Learning How to Manage a Business Benefits Clients Too

A successful business model directly relates to happy clients.  It helps us to take a deeper look into what our values are, what our strengths and weaknesses are, how we can work more efficiently, and how we communicate to each other and to our clients.  To learn more about managing and operating a business John Buerkle enrolled in the Urban Power to Prosper certificate course offered by the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. The course follows the Interise StreetWise MBA™ Curriculum.  The nine-month program included four modules:

1. Business and Leadership
2. Financial Management
3. Sales & Marketing
4. Resource Management

By the end of the program John had developed a Strategic Growth Action Plan, specific to Pashek Associates, to guide us over the next three years.  Through the class John learned how to:

1. Develop a value proposition, identifying and sharing with clients how we bring value to them.
2. Identify and monitor appropriate financial indicators to monitor the financial health of the firm.
3. Expand marketing and business development opportunities through social media.
4. Identify strengths and weaknesses in his management style and identify what steps are necessary to improve his leadership skills.

The valuable information John learned through the course will help us better connect with and serve our clients.  He highly recommends the program to business owners who want to gain a better understanding of the components that go into running a successful business.  If you are interested in learning more about the program, contact Rhonda Carson Leach, rcleach@katz.pitt.edu, Director of the Urban Entrepreneurship Program, at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business.

Breathing Our Air: What We Can do to Improve the Worst Air Quality in the Nation

Route 28 Traffic

Pittsburgh has some of the worst air pollution in the country.  Even more troubling, while other cities with bad air pollution are improving their air quality, Pittsburgh is not advancing nearly as quickly.  These were just some of the alarming statistics that announce loud and clear that we need to change the way we live.  

Marily Nixon, Breathe Project Coordinator for the Heinz Endowments presented some sobering news at the launch of the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge at the Pittsburgh Zoo on Wednesday, June 26.  She touched on ways each of us can make a difference as we work together to turn the tide and begin reducing toxic particles in our air.    

Her presentation got us thinking about our efforts at Pashek Associates and in our homes to reduce our reliance on energy that pollutes our air.  Many of us can break our well entrenched habits and try to walk or bike to an errand nearby, to commute by bike or to carpool to work, and for some of us, consider a hybrid or all electric car the next time we buy an auto.  But all of us can unplug our computers when we do not us them, turn off the lights when we are not in the room, plant a tree and buy locally grown products.  Less demand on energy means less pollution.  It is as simple as that and we need to begin now in doing our part.  If we all do, we will breathe easier.

 To learn more about the Breathe Project and what steps you can take to improve our air quality go to their website at www.breatheproject.org.

In Pittsburgh, Green is in the Air

It’s summer and that means the City is green with trees.  Not only are plants in the midst of their growing season, but people are in the midst of launching green initiatives.  Last week we attended a poster  session during the Who’s Who in Green Infrastructure Implementation event hosted by the Green Building Alliance and organized by 3 Rivers Wet Weather.  The event was packed with people interested in sharing their projects and learning more about green infrastructure. 

We brought along information on several of our green roof, green school, and green park projects.  At an elementary school in New Castle we were able to reduce the amount of stormwater piping and decrease the size of underground storage tanks through a combination of planted meadow areas, rain gardens, pervious overflow parking and fire lane, and a series of vegetated swales. 

For Whitehall Road Regional Park in Centre County, we are pulling out all the green stops by including rain gardens, steep slopes with meadows, vegetated buffer strips, infiltration trenches, and cisterns.  In addition, 44% of the total parking spaces are stabilized turf, which further reduces the amount of stormwater runoff. 

Our last poster featured our designs for the David Lawrence Convention Center green roof, the Allegheny County Office Building green roof, and the rain gardens at Seven Springs.

 

This morning over 80 people packed a Pittsburgh Zoo conference room to kick-off this year’s Green Workplace Challenge (GWC), a program of Sustainable Pittsburgh.  We took part last year in the challenge and are excited to enter again this year with the revamped program.  

This year’s GWC promises to be bigger, better, and have an even larger environmental impact than last year.  There are more points to acquire, more actions to take, and more resources available to help guide your business, non-profit, university, or municipality towards becoming more sustainable as well as saving money.  

Last year we saved 19.9% on our energy usage without spending a lot of money.  This year we want to reduce our energy usage even further by tightening up our building envelope.  We will also start to phase out our older lighting with new highly efficient lighting.  We highly recommend any organization in Southwestern Pennsylvania sign up for this friendly competition before the deadline on July 31^st, 2013.  Good luck to all participants.  Together, we can make a huge impact!

Pashek Associates Sustainability Policy

As Landscape Architects, Community Planners, and Parks and Recreation Practitioners, we have long been in the business of working with natural processes, improving efficiencies, and developing innovative ideas for the good of the community.  We have continually searched for the most sustainable solutions in design and planning.  We believe it is the right thing to do.

As a firm, we strive to become sustainable through the following actions:

·         Promote sustainability through design and planning

o   Spec sustainable products that are durable, reusable, recyclable, made with recycled content, use less packaging, and/or made from renewable resources.

o   Use stormwater Best Management Practices.

o   Use smart growth, transit oriented development, and other sustainable strategies in community planning and urban design.

o   Protect and/or restore the environment by designing with ecological and natural processes in mind

o   Use other sustainable sites principles found in LEED and the Sustainable Sites Initiative

·         Use a democratic design and planning process to support the needs of whole communities

o   Ensure that all meeting participants are equally heard regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or age

·         Educate our clients and friends about the importance of sustainability

o   Promote sustainable design solutions to clients by educating about their benefits

·         Implement sustainable actions in the workplace and at home in our communities

o   Follow the Pashek Associates’ sustainable office policies in order to reduce energy, water, air pollution, and waste.

o   Set an example in our individual neighborhoods / communities by following the same policies at home.

Pashek Asscoiates is building a culture of responsibility that encourages every employee to ask the questions that lead to more sustainable processes and practices, and help our firm support a sustainable future.

Pashek Associates Receives ZIP GOLD Certification

Zero Waste Pittsburgh’s ZIP Certification Program is a project of the Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC).  ZIP is intended to encourage, reward and acknowledge organizations that have taken important steps towards reducing the waste they produce through recycling, composting and source reduction measures. 

Pashek Associates attained GOLD Certification by:

• Recycling everything from paper and cardboard to batteries, florescent bulbs, and printer cartridges
• Buying products that include recycled content and/or from renewable resources
• Educating employees about the benefits of recycling
• Composting all food waste
• Reducing or eliminating single use beverage containers and serviceware

Any business, organization, or even event can become ZIP certified.  Zero Waste Pittsburgh also offers assistance in developing a waste reduction program.  We encourage any business, organization, or event to look into becoming ZIP certified.  For more information about the ZIP program or waste reduction resources check out their website.

Waste Reduction Strategies

One of the benefits of competing in the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge is the informative workshops that are offered to participants.  The workshops are focused on helping participants learn new sustainable solutions, network with like-minded people, and connect with those who can help implement the solutions. 

 

A couple of weeks ago, Sara Thompson, Pashek’s Sustainability Coordinator, attended a workshop on Waste Reduction Strategies.  Waste reduction is important because Americans produce 250 million tons of trash in a year, but only recycle or compost 34 % or 85 million tons.  This means that 164.8million tons are discarded in landfills or incinerated.  Considering that these numbers do not even include industrial, hazardous, or construction waste, imagine how much waste we could actually be diverting from landfills and incinerators.  Click here for more waste and recycling stats for 2010 form the EPA. 

 

Carla Castagnero, President of Agrecycle, explained how her company recycles and reuses natural materials to enhance soils and foster plant growth using composting techniques.  Did you know that about 60% of what we throw away is organic and can be composted?  Agrecycle picks up organic materials, such as paper products, cardboard, and food scraps from offices, restaurants, cafeterias, and grocery stores and turns it into compost using 100% natural methods.  Their compost products are used as soil amendments for everything from growing edible and ornamental plants to preventing drought and soil erosion and even remediating brownfield sites.  

 

Kurt Duska of EngineeredPlastics Inc. described how his company recycles one million pounds of mostly pre-consumer plastic products a month into new plastic products.  Kurt mentioned that every one ton of plastic recycled diverts 16.3 barrels of oil.  That means that Engineered Plastics is diverting 8,150 barrels of oil every month.

 

According to Ned Eldridge of eLoop, electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world.  The pace of new technologies is outpacing the sustainable and ethical disposal of old technologies.  eLoop recycles anything with a cord on it in addition to wireless electrics from calculators to cell phones.  

 

Global Links is a medical relief and development organization dedicated to promoting environmental stewardship while improving health in resource-poor communities in Latin America and Caribbean.  Orly Stampfer explained that Global Links takes in medical surplus and other still-useful materials such as used office furniture and ships the supplies to hospitals and clinics which need them.  

 

The PennsylvaniaResources Council (PRC) works as a state and national leader in waste reduction and recycling as well as litter and visual blight prevention, watershed awareness, and composting.  Kyle Winkler, an Environmental Program Coordinator for the PRC, talked about the Zero Waste Pittsburgh program or ZIP.   ZIP was created as a one stop shop for recycling and waste minimization resources and assistance for businesses, institutions, and special events.  Your company, organization, or even special event can become ZIP Certified.  To learn more, check out www.zerowastepgh.org.

 

We want to also give a shout out to Breen Masciotra, the director of PittsburghCenter for Creative Reuse, who attended the workshop as a participant.  The PCCR promotes resource conservation, creativity, and community engagement through material reuse.  PCCR provides creative reuse programs and their store is a great low-cost resource for teachers, artists, and others seeking unique materials for their creative projects. 

Pashek Associates will look to see if Agrecycle can help us recycle our organic wastes, will look into ethically recycling our spent electronic equipment with companies like eLoop, will consider Global Links as another potential resource for donating our used office furniture, and is currently looking into ZIP Certification with the PRC.  In addition, we will now think twice about throwing away product samples since the PCCR accepts donations of architectural and design samples.  We will keep you posted on our progress towards becoming a more sustainable business.

Click here for more information on upcoming workshops or the Green Workplace Challenge.

Old Dog, New Tricks….it can happen!

Pashek Associates is committed to integrating sustainable design in all of their endeavors.  Toward that end, the firm encourages staff to prepare for a take the LEED Accreditation exams sponsored by the US Green Building Council.  Now to the ‘Old Dog’ part.  Jim Pashek, president of Pashek Associates, and a self-proclaimed old guy, recently passed his LEED exam to become an accredited LEED Green Associate.  He joins is colleague Nancy Lonnett Roman, RLA who is LEED-AP accredited.  Jim hopes that others in the firm will follow his and Nancy’s lead and study for and take the exam soon.

“The green building movement strives to create a permanent shift in prevailing design, planning, construction, and operational practices toward lower-impact, more sustainable, and ultimately regenerative built environments.” (from the Green Building and LEED Core Concepts)

Pashek Associates Leading the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge in Small Business Category

The Pittsburgh Green Workplace challenge enables businesses to participate in a friendly challenge program where they can receive recognition for their sustainable actions and achievements.  

Pashek Associates is leading 12 businesses in the small business category (less than 50 people).

According to Valerie Patrick, PhD and Sustainability Coordinator for Bayer Corporation, "sustainability is a way of thinking and applies to every aspect of our work."  We couldn't agree with her more.

Pashek Associates received points by tracking utility bills using an EPA website, being a bike friendly business, having a Prius for a corporate car, and planting native plants on the roof of their building.  Green office policies of using washable cups and recycling also contributed to the firm's leadership position in the challenge.  Next up is an energy audit to begin reducing energy demand and our carbon footprint. 

 

For more information, or if you are interested in signing up for the Challenge, please see the Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge Website.