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BUSINESS NEWS BURNS&MCDONNELLMOVESTONO. 1ASNATION’S LARGEST COMMISSIONING FIRM ON ANNUAL COMMISSIONING GIANTS RANKING Burns & McDonnell has moved to the top spot as the industry’s largest commissioning services firm on the annual 2018 Commissioning Giants survey conducted by Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine. Burns & McDonnell reported commissioning revenue of $31.4 million, up from $25.1 million the prior year. The rapid growth is the result of Burns & McDonnell’s commitment to expand commissioning services on a national scale, nearly doubling its geographic footprint over the past year. Today, more than 140 commissioning professionals work in 23 offices throughout the country, up from 14 offices a year earlier. In addition to the commitment of resources, Burns & McDonnell also recently achieved formal designation as a certified commissioning firm by the Building Commissioning Association. “We’re excited by the movement up the rankings because it means that more and more owners, developers, utility providers and energy service companies are seeing what commissioning can do to save them money, reduce energy consumption, enhance resiliency and deliver successful projects,” says David Meyers, national manager of commissioning for Burns & McDonnell. Burns & McDonnell specializes in delivering a wide range of commissioning, retro- commissioning, and monitoring-based commissioning services for facilities, campus installations, and mega-scale programs throughout the country. Currently the Burns & McDonnell commissioning group is working on seven large building programs, each with a construction value in excess of $1 billion. The firm has provided commissioning services on a wide range of industrial, commercial, federal,

mission-critical, and unique, one-of-a-kind projects for facilities totaling millions of square feet. Commissioning is increasingly part of programming, design, and construction of highly complex facilities, including early stages as a strategy to better manage project budgets and reduce project risk. Services include MEP coordination and startup management, facility condition assessment, energy model verification, energy audits, measurement and verification and building enclosure commissioning. Burns & McDonnell is an employee-owned, Kansas City-based firm with more than 6,000 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, and consultants. Ranked as the No. 1 firm in both Power and Electrical Transmission and Distribution by ENR , and now the No. 1 firm in Commissioning, Burns & McDonnell has more than 50 offices across the country and throughout the world. O&S ASSOCIATES COMMISSIONS WORLD’S FIRST PARKSMART GOLD CERTIFIED PARKING STRUCTURE O&S Associates Inc. , an engineering and architecture firm, recently served as the commissioning agent for the Gold 1 Garage in Pittsburgh. This is the first Parksmart Gold project of its kind in the world to achieve the highest level of certification. With an engineering team comprised of staff from multiple offices including New Jersey, Ohio, and Philadelphia, O&S inspected and evaluated the garage using an official scorecard point system. Grading was based on meeting specific standards for management, programs, technology and structure design, and innovation. For a new construction project to receive the Gold standard, it must achieve 160-plus points out of a maximum 248 points available.

Parksmart, a voluntary, consensus-driven certification, is the only rating system advancing sustainable mobility and positive impact through smarter, best practice parking structure design and operation. Administered by Green Business Certification Inc., Parksmart complements LEED and other certifications. Parksmart certification recognizes parking structures designed to: ❚ ❚ Reduce their environmental impact ❚ ❚ Increase energy efficiency and performance ❚ ❚ Manage parking spaces efficiently ❚ ❚ Encourage alternative mobility options ❚ ❚ Strengthen community relationships O&Swas honored to be a part of this prestigious project, helping the Stadium Authority achieve this distinguished designation for its Gold 1 Garage. “O&S has been an innovator both as a parking consultant as well as a commissioning agent for MEP projects,” said William Payne, vice president of O&S. “We couldn’t be more excited to leverage both strengths for our important client.” This is the second project managed by O&S in the past few years to receive special distinction. O&S was closely involved in the extensive modernization and energy upgrade of Tremco Inc. headquarters in Beachwood, Ohio. The building received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council which is difficult to achieve for an existing structure. O&S Associates Inc. is a full-service multidisciplinary consulting engineering and architecture firm specializing in the assessment and repair design of exterior walls, roofs, mechanical systems and parking, as well as other building consulting needs such as capital reserve studies and expert witness services.

KYLE AHERN, from page

4)Compensation. The top firms received outstanding marks for salary, bonuses, and benefits. They are making sure they are competitive locally, regionally, and nationally. Keeping their compensation competitive with, if not better than, their com- petition is great for recruiting new talent and keeps estab- lished people from wondering if there is something better out there. They are pointing out everything that is included in the compensation, not just base salary. They educate their em- ployees, new and current, on the total compensation package. Benchmarking your firm against the best is a great way to improve your own firm. Take steps to improve your training/mentoring, communication, flexibility, and overall compensation. Being a Best Firm to Work For improves the lives of your employees, attracts new employees, and shows your clients you care about the people who work for you. KYLE AHERN is awards manager at Zweig Group. Contact him at kahern@zweiggroup.com.

communicating the reasons with the employees is another great tool rather than just ignoring the requests. Open com- munication goes a long way for the Best Firms. “Benchmarking your firm against the best is a great way to improve your own firm. Take steps to improve your training/ mentoring, communication, flexibility, and overall compensation.” 3)Flexibility. Being flexible enough to change your policies also helps. The top firms are flexible enough to improve their healthcare benefits or their maternity and paternity leave pol- icies because that makes their firms better. With a changing workforce that has changing wants and needs, it’s important for firms to be flexible enough to continuously improve, mak- ing their firm stand out as a great place for people to work.

THE ZWEIG LETTER December 31, 2018, ISSUE 1277

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