Pulling together architecture, engineering, and design, Cushing Terrell “designs systems and spaces that help people live their best lives,” says its website. In practice, the firm serves a variety of market segments from commercial and government to education, retail, healthcare, infrastructure, and residential with a team encompassing more than 30 disciplines.

It is that breadth of specialization that truly makes Cushing Terrell stand out, and it has been embedded in the business from the beginning.

The company was founded in 1938 in Billings, Montana. Architects Ralph Cushing and Everett Terrell—with Cushing possessing significant engineering expertise—joined forces with the core belief that a multidisciplinary, integrated design practice would deliver the best results for their clients. That is exactly what they achieved with their first project in 1938: the construction supervision of Billings Senior High School.

It was unique to have multiple disciplines under one roof in 1938. Cushing Terrell’s Director of Sustainability, Ashleigh Powell, believes in the vision of the founders and notes that it is still unique to this day.

“With our structure, all disciplines can be at the table early in a project, collaborating around strategies right at the onset, where you can make the biggest impact. It was our foundation from day one, and it continues to define how we build teams and deliver services,” she says.

It is not just in the execution of a project; Powell points out that when the firm is considering projects, this multidisciplinary structure allows the team to develop more creative solutions for proposals.

Today, against the backdrop of decarbonization efforts, sustainability is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the business, and this area of focus is yet another example of the company being ahead of the curve. It started in 1975—before most people or businesses were thinking about sustainability—with the introduction of the firm’s energy conservation practice.

It is also what attracted Powell to the company. “When I moved to Austin in 2005 to pursue my masters of sustainability at the University of Texas School of Architecture, Cushing Terrell was the only company that mentioned sustainability in their job posting. It was a differentiator; it grabbed my attention.”

Powell learned through the interview process that the firm had already established an internal green advocacy council, so it was an easy decision to join.

In the ensuing years, its sustainability practice gained momentum through the U.S. Green Building Council, which launched its first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program in 2000. With more than 100 LEED-accredited professionals in the early days, Cushing Terrell’s sustainability practice grew, certifying green building projects in all its specialties.

Around the time of the pandemic, Powell saw a notable shift in the approach other companies were taking to sustainability. “More companies were getting more serious about developing their own sustainability practices in alignment with their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments and/or decarbonization objectives,” she shares. “So we’re now doing more work with clients to develop custom sustainability standards or to design within their existing standards.”

In sharp contrast to the doom-and-gloom tone that dominates much of the news related to environmental sustainability, Powell sees positive changes taking place behind the scenes. “It’s really interesting to be able to peek behind the curtain. These companies’ commitments are closely tied to their corporate structure, and it’s a top-down commitment. In some cases, even CEO compensation is tied to meeting those goals.”

She notes that the early decisions about the structure of Cushing Terrell positioned the company for this work. “We need everyone at the table to help companies with those wide-reaching goals. We couldn’t be as effective if we didn’t have the multidisciplinary team that we do.”

The team is also geographically diverse, with employees living and working in many parts of the United States. The rapid expansion of remote work through the pandemic was part of it, but once again, Cushing Terrell was ahead of the trend.

“I remember as far back as 2008, the president of our firm was talking about remote work. He said it shouldn’t matter where you sit, and that has allowed us to attract the best people to our team, regardless of where they are,” says Powell.

The firm counts some very large companies among its clients—Google in California, Texas, and Washington, and Dell, for example—but when a sustainable future is the objective, businesses of all sizes have a role to play, and Cushing Terrell can help.

“Right now, we’re helping a local company inventory their Scope One (direct) and Two (indirect) greenhouse gas emissions. For the company, it translates to energy efficiency and resilience but it’s really about alignment with the imperative to decarbonize their operations.”

Powell points to two projects that are particularly notable for the company, in that they embody the full range of Cushing Terrell’s capabilities.

Ten years ago, the team led the design and construction of the visitor center at the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. With upgraded insulation, daylight harvesting, geothermal heating and cooling, and onsite solar generation, the facility was on track for net-zero energy consumption. After its first year of operation, energy data showed that it had exceeded that by a wide margin. In fact, it was feeding twice the amount of energy back to the grid than it consumed, and it has done so for the past decade.

The other project that Powell highlights is Romney Hall at Montana State University, a project that called for modernizing the building constructed in 1922. Ultimately, 17 new classrooms were added along with centers for math, writing, veterans, and students with disabilities. This structure is now more accessible and more energy-efficient, all while preserving the character as well as the embedded cost of the materials already used in its original construction.

Projects like these reflect why Cushing Terrell has been widely recognized with industry awards. The Romney Hall project received recognition for adaptation and reuse. Interior Design Magazine placed the company in the top 100 firms in its inaugural sustainability category of the ‘Interior Giants’ ranking, and in 2023, it was given the prestigious ‘Mountain States Design Firm of the Year’ designation by Engineering News-Record (ENR).

It may be a cliché but, in Cushing Terrell’s case, the company’s success is truly about its people.

“I’ve been with the company for 17 years,” says Powell. “It’s unique in the industry to have that kind of tenure, but not here. A lot of our people have been with the practice for a long time. There’s a really strong sense of community and family. We celebrate our mission, vision, and values, and there’s a personal alignment in our commitment to the communities where we live and work.”

That commitment manifests, in part, in the pro bono work Cushing Terrell does. The company has always done pro bono work, but two years ago, it organized that practice. Nominations are gathered from staff and the community at large, submissions are vetted, and a deserving project—typically a charity or non-profit organization—is selected.

This kind of integrity is one of the company’s values and also shows up in the way it makes the same commitments to sustainability as its clients do. “We’ve taken the approach over the years that if we’re going to sell a service, like green building certification, we should experience it ourselves and certify our own offices,” says Powell.

The company’s Billings office was thus LEED-certified in 2002, which was very early for that designation. That ‘walk the walk’ commitment continues to this day. The company is a signatory to multiple emissions-reduction commitments, and its Boise office was the first in the United States to be platinum-certified in the LEED v4.1 commercial interiors rating system.

After 85 years of being one step ahead, what is next for Cushing Terrell? More of the same, starting with a more data-driven approach.

“We’ve created a post-occupancy research group. They’re conducting onsite analyses after the completion of projects, surveying the occupants, measuring acoustics and daylight values in the space, and more. That helps us complete the learning, bringing feedback back to the design teams about how those designs are working and being used in the real world,” Powell explains.

Naturally, Cushing Terrell’s integrity is also a big part of the company’s future. “We’ve been focused on operational energy in our sustainability practice; now, we’re looking more holistically at the embodied carbon footprint of the materials used in the building. Our commitment to a sustainable planet also extends to people. We’re getting involved in the Design for Freedom movement, which aims to reduce the forced and slave labor that goes into the manufacture of many building materials.”

Learn more about Cushing Terrell and its sustainability practices by visiting https://cushingterrell.com/.

The post Ahead of the Curve in Sustainable Building Practices<p class="company">Cushing Terrell</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In the years since, the company has shown a remarkable degree of resilience, forged over decades of success. Allied Blower is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year, and Bruce Wendel is bullish about the U.S. expansion and the prospects for the company’s future. Wendel is one of three owners of the business; he is Principal and General Manager of Allied Blower & Sheet Metal Ltd.—the Canadian side of the company—and President of Allied Blower USA Inc.

Based in Surrey, British Columbia, the company now has a manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. This manufacturing centre will ultimately support several service centres in the area. “We’re licensed in five states, with projects in most of them,” Wendel says, “and we’re working on two more.” The company currently works in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Georgia.

The lumber industry in the Southeastern United States is rich with opportunity and is driving the expansion. South of the border, there are more independent lumber producers than in Canada, and this provides companies like Allied Blower with openings to connect directly with more owners making decisions for their business.

“These companies have deep connections to their communities,” says Wendel. “You’ll go into a community where ‘XYZ Lumber’ has operated for 100 years, and see ‘XYZ’ high school, ‘XYZ’ medical pavilion, ‘XYZ’ golf course. The owner is right there in the community, running the business with their family.”

Natural resources are big business for Allied Blower. The company serves the lumber industry in both Canada and the United States, in addition to the potash and uranium mining sector and some customers in manufacturing as well. Wherever a process produces airborne dust, there is a potential role for Allied Blower’s equipment and services, and those services are end-to-end.

“We design the systems for our customers. We manufacture 90 percent of what we put in, both the equipment and the ductwork, and all of that equipment is certified to various National Fire Protection Association standards,” explains Wendel. “We do the installation, commission the systems, perform inspection and maintenance. We do upgrades when a customer wants to increase the throughput in their plant or when they install a new machine.”

Allied Blower’s in-house capabilities are complemented by a network of strategic partnerships that it has built with other companies in the industry. These partners include companies like Air Cure, a baghouse filter technology company; Fargus-GreCon, a supplier of spark detection and extinguishing systems; and Albarrie, a manufacturer of non-woven filter fabrics and bags.

The team stands behind its systems, providing rapid support when a customer’s critical equipment malfunctions. Whatever the industry, downtime is costly.

“Breakdowns always happen on Friday night, of course,” Wendel laughs, “but we answer the phone and get right to it. We’ll get a crew there on the weekend and get it done. We’ll drive parts there if we need to or send them air freight—whatever it takes; we won’t walk away from a job until it’s right. We have strong relationships with our customers, and we protect those relationships.”

This commitment to its product and service has created loyal customers. “We’ve got a broad install base and a great reputation in the market,” says Wendel. “When it’s time for new equipment or upgrades, our customers come back to us.”

Like every other industry, technological developments are changing the game for Allied Blower. The next big step? Automation.

“Right now in the market, there’s a lot of instrumentation. Sensors are monitoring equipment and processes end-to-end. But automation? Not yet. That’s the push; that’s the future. Automation will mean that we’ll know what a piece of equipment is doing based on differential pressure or velocity or volume of air. We’ll know whether something’s wearing out or not working correctly, and we can provide that information to the customer,” says Wendel.

He is mindful of the fact that these kinds of proactive insights prompted by data may be perceived as intrusive. He understands that there is a balance to be struck: providing just as much information as the customer needs and no more. However, the potential to reduce costs for customers–particularly costs resulting from downtime–makes some level of automation a logical next step for Allied Blower.

With loyal customers returning to Allied Blower for additional equipment and services and a burgeoning expansion in the United States, there are few things that provide an impediment to growth. The biggest single challenge is people, specifically the availability of the highly skilled tradespeople that Allied Blower needs to serve its customers.

The people the company needs are primarily sheet metal workers certified by the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) in Canada and the American Welding Society (AWS) in the United States, having some experience working in industrial environments. Those people are in short supply and extremely high demand on both sides of the border.

“Access to skilled trades is certainly a challenge,” Wendel says. “It’s worse right now in the U.S. than in Canada; the labour market is tight here, but it’s even hotter there.”

When talent is in such high demand, there are a number of ways to approach the problem. A company can try to compete with compensation packages or provide a working environment and culture that attracts talent from other companies. It is more difficult when high-demand talent is also in extremely short supply. In that case, a company has to do all those things and more.

For Allied Blower, ‘more’ means developing its own talent pools. The company deliberately creates breaks for younger people with limited experience to enter the company and train as they work, and apprentices are a key pillar of the talent strategy.

“It’s important for us to create a career path,” Wendel says. “We provide opportunities for people to come in and have a great job and one that they can translate into a career path. Some of the tradespeople will ultimately move off the tools into an estimating role or eventually a management position.”

Allied Blower supports the growth and development of these employees by funding training provided by local educational institutions. This may include technical training in the trades or estimating or even leadership training for those on the road to management roles. “We’re doing the same in the U.S. You have to have a certain number of journeymen before you can hire apprentices, of course, but that’s started.”

Not surprisingly, another challenge associated with a shortage of talent is succession planning. When younger employees are staying for shorter periods of time in any particular job and company, it is tough to build the kind of strength that a business needs for sustainable growth. “Succession is definitely a challenge. We’ve got key people moving toward retirement age, and it’s tough to lose that experience. We hope to bring more people in and transition those people into the leadership of the company in the future.”

In the meantime, as Allied Blower approaches its golden anniversary, it has both a proud legacy and a very bright future to offer that next generation of leaders. Renovations to the facility in Surrey are underway, and there are plans afoot for well-deserved celebrations marking 50 successful years in business.

The post Clearing the Air<p class="company">Allied Blower</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Dale is President of USTOA, the United States Tourism Operators Association. The association, based in New York City, has members around the world, and every one of those members was affected to an unprecedented extent by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this was not the first time Dale had led an organization through an unthinkable storm.

“On September 11, 2001,” he recalls, “my job was to promote tourism for New York City. I figured that a person would only experience something that extreme once in their career. I thought I’d ‘checked that box.’ Then COVID hit, and it was 10 times harder. After 9/11, the whole world wanted New York to come back better and stronger. With COVID, the whole world was impacted.”

Dale’s team at USTOA is small but mighty. “We have a team of five people, and I think we do magic,” he says. “I have the most amazing colleagues; we all know the job we need to do and get it done. We’re lean and mean.”

Together, that team delivers a wide range of services to both members within the industry and the traveling public. It maintains a member directory for tourists seeking travel experiences. This provides a level of assurance to travelers, as a tourism operator that is a member of USTOA must follow the organization’s principles of professional conduct and ethics.

USTOA also manages a travelers’ assistance trust fund, to which every member is required to post $1 million in security. This fund protects consumers in the event of an operator’s bankruptcy or insolvency, helping to ensure they are not left stranded or empty-handed.

For its members, USTOA provides opportunities to network, do business with, and learn from each other. The organization has about 900 members, including the 63 National Parks across the United States, and over 140 destination marketing organizations around the world.

Dale is adamant that the organization’s goal is not to have the most members, but rather the right members.

“We have no aspiration to be the largest tourism organization,” he shares. “At the core of USTOA is integrity. We align ourselves with businesses that share that integrity, ones that provide customers with the experience they deserve.”

In addition to the alignment in values, USTOA’s membership goals strive to meet the demand of the traveling public. “We look to create a global balance. We look at where our members are taking American travelers, and we work to identify partners and suppliers in those countries to consider.”

When Dale joined USTOA 12 years ago, his first mandate was to increase the level of advocacy on the part of the industry.

“The board’s first request and priority was that we have a stronger voice in Washington—one that would help tell our story and educate the government about the industry. Of course, that voice is more credible when it comes from an industry member, rather than a ‘paid spokesperson,’ and we’ve done well at engaging our members on that front. Whether it’s the Department of Transportation, the State Department, or elected officials, we show them how what they do can have a positive or negative impact on the travel industry.”

To engage its members even more actively, USTOA hosts an annual conference every December. Tour operator members must be represented at that event; the workshops and symposia provide ongoing education and support in growing their businesses in a way that reflects the integrity for which USTOA stands.

Understandably, the connections and relationships that have been built between USTOA members at these events became even more important in early 2020. The industry was hit with the biggest crisis it had ever faced, and the members rallied to support each other.

“Early in the pandemic, USTOA moved to create a channel for dialogue between members, to give them the chance to say, ‘How are you dealing with ‘X?’ and, ‘What can we learn from each other?’ The beauty of our members is their willingness to share. In a pandemic, you don’t compete; you want to survive.”

USTOA’s track record for advocacy and relationships in Washington was also important during the worst of the pandemic. The organization was present in Washington, championing the needs of member companies and industry employees when it came to funding and other support programs.

The organization’s members and its membership were remarkably resilient. “We didn’t lose one single member through COVID—not one. But it wasn’t just because of USTOA. It was because our members are solid, sound business people. They had the foundations to get through even that and to bounce back.”

Every cloud has a silver lining, and for Terry Dale, it is the relationships that were formed in crisis but persist to this day. “The pandemic created a stronger community, and that community continues to talk with each other. There’s more conversation, more dialogue between members than ever.”

The association celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, a milestone that provided an opportunity to look back and to look forward. When asked about the future priorities for the organization, its members, and the industry as a whole, Dale names diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and sustainability as chief among them.

“DEI is a big hurdle as an industry, and it’s longer-term,” he says. “We’ve got to be able to get staff, leadership, and customers who are more diverse. That will take time but we’re moving in that direction.”

One vehicle through which USTOA puts its commitment to promoting DEI into action is Tourism Cares, the organization’s charitable foundation. Tourism Cares supports community initiatives across the United States and around the world, through grants to social enterprises and other mission-driven organizations and projects. One such initiative is the Black Tourism Talent Directory, developed by the National Blacks in Travel and Tourism Collaborative.

Tourism Cares also promotes global conservation initiatives, aligning itself with USTOA’s drive to promote sustainability in the travel and tourism industry. Worldwide, the industry’s environmental impact is a significant one. When operators make choices that have a lesser impact, the ripple effects are multiplied powerfully.

“On the sustainability front, a lot of our members are making really good progress. Some members have become B Corp Certified. That’s the gold standard; it really shows that they’re committed to doing the right things.”

When it comes to promoting sustainability or DEI, Dale makes it clear that USTOA’s role is not to mandate actions on the part of its members or to dictate what steps they should take; it is more about celebrating accomplishments that can inspire and motivate others, and providing guidance, no matter where a member may be starting.

“No one has the answer; I certainly don’t,” he says. “Every company has to figure out what works best in their business model. My job is to provide resources to members to start their journey and to support them as they take steps in the right direction.”

There is one development being felt in every industry, and tourism is no exception: the explosive growth in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. What impact will AI have on travel and tourism?

“I don’t have the answer,” Dale laughs. “I do believe that we shouldn’t approach it as a threat though. Instead, we need to figure out how we can use it as an opportunity.”

The widespread adoption of AI will undoubtedly create changes in the way people research destinations and book travel, and that is why Dale sees USTOA’s role as one of education and advocacy.

“It’s easy to use online tools to get basic itineraries and information, but there are nuances when you deal with a real person to help you create the travel experience. AI doesn’t necessarily know that local person who makes arts and crafts or the person who knows the real history of the place.”

The risks can be more serious than just poor information, though. “You can use AI to book travel if you want but, if you’re somewhere else in the world, you’re on your own. If a pandemic happens or a 9/11 happens, you need an advocate—somebody to help you get to safety and security.”

There is no question that travel will continue to hold a magical allure. Seeing new sights, experiencing different cultures, and learning about places far from home are nearly universal human desires. In the future, USTOA will continue to protect the traveling consumer and provide support for tourism businesses around the world but, in that work, Dale sees a larger role for USTOA: one that can quite literally help to create a better world.

“We have a responsibility to create meaningful, purposeful travel. As an industry, we have tremendous economic power; how we decide to spend that economic power is critically important. We need to find communities around the world that we want our customers to experience from an educational and inspirational perspective. Our dollars can go so far in those neighborhoods.”

Naturally, for USTOA, it is not about directing where the traveling public may go. It is about making sure that, wherever they choose to go, they have the best possible experience.

“People are always going to go to Italy, and that’s great, but if you’re considering going to Ethiopia, USTOA should have a network of experiences in Ethiopia. Ones that can help community-based organizations and businesses and will have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.”

The post Making the World Smaller—and Better—for Travelers<p class="company">United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA)</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Transforming the way power is generated and distributed isn’t a small task. It’s like transforming a nationwide network of cart paths into a highway system that can accommodate today’s traffic. But the world is changing, and the way we generate and consume energy is changing, too.

There is growing demand—and greater urgency—to transition to renewable energy sources; that’s a good thing. But energy generated from sustainable sources like solar and wind is far less consistent than that from fossil fuels. There are peaks and valleys that the traditional grid was not built to handle.

Customers are demanding more from producers, too. They want the ability to consume power at times when it is in less demand and therefore less expensive. Furthermore, the widespread and growing popularity of electric vehicles has created unpredictable changes in demand to which utilities everywhere are struggling to adapt.

On top of that, there’s the emergence of the ‘prosumer’—a portmanteau formed from the words ‘producer’ and ‘consumer’. Prosumers are able to generate electricity from solar or wind installations on their own properties and sell it back into the grid, or even directly to other consumers.

And, of course, weather patterns are changing at the global level. Storms are more frequent, more damaging, and less predictable than in the past. It’s more difficult for power utilities to keep the lights on and to know where to put maintenance resources.

None of these changes—those emerging from the market or from the natural environment—would be manageable without the development of the smart grid.

In simple terms, a smart grid is defined by a two-way flow of both energy and data. Energy flows to the user; data is generated and flows back, showing how that power is being used.

The introduction and development of the smart grid was a significant leap forward. It enabled utilities to manage the grid more effectively and reliably, optimizing the way in which power is generated and transmitted. And it provided an element of control to the consumer; with more data about how they use power, they can make choices to use it more efficiently and save money.

For all its benefits, the smart grid still had a bottleneck: data. More specifically, the ability of legacy systems to gather, analyze, and derive meaningful insights from the staggering amount of data generated by the smart grid.

There are literally millions of data points and millions more variables; it’s not just a matter of how many times per second calculations can be done, or switches flipped on or off. The full potential of the smart grid can only be realized when a system is able to make intelligent decisions based on all the data. And that’s something that yesterday’s systems, let alone humans, simply can’t do.

That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. Yes, AI technologies can interpret data in volumes that would have been difficult to comprehend even just a few years ago. But the real power of AI lies in its ability to learn from that data—getting better at understanding it and using it to make better decisions.

Machine learning applies mathematical models to massive datasets, looking for trends and patterns. Deep learning—a subset of machine learning—uses multi-layered neural networks to analyze this data more deeply. Machine learning and deep learning have the potential to turn the smart grid’s step forward into a giant leap.

The amount of money being invested in these technologies is just as significant as the amount of data they work with. According to a 2023 report by www.researchandmarkets.com, investment in AI technologies specific to the energy and power sectors will climb from $3.1 billion (USD) in 2021 to over $14.5 billion in 2028.

Although some of that will be private capital, the public sector is also getting involved. In 2023, the Department of Energy announced $3.46 billion in funding for 58 projects across the United States with the objective of using these technologies to make electricity grids more resilient and reliable. Shortly afterwards, a second round of funding for these projects—to the tune of $3.9 billion—was announced by the federal government.

Why so much interest, and so much money? Because AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we generate, distribute, and use electricity.

Consider renewable energy. Wind energy is generated when turbines move, as is tidal power. Solar power is generated when the sun is shining. There’s even a name for this latter dynamic: the ‘duck curve’. If you graph solar power generation through the course of a day, the resulting line looks remarkably like the profile of a duck.

Unfortunately, peaks in renewable power generation don’t often conveniently align with a corresponding demand. That means power must be stored and released at a time when it’s needed. A smart grid powered by AI can make decisions that help to rebalance production and consumption.

This isn’t to suggest that a shift to renewable power wouldn’t be possible without AI. But the application of AI will allow utilities to integrate more renewable energy while keeping delivery consistent and reliable.

The prevalence of smart meters—energy meters that feed usage data back through the grid—is the foundation for greater understanding and control on the part of consumers. As of 2022, electric utilities across the United States had about 119 million smart meters installed, which is about 72 percent of all electric meters in the country. According to Natural Resources Canada, the adoption rate is even higher north of the border, with smart meters representing over 82 percent of all meters.

With those meters in place, it’s possible for users to collect data for every single outlet and appliance in the home. With data that granular, a power consumer can make decisions that reduce their consumption overall. And of course, that homeowner can also track and analyze their energy use over time, providing an incentive and a reward for reducing consumption.

Another possibility that AI offers users is the potential to become more active prosumers. Currently, in most of North America, power that is generated by individuals (e.g. solar power generated by household rooftop installation) is fed directly into the grid. While the prosumer sees the benefit in the form of reduced power bills, the transaction is still strictly between the utility and the user. Peer-to-peer energy trading could change that, providing the opportunity for individual prosumers—residential or commercial—to trade electricity directly. Legacy systems could never handle the kind of data processing and decision making that would be required to manage these microtransactions, but artificial intelligence can.

AI doesn’t just benefit consumers; the technology also offers utilities a wealth of ways to operate more efficiently, reliably, and profitably.

Predictive analytics, simply stated, is using data to predict future outcomes. The more data points, the more accurate that forecast is likely to be. Smart grids are capable of producing nearly infinite numbers of data points; at some point the question is whether you have the ability to process and analyze it and use it to make decisions. Once again, AI has the ability to do this at a level far greater than older technologies.

AI can be used to identify patterns of higher and lower demand and can automatically shift between different energy sources. In doing so, it can identify the most cost-effective distribution in that circumstance, and also avoid overloading the grid in periods of high demand. Rather than relying on a static formula, these systems learn. They can adapt over time, ensuring that the decisions are constantly optimizing the grid.

With sensors throughout the grid gathering and delivering data, AI can also identify disruptions or anomalies far sooner than humans or legacy computer systems, reducing the likelihood of outages and their duration when they do occur.

Severe weather events are becoming more frequent, and AI technologies are also providing utilities with better data about environmental factors that affect the power network. Extreme temperatures, high winds, and extraordinary precipitation events all play havoc with power lines and other transmission equipment, but with AI comes more accurate forecasts. AI can also help utilities to make decisions about proactive measures to protect equipment, and to repair it more quickly.

Power generation, transmission, and distribution have already come a long way from where they started. AI technologies will make the smart grid much smarter, allowing consumers and utilities alike to use energy more efficiently and enabling more widespread use of renewable electricity.

The post Making the Smart Grid Smarter<p class="company">AI is Powering Innovative Efficiency</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Some global rankings—such as the list compiled each year by the Economist Intelligence Unit—consider factors that are well outside the purview of any municipality. On the EIU list, political and economic stability, infrastructure, education, health care, and the environment all contribute to the experience of living in one place as compared to another.

Those factors are important aspects of liveability, to be sure. In that organization’s most recent 2023 ranking, Vienna, Austria took first place globally. But Canada has a great deal to be proud of; it’s the only country in the world to have three cities—Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto—in the top ten.

Not to dismiss the importance of the EIU’s rankings, however the inclusion of those three Canadian cities raises the question of how liveability is defined. Surely Vancouver’s notoriously high cost of living makes it difficult for some people to live there? The fact that not one city in the United States was included in the top ten also seems strange, as the country boasts an abundance of beautiful cities that are fantastic places to live.

Many Americans, and many Canadians living outside those three ranked cities, would argue that their city is very liveable—perhaps more so, in fact, than any of those that made the list. On the ground, as it were, a different definition for a liveable city—one that is more focused on quality of life—is more actionable and more tangible to a city’s residents.

Human-centric city design
A liveable city is one that seems designed with the human in mind.

In highly liveable cities, employment opportunities provide individuals and families with financial stability. An ample selection of businesses provides the products and services that residents need and want. Housing is available, and relatively affordable. Cultural and entertainment amenities allow for fun and escape. Parks and other green spaces offer a connection to nature.

And—some may say most importantly of all—it’s easy to get around by a range of means, including public transit and active transportation like walking and biking.

How did we get here?
European cities are generally regarded as more liveable than those in North America. Cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg are legendary for their extensive and well-used networks of bicycle paths, and their pedestrian neighbourhoods.

The underlying reason is simple: most cities there were planned and built long before those here. More to the point, they were designed before the invention of the automobile. Towns and cities had to be walkable, because that’s how most people got around. They had to be able to walk from their home to the places they bought food and other necessities. Their place of work also needed to be nearby. So communities were designed to be compact.

Everything changed when vehicles took over as the transportation method of choice. That change took urban planning in a different direction, just as cities in Canada and the United States were growing.

Residential areas were planned as just that: places where people had their homes. Quiet neighbourhoods—urban and suburban alike—were composed of blocks and blocks of houses, punctuated by the occasional park and perhaps a school or two. To do just about anything, residents got in their car and drove out of the neighbourhood. They’d connect with a broad avenue, designed to efficiently carry a high volume of vehicle traffic from place to place. (Sometimes these avenues were accompanied by a sidewalk for pedestrians and lanes for bicycles, but not often.)

The places a family needed to shop were ‘over there,’ at the far end of a car trip. At the other end were the offices where many of the residents worked.

That type of car-centric community design is, happily, becoming a thing of the past. Urban planning in North America is coming around. There is an increasing focus on creating complete communities within cities, where people can choose to live, work, and play within a relatively small radius. In doing so, North American cities are becoming more liveable all the time.

Where do we go from here?
One of the challenges facing urban planners is correcting the mistakes of the past. Communities that were designed around the vehicle are difficult to reform. Zoning changes that allow for more diverse land use in established areas are one of the only levers available to planners. Over time, areas that are purely residential may begin to incorporate more commercial and retail uses, and previously developed land can be reclaimed as green space.

In established commercial areas of a city, the introduction of residential and retail applications through infill and rezoning can also inject life and vibrancy into areas that were previously lively only during office hours.

These changes, requiring both government action and private sector investment, are slow to take effect. The real opportunity exists where new development is underway. A growing number of cities are embracing these opportunities. But why?

Liveability as an economic development tool
A well-planned city offers a high quality of life throughout all of life’s stages. It offers recreational options for younger and older people alike. Young professionals and retirees may look for different things in a city, but a liveable city is one that offers something for everyone as their needs and desires evolve. It is one that makes the necessary activities of life—living, working, shopping—as accessible as possible for people of all ages and with all levels of mobility. A liveable city incorporates ample green space and recreational options. It also makes a good quality of life affordable, with a range of housing options and a transportation network that makes car-free living possible, should one choose.

These kinds of cities are ‘talent magnets’—cities that attract people who want to live there, in turn attracting the companies that want to hire them. As such, urban planning is quickly becoming one of the most effective tools for economic development that any city has at its disposal, in part because of one underlying driver that is becoming more critical every day: sustainability.

The importance of sustainability
A few decades ago, this kind of urban planning may have been guided primarily by a desire to make a city nicer and more enjoyable to live in. Today, there’s a new level of importance to making these changes, one that is so globally important it’s been codified as one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 11 is to ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,’ and it includes strategies such as disaster risk reduction, which hits particularly close to home in an era of increased fires, flooding, and severe storms.

Reclaiming green spaces in urban areas—or protecting them as cities grow—is one aspect of sustainability. A connection to the natural environment promotes mental and physical well-being, increasing quality of life for residents. Green spaces also provide critical mitigations against the urban heat island effect, absorbing heat and cooling the areas around them.

Goal 11 also incorporates sustainable transportation as one of its fundamental components. A city where public and active transportation are viable options for getting around is one that contributes less to climate change. That, in itself, is a laudable objective. But there are other outcomes, ones that a city’s residents experience on a day-to-day basis, that contribute to a city’s overall liveability.

Making active transportation viable options for regular commuting promotes a healthy population. Walking and bicycling, specifically, help keep people healthier not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. And active transportation and public transportation alike offer dramatic reductions in the cost of living for a city’s residents.

Liveability is the future of cities
People of all ages and stages want the ability to quickly and easily get from home to work or school, and to shops and other amenities. Many want to be able to choose active or public transportation as a primary means of getting from A to B. And everyone wants the opportunity to affordably realize a good quality of life.

These are on-the-ground elements of a truly liveable city, and they’re within reach of smart cities, their leaders and planners, and their citizens.

The post Liveable Cities<p class="company">Human-Centric Urban Planning</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Hangcha was founded in China in 1956, and in 1974, its first forklift rolled off the manufacturing line. Since then, the company has become an international leader in the industry. Figures from Modern Material Handling (MMH) magazine place the company eighth worldwide in sales volume. Today, that market leadership continues, with over 80 subsidiaries in countries around the world and industry-leading technology.

Hangcha forklifts have been available in Canada for some time but, in 2019, the company deepened its footprint here. Robert Pitzul, Vice President of Sales for Hangcha Canada, was the catalyst. At the time, Hangcha forklifts were entering Canada’s dealer network through an importer. Pitzul approached the company about putting facilities on the ground in Canada, and with a U.S. expansion just under their belt, Hangcha Group agreed.

Hangcha Forklift Canada was incorporated in 2019—just in time for COVID to put a damper on its plans. The delay was only temporary, and the team picked up the keys to the warehouse in the fall of 2020.

Today, most of the company’s 35 employees are located at the headquarters just outside Montreal, in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec. That first location was only one piece of the puzzle: the company also has a 30,000-square-foot warehouse showroom in Mississauga, Ontario and another 14,000-square-foot warehouse in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Louanne Rioux, Sales and Marketing Director, explains that the locations are strategically chosen, as is the inventory. “We wanted a presence from the West Coast to the East Coast because there are different applications and needs from one region to another. This way, we can provide the units best suited to the market.”

That line of units is broader than most, offering forklifts from Class I to Class VII, all manufactured by Hangcha.

The distribution facilities are a key differentiator between Hangcha and its competitors. The Mississauga warehouse has over 300 units on display for its customers, representing its full line of products. With that volume of inventory on the ground and a robust distribution system in place, Hangcha can offer customers much faster access to needed equipment. “Our lead times are second to none,” Rioux says. “Even if we have a factory order for a unit that isn’t already here, it only takes 16 to 20 weeks to deliver on average. Waiting periods of 12 to 24 months are more typical [in the industry].”

Randy Thistel, Regional Sales Manager for Hangcha in Ontario, points to that investment as an indicator of how Hangcha Group approaches its international expansion. “Hangcha has invested in the warehouse and put product on the floor. They made that commitment to have the units available for the dealer network and the end users. This is essential to what our success is going to be,” he says.

When it comes to forklifts, Thistel has “been there, done that.” He has worked in every corner of the industry for 30 years, from service to operations to sales. The decision to join Hangcha was an easy one for him. “I had known Robert for about 10 years. When he talked to me about Hangcha, how they were investing so many hours in development, taking a top-notch product to market at an affordable cost, I couldn’t say no.”

Rioux may be newer to the forklift industry than Thistel, but for her, Hangcha completes a circle. “Previously, I’ve worked in international shipping and logistics. My role here is closing the loop from ocean freight to logistics on the road to forklifts. It’s an exciting industry; it’s challenging, it moves fast, and it’s necessary.”

Working to establish Hangcha’s presence in Canada has been a whirlwind. “I was employee number three. It’s been an interesting ride. I worked with Robert to develop the structure, the dealer network coast to coast. Then we worked to build the sales team, starting with inside sales first, then the outside sales territories.”

The company has grown quickly in a short period, and it is intentional about the culture it is building. “It took some trial and error over the four years, but we have a dream team now. We’ve got over 100 years of combined industry knowledge and history on our team.”

Both Rioux and Thistel stress that the values of the company are not just words on the wall. The values of integrity, teamwork, responsibility, and sharing are embedded in the way the company does business, and decisions are made collaboratively.

“We’ve got a great foundation with our people,” Thistel says. “Every puzzle piece makes us so much better, and we make key decisions together, as a group. We’re creating things the right way.”

One of the challenges involved in expanding the company’s business and presence in Canada is introducing a technology that is still relatively new to the market: lithium-ion batteries. Traditionally, forklifts have been operated by either diesel, propane, or lead-acid batteries.

“With lead-acid, the more the battery drains, the less power you have,” Thistel says. “Your lift speeds will slow; your drive speeds will slow.” Lithium batteries, on the other hand, deliver full power continuously, and they are designed for what Thistel calls ‘opportunity charging.’

“With lithium technology, the battery wants to be charged all the time. The operator can charge them when they’re on break or at lunch, and you’ll never run out of battery. We have them in 24-hour applications, which would have been impossible for a lead-acid battery.”

What about durability? “We have some units with 4000 hours on them, and the batteries are still running perfectly. We stand behind them. We offer a 10-year warranty on larger units, five-year on the smaller units. It’s a strong warranty, and I believe we’re changing the industry for the better.”

Thistel and Rioux are clear: for Hangcha, the future is lithium. “By the end of 2024,” Thistel says, “we’ll have lithium in every unit, from a 100,000-pound capacity forklift right down to a 2,000-pound walkie. We’ll have lithium technology for it all.”

One reason this technology makes sense is cost savings, and for owners, those savings add up. “We’ve done the research,” Thistel says. “Over the first 10 years, between the purchase of the unit, charging, fuelling, and repairs, the cost savings amount to about $150,000 per truck.”

Although relatively new technology to the forklift market, lithium is catching on. In fact, Hangcha is putting these batteries into service with forklifts from other manufacturers.

“With our universal lithium battery system program, we can put lithium technology into any brand,” Rioux says. “If someone has a forklift with a lead-acid battery that’s no longer useful, we can install a lithium battery to replace it. The owner can keep it running, instead of scrapping the whole machine.”

“We’re even doing that for new trucks from other brands,” Thistel adds. “Dealers are putting our lithium batteries into new forklifts with lead-acid batteries because the technology is just better.”

For Thistel, the support Hangcha Canada receives from the manufacturer is key to the company’s continued growth in Canada. In addition to supporting its dealers and end users through the adoption of lithium battery technology, the engineering team in China also responds directly to input from this market. “We can take something to the manufacturer, and they’ll implement it immediately if it makes sense. We don’t have to wait until a whole new line comes out.”

How can a company respond that nimbly? The scope and scale of the facilities in China are part of the answer. The company has one million square metres of manufacturing space there and is continuing to grow and expand. If you are having trouble imagining that, it is understandable, and Rioux has a helpful parallel. “It’s the equivalent of 633 arenas,” she laughs.

“When we took our dealers there,” Thistel adds, “it helped them understand what Hangcha is doing and how they’re doing it. They saw the quality of the facilities firsthand and the sheer professionalism of the people.”

Hangcha Group’s expansion into Canada is a textbook example of how to do it well, and it is all about commitment: investing in the right spaces, putting quality products on the ground, and hiring and empowering a ‘dream team’ of the right people. This approach is not a one-off, either; in the few short years since its Canadian expansion in 2019, Hangcha has employed the same principles and expanded to Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and the Netherlands.

“Hangcha has committed to be the best at everything we do,” Thistel says. “We want to have the best product, the best availability, the best parts department. We’re continuously improving. We want to be the best, to set the bar for the industry in Canada.”

The post Lifting the Industry Higher<p class="company">Hangcha Forklift Canada</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.