From L to R: Lena, Nicole, and Allison, pictured on a jobsite in Bellevue, Wash.
For this year’s Women in Construction Week (WIC Week), which runs from March 5-11, we spoke with three women—Nicole Jetson, Allison Camper, and Lena Rowe—who work in the construction trades for McKinstry. Below are excerpts from that interview, covering their careers in construction, their experiences as women in the trades, and their thoughts on how to increase representation of women in their industry.
Photo by Mark Turnauckas, via Flickr.
What do you think about when you consider extreme energy efficiency? Perhaps you think about gigantic solar arrays, intricate water reclamation technology, or slick computerized building controls.
While all those measures are well and good, you don’t have to buy fancy equipment or use luxury materials to achieve superior energy savings.
When it comes to lowering energy consumption, I believe that simple utility incentives—which are often just a few lines of text—may very well be our most powerful tool.
Innovation is one of McKinstry’s core values.
Throughout 2016, McKinstry’s Western Washington Region organized an “Everyday Innovation” campaign that set out to share innovations and recognize innovators company-wide. We chose this name for the campaign because even smaller-scale or “everyday” innovations can make a big difference in improving the way we work.
All said, the organizers of the campaign have received more than 60 submissions that highlight an impressive array of creative thinking and have sparked discussions about innovation throughout McKinstry.
While the campaign is ongoing, we’ll be featuring nine of the very best innovation submissions we’ve received thus far in a series of Everyday Innovation posts. This post features the first three submissions.
Today, November 11, is a day unlike any other. Veterans Day gives us all an opportunity to pause and appreciate the service and sacrifice of our nation’s veterans. To all the veterans across our nation—thank you.
In their own words, here are some thoughts about service, sacrifice, and Veterans Day from an assortment of veterans at McKinstry (seen above). This is their day, and we couldn’t be prouder to have these men and women on our team.
Kristina Sing, P.E., is Director of Engineering for McKinstry’s Seattle-based Energy team as well as our Portland office. She can be reached at kristinas@mckinstry.com.
In a previous life, I was a mechanical engineer working for a consulting firm. My goal was to become a principal in that firm—that was the path all consulting engineers followed. An engineer would spend years learning the craft, adhering to code changes, and designing projects—eventually moving up to managing projects and the ultimate end game: managing a book of business, developing a client base, and managing a team of engineers.
Around the 10-year mark in my career, I was managing projects with hopes of becoming a principal one day, when I was presented with an opportunity to change jobs. This company was a design-build mechanical contractor. In my experience, though, engineers were often at odds with contractors. The perception was that contractors tried to cheapen the project—they were out to find holes in the design and pine for change orders. Why in the world would I want to go work for the BIG BAD CONTRACTOR?
“Blueprints” is a Spark series exploring McKinstry’s core business philosophies from our leaders’ perspective. This is the third story in the series, from McKinstry’s Chief Operating Officer: Ron Johnson
Most companies will tell you that safety is important to them. No company wants to be labeled as “unsafe” or give the impression that safety is secondary to anything else.
Now, many companies truly do value safety. I would even say most companies are well-intentioned when it comes to protecting their employees and clients. However, there’s an enormous difference between saying that safety is your top priority and proving that safety is your top priority.
At McKinstry, safety is our top priority and we work hard to demonstrate this every single day.
It’s an indelible part of all aspects of our business. We have high expectations when it comes to safety because we know it’s the only way we can achieve excellence in all that we do.
“Blueprints” is a Spark series exploring McKinstry’s core business philosophies from our leaders’ perspective. This is the second story in the series, from McKinstry’s President: Doug Moore
For decades, productivity improvement has been a foundational business driver in most industries. As of late, the construction industry is finally catching on.
Nick, Mike and Ryan, pictured here during their military service.
Nick Biesold, Mike Wilfong and Ryan Hough have cumulatively served for decades in the Army and the Marines. They’ve served in the air, on land and at sea. They’ve been deployed stateside, around the world on amphibious aircraft carriers, in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
As Memorial Day approaches this year, though, all three men find themselves in the same place: McKinstry’s safety department.
This Passive House—the “O2Haus” in Portland, Oregon—is one of the more than 120 certified by the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) since 2001. The house was designed by PDX Living. Interestingly, it’s also available to rent on Airbnb. Photo via Flickr & courtesy of PHIUS.
In writing the 2012 Seattle Energy Code, the Seattle Code Committee did something that is perhaps unprecedented in the history of municipal regulations.
Namely, the new code included a path to compliance that would allow developers to essentially do anything they wanted to a building, so long as the building plans met a few simple prerequisites and a strictly-defined energy performance target. This is a provision that provided developers with a unique degree of flexibility, while also giving the city real leverage in mandating energy efficiency.
While this new compliance path in Seattle is optional (there are three other paths that design teams can use to comply with the code), it represents a shift in energy policy that is truly groundbreaking in America. This alternate compliance path is one of the first true “performance-based” codes in the country, and it represents a glimpse of the future.
Quite frankly, the modern construction industry evolved during a time when high performance wasn’t required in the built environment.
That time, however, is passing.
Photo Credit: LendingMemo, via Flickr.
Like offensive linemen and line cooks, facility managers only get noticed when something goes wrong. That’s why they need the right tools to properly care for equipment, provide oversight of vendors and ensure that tenants remain happy.
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