s opened the doors to other new technologies coming – services and support – and, hopefully, for Kirkland Lake, it will result in both a larger assembly and service shop set up in our industrial park,” says Wilfred. He says that the lifespan of the mine will be approximately twenty to twenty-five years, and by joining three existing mining operations, this will, “create a 450 person increase in the workforce.”

With all of the renewed activity taking place in Kirkland Lake, there will be a domino effect for the smaller surrounding communities. “We have a catchment area within a forty-five-minute drive from the downtown that has roughly thirteen thousand people,” says Wilfred. “They’re already anticipating that you’re going to have increased land sales; you’re going to have some of the smaller businesses expanding out into those areas, and you’re going to have probably a greater investment in your health and education infrastructure to support more people coming here.”

“With all of this activity, we’re seeing a very positive increase in our tax base – primarily all the tax sectors,” Mayor Tony Antoniazzi adds. “Certainly, with this expansion with Kirkland Lake Gold, we’re going to see a greater tax base in the industrial side.”

He explains the need to address residential housing to serve the numbers of new residents coming to the community. “We’re seeing some expansion in the multi-residential … On the political side, as a council, that’s one of our main duties – trying to increase that tax base.”

Kirkland Lake Gold’s operations, “has a carry on effect with the other gold mining companies in the area,” Wilfred says. He states, as examples, that Agnico Eagle Mines Limited is spending $5.4 million in exploration with one of its holdings in Upper Beaver, approximately ten minutes from Kirkland Lake. Agnico Eagle is, “the largest landowner here, and if that goes through, you will have another mine for fifteen to twenty years.”

Additionally, Alamos Gold Incorporated’s Young-Davidson Mine in Matachewan is ninety-six kilometers from town with about a four-hundred-plus workforce. “It’s going great guns too,” says Wilfred. “We’ve actually developed a bit of a cluster there, and they feed back and forth off of each other.”

Securing strong partnerships builds relationships that result in an aligned vision for the future. The Town of Kirkland Lake has formed a number of partnerships over the years, especially with the Kirkland and District Community Development Corporation (KDCDC), its leading government lending organization. KDCDC is, “extremely important for the small-and-medium-sized businesses in the area,” explains Wilfred.

Federal partnerships focus on managing and directing growth such as those found with the federal economic development initiative for northern regions (FedNor) and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund (NOHFC) which are, “dedicated to helping communities like ours in economic development in northern Ontario,” continues Wilfred.

As an indication of the value of these partnerships, he explains that when FedEx needed to extend its services to its new facility, Kirkland Lake was able to, “apply and receive ninety percent funding. That’s something that’s extremely important.” To extend mining services would have cost the town approximately $2 million, which it did not have. So the town went to the federal government for assistance. “Every dollar [the government] put in, I would say is probably creating three to four dollars in spin-off economic benefit and creating jobs. Those are our main partners.”

Other partners include the chamber of commerce which represents the existing small businesses and assists them with productivity and succession planning. Temiskaming Development Fund Corporation (TemFund) which works in conjunction with KDCDC, also functions as a lender to those new and current organizations in the manufacturing and tourism sectors within the District. Additionally, the non-profit North Eastern Ontario Communications Network Incorporation (NEOnet) serves the town well and has shifted from being a telecommunications agency to, “being more of a productivity enhancement agency,” says Wilfred.

For any business considering Kirkland Lake, it is important to research and attain as much information as possible about the community, what makes it unique, and where a business might fit in.

“It would really depend on what your industry is,” Mayor Antoniazzi notes. “We’re not shy to tell you that, perhaps, you would be wasting your time,” clarifying that Kirkland Lake does have some difficulty with retail businesses as many small towns do. “We have the bricks and mortar stores that provide our daily needs. We also have a population that’s an hour away from a major shopping centre in any direction. So they’re going there.”

On-line ordering is another option for many. “So if you’re thinking of coming to Kirkland Lake, we would be taking you through the town, helping you to do whatever market research you need to do to find out if you would actually make it here … Give it a full year of research because the winter months have a different demand than the summer months … We’re very careful with that. We don’t want to see failures.”

If considerations are based on larger commercial or industrial aspects, “We usually will go to our funding partners and do market surveys,” continues Mayor Antoniazzi. “We know we can’t do your job for you. Our job is to give you as much real information as we can to help you make that decision.”

Kirkland Lake is currently undertaking a community improvement plan (CIP) and land inventory specifically for commercial and industrial growth. “We’ve expanded very quickly with the businesses,” says Wilfred. “We’re running out of service-ready industrial and commercial land. That project will be identifying new areas for growth.”

This may be a small community, but it is certainly not boring. There is plenty to see and do with such sights as the Museum of Northern History, Miners’ Memorial, Hockey Heritage North, and numerous summer and winter activities to engage any interests. The annual homecoming week in July is ranked in the top one hundred festivals by Festivals and Events Ontario. “We bring in top-of-the-line acts … We’re a community of eight thousand people. We have cities nearby of sixty thousand, and even then, they can’t pull off [these events],” says Wilfred, adding that the town has, “probably the best-groomed snowmobile trails in northeastern Ontario with the longest riding season … We have quite the outdoor lifestyle. We’ve invested very heavily in our community assets.”

“If we don’t invest in our own community, how can we expect our large partners to invest in it?” asks the mayor.

Kirkland Lake will be celebrating its centennial anniversary next year and is looking forward to many attendees and a lot of reminiscing, but more importantly, “We’re hoping to get a sense of renewed energy for the next one hundred years,” says Mayor Antoniazzi. “We’ve built a community that we’re all certainly proud of.”

The post A Northern Community with a Can-Do Attitude<p class="company">Town of Kirkland Lake, ON</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The resulting rebranding and change of ownership gave Manufacture Adria the freedom to use its previous experience and customers and grow from that strong position. The company could harness the skills that had been developed and provide smart, competitive solutions to its customers. “It allowed the company to be more focused on growth of the manufacturing side, and from a practical standpoint, if you are part of an entity, you don’t have the independence to deal with everybody. For example, our original electrical contracting company – but also other contractors – before, you couldn’t deal with them because they would be in competition with our major shareholder.”

Rami notes that the local environment, as a large mining hub, “was ready for the company,” and that the change in ownership “was seamless really due to the fact that the people that bought the company were the people that were already managing the manufacturing operations.”

One new development was that the company, by listening to the needs of its clients, ensured that each product is specifically tailored and individual. “This company saw the need to start designing equipment custom made. It is now made-to-order for specific applications and for specific mines.” Given the nature of the industry, this was necessary. “Sometimes, equipment for two different mines is different, even if they provide the same function. It can be different to make up for the working environment. The products are designed specifically to the customer’s needs. A lot of what is do cannot be bought off the shelf. The only way to have these products is for someone to design it and build it for you. That is the service we offer our customers. We offer electrical; we offer custom electronic controls, and it is always made specifically for that customer.”

The company has established an engineering procurement system as well as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to better manage production and quality control. Rami suggests that, while these have improved the operation, progress is a natural result of building solid working relationships with clients. “Our output has improved, but we always had good customer support and customer satisfaction. We have a loyal (customer) base.”

Trust is a key factor in establishing these relationships. “You know that famous triangle of quality, speed, and price? Wisdom is that you cannot have all three. Well, we discovered that you could. It requires us to take an extra step all the time, and we are always honest and upfront with our customers. We are not selling commodities; we engineer products, and this is part of building relationships with our customers. They are our customers but also our neighbours.”

Manufacture Adria, while it offers clients a range of electrical products, is considered a specialist in the design and production of substations. Due to the unpredictable nature of underground mining, the product is a vital aspect of the industry.

“Our best seller is the item that is used the most in a mining operation. You need an electrical infrastructure; everything underground works on electricity. However, the mine is a moving operation. It is not steady. When you build a city, for example, you have the infrastructure, and it doesn’t move, but a mine is a living organism, and it is moving all the time, and the equipment will have to be moved. When you know your equipment, everything that you want, it all has to be in one or two pieces. It has to be ready to go immediately. This is what we are known for – the moveable substation. It is one compact unit and has everything you need. That is our major project and forms the skeleton of mining distribution in general.”

With the pressure on businesses to grow, develop, and move forward, it is natural that advances are also being made the mining industry. Rami identifies a change taking place and says that Manufacture Adria is perfectly placed to lead this development. “One of the biggest transformations is the complete electrification of mines. So, as I said, there is a lot of electrical equipment – drills, lighting, ventilation et cetera. The big ore haulers, such as trucks and loaders, are run on diesel. With the emissions, you need to move large amounts of air, and because of this, it is becoming more expensive to go deeper underground.”

As a response to these rising costs, a pilot project was started in 2012 to work with battery powered equipment. This project resulted in an emerging demand for new equipment, and Manufacture Adria was ready to get involved. “This is equipment that weighs about nine tonnes and moves around four or five tonnes of rock, and it was battery powered. For these, they needed chargers, so we worked with their equipment vendors to develop a charging system. This isn’t just any charger. You need something that will charge batteries but also that the charger can withstand the journey down to make it to the application and then to withstand the mining environment. We have done that.”

New products and developments invariably results in new legislation. Manufacture Adria has identified a need for a concerted, international effort to advance the industry and provide better benefits for clients, employees, and the industry itself. Battery and diesel operated vehicles differ in many ways, and the need for change is not merely limited to fuel. However, these changes should not be seen as a threat to the industry.

“For one thing, it decreases your ventilation costs. You no longer need a huge ventilation shaft. All you need now is to change the air for the people there. Those costs can drop by almost a half or more. There is a group called the Global Mining Group, and its aim is to provide a platform and guidelines for the advancement of mining throughout the world. When you have an international guideline, it is easier to compare projects; it is easier to develop and easier to evaluate projects. We are a contributor to one of the sub-groups that are working towards this. We are looking at developing guidelines for the implementation of battery operated vehicles in underground operations.”

The reasons for these guidelines are many. In addition to cost and efficiency, there is also a human benefit. “Another huge aspect of this is from the miners themselves. They reported an improvement in their working conditions – less noise and less diesel emissions. That was major feedback that came from the operator. They love electrical powered equipment.”

No industry stands still. Advances in technology are assisting in driving underground mining to new levels in terms of productivity, environmental ethics, and working conditions. It is clear that, with over twenty-five years of experience designing, producing and manufacturing products, Manufacture Adria has positioned itself at the cutting edge of these changes.

The post Electrifying the Mining Community<p class="company">Manufacture Adria</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“All of 2017, we started the development process and continue with that. We hit a major milestone in January and announced the preliminary economic assessment, which we are pretty pleased about,” says Dustin.

The preliminary economic assessment demonstrated a net present value (NPV) of about $120 million (all figures Canadian), on a seven percent discount rate. It is about a 38 percent internal rate of return (IRR) and the payback period was just under three years. The mine life is nearly nine years.

The operating economics are very good as well. The cash operating cost per ounce is about $650.00 and the all-in sustaining cash costs are just under $800. The goal for Anaconda is to become a mid-sized company. It has been producing at a modest level for several years, and Goldboro is its first sizable acquisition, helping Anaconda to become a larger producer.

“Once Goldboro gets into production, we are looking to be in the range of about 50,000 to 60,000 ounces per year of gold production. It may still be on the smaller side, but it is a huge step for us,” says Dustin.

Goldboro brings with it a higher market profile for Anaconda and gives more credibility to do transactions to acquire further projects. In building the production profile, Anaconda is getting the word out about what it is capable.

Anaconda’s success is due in part to ongoing efforts to give back to the community and conversations with Indigenous groups. “We have a philosophy that we look at the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and we think that has long-term benefits to our company and to the surrounding area and to our shareholders,” says Dustin.

Since we last talked over four years ago, Anaconda has done a lot in giving to the local community, such as an annual contribution to the regional swim program in the Baie Verte area of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has also supported the regional hockey rink and a variety of other charitable organizations and events. A few years back it gave a $50,000 donation to Hope Air, a charity that assists with medical travel and a service that people from the area have used.

In the beginning, when Anaconda was a turnaround project, the community, its employees, vendors and the government were all involved and helped during tough times. “We feel like we are a part of the community and need to act as a responsible member, so we do that by giving back, providing employment and being environmentally responsible,” says Dustin.

Anaconda is in the process of drilling at the Goldboro site. The 7,000-metre drill program started in October of 2017 and is going very well. The goal is to demonstrate the ability to expand the known deposit area and do some infill drilling to shore up its mine planning with the preliminary economic assessment (PEA). The testing of the core samples are in line with expectations and, in certain cases, exceeding them.

The mining company has been working for the past eight years at Point Rousse in Newfoundland. Recently, it has been able to demonstrate that there are more mineral resources around the site and approximately four and a half kilometres from the operating mill. One such discovery is called Argyle. In January, it put out the first mineral resource estimate on Argyle that estimated about 70,000 ounces of indicated and inferred resources.

“It’s ‘open pittable,’ as we like to say, and the grade is just over two grams per tonne, which is about a third higher that what it is currently being mined at the Pine Cove pit. We are excited about it because it will add life to the local production,” says Dustin.

The deposit itself is still open in all directions, and Anaconda is performing exploration drilling there as well. It is seeing the ability to expand the deposit area. It has just finished a twelve-hole test drilling program and has announced all of the assay results.

Anaconda is innovative in repurposing its mine waste and rock tailings. Over the last two years, Anaconda sold mine waste from open pit mining operations as a construction aggregate product to a project down in South Carolina. This involved about three million tonnes of waste rock that was in waste dumps and in the ground.

“We did this project with our contract miner who bought a crushing spread, crushed and made the product. A shipping company called Phoenix Bulk Carriers helped ship it to South Carolina,” says Dustin. Then the contract miner created a company called Shoreline Aggregates, and the three entities were part of this venture over sixteen months.

“We shipped about three million tonnes, and it was a fantastic opportunity for us because we were able to generate some revenue off it, and at the same time, lower operational costs, mining costs and more importantly, reduce our environmental footprint,” says Dustin.

Anaconda is on the water and has built a dock facility for this venture that can accommodate 60,000-tonne Panamax vessels. The deep-water port allows Anaconda to ship large quantities. This, along with the current Canadian dollar, has made it feasible to ship rock a far distance.

There are more opportunities along the eastern seaboard, down into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Anaconda has two to four million more tonnes of waste rock, and its partners are looking for more contracts. If successful, this new resource can be shipped, generating revenue.

“It’s not often that you see mining companies do this because the right ingredients are needed. Be close to water and cheap transportation being the most obvious. This is out-of-the-box thinking and not traditional mining,” says Dustin. The company tries to separate itself from the typical junior mining company, and it is just a part of its culture to be innovative and resourceful.

Anaconda also has a plan for its tailings created from the processing facility. It has about two million tonnes of finely ground tailings and has been working with the College of the North Atlantic to experiment to see if it might serve as a fertilizer enhancer. The lab tests have been positive so far, and there is a potential to sell it to the open market. This is a huge benefit for Anaconda because it will be able to generate revenue from the tailings.

The company’s narrow vein mining research and development project is being conducted with Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, with funding coming from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Research and Development Corporation (RDC) and the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).

“It has a $3.5 million budget, and the aim is to create a technology to more efficiently and economically mine underground single narrow vein deposits. These deposits are not economically viable using traditional methods,” says Dustin.

This could be a huge advantage for Anaconda as it has a current deposit that cannot be extracted using traditional means. It is only about one kilometre from the mill, and the new technology would enable the company to get at the resource and process the deposit. This would open further opportunities for Anaconda, and it would own the intellectual property, making for the potential to license the technology.

Memorial University of Newfoundland is working on creating the prototype, and in the spring of 2019, it will be field tested on the deposit that sits on the Anaconda site.

“There are a lot of exciting things happening at once, and it’s great because we have the standard gold mining – which is our core business – and all of the other ancillary businesses, ideas and projects that really help drive additional profitability,” says Dustin.

Although a small company that has mined a modest amount of gold to date, Anaconda has found ways to wring every dollar out of its natural resources. Mining on a small scale is challenging to a company, and remaining profitable is even more so. In finding new means to deal with that challenge, it will be better off.

By the end of 2018, Anaconda foresees production at the Rousse site climbing by fifteen percent to 18,000 ounces. It is moving into a new deposit area that has a higher grade product. It will continue drilling and exploration at the Argyle deposit at Point Rousse, and there are also some exciting plans for Goldboro where it is trying to get into production by 2021. Anaconda will embark on a 10,000-tonne bulk sample and bring that ore back to the Pine Cove Mill, before processing it and performing continued drilling.

“We are moving from the preliminary economic phase into most likely a feasibility phase. We want to do more infill drilling to increase the confidence level of the deposit for the area that will be included in the feasibility study,” says Dustin. Anaconda will begin the study mid-2018, and there are a lot of big plans in the wings. It will continue with community engagement and the permitting process to keep its timeline on track.

The post Creating Opportunity in Atlantic Canada<p class="company">Anaconda Mining</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Paraco Gas, a family-owned and operated propane company was established by Pat Armentano in a garage in Mount Vernon, New York in 1968. At the time, the company known as Patsems Incorporated specialized in welding supplies and was an industrial gas supplier.

Over fifty years later, Paraco Gas, with its home base in Rye Brook, Westchester County, New York, has become a name synonymous with leadership in the propane gas industry. The company is one of the country’s top propane retailers serving the commercial, residential and wholesale markets in eight states.

The company has twenty-seven distribution centers, over 120,000 customers, and approximately 500 employees who provide propane services for home heating, hot water, cooking, motor fuel, propane cylinder exchange and more. “The diversification allows us to bring in steady revenue throughout the year,” says Paraco’s Executive Vice President and third-generation family member Christina Armentano.

The company’s success can be attributed, in part, to its numerous acquisitions. There have been fifty to date, the first being Peekskill, New York’s Paraco Fuel Corporation in 1979. This purchase was significant as it enabled the company to expand its product range, as Paraco entered the propane industry for the first time.

“We want to focus on our core business to allow us to service our customers at the highest levels,” Armentano says. “Paraco has a strong pulse on energy trends and customer needs.” The company’s main attention is on the northeast market, servicing eight states – New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island – with New York being, “our largest and, in certain areas, most concentrated market. However, there are plans to continue to expand in all states we service.”

Armentano is seeing energy trends in customers’ requests. “It depends on geographic areas and the needs of the customer base. We have seen a trend in customers looking for an execution of alternative energy sources such as propane,” she explains.

“Where we are consistently seeing an interest and a real need for propane is in areas that are unable to get those natural gas energy sources. They’re looking for a reliable clean source that can help them as a home solution,” she adds.

Vice President of Supply Chain Arthur Ravo explains that in the company’s home base of Westchester County, ConEdison is the natural gas provider but, “They currently have a moratorium on any new natural gas installations or expansions,” he says. “The infrastructure for natural gas is limited, where propane is very portable.”

According to Armentano, residential heating gallons make up less than twenty-five percent of Paraco’s overall business. “Many propane companies don’t have the mix of business segments that we have. So, their residential heating gallons are a much higher percentage,” Ravo adds.

When growing its business, Paraco Gas seeks people who have the attributes and talents that would best fit its culture. The company wants people who are seeking not only a job, but a career. “We believe that employees are our most important asset and believe in hiring smart, talented employees who are looking for a long-term career,” says Armentano. “We believe in promoting from within whenever possible, and therefore, spend time with each employee understanding their desired career path and how we can help them get there.”

The company provides ongoing employee training to enhance knowledge and skills built on a cultural foundation of “collaboration, hard work and work-life balance.” The company’s wellness committee, in which many employees participate, was established “by our leadership team in partnership with the human resources department, to focus on the health and well-being of our employees,” says Armentano.

The committee gives employees the ability “to have a positive impact on the culture overall,” says Armentano, and employees are granted “the ability to take on a leadership role within the committee and to showcase areas they are passionate about.”

“We still very much have the entrepreneurial foundation on which the business was created,” Armentano says, reflecting on the company’s more than fifty-year history. “We have a group of really smart, hard-working, dedicated individuals who have worked incredibly hard to foster a culture of transparency.” The well-established entrepreneurial spirit “creates an environment for fostering new and creative ideas that may be outside our typical norm, to continue to offer best in class service to our customer base.”

Paraco Gas uses a number of tools to monitor performance in customer service, such as “real-time monitoring of our customer interactions to make sure all of our representatives are available to answer each and every call that comes in, within an acceptable amount of time. We believe in one-call-resolution and leaving our customers with a great experience with each interaction.”

The company also employs a quality assurance program that listens to and grades calls. This aids managers in providing “constructive feedback in areas of need and offer suggestions for how to handle the various situations that come up,” explains Armentano. She notes that off-phone training is provided to representatives to “introduce any new promotions or products, as well as to continuously work on understanding the process, and of course, soft skills and problem-solving skills.”

Paraco Gas has a rigorous training program that employees receive at the time of hire and “at regular refresher intervals through their career.” Safety training involves operating commercial vehicles safely, installing propane containers and interior piping according to compliance codes, and performing safety surveys and leak checks, “to safely and efficiently supply our customers with green, clean, highly-efficient fuel. Paraco’s commitment to safety is paramount to how we operate on a daily basis.”

In addition, the company has a history of training emergency response teams within their service communities and, at times, is called to communities that are not part of its service area for its expertise in emergency situations.

“We’re not only on top of what the local code changes might be, but we’re training [response teams] in propane safety, specifically, including doing demonstrations and holding classes so that [employees] get more comfortable working around propane safely,” says Ravo. He adds that at the Waterbury, Connecticut plant, for example, the head of production, “set up a pretty detailed evacuation model, and it’s practiced each month there.”

“The traditions of Paraco Gas have been built around quality customer service, and that begins with safety, front and center for every employee, customer, and community we service,” Armentano adds.

The company has a new state-of-the-art cylinder refurbishing center, its first, in Waterbury, Connecticut. Ravo explains that propane tanks are coming in, “from all of our service centers now, and we can take outside work in if it makes sense for both parties.” The refurbished products are refilled by an automated process and then shipped out to the same centers.

“We have been in the grill cylinder exchange business since 1998, and until this plant opened, [service centers] were outsourcing a majority of our refurbishing work,” says Armentano. “By bringing the cylinder exchange operations in-house, we were able to decrease overall costs and have direct control on the quality of the final product. This plant will keep us competitive with an increasingly crowded market and allow us to offer a higher quality product and service to our customers.”

Paraco Gas faces at least 150 competitors, with oil companies now beginning to expand into the propane arena. So the company has to be diligent and proactive in its plans to move forward.

“As industry leaders, we have a strong understanding of the players within our space,” Armentano says, explaining that acquisitions have been a vital strategic plan for the company since the first acquisition in 1979. “With any acquisition, we try to find a win-win relationship with the buyer. As a family-owned and operated business, we have the benefit of understanding what is important to small privately held business. We have also partnered with the largest companies that have multiple locations, they may have an underperforming operation they are looking to sell off that may fit well in our geographic footprint.”

Paraco Gas will be growing organically and through acquisitions over the next few years. Armentano says, “Our goal is to continue to be the largest privately-owned propane company in the northeast. We plan to continue to successfully leveraging technology to improve operational efficiency and provide excellent customer service to both our residential and commercial customers.”

The propane industry is a rapidly evolving market. Some of the growth in demand will, “come from developing countries that are transitioning from fossil fuels and coal to propane,” says Armentano. “Propane throughout the world is displacing burning of coal, wood, and cow dung in some developing countries. The United States is now a net exporter of propane because of the shale gas finds and the shale revolution,” Ravo adds.

Armentano notes that the ConEdison suspension of natural gas installations could present a challenge. “We will, I believe, see an increased consumption of propane within those areas because of propane being a portable reliable fuel.” She suggests that those once relying on natural gas will no longer be able to because of capacity issues.

“We strive to continue to have a family culture for our employees and be a ‘local’ trusted brand for our customers,” says Armentano. “We believe that we are currently fulfilling both, but we know that our leadership team has to work on this every day.”

The post A Trusted Name in Delivering a Clean Safe Energy Source<p class="company">Paraco Gas</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“We deliver a load of fuel probably every five minutes, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day,” states President, Chief Executive Officer and Owner Steve Hightower.

The Middletown, Ohio-based firm offers a ‘Fuel Doctor’ program which consists of preventative maintenance and inspection of fuel storage tanks, emergency fuel delivery in case a power grid goes down, and a service called “mobile refueling, where we actually go in at night and fill trucks and vehicles on site,” continues Hightower. It also provides a popular HPC MasterCard™ Fleet Card that can be used for a broad range of merchandise and services at over 10,000 truck stops and 200,000 gas stations, and it sells fuel additives, but wholesale gas and diesel sales remain the foundation of everything the company does.

Coming from a highly entrepreneurial family, Hightower also engages with other businesses, is involved in several community, industry and political organizations, and is actively looking at new markets for HPC. At present, the company has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Miami; Los Angeles; and Michigan. HPC also does business in Canada, Mexico, and South Africa.

“Our client base is quite broad and spread across many market sectors, which is a benefit of [selling] a commodity like petroleum, where you have various industry sectors that utilize fuel,” says Hightower. The company counts General Motors, FedEx, Kroger, Delta, Nissan, Duke Energy, and ATT as clients.

Providing fuel for automotive OEMs is one of the company’s specialties. “If you look at the automotive industry, which is a very a large side of our business, we do all the initial fuel for all GM and Nissan plants throughout North America, including Mexico,” he notes, adding that cars right off the assembly line “get fuel that’s provided by Hightowers Petroleum Company.”

The family has operated businesses since the 1950s when Steve’s father Yudell Hightower founded Hightowers Janitorial Service. This firm grew to a couple of hundred employees at its peak. In 1979, Steve struck out on his own, founding Hi-Mark Construction Group. The company, which still exists today, specializes in construction work on commercial and institutional buildings and wastewater plants. In 1981, he bought Hightowers Janitorial Service from his father, selling the company a couple of years later. He also began exploring the fuel delivery business.

He did not know much about fuel sales, but with a business and communications degree from Wright State University in Ohio and experience working for the family janitorial company, he was ambitious and eager to learn. “I was not knowledgeable about the petroleum business at all. Through osmosis and business savvy over the years, I learned [the trade],” he recalls.

Things were slow at first. Hightowers Petroleum Company, which briefly operated under a different name, consisted of two people in the very early days. “We built the business one customer at a time and held on to our customers. We held onto our supplier relationships and built from there. The first customer I had, in 1981, I still do business with them. The first supplier I had in 1981, we still do business as well,” he says.

Hightowers Petroleum Company was incorporated in 1984 and now has roughly sixty-five employees, and the company regards them as family. “We operate on a basis where we try to treat our employees with respect,” he adds. “The things we want for our family, our associates want the same for their family as well.”

When contemplating new hires, the company values character. “We look for energy, number one. We look for integrity, number two, and we also look for background and experience in the category in which we’re asking you to come on board and work with our organization. You’ve got to have some level of chemistry, not be disruptive, and can meet the core values of our organization: being willing to work hard and give it all you got,” explains Hightower.

HPC has become a licensed motor fuel dealer in South Africa and continues to look for new markets and opportunities. “There is a different market sector we’re looking to expand into, and that is the upstream. We’re now providing crude oil to refiners, and we are pursuing LNG – liquefied natural gas. We first began to pursue crude oil in 1983, and it took until 2019 to get our first crude contract and solidify our growth plan for the future,” he says.

At the same time, the company remains focused on its defining service, which is selling fuel. “Our business is being a marketer of refined products. There are various other aspects of the industry, such as refining, or production – which could involve fracking and drilling – that we are not involved with. We do not have the expertise, and we are not looking at going into those sectors of the business any time soon,” he explains.

As a leading marketeer in the wholesale petroleum sector, HPC recently became involved with SmartWay, an initiative run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage fuel efficiency and reduce emissions in freight transportation.

Hightower says the company’s involvement is a reflection of its beliefs: “We have the ability to be a leader in terms of looking for ways to be more environmentally friendly. SmartWay was [a program] we choose to work within that category, with our carriers,” he states.

HPC also sells eco-friendly products such as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) – a liquid that controls diesel emissions – and fuel additives required on trucks by the EPA. Hightower also operates a business called HP Energy, a self-described ‘energy efficiency project development and project management firm’ that is focused on turnkey energy projects. Among other activities, HP Energy examines energy efficient technologies and alternative energy sources such as solar and hydrogen fuel cells and Smart Cities.

The company first obtained an ISO status in 2002, in part because of work it was doing for automotive clients. HPC is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified for quality and environmental management, respectively.

Having an international quality standard was a requirement in the automotive sector and “something we adopted very early,” explains Hightower. Today, quality has become “part of our DNA,” and the company even “passes our quality standards to our carriers, as well as our suppliers.”

This emphasis on quality has not gone unnoticed. HPC this year has been awarded supplier of the year awards from the likes of General Motors and Duke Energy. “Any time you get that type of recognition, understanding the thousands of suppliers [those companies] have in their supply chain, you stand out as being one of their top performers. It’s always an honor and something that keeps us humble, keeps our nose to the grindstone. We always want to do better than we did yesterday,” says Hightower.

In addition to running several businesses, he somehow finds time to be involved with multiple organizations. These include the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Chamber, the U.S. Black Chamber, the CBCI 21st Century Council, National Black Caucus of State Legislators Corporate Round table, National Minority Supplier Diversity Council Board of Directors, American Association of Blacks in Energy, Chair of the Entrepreneur committee and others. He explains that part of his “exponential marketing strategy is to become part of the fabric of such organizations so that the HPC company name is on the tip of everyone’s tongue,” he explains, adding that, “it also makes good sense to stay abreast of legislation that might affect the company and our industry.”

Challenges facing HPC include “trying to grow into the level of organization we want to be,” – a process that involves money, says Hightower. “We’re looking at how we can hopefully remain a privately-held company and attract the dollars we need for our growth. To excel in the crude oil markets and the LNG markets require capital, large amounts of capital.”

He has personal and professional plans for the future. In five years, he’d like to see the company transformed into “both an upstream and downstream company,” he says. “At that point in time, I’ll probably start looking at an exit for myself – turning it over to the next generation.” That next generation being younger members of the Hightower family. At present, his son, Stephen Hightower II, works as the Chief Operating Officer of HPC with a daughter in supply and bids and a nephew as the Chief Technology Officer. Another son runs the construction division.

Hightower says he strongly supports efforts to include more minorities, women, and veterans in the petroleum supply industry. He also wants people to judge Hightowers Petroleum Company strictly on its own merits, not because of his ethnicity.

“Many times people want to look at us as a minority company, and I challenge them not to just look at our designation as a minority company but look at our place in the marketplace as a downstream petroleum company doing business competitively every day against [other] petroleum companies in the industry,” says Hightower. “I think that’s the one legacy I want to be able to leave: that we have been able to be the best in the industry period and not the best minority company in the industry.”

The post Family-Run Fuel Firm Looks for New Markets<p class="company">Hightowers Petroleum Company</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

A Decade of Dedicated Service
With a top-notch executive management team, Noles – a veteran of the oil and gas industry with over 30 years of experience – continues to lead Coil Chem into the future. As company Founder, Owner, Chief Executive Officer and Technical Director, Noles is a recognized leader in the Coiled Tubing Industry. Having Developed and patented several tools which became industry standards, he created Coil Chem in 2009. The company focused on frac operations until 2013 before growing the chemical side of the business, followed by water treatment equipment, and providing clients with a rich range of products and services.

On the threshold of its tenth anniversary, Noles says Coil Chem is the busiest it has ever been. “Well, that’s one celebration!” he says, proud of his team. “This year has been the culmination of all the work we’ve done up to this point, where it’s really started to manifest itself with the level of activity that we have.”

Coil Chem dedicated its early years to research, developing and establishing performance baselines for chemistry and other work. It first introduced those products to the market in 2014-15. A cycle within the market delayed the rollout of some materials, but the market recovered and gained traction in 2017-18.

“This year will probably be the largest year we’ve had since we’ve been in business,” says Noles. Opening a new office and yard in Midland to better serve the area, the company’s staff of about 50 is expected to double – at a minimum – by the end of the year, and double again in the next 18 to 24 months.

Cleaner Water for Fracking
Coil Chem is more than just a chemical company – it also provides on-site testing, customer chemical training, and 24-hour support. From frac to drill out and completion chemicals, its products reduce time on location, and bridge the gap between crosslink and slick water operations. Under the auspices of Dr. Sangjoon Kim, chemical engineer, Vice President of Manufacturing and R&D Director, Coil Chem continues to dedicate resources to research and development, continually improving the company’s innovative products and solutions.

And Coil Chem earns its industry-wide reputation for quality products and customer service – testing quality at all locations, providing further assurance the best and most appropriate chemicals are being used for all applications.

The oil and gas industry, in its early years, was not always concerned with overall performance and efficiency – as long as it got the job done. However, as climate awareness and environmental impacts become more and more important, Coil Chem recongnizes the need to not only improve the overall performance of oil and gas industry chemicals, but to find ways to minimize the application of chemicals, and they are not shy about investing in the research to do so.

“A lot of the work we’ve done is process-driven,” states Noles. “We treat water and improve water quality, and by the sheer nature of that, we can reduce some of the chemical requirements associated with water to bring it to an acceptable level. And that’s primarily being done within re-used water. Much of the water industry is currently using to hydraulically fracture wells has been produced from existing or pre-existing wells, so instead of taking that water and disposing of it, industry is taking that water and using it as part of the hydraulic fracturing process.”

Comparing water being stored in large reservoirs or tanks to water found in swimming pools, Noles illustrates that the more contaminated the water, the more it must be chemically-treated to bring it to acceptable levels and reduce bacteria and contaminants for fracking. The water starts off fresh at one point, yet becomes contaminated with bacteria and algae — the same holds true for produced water. “Part of the process we are pushing is actually using mechanical elements to clean that water, remove those contaminants, and minimize the chemicals being applied,” he says. “That’s elevating not only the performance of the material in the performance of the chemistry, but at the same time, it reduces requirements and needs for chemistry.”

By providing process control, equipment, and components to help reduce the application of chemicals within the oil and gas sector, and using more environmentally responsible chemicals in combination with mechanical methods to remove contaminants, Coil Chem is setting performance benchmarks and a level of expectation industry-wide. In fact, major oil and gas companies are focused on reducing the amount of chemicals they are applying, being more environmentally responsible, minimizing the amount of water used, and making efforts to reuse and recycle water, rather than fresh water.

In its frac division, Coil Chem became the first company to data-log 100 per cent of the water being pumped into reservoirs during the course of fracking, and is developing a sizeable database. While many companies spot-check and record values of water, they don’t log the entire volume of water. By logging all water being injected during fracking operations, Coil Chem is establishing baseline performance values, iron content, control variables, and knowledge of how operations are affected. “That’s where collecting this data allows the industry as a whole to really start driving the decision-making process based on known values, not just spot-checks and sporadic information,” says Noles. “Collecting that is one of the key drivers behind what we do.”

The company is also improving the environment is through another one of its businesses: Soil Chem, which engineers soil stabilization, dust control, and water remediation solutions. Along with products such as StabiZyme™ – a long-term soil stabilizer binding and strengthening product for unpaved road surfaces made from natural enzymes and through fermentation – the company manufactures fertilizer. Developed for no-till application on pasturelands where erosion is a concern and soil cannot be disturbed to introduce fertilizer into it, liquid fertilizers are sprayed on the surface to increase nutrient uptake for plants.

Creating Awareness
Representatives from Coil Chem have spoken at mining conferences, and been asked by local chambers of commerce and organizations like the Lions Club to discuss development within regionalized areas. They also give lectures and participate in various platforms in and out of the oil and gas industry, preparing technical articles and working to elevate the level of awareness of the industry. Coil Chem has also been, highlighted on Fox Business Network’s Manufacturing Marvels, and the company has appeared on the Smithsonian Channel’s reality program Boomtowners.

“We had a role in that back several years ago, and that really reached a broad area of the overall population,” says Troy Bishop, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We used that platform to really educate the general population as to what our industry is doing, and some of the good things we are doing to help reduce water consumption, help facilitate water re-use, and change public perception.”

Based on current workload and opportunity, Coil Chem anticipates much more growth in the next couple of years, and have actually instructed staff not to sell any more work for the time being. “The opportunities just within our current market setting gives us the opportunity to increase our workload easily by a factor of four,” says Noles. “The market has really started to embrace a lot of work we have done, and present tremendous opportunities for us. We are growing, but we’re trying to do it in a measured format, not to grow too quickly.”

With the company’s biggest driving force being “improving the performance and the perception of the oil and gas industry,” Noles says many of us tend to disassociate the cars we drive, the fuel we use, and the natural gas that heats and powers our homes from reality, and often remember only disasters involving oil and gas.

“The public doesn’t see all the work that goes on behind the scenes to really improve the industry,” he says. “For the first time in recent history, we have become energy-independent, and a lot of it happened in early 2000 when the first wells were actually hydraulically fractured within the Barnett Shale. Natural gas was at a cost of $15 per thousand cubic feet; now, natural gas is below three dollars per thousand cubic feet. And what has really driven that has not been the level of consumption – which continues to increase – but the efficiency at which the oil and gas industry has been able to extract that material, to find new resources, and ways to improve overall efficiency. That has really driven that price down.

“And although the general population may not give much consideration to it, we have some of the cheapest energy in the world right here within the U.S. And part of the reason we have some of the cheapest energy is because of all of the work that the oil and gas industry is doing behind the scenes to improve efficiency, and focus on new ways to extract materials from the ground, even with older and mature wells, and finding new ways to be much more efficient and reduce the environmental impact while doing so.”

The post Improving Oil, Gas and the Environment<p class="company">Coil Chem, LLC</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

With SunSpark, solar isn’t just the future, it’s the now. This sentiment permeates the hearts and minds of its employees, its clients and its partners, and creates a culture where people truly believe in solar and renewable energy.

Solar, by its very nature as a renewable resource, is communal in nature and is meant for everyone to enjoy and benefit from, however this is not the case. Where monopolies control markets, a lack of competition keeps prices artificially high. As a result, this creates a barrier for those who cannot afford solar but are most likely to benefit from it.

SunSpark and its partners are doing all they can to change that. “We believe in climate change and changing the future for everyone down the road,” said Letty Zuniga, who is tasked with regional business development for SunSpark. “It’s not just about saving money, but it’s about saving future generations.”

SunSpark serves a real purpose in the market; that is what it set out to do when it was established by its parent company, Yiheng Science and Technology Co. Ltd., which is based in Qinhuangdao, China. Yiheng is a solar panel equipment manufacturer that has established itself as a globally recognized brand.

SunSpark was established in California as part of Yiheng’s global expansion strategy to proximately serve the North American market. In a relatively short time, it has become a major competitor in a solar industry, finding itself amongst some of the biggest names and well known players in the market.

“SunSpark is not a household name, per se, but our products compare head to head with international market manufacturers in durability, quality and performance. The only difference is that it is made domestically here in America,” Zuniga explained.

While SunSpark’s roots are in China, it is proud to be homegrown in the United States, supporting job creation and the green economy, helping its clients and their end-users, as well as the greater population, to create a greener domestic footprint in North America.

Compared to its competition, Zuniga explained, “We’re fairly small scale and that gives us the flexibility and a more personalized customer service experience for our customers,” doing so with an utmost commitment to transparency.

In fact, SunSpark takes every opportunity to open its doors to its clients, including hosting school tours and serving as a learning facility where its photovoltaic (PV) modules can shine. Having its entire operations under one roof provides an interesting perspective and shows how custom solar products are made from conception, through the design phase and eventually into production.

Through a partnership with 3 IN 1 ROOF, one of three players in the integrated roofing system market, and one of two competitors whose product has passed UL 1703 testing, and arguably the most energy efficient system, SunSpark is pushing the boundaries for what is possible in solar roofing.

SunSpark was chosen as their module manufacturer for all introductory sales and installations. 3 IN 1’s integrated solar roofing systems is the only offering that is truly integrated and not simply built into an existing roofing system. It boasts a thick three-pound foam embodiment which serves to eliminate rooftop solar gains from entering the structure, thus reducing reliance on air condition units.

Likewise, the roofing tiles are High Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) approved and can withstand over fifty repeated “Class-4” pinpoint impacts before its underlayment is compromised, meaning it can be traversed without causing damage to the module and is Title-24 code compliant.

With a lifetime warranty, near one-fifth crystalline solar efficiency, and ease of installation and retro-fit, 3 IN 1 ROOF’s solar roofing system is considered best-in-class and is redefining what is possible in solar roofing from both a performance and aesthetic point of view.

“This is a superior product. It’s going to integrate directly into your roof which means it’s a roof tile, essentially replacing your roof,” explained Zuniga. The product competes on price, performance and degree of integration.

SunSpark has also worked with All Earth Renewables out of Vermont to produce a highly unique offering that can follow the sun for optimal exposure and superior output. According to Zuniga, “We are one of the first solar companies to actually UL certify a solar panel that’s on a tracking system with the design of a flower,” which is both visually and functionally innovative.

When asked what sets SunSpark apart from its competitors, Zuniga responded, “Customers look to us for projects no one else will touch.” She added, “When people think about solar, they think of standard PV modules that stick out about two to three inches,” which is not the case for the projects SunSpark undertakes.

SunSpark continues to work with its customers to develop new, innovative solar devices with higher wattages and improved performance. Its exceptional culture, internal capabilities, the ability to deliver custom solutions and the capacity to support them, regardless of how complex or innovative they may be, is what sets it apart in the market. And certified to ISO 900, 14000 and 18000 standards, the quality of SunSpark’s output is second-to-none.

For two years, the company ranked in the top ten for DNV-GL’s PV Module Reliability Test, where it found itself amongst the top solar companies from around the world, including customers of its parent company.

“That is very prestigious for us because we are a smaller company but yet we are listed on this report with some of the largest solar manufacturers around the world,” says Zuniga. “Everyone here really believes in renewable energy which makes it much easier to work with all these standards.”

Standards internally drive quality and competitiveness, but for SunSpark, standards and legislation that are being introduced externally are also helping to drive growth for the company. For example, the rooftop solar mandate in California that will require new homes to integrate solar panels starting in 2020 represents a significant opportunity for the company, its partners like 3 IN 1 ROOF, and the solar industry in general.

SunSpark cultivates the notion that renewable energy really matters, and it is well positioned to make its mark on the industry in that regard, leading by example and solid principles. “SunSpark is a great place to work,” says Zuniga. “The company has visions for the future and the owners truly believe in renewable energy,” and these principles trickle down through every layer of the organization.

As one of North America’s premier solar panel manufacturers, SunSpark is not only here to stay, but it is here to play, prepared to compete with some of the largest competitors in the market. Building on highly competitive products and rock-solid client relationships, it has leveraged its innovation and capacity to deliver on even the most complex, custom projects; it has found a way to shine bright.

As a relatively new name, but with decades of experience backing it, SunSpark aims to reign supreme in the solar market, and in doing so, it will reinforce the global dialogue when it comes to solar and renewable energy. Though its operations are small, they are quite scalable. SunSpark is poised for growth, and will continue to bring exceptional solar solutions to the market, making solar more affordable and more accessible for all in the process.

The post Leading The Solar Revolution Through Technological Evolution<p class="company">SunSpark Technology Inc.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

To offer a full range of energy efficiency solutions, PosiGen first seals the vents to perform blower door and duct blaster tests to determine how much air exchange there is between the interior and exterior of the home and how much air is escaping through the ductwork into the attic. The team then seals the building envelope and repairs the ductwork and seals, the plenum, and air return; replaces all incandescent bulbs with LEDs; installs a programmable thermostat; installs attic knee wall insulation; blows cellulose insulation into the attic; and puts an insulation sleeve on the hot water heater.

“We are working on making the house not only more energy efficient but also healthier. We’re cutting down the amount of moisture intrusion, spores, mold, dust, et cetera that comes in, making it more comfortable and getting rid of the hot and cold spots as well as the drafts,” says Neyhart.

In 2011, six years after Hurricane Katrina, residents in Louisiana continued to struggle with rebuilding their homes, and PosiGen was founded to equip these families with solar and energy efficiency programs that would have an immediate positive financial impact. At the time, solar programs were designed to help the environment or to give residents peace of mind about future payments, but not necessarily to return immediate savings. PosiGen set out to find a way for solar to put an average of $500 a year back into families’ pockets right away by combining solar and energy efficiency together.

The business tax credits and incentive programs in Louisiana enabled the company to turn this concept into a reality; however, it was challenging to explain to financial partners that the plan was to focus on deployment in low-income neighborhoods. Working with families that have lower incomes regardless of credit score did not resonate well in an industry that was already focused on serving expensive homes owned by people with credit scores of 750 or higher and household incomes of at least $150,000. “Our idea that this would be a utility replacement, that credit scores didn’t really matter, and that ‘the lower the income the better because the bigger the impact,’ just wasn’t something people were ready for at the time,” explains Neyhart.

As part of a team effort to address the challenge of raising initial capital, PosiGen Co-Founder Aaron Dirks joined the effort, and the company was able to borrow funds from a local bank to go out and install a few hundred systems. PosiGen was able to prove that there is indeed a high demand in this underserved population, and that there is a great amount of immediate savings possible. In some of the older homes, the solar and energy efficiency solutions provided up to $1,000 in annual net savings for those customers.

PosiGen’s success attracted the attention of US Bank, which has a background in community development, and it provided the emerging company with its first injection of “tax equity” (that is, investment dollars associated with the federal 30 percent solar Investment Tax Credit). From that point on, business took off and has not slowed down since. “We went from installing maybe 500 systems in 2012 to installing over 1,500 systems in 2013 and over 2,000 systems in 2014 – and we’ve never looked back,” says Neyhart. To date, the company has served 14,000 families, and over 70 percent of its solar installations are still performed in low-income census tracts. Fortunate to find great financial partners along the way, PosiGen is grateful for its relationships with LibreMax, Capital One, GAF, Callais Capital, Connecticut Green Bank, and others.

These partnerships have allowed PosiGen to accelerate its growth in Louisiana, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and to continue helping the families and communities that need it most. “If you make 30,000 dollars a year and have three kids in school, and we can put $500 to $700 a year back into your pocket, that 50 or 60 dollars a month has a real impact when it goes toward buying school supplies or groceries,” says Neyhart.

Make no mistake, PosiGen is a for-profit company with stockholders, and it is concerned with ROI, but it is a firm that lives by its mission, which includes four pillars, starting with not only making a positive financial impact on the future of families’ lives but also making a positive financial impact in the broader community.

To this end, PosiGen has installed 2,790 systems in New Orleans East, and the average customer in that neighborhood is now saving approximately $52 a month. That money does not go into a 401(k) or into a stock portfolio; instead, it is spent in the neighborhood at the local grocery store, pharmacy, or the cleaners. “Economists say every dollar that is spent in a low-income community churns 3.9 times, and when you multiply that by 2,790 families and multiply it by 12 months, all of a sudden you see that PosiGen is having a $6,000,000 a year impact on the New Orleans East community, which is a very low-income census tract,” explains Neyhart.

Roughly 42 percent of the business at PosiGen comes from customer referrals, as people have a tendency to discuss the positive changes in their lives and want to help their community.

PosiGen is also creating jobs and business opportunities in low income communities, which is the basis of the third pillar of its mission: to hire the same people it serves. Over 65 percent of its employees are persons of protected class and in many cases, its customers choose to apply for work at PosiGen after their homes see the benefit of solar installations and energy efficiency upgrades. During employee meetings, when the question is asked, half of the room raises their hand to state that they had been a customer before coming to work for the company. Dedicated to paying its people a living wage, PosiGen offers a competitive starting wage, pays 75 percent of all employee benefits, and matches employee contributions to their 401(k) plan dollar for dollar. The company is proud to state that its employees have collectively saved over $3,000,000 for their own futures.

The fourth pillar of PosiGen’s mission takes employment one step further by building strong and reliable career opportunities for staff. One team member, Caitlin, began in the telemarketing department before working her way up to Team Lead and moving into an administrative role. She then became involved in marketing and ultimately became the Marketing Manager for the entire company across all three states with an annual budget of close to $2,000,000 to manage.

PosiGen also helps to create career opportunities in the community by working with at-risk youth each year through its summer internship program. Students learn about the company’s mission in a classroom setting as well as on site and in the end, one is selected for a scholarship award.

Thanks to its financial partners, PosiGen expects to see a large increase in the number of families it will be able to serve this year. The company is currently working to raise additional corporate equity to further its growth and create partnerships that will allow it to service low-income communities in other states. This is key, as PosiGen believes that reducing energy costs for low-income families should be a focus for the renewable industry in every state. It is easy to sell expensive solar products to the wealthy, but the positive effects of serving “underinvested communities” are undeniably beneficial to society as a whole.

“The amount of deployable solar in the U.S. on low-income homeowners’ houses is 342 gigawatts,” says Neyhart. “Think about the impact that would have across the nation if we could figure out a program that would consistently be able to deliver solar and energy efficiency to these customers.” The efficient cost structure at PosiGen enables it to install a solar system that is cash flow positive on day one and this is a concept that should be adopted by more solar companies. PosiGen’s customer acquisition costs are $4,500 lower than the industry average, and its installation costs are $3,000 dollars less than average, making its model very accessible.

PosiGen is always on the lookout for emerging innovative technology to broaden its offering and save its customers the most amount of money possible. “We always say, ‘we don’t have to make every dollar, but we have to save our customers every dollar,’” says Neyhart. PosiGen has proven that the concept of supplying solar to low-income homeowners is profitable, and it has developed a model worth emulating. “You hate to ask for competitors, but we can’t be everywhere, and this program needs to be available for everybody out there.”

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Every day, the world’s rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans take a beating.

From disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill of a decade ago – the biggest oil spill in the history of the industry, spewing over 200 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days – to billions of plastic bottles, bags, and bits of packaging clogging waterways, the planet is struggling. And far from just being an issue confined to developing nations, pollution aggressively impacts Canada and the United States, where cities from Montreal to Vancouver continue dumping millions of litres of untreated sewage directly into lakes and rivers.

Making pollution even worse are accidental waste spills like the one last July at Seattle’s West Point Treatment Plant. Backup pumps, instead of kicking in during a power outage, failed to work, resulting in about three million gallons of raw sewage flooding Puget Sound. Although the untreated waste flowed for only 30 minutes, the contamination was enough to close several beaches for days.

The unthinkable
As inconceivable as it seems, some large companies have been caught knowingly and wilfully polluting oceans. Back in 2016, Princess Cruise Lines agreed to pay a staggering $40 million penalty – “the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution” according to the United States Department of Justice – for illegally dumping contaminated oil from its Caribbean Princess cruise ship.

The vessel, which visited ports in Florida, Puerto Rico and other places, used a so-called ‘magic pipe’ to illegally dump “oily waste off the coast of England.” Even more appalling was the revelation in court documents that the same cruise ship was making “illegal discharges” going back to 2005.

The damning 92-page Plea Agreement (United States of America v. Princess Cruise Lines, Ltd., Defendant) states reasons for the landmark penalty against the cruise line, ranging from knowingly discharging and disposing oily mixtures, “including oily bilge water and slops from bilges,” to making false entries in the Caribbean Princess’s Oil Record Book and failing to maintain discharge records.

Most appalling of all is that the ship’s Chief Engineer and Senior First Engineer knowingly made the discharge, involving several subordinate crew members in this before an unnamed whistleblower took photos and videos of the ‘magic’ bypass pipe used for illegal discharge.

When the decision was handed down, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated that the $40-million penalty sent a strong message to all companies about the need to protect the environment, saying that “the U.S. government will continue to enforce a zero tolerance policy for deliberate ocean dumping that endangers the countless animals, marine life and humans who rely on clean water to survive.”

As just one example, the Caribbean Princess reinforced the urgency of the need to protect the world’s oceans. Water covers about 71 percent of the planet’s surface, and oceans are home to at least one million different living species. For everything from adult blue whales weighing up to 300,000 pounds (136,077 kg.) to microscopic phytoplankton providing food, maintaining the health of our oceans is vital to all life on earth.

Protecting the cradle of creation
Despite humankind depending on the world’s oceans as a valuable source of food and commerce for thousands of years, it wasn’t until shortly after the Second World War that the present-day version of marine conservation took hold. Recognizing the tremendous importance oceans hold for the entire chain of living things, the rise of marine protection coincided with new technologies, sparking an increase in resource-sector activities including underwater oil exploration and mining.

Awareness of the need to protect oceans grew throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies with explorers and filmmakers like Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his influential first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure. This was soon followed by other landmark books supporting conservation and protection, most notably Rachel Carson’s 1962 Silent Spring. While focusing primarily on the harmful effects of pesticides, Carson’s landmark book triggered a movement leading to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States in 1970.

Awareness of pollution and the need to protect biodiversity – particularly in designated hot spots – grew sharply in the 1970s and 1980s, and has continued to grow, along with the rise of marine conservation and management organizations, to this day.

Documentaries and books including 2014’s Marine Conservation: Science, Policy and Management, and the Handbook on Marine Environment Protection, published in 2018, have been influential.

Worldwide, many organizations are dedicated to protecting the world’s lakes and oceans, including the Nature Conservancy (one of the oldest, founded in 1951), Greenpeace, the Project AWARE Foundation, Oceana, the Ocean Conservancy, and the Environmental Defence Fund. Perhaps the largest and best-known of all is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Operating in 100 countries and with some five million members, the WWF is extremely active in marine protected areas (MPAs). Encompassing not only oceans but Great Lakes, seas and estuaries, MPAs vary in size, and can include wildlife refuges, fully protected marine areas, parks, sanctuaries, and research facilities.

Restoring and replenishing
With so much contingent on the protection of these areas, it’s disappointing that a total area of less than four percent of our oceans is protected.

Defined by the WWF as “an area designated and effectively managed to protect marine ecosystems, processes, habitats, and species which can contribute to the restoration and replenishment of resources for social, economic, and cultural enrichment,” Marine Protected Areas are crucial to safeguarding marine and human life alike, since depleting stocks of fish means less food available in the ocean, and less for humans.

Operating in 14 priority areas globally – from the Gulf of California to the Galapagos, Coastal East Africa, the Southwest Pacific and other areas – the WWF and other organizations acknowledge the many benefits of protecting marine areas, from maintaining local economies and jobs for fishermen to allowing fish to spawn and grow to adulthood in safety.

Worldwide, not only environmental groups but also governments are working hard, ensuring the protection of marine conservation areas, prohibiting mining, oil, and gas companies from operation in select areas.

Old problem, new standards
In April 2019 Canada’s then-Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard (now Minister of Environment and Climate Change) Jonathan Wilkinson announced updates to the standards governing marine protected areas. Following the appointment of “an independent National Advisory Panel of experts to consult Canadians about marine protection acts” and cross-Canada consultations, the new standards governing ocean protection were created.

Addressing the need for safeguarding Canada’s oceans, the new recommendations include conservation areas like marine refuges, and high-level marine protected areas. Following recommendations of the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards, four industrial activities in these areas were prohibited: “oil and gas activities, mining, dumping, and bottom trawling.”

Widely covered in the media, the dramatic marine protection changes drew praise from the public, politicians, and environmental groups alike across the nation, including the WWF and Oceana Canada.

Founded in 2001, the Toronto-headquartered independent charity Oceana Canada is part of the international organization Oceana, dedicated entirely to the preservation and conservation of the oceans and everything that inhabits them. For Canada, the sweeping changes brought in to safeguard some of the nation’s 2.76 million square kilometres of ocean by deeming them MPAs – and so free from mining, and oil and gas recovery – was viewed as a major step towards the future well-being of Canada’s waters.

“Canada is an oceans country,” said Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change at the time. “We are the stewards of the longest coastline in the world. Protecting Canada’s nature and the health of our oceans benefits our communities, our ecosystems, and our wildlife.”

Assessment and urgency
One of the biggest initiatives towards protecting the planet in recent years is the World Ocean Assessment (WOA). Released in 2015, the first WOA was created under the UN Environment Programme. Reporting on the state of our oceans, the WOA involved over 600 scientists in the report, addressing 10 themes including the increasing inputs of harmful material; food security and food safety; and the cumulative effects of human activities on marine biodiversity.

Examining multiple areas, including environmental, social, and economic implications, the findings of the report are dire. “The findings indicate that the oceans’ carrying capacity (their ability to sustain human activities and their impacts) is near or at its limit and urgent action on a global scale is needed to protect what remains.”

Oceans are one of our biggest sources of biodiversity, and represent life itself. Without healthy oceans, the planet would cease to exist. But with increased environmental awareness, stricter laws and penalties for reckless dumping, and a growing sense of urgency, it is possible that we will see the health of oceans restored in our lifetimes.

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