TZL 1297

ELEVATE / CELEBRATE BLACKSTONE ENVIRONMENTAL SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER HONORED WITH SERVICE AWARD FOR 2ND TIME Blackstone Environmental Senior Project Manager Anne Melia, CHMM, was honored with the 2018 Distinguished Service Recognition Award from the Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Managers, Heartland Chapter, which covers the Kansas City area. She is the first chapter member to receive the award twice – she was also a recipient in 2015. Melia has served the ACHMM Heartland

Chapter as secretary for the last four years, is an active board member and is a key contributor in the chapter’s communication, events, promotion, and recruitment. At Blackstone, Melia manages and supports projects for public, private and industrial sector clients. Her expertise includes environmental compliance and monitoring, site assessments, risk-based corrective action, permitting, solid waste planning, and hazardous waste determination and more. Blackstone Environmental is a consulting

firm comprised of engineers, geologists, hydrogeologists, and scientists specializing in many environmental and engineering fields including solid waste and landfill services, environmental assessment and design, civil engineering, energy sector, natural resources planning and permitting, and regulatory compliance. Blackstone Environmental delivers value for all services provided to its clients. Inherent in value is the integration of innovation to provide technically proficient and cost effective solutions to meet client’s needs.

CHIEF ENTHUSIASM OFFICER, from page 7

MS: Because we compete for similar talent against much larger companies, often publicly traded, we know our bene- fits must be comparable. We routinely use benchmarks and surveys to ascertain how we stack up, and accordingly, our benefit offerings have grown along with our size. We offer stipends for smartphones and health club memberships, the ability to purchase supplemental and additional life in- surance, tuition reimbursement for select education, and even access to pet insurance. More often, the result isn’t necessarily a new benefit, but perhaps an improvement to existing offerings, such as choices among types of medical plans, or immediate vesting and increased investment op- tions in the 401(k) plan. “For us, diversity is not a particular compliance threshold to achieve and then check the box, but rather it’s an ingredient of our culture to seek input from a variety of experiences, backgrounds, geography, training, and more that collectively make our company better.” TZL: How are the tariffs impacting your business and that of your clients? MS: The tariffs haven’t yet had a dramatic, direct impact on our business, but they are clearly a topic of discussion with clients. Obviously, the greater risk is to our EPC projects, and we try to have frequent and proactive discussions with our clients to keep them current with what we are hearing in the marketplace. We also maintain constant communi- cation with material suppliers and lean on the information received from their raw material vendors that forecast steel pricing indices out into the near future. TZL: Are you currently pursuing the R&D tax credit? MS: For several years now we’ve taken advantage of the R&D tax credit, and it has significantly helped us with our rapid growth. Each new hire requires a computer and furni- ture, plus significant software costs, and is paid for at least a month, all up front before we receive the first payment for those services. The tax credit allows us to recoup some of our initial investment and provides some compensation for the return on investment lag inherent in new hires.

all part of sales and marketing. We’re a service business, es- sentially selling the people that work for us, and anything we can do to take away the pain a customer experiences is our path to continued sales growth. TZL: Diversity and inclusion is lacking. What steps are you taking to address the issue? MS: For us, diversity is not a particular compliance thresh- old to achieve and then check the box, but rather it’s an in- gredient of our culture to seek input from a variety of ex- periences, backgrounds, geography, training, and more that collectively make our company better. We value diversity resulting from an engineer’s past experience with a differ- ent client or even a different industry. Some of our tech- nological advances are due primarily because we frequently recruit and hire individuals from outside of our familiar ge- ography, customer base, and market. That’s only the initial step, however; our aim is to provide an environment where all employees feel valued and confident to express opinions and ideas. As part of the retooling of our organization, we adopted a structured meeting rhythm across the company, from daily team huddles to weekly departmental meetings, to provide a thread for this input to disseminate quickly throughout all levels of the firm. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? MS: Our recruitment efforts, since day one, have stressed that we offer careers, not jobs. We want employees that tru- ly desire to be part of the future we’re trying to create, and our ownership feels a responsibility toward the families rep- resented by every employee. Therefore, our ongoing imper- ative is to continue growing to provide a long-term, bright future filled with opportunities. Certainly compensation is part of the relationship, but we also believe that flexibility in personal work schedules, options for continual training and development, professional growth through a spectrum of project responsibilities, and access to management at any level within the firm all contribute to employees remaining here. In addition, as the firm continues to expand, new posi- tions open up, and having a track record of promoting from within gives employees the confidence that career growth is possible for everyone. TZL: Benefits are evolving. Are you offering any new ones due to the changing demographic?

THE ZWEIG LETTER May 20, 2019, ISSUE 1297

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