Sustainability – Are You Going to be on the Sidelines or in the Arena?

Discovery: We’re a little Closer to the Arena

One of AP’s strategic initiatives was to reinforce in the marketplace that we are an industry leader in sustainability. I was nominated to represent our regional office as we chose to explore where we are currently and where we desire to be over the next five years. As I started talking to others and assessing our projects, clients, trade partners, personnel, and general practices through the lens of sustainability, it became apparent that we are already doing a lot of great things. Here’s a little bit about what I discovered:

• Water: Water conservation in this region of the country is extremely important, so we do our part by being part of the AGC’s Stormwater Excellence program. We protect our watersheds from site, silt run-off. Being part of this program represents a dedication to doing the right things when it comes to properly engineering, inspecting and maintaining our Best Management Practices at our sites. Our teams use native seeding, and we have a dedicated watering truck to ensure the seeding gets established to minimize site erosion. The trucks assist in applying the water where it will be most beneficial.
• Carbon Footprint: While looking at how manufacturers can create documentation of their Green House Gas Emissions for their product literature and LEED submissions, we decided to take a simple look at our offices and fleet vehicles along with our larger site equipment to assess a benchmark of our pounds of CO₂ I helped to investigate and benchmark our efforts. We are looking into having a third-party do a more robust assessment to where we can create some long-term goals for reducing our carbon footprint. We have more work to do on this one.
• We have been an industry leader in reducing our waste generation by diverting as much jobsite waste as possible away from landfills and toward recycling efforts.

In addition, as a company we:

• Installed EV charging stations at our offices and have added hybrid cars to our fleet.
• Our Aurora office has rooftop photovoltaic arrays installed.
• FODS Mat Utilization – AP was an early adopter of the technology developed in Denver. The FODS, or Foreign Object Debris systems mats, were initially developed for aviation. This sustainable product can last a decade or more and they replace heavy rip-rap. In practice, the mats are cleaned with special shovels to remove debris, or flipped using equipment typically on-site already, or by vacuuming. These mats save labor hours, conserve fossil fuels, and protect the environment from unsuitable materials. Once a project is completed, the mats are loaded onto a truck and reused at a new site. AP began using this technology in 2015 – now you see them on many Colorado construction sites.
• Prefabrication – Our team utilizes our warehouse space for prefabrication of project requirements that benefit from completion in a controlled environment. For example, wall blocking. Preparing site wall blocking at the warehouse allows us to be efficient, utilize any wasted materials in other ways, and be more productive in this repetitive work as all resources and tools are in a single location. Once all the materials are prepared, they are loaded to a cart and transported to the site for efficient installation. Other opportunities for warehouse preparation include sheathing assemblies, small steel components, fence components, temporary protection needs etc. This helps to reduce our time and carbon footprint. (Images of some of our prefabrication efforts below.)

Finally, I’m excited about the code changes being required by jurisdictions where we build. Already we are being more thoughtful about what we’re doing by adhering to jurisdictional building codes. Our clients are doing more and I applaud the code revisions being made by City and County of Denver, City of Thornton, Northern Water, and the State of Colorado to name a few.

Our preconstruction process has assisted owners in making good decisions. This includes the use of sustainable design. Our team is well-versed in figuring out construction, installation, life cycle and maintenance costs. This is helping our project owners be well-informed about decisions they are making that could impact sustainability.

Join Me in the Arena
This process has led me on a path of discovery. I recognize that we have more to do. Some of our best opportunities include:

• Understanding our baselines for improvements to our company’s carbon footprint and setting goals for the future,
• Investing in efforts to educate more people, perhaps increasing the number of LEED Certified managers to have more project impacts,
• Hosting lunch and learns with sustainability experts from around our community, and
• Educating our project managers about updated and changing energy codes help us add value to our projects by ensuring that clients have all of the information they need to make key decisions surrounding energy efficiency and sustainability features. An example of this is the code changes around EV. Providing critical information allowed one of our clients to make a decision on how many charging stations to install on a new project.

As you consider Earth Day this year, set a few personal and professional goals to do a little more for our Earth. My journey of a few months has increased my desire to do more: encourage, challenge, and act. I’m going to get my hands dirty, participate in that arena that our former President Roosevelt mentions. I hope you’ll join me.