An increasing number of these women veterans are making their mark on the business landscape, channeling their military experience to excel and make the most of entrepreneurial opportunities.

In fact, women veteran entrepreneurs are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, the military platform Sandboxx reports. The number of women veteran-owned businesses increased by a whopping 295 percent between 2007 and 2016. And, even though only one in ten veterans are women, they own one out of every six veteran-owned enterprises.

The dramatic increase in women veteran entrepreneurship is part of a larger overall trend. The number of women-owned businesses as a whole skyrocketed by 45 percent from 2007 to 2016—that’s five times faster than the national average, Sandboxx reports. As entrepreneurship among women veterans gains traction, and women’s presence in the military continues to grow, it only stands to reason that women veterans’ entrepreneurial influence in the private sector will keep strengthening as women veterans seek new opportunities after military service.

Ironically, this trend appears within an overall drop in veteran-owned businesses. Entrepreneurship ran high within the veteran population in the past, but has seen a stark decline in recent decades. Nearly half of World War II veterans and 40 percent of Korean War veterans eventually become self-employed, according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University and reported by Military.com. In comparison, just 4.5 percent of the post-9/11 generation of veterans are self-employed.

Also noteworthy is that, despite their expanding entrepreneurial presence, women veterans often face particular challenges that could negatively impact their transition to civilian life and business success. Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) research has found that women who serve in the military experience anxiety and depression at higher rates than their male counterparts. Women also experience higher rates of military sexual trauma than men and 73 percent of women veterans surveyed by WWP reported that they experienced sexual assault or harassment while in service. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Women veterans report “significantly higher” rates of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide than their male counterparts.

And yet, women veterans are overcoming to succeed in entrepreneurial ventures at an impressive rate. While military service can bring challenges, it can also lay a strong foundation for business success in the private sector. Veterans benefit from a range of diverse experiences that expose them to new ideas and cultivate new skillsets. They learn to excel in high-pressure situations—including when lives are on the line—while staying cool and collected. They cultivate a can-do attitude and learn how to triage when pressed with multiple demands. They learn organizational skills and how to thrive within a large, complex institution. All of these benefits can be applied to private business, particularly during challenging times; according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), 59 percent of women veteran entrepreneurs believe military experience prepared them for business challenges related to the COVID pandemic.

Entrepreneurship among women veterans is often driven by a desire to better the world around them. 48 percent of women veteran entrepreneurs surveyed by the DOL’s 2020 National Survey of Military-Affiliated Entrepreneurs said that they launched a business because they “wanted to help society and support their communities.”

Of course, access to capital can be a major barrier to entry for women—veterans or civilians—who are eager to put a business idea into action. “Women-owned firms often experience challenges with access to capital,” including everything from credit cards to traditional loans and venture capital, according to a 2017 report by the National Women’s Business Council. “Research has demonstrated that compared to men, women-owned firms start their business with nearly half as much capital as men. What’s more, compared to their male counterparts, women are less likely to utilize business loans from banks or financial institutions.” 48 percent of women veteran entrepreneurs have been rejected by a lender or creditor when applying for financing, according to the DOL.

An increasing number of government and non-governmental organizations have taken note of the disparity and are rallying to support women veterans. For instance, the newly launched Women Veteran-Owned Small Business Initiative (WVOSBI) is the first program of its kind within the federal government. “WVOSBI’s mission is to equip, empower and educate Women Veteran entrepreneurs for success and economic opportunities,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports.

Successful women veteran-owned businesses are as diverse as the women who launch them, specializing in everything from fashion to defense. Take Emily and Betsy Núñez, for instance. The two sisters founded Sword & Plough, an innovative company that uses military surplus material to create durable, stylish bags. After growing up in a military family at West Point, they launched the business while Emily was still an ROTC cadet in her senior year of college, the company website details. Sword & Plough has helped support 75 veteran jobs, repurposed over 30,000 pounds of military surplus material, and donated more than $130,000 to veteran organizations.

U.S. Army veteran Tabatha Turman founded the award-winning government consulting firm Integrated Finance and Accounting Solutions LLC (IFAS). She is a veteran of both Operation Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving in Saudi Arabia in 1991 and in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, according to the company’s website. Drawing on 20 years of military experience as an Army Finance Officer and consultant specializing in military accounting and financial management, Turman has taken IFAS from a humble startup to a widely respected multi-million dollar firm with major government contracts. Clients include the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Transportation, USAID, and many more.

After serving in the U.S. Army, service-disabled veteran Phyllis Newhouse founded Xtreme Solutions, Inc. (XSI) in 2002. The company provides a diverse array of IT expertise and industry-leading information technology and cybersecurity solutions and services, Phyllisnewhouse.com details. Forty percent of the company’s employees are veterans. XSI was included in the Inc. 5000 list in 2013 and 2014 and has been named one of Women’s Presidents’ Organization’s (WPO) 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned Companies in the U.S. seven years in a row.

Newhouse’s success has been recognized numerous times: she is the first woman to win an Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur Of The Year® award in the technology category, was inducted into the Enterprising Women Hall of fame, earned a spot on Inc.’s Mighty 25 in 2020 and was a 2019 Culture Creator Honoree for the finance category, which recognizes minorities in business, her website reports. She has been featured on Today, Entrepreneur, Inc., CNBC, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar News, and Bloomberg.

A serial entrepreneur, in 2019 Newhouse founded ShoulderUp alongside Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis to give back to the community. The nonprofit “is dedicated to connecting and supporting women on their entrepreneurial journeys,” Phyllisnewhouse.com reports.

With support from experienced industry insiders like Phyllis Newhouse, even more women veterans will have the opportunity to make the most of their skills and abilities by launching their own enterprises. As women continue to retire from the military in increasing numbers, this determined, talented group is certainly one to watch as they redefine our expectations surrounding entrepreneurship.

The post Making Their Mark<p class="company">Entrepreneurship Among Women Veterans</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The plan is to be on the leading edge of the digital transformation taking place in the market, and as a result, the economy is on a rising trajectory driven by digitization, sustainability, and connectivity, cornerstones of a vibrant and modern community.

The place to grow
Located along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway at the halfway mark between the two major hubs of the Edmonton-Calgary corridor, one of the most travelled roadways in North America, Red Deer County is ideally positioned to become an even more important economic player in the region, ready and able to serve the 2.4 million people who live within a 150-kilometre radius.

Via major investments in its assets and infrastructure, Red Deer County is reinforcing its economic strength by maintaining the rate of development that’s been going on for the last decade. The signs of this growth everywhere are amazing to see.

One area that has blossomed is Gasoline Alley, an up-and-coming live/work community just south of the City of Red Deer that began as nothing more than a “fuel-up and dine” concept, but today is a thriving retail, commercial, medical, financial, and residential hub with people flocking to it.

The first subdivision in the community, Liberty Landing, is a growing residential neighbourhood that’s expected to reach 5,000 people at full build-out. “As fast as they’re building the housing out there, they’re selling them,” says Economic Development Officer Sandra Badry. The project is currently completing Phase B.

The area is also home to the new Indoor Farmer’s Market that sprang up during the pandemic and has since become a popular fixture in the community, bringing together the agricultural folk and the residents of central Alberta. Soon, visitors will have live music and entertainment with a highly-anticipated outdoor music venue that’s in development.

At the Junction
With Gasoline Alley’s retail, commercial, and residential development plans well underway, Red Deer County’s development team has its sights set on the next growth target: Junction 42, located eight kilometres south of Gasoline Alley.

“The impetus for Junction 42 was that, when they created the overpass from the City of Red Deer to Gasoline Alley, Alberta Transportation kind of changed the access, making it inconvenient for truck drivers to get into Gasoline Alley,” says Badry. The county and the province got together to find a solution, which was the Partnership Rest Stop.

“Together we paved five acres for parking and then we approached Petro-Canada and brought in the truck stop, the card lock, and also a few fast-food restaurants,” Badry says. These included a Canadian staple, Tim Horton’s, Burger King, Pizza Pizza, and other retail shops. In 2022, 200,000 trucks stopped in, basically one large truck every two minutes.

To take advantage of this traffic, the area is slated for further development. Subsurface magnets are used to track visitation and get a sense of visitor behaviour. It shows that there is still greater demand to be filled.

“Ironically, our peak times are from midnight to six a.m.,” Badry notes, “so we are desperately searching for a diner that will come in and do that 24-hour service. We’re looking at putting in another five acres because it’s packed at those peak times.”

As well as servicing the trucking community, Junction 42 will serve the local community as a business campus where circular industries are being targeted. According to Badry, “Junction 42 is going to be a very high-tech innovative business campus where one business will create energy that another business will work off.”

For instance, vertical or hybrid farming models, agri-tech businesses and biomass, and other businesses that work together or offset each other. Without question, the time is now for these innovative and sustainable developments.

If the food shortages of late are any indication, Badry is right when she says, “We can’t rely on California or Mexico as much as we used to do. We have to start looking after our own and we can do it, it’s not impossible. The development we plan out there that’s going to create jobs will also create opportunities for residential building and all kinds of other opportunities for our surrounding communities,” she says, and she adds that it will be another step towards sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Landing the big ones
Junction 42 is also proximate to the Red Deer Regional Airport, where $15 million was invested last year to widen and strengthen the runway and where plans are underway to further improve its services to scheduled passenger service and cargo aircraft.

“The runway went from thirty meters to forty-five meters wide and we strengthened it enough to land 737s now, so that means that we can land passenger airplanes as well as cargo,” says Badry. This will support the addition of distribution providers in the area who could benefit from connectivity to the highway.

She adds, “We also have the ability to develop along the north end of the runway as well, so we have 800,000 square meters of developable land along the runway which allows for air-side or ground-side access.” She points out that this is ideal for cargo service or aeronautical maintenance activities.

Up next, a terminal project is in the works with a target completion date of 2024. Between the runway-side opportunities and the potential of a new terminal, the Red Deer Regional Airport will make it much easier to land new business and better connect its residents to the rest of the province, the country, and the world.

Heightened connectivity
Improved connectivity is a priority of Red Deer County’s economic development team. This is evident in the significant investments in its broadband infrastructure to ensure that an end-to-end fibre-optic network is available to service residents and the growing economy.

A handsome $18 million of county funds have already been allocated to bringing high-speed broadband to businesses in Red Deer County, as well as to outlying county residents, villages and hamlets. The plan is to ensure optimal connectivity and productivity for everyone. If the pandemic did anything, it emphasized the need for widely available connective services, and Red Deer County is set on becoming one of the most connected places in North America.

For Badry, this kind of investment just makes sense. “We’ve got all these smaller hamlets and villages in our broadband project, which will enable us to bring connectivity to those people who want to live in a modern economy but want that country lifestyle.”

That country lifestyle, too, depends on high-speed broadband connectivity. The strong agricultural community is modernizing as part of the digital revolution, and a new generation of farm equipment dependent on high-speed internet connectivity is on the land. Strong connectivity also supports farmers who sell directly to customers via the internet.

Both the new development at the airport and the broadband investment are a boon for nearby communities like Springbrook and Penhold, anxious to attract new residents with their potent blend of modern amenities, rural charm, and the natural beauty of the region.

Future-focused and leading the way
Red Deer County has earmarked cleaner, leaner, and greener industries like agri-tech, hydrogen, and film and television production as target industries for growth, but to support these new industries and expansions, there must be a simultaneous focus on talent development.

The development team is working closely with local education partners like Red Deer Polytechnic and Olds College of Agriculture & Technology to identify the emerging workforce needs of the economy and address them through program development and youth attraction campaigns whether that be aeronautical or skilled trades. Currently, a labour force study is underway.

These efforts to make Red Deer County a wonderful place to do business were recently recognized by Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver who presented the County with the 2021 Minister’s Award for Municipal Excellence, which recognizes red tape reduction in a rural municipality: an honour that’s well-deserved.

When it comes to growth and development, Red Deer County knows what it wants and how to achieve success. Awards are a solid acknowledgement of these efforts, but the best payout is seeing plans come to fruition.

As Badry notes, “Red Deer County has always looked at itself as a leader and not a follower and we try to be the first. We have very high standards for ourselves, and we work hard to maintain that.”

The post Connection and Communication – A County’s Journey to Greatness<p class="company">Red Deer County, Alberta</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Nestled in the Sonoran desert and surrounded by majestic mountain ranges, Maricopa played a significant role in the growth of the southwest. In the mid-1800s, the water-rich outpost became an important stagecoach station and center for trade. Then, as technology advanced and times changed, Maricopa shifted its location to become a railroad junction.

Just as previous community leaders focused on growth and development—going so far as to relocate the community to take advantage of burgeoning opportunities—today’s city leaders are actively and thoughtfully working to expand the community. “We tell everyone we meet, ‘Come build a city with us,’” Price says.

MEDA works hard to support businesses that want to take advantage of all that the city has to offer. “Maricopa makes it easy for companies to locate, expand, and grow,” he points out. The organization works hand in hand with the city to provide local and regional socioeconomic data, gathers resources, and identifies potential sites for incoming businesses. The MEDA team also hosts corporate and site consultants visiting the community.

Maricopa City’s ‘VIP Portal’ provides continuous online access, allowing businesses to expedite inspections, print and apply for permits, upload plans, and track progress. During the initial application process, the city encourages co-track planning when applying for permits. There is a “collective belief in speed-to-market for business,” he says.

Maricopa is investing in itself to remain an attractive, sensible alternative to nearby Phoenix—or any other city, for that matter. The team is currently preparing greenfield land for present and future business development. The city has already been building critical municipal amenities with the support of its citizens.

“Everything is brand new,” Price says. This includes new libraries, new community centers, new recreational facilities, new dispatch and police stations, new fire stations, new transportation infrastructure, a new municipal courthouse, and much more.

One of the biggest new developments is Exceptional Healthcare’s community hospital. The first phase opened in December 2021 and includes an internal medicine hospital, a twenty-four-hour emergency room, a digital imaging suite, an in-house lab, and patient hospital beds for acute admission and overnight observation of patients. The second phase of expansion will be underway soon.

Incoming businesses will find a top-notch local workforce in Maricopa. “You have a lot of very intellectual people who are well educated,” Price notes. The median household income is $77,859, and almost 40 percent of residents hold a college degree: 11.4 percent have an associate’s degree, 16.5 percent have a bachelor’s degree, and 8.8 percent have a graduate or professional degree. An additional 27.8 percent of residents have had some college education.

Certainly, workforce development is a strong city focus. The local public school system and educational institutions, including the University of Arizona and Central Arizona College, work closely with the business community, coordinating curricula and training courses to prepare future young professionals and technology workers for local opportunities.

MEDA’s and the City’s efforts have helped create a community that has a “small-town feel with urbanized benefits,” according to Price.

Local festivals and events include the Fourth of July festival, Salsa Festival, Pumpkin Walk, Merry Copa, Night Market events, and the hot air balloon event Copa Glow. A special event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the city’s official incorporation will take place later this year.

The community remains friendly and interactive, despite its growing numbers. “You can see people at the events; you see them in the grocery store. You can walk up to your mayor and council and speak with them.”

While mayor, he made it a point to personally respond to people who reached out on social media and attended as many local events as possible. “I tried to get to all high school graduations here,” he remembers. “It does give you a small-town feel. You can meet your neighbors and have a local block party with the entire street.”

Balancing this warm, welcoming vibe with continued growth takes effort. “It really does have a small-town feel but, at the same time, with a hyper-growing city, you are always increasing the tourism aspects [and] the schools are always growing,” Price says. “The neighborhoods are growing rapidly as well as the interest in creating industry here locally, and that’s what we here at MEDA are focused on. How do we attract the very best industries to help complement the community and keep people where they are already living, working, and playing?”

After growing the local population and amenities, there is a new area of focus. “The business sector is really what we’re after now, so that we can keep our residents here instead of commuting into the Phoenix Metro Area every day,” Price explains.

Markets that MEDA has targeted for growth include semiconductor and advanced manufacturing, automotive—specifically electric-powered and autonomous vehicles—healthcare and medical technology, information technology, agricultural technology, and agri-business.

While city leaders’ efforts have certainly boosted Maricopa’s desirability, the community was already a natural alternative to Phoenix. “We were a little farming town and had been for one hundred years or so,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, the housing boom comes along in the 2000s, and in the housing boom, you had everybody going crazy in the Phoenix Metro Area, buying up whatever was left, and they pretty much they ran out of places. So developers began looking to the outskirts of the Phoenix area to buy cheap land where they could build new destination points, new neighborhoods, et cetera, and that’s really how we started.”

One of the key factors that attracted developers here is the supply of water—which is critical in the Southwest. “One of the things that is amazing about the City of Maricopa is we sit on Pinal County’s largest aquifer, and we have access to that groundwater,” says Price. “The City of Maricopa has a large allotment of roughly 23,000 acre-feet of water through a company called Global Water, and their Designation of Assured Water Supply (DAWS) from the state of Arizona positions them well for growth and expansion over the next hundred years.”

After being overlooked for decades, this oasis in the desert has finally been getting its due. “In the early 1900s, considering our phenomenal history with the railroad as a center for commerce and trade in central Arizona, things changed overnight and we transitioned into a sleepy little farming community—until the modern day developers realized what they had here. As the Phoenix Metro Area was filling up, they basically said, ‘this place called Maricopa is the next frontier.’ So that’s really what Maricopa has become, the next frontier of progress and growth. In the early 2000s, we started off as a hyper-growing suburb focused on housing, but long-term that isn’t sustainable without industry and commercial businesses. You can’t just drive into a suburb and have no place to go buy a gallon of milk, to visit a restaurant, to have businesses to frequent, or to have some sort of tourism.”

So the newly incorporated City of Maricopa and its elected city council members recognized the need “to change our direction,” Price says. “We needed to control our future and enhance our quality of life. We needed to start planning things out so that we didn’t just become a suburb that filled with a maximum capacity of houses and then died under its own weight. We needed to become self-sustaining, self-contained, and ultimately become a regional industrial and commercial player.”

Today this vision includes several planned developments to support incoming markets that will employ residents. An S3 Biotech medical and innovation campus is currently underway that will include the city’s second hospital, medical office buildings, a 136-unit multifamily residential complex, and a hotel. Other anticipated projects for the near future include a business incubator, expanded retail developments, single-family housing, and more.

Recreational and tourism opportunities will also be expanding. Maricopa’s Adventure Corridor—a stretch along Route 238 home to a number of adventurous activities—is adding a new facility. The 74-acre Phoenix Surf waterpark will feature onsite hospitality, retail, dining, and an outdoor entertainment center. Construction of this long-anticipated fun in the sun is expected in late 2023.

Maricopa’s Adventure Corridor already boasts the champion golf course Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club; APEX Motor Club, a private motorsports club where participants can drive up to 160 miles per hour on the club’s track; Arizona Soaring, a professional glider training and flight site; and the skydiving facility Skydive Phoenix.

Rich with opportunity, high quality of life, educated residents, and a government committed to economic development, Maricopa has earned its place as one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities. With the community eager to continue its path of successful growth, the sky’s the limit for the future of this once-forgotten outpost, now transformed into one of the Southwest’s most sought-after locations.

The post Arizona’s Expansive Frontier<p class="company">Maricopa Economic Development Alliance </p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In business for decades, IWCD, as the company is popularly known, continues to live up to its motto: Building Trust Since 1986. Back in the 80s, Greg Constable was working as a framer when he started the business. Small, single-family home projects very well executed saw Constable attract the interest of developers, and the reputation he acquired for quality and timely delivery opened other avenues, such as strip malls and other commercial contracting work.

Making inroads with auto dealers on Vancouver Island also led from one job to another, and another, with a sizeable portion of IWCD’s work today involving construction of automotive dealerships.

“There is definitely a learning curve that comes along with constructing automotive dealerships. They are not as straightforward as a typical commercial build; however, over the many years of designing and building them, we have them dialed in pretty well now,” says Patrick Brandreth, Vice President and an owner of the family-operated business.

Superior services
Growing over the years, IWCD’s expertise and experience are integral to the success of its many projects, including commercial, light industrial, multi-residential, automotive construction, and seniors housing. Setting itself apart from the competition, IWCD’s wide-ranging capabilities include full-service construction management, design-build, pre-construction, civil construction, tenant improvements, and tilt-up construction.

“We are a very diversified company,” says Brandreth. “Our portfolio is fairly well-balanced between multi-residential, commercial, light industrial, and automotive which I think is important given we operate in a relatively limited marketplace, being that of Vancouver Island.”

Vancouver Island is known for its many dealerships, representing the world’s best-known automobile brands, and many of these locations are updated or even rebuilt every 10 to 15 years. The company has learned a great deal from its many car dealership projects, with IWCD’s design-build service and pre-construction division having initially developed out of that work.

“We put a lot of focus and effort into our pre-construction and design-build services. We find this particular project delivery method serves our client best and ultimately it’s what paves the way for a much smoother execution of construction,” says Brandreth.

Multi-residential growth
Over the years, IWCD has continuously adapted to meet current project needs, beginning when the cost of a single-family house on Vancouver Island was low and multi-residential developments made less sense. All that changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the pandemic hit, many lower mainland residents shifted to working at home. Tiring of long commutes, people started migrating to Vancouver Island, seeking a better work-life balance. In just a few years, a building boom on the island saw multi-residential projects take off, with IWCD becoming a leader.

“Multi-residential is probably the biggest sector we’ve had to gear up for,” says Brandreth of IWCD, which was a commercial general contracting company a decade ago, building warehouses, strip malls, commercial buildings, automotive, hospitals, airports, and similar works.

Fueled by a desire to reinvent itself and compete in this market, IWCD began by hiring people with strong experience in this sector and as a result, was able to secure the work and strengthen its multi-residential portfolio, growing it substantially in the past three years.

In addition, a shortage of light industrial space on Vancouver Island in recent years has seen developers working with districts to re-zone parcels of land to the appropriate zoning to accommodate light industrial, which opened up another growth area for IWCD.

Industry leaders
About 20 years ago, IWCD became one of the first companies on Vancouver Island to get heavily involved on the front end of planning their clients’ projects, handling design, budgeting, municipal approvals, and more. “Nobody was doing that at the time 20 years ago,” says Brandreth. “No one was doing design-build.”

Having a strong pre-construction division and becoming involved early on in the project’s life cycle has many benefits for IWCD’s clients, such as cost control, early procurement of building materials, a higher level of coordination, and better solutions when it comes to constructability. Brandreth notes that in order to add real value for your client, you need to have your pre-construction division properly structured and have the right people leading the charge, which is not something that happens overnight.

“If you are not properly set up internally for the design-build process and you don’t have the right people steering the ship, you’re just not going to be successful’ it’s that simple,” he says. “Ultimately it’s your client who is going to feel the repercussions of that inexperience when it comes time to construction.”

Keeping concrete tilt construction in-house
With over 36 years in the business, IWCD has gained a wealth of experience that can be leveraged from one project to another, for the benefit of the client. One of those skill sets specifically that has really given IWCD a competitive edge is its ability to self-perform concrete tilt construction.

“We have a real niche for concrete work,” says Brandreth. “Specifically when it comes to concrete tilt, it has always been one of the specialties that we self-perform in-house.”

IWCD’s ability to cast its own panels on site and tilt them in place eliminates the need to purchase pre-cast concrete panels from third party suppliers. Therefore, the company is able to pass these savings on to its clients while at the same time having more control over the construction schedule and finished product quality.

“It was through our automotive projects where we gained so much concrete tilt experience,” says Brandreth. “Now we are benefitting from that experience because a lot of light industrial buildings are being constructed in concrete due to the price of steel.”

Award-winning
Although 2022 presented its challenges for IWCD, from supply chain issues to labour shortages and rising inflation, it also proved to be one of the company’s best years on record, and 2023 is on track for further growth.

Distinguished as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for the past seven years, with Platinum Club Status as one of the nation’s best, IWCD’s biggest asset is its people, says Brandreth.

A family-owned company from the start, IWCD has grown considerably over the past decade, yet the foundation of its culture remains strong. Staff are not ‘numbers’ as happens so often at with other companies.

“With all of our employees, whether junior or senior, they have to be open-minded, have a positive attitude, and a strong work ethic,” he says. “It’s equally important they fit our culture here as well; culture is big within our organization.” Being well-respected amongst the industry and offering generous remuneration packages have earned the company much appreciation and outstanding staff retention.

Working with the benefit of the company’s open-door policy, team members are free to bounce ideas off one another, and learn continually and from one another; an inquisitive attitude is always encouraged.

“Something I always tell new hires, whether senior, mid-level, or junior, is to ask questions. Nobody knows everything in this business. Don’t be too proud to ask questions. If there’s something you don’t know, ask the question, it’s as simple as that… And don’t oversell yourself. Your abilities will speak for themselves once you get the position and we will make sure you are properly compensated.”

For those considering building on Vancouver Island, IWCD is the go-to company. With its focus on pre-construction services and longstanding trade relationships, IWCD has an impressive history and successful track record over many types of projects.

“What differentiates us is our experience on the front end of these projects,” says Brandreth. “That’s where the real value is created and in my opinion that’s what differentiates a successful project from one that is not, both in the eyes of the builder and the owner.”

The post Proof that Building on Experience Builds Trust<p class="company">IWCD</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

These drying systems bring together the knowledge and abilities of a highly skilled manufacturing staff, including engineers and designers, all with rich technical know-how. With more than 30 highly trained machinists, welders, electricians, technicians, and craftsmen working at ASI’s Green Bay, Wisconsin-based 65,000-square-foot manufacturing plant, the facility can meet customer needs by operating on several orders concurrently thanks to its numerous manufacturing bays and cranes.

“It’s hard to capture all the industries our dryers are used in,” says President Angela Krueger. While the company doesn’t always know what product is going to be made due to proprietary information, she explains, “we do a lot in the fiberglass mat industry, and since about 2000, we’ve made a fiberglass mat dryer, which we call a through-air dryer, about every three to four years. These are the largest dryers we make, and can be as big as several rooms.”

With a width of about 17 feet and a height between 12 and 20 feet, this very large equipment takes up most of ASI’s manufacturing space. The company also does a lot of work for the battery industry, in particular with electrodes, anodes, cathodes, and separators, and is also currently working on a fiberglass mat proposal for flooring material.

ASI also works with adhesives and release liners used for labels, other applications in the energy storage area, and a number of specialty, proprietary products such as flexible printed circuit boards, thermal barrier applications, and filtration media.

“In a nutshell, the dryers that we manufacture are used for pretty much any kind of product in a continuous operation,” says Lead Engineer Jim Rechner. “It could be all kinds of industries. It’s more or less the drying concept we really focus on.”

Krueger herself is involved personally from beginning to end of a product and process, and enjoys being part of the sales cycle, which can last a year or more.

“It’s very exciting to work on a project that eventually sells and to see that come to reality on the shop floor,” she shares. “I find that very gratifying. We’re turning out several proposals every week, and it’s a good feeling when one sells and we can see the build and eventually the installation and producing products for a customer.”

As President of the company and a woman working in a traditionally male-dominated industry, Krueger also appreciates both the challenges and rewards inherent in her position.

“There are not a lot of women in tech in manufacturing,” she says. “I would love for there to be more women in manufacturing. I have two daughters, and I’m encouraging both of them to pursue some type of STEM career. It’s a very rewarding career, and you’re always learning something new.”

Krueger is always open to supporting and encouraging other women in the business while combatting stereotypes of the construction industry. “It would do a lot to bring up the possibility of getting into this field in middle school and high school,” she says. “As a society we talk about being a veterinarian, or a doctor or lawyer, and we don’t think about how things are made and how we can be part of that process. Getting people to think about that at a younger age would get more people, especially girls and women, into it.”

Times are changing for the better, however, and ASI is seeing those changes firsthand.

“I have seen a pretty dramatic and positive shift to more women being in the manufacturing fields,” says Matt Kartheiser, Assistant Shop Supervisor. “When I first started here 10 years ago it was kind of the way that it’s always been, but in the last three years or so with the recruitment efforts we’ve made at some of the trade shows, or at some of the welding colleges and technical schools, I will say I’ve seen a large explosion.”

While initially there might have been one or two women in a class of 30 to 40 men, just this last year, he says, it was split almost 50/50. “I don’t know if the schools are promoting the idea of going into a skilled trade versus a more traditional career, but there definitely has been a positive shift that way,” he says. “ASI in particular has always been open to either men or women working here; we welcome both.”

The company has had several women working on the floor who were “phenomenal,” he says, adding that ASI will continue to strive to even things out between the sexes, including forming a partnership with a local welding school to help spearhead that effort.

“That being said, it’s a sort of nontraditional path for a lot of women to follow,” says Krueger. “It’s nice to know there’s a way to encourage women and girls to even consider it or look at it, because I don’t think it’s traditionally brought up to them as they’re looking at their futures.”

Krueger herself has much to share about the time and positive experiences she’s had in the industry. “It can be stressful at times, but ultimately it’s a great career,” she says. “I love always having to learn something, and being curious and staying curious. You have to be comfortable not always knowing the answer, but being willing to find the answer.”

When it comes to future plans for ASI, the company has a lot on the go, including a return to trade shows after years of COVID cancellations. In an ongoing effort to push into more markets and get the company name out there while still providing a high level of product and service, this year ASI will be exhibiting at the Tape and Functional Film Expo in conjunction with the Silicone Expo in Detroit, Michigan.

“It’s a slow process, to grow,” says Krueger. “[Growth is] dictated by the workforce you can find and, of course, the economic climate. But we’re a bit insulated from the ups and downs because of our long sales cycle and long lead time. There’s some fluctuation, but we’ve held steady over the years and we’re trying to expand and grow a bit every year.”

On the manufacturing side, ASI’s biggest future plan is getting the next career generation established. “A lot of people at ASI have been here since the company was founded,” says Kartheiser. “With so many reaching retirement age, we do have a lot of big shoes to fill.”

This means ASI is looking forward to getting its next 30-year crew together, as within three to five years many of the founding employees will be retired or close to it. “We’re really excited to be moving ahead and getting the next generation of professionals and the skilled tradespeople to take the reins for the next several decades,” Kartheiser says.

Krueger defines it as a bit of a transition period, transferring valuable knowledge and skills down to the next generation, along with looking for ways to automate as much as possible.

“Automation is a big push in manufacturing, and it’s a challenge to bring it to our industry because all our equipment is custom-made,” she says. “There are some areas where we could possibly use some type of co-bot for welding, but we’re just starting to look into that. We have invested in new, higher performing capital equipment in the last few years, including a press brake and folder.”

Along with continuing to push forward with technological advances, ASI sets itself apart from competitors through its customer process, thoroughly analyzing what’s needed to develop a functional project.

“A lot of our competitors have a standard piece of equipment they put in line and say, ‘here you go, this will work,’” says Rechner. “It does work, but how we came to be is we looked at each process with the customer and came up with the best solution. Not a solution, but the best solution.”

Since ASI houses everything in one building and is involved in the process from beginning to end, it’s able to service customers to a level that competitors simply can’t.

“We really are a one-stop shop, versus some other OEMs or other manufacturers that might need to reach out to other organizations to put all the pieces together,” says Kartheiser. “ASI can do everything under one roof, and especially on the manufacturing side. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of every piece of equipment that leaves here is built by hand in-house, so we’re able to control our quality procedures and all of our quality checks much closer and to a higher degree than a lot of our competitors.”

Customers know there’s an individual with a face behind every product that’s built specifically for them, he adds. “We’re very proud of that. And being a local company and very family-oriented, we have very good relationships with our customers.”

Although there are other companies building similar dryers, many of them must outsource every aspect aside from engineering, whereas ASI boasts tight quality procedures from start to finish. “That’s why our dryers perform so well,” Krueger says. “Our customers are routinely very impressed by how well our dryers hold their set points, both temperature setpoint and nozzle velocity setpoint. That’s because we control all aspects of how they’re designed and made.”

That commitment extends to customer service as well, with a four-member, dedicated service team that handles all after-market activities, including installation supervision, startup and commissioning services, parts ordering, troubleshooting, and preventive maintenance. ASI aims to have at least one field service engineer in the office to handle incoming needs from customers.

“Whenever the drying impacts the quality of the product, that’s where our dryers excel, because of the engineering and the construction of them,” Krueger adds. “They’re made to perform and hold their setpoints, so you get uniform drying and a high quality finished product.”

ASI products last so long, in fact, the company is now doing control upgrades on dryers they made in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The dryer body is still perfect—it’s only the controls and electronics that need upgrading.

“There’s one on the floor right now—a piece of equipment built 30 years ago,” shares Rechner. “It still works like a charm and just needs a little bit of a rebuild. But that’s not an uncommon story for us to hear about something we built back in the ‘80s. It really speaks to the longevity and care as far as the construction.”

With that attention to detail and precision, there’s no doubt ASI products will last another 30 years. “Everybody that’s here is extremely proud of what ASI has done over the years,” says Kartheiser. “We’ve always been a small business, but we’ve always been able to meet any challenge. We’re still rising to the occasion and expanding and meeting deadlines no matter what’s going on in the world.”

He adds that everybody, from the front desk to the lead engineers, has a personal investment in what they do, caring both about ASI’s reputation and its customer service.

“I don’t think there’s an individual here that doesn’t put 100 percent into what they do every single day,” he says. “And that’s why our customers continue to come back to us year after year, or even decade after decade, because they know the level of care and trust we put into it.”

The post Customer Care in Changing Times<p class="company">ASI, A Division of Thermal Technologies</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Boudreaux investigated the possibility of combining companies in the Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri, and Kansas markets and achieved enough outside financing to purchase six companies to combine them into one entity. He admits that there were multiple identities and cultures and every company wanted to be at the forefront. Thankfully, all were able to rally around a singular brand and identity, and within the first few years, the new brand and model proved to be effective.

This would become Vector CAG, and although how the entity as originally designed was not the original goal, it has become central to the company’s success, culture, and identity.

In determining what they would do differently in the market, the team aligned with key manufacturing partners like Endress+Hauser, and sought to identify as a business that understands technical multi-industry applications. More than that, they sought to establish themselves as “a team of problem-solvers,” as Boudreaux defines it, filled with skilled engineers committed to a solutions and service mindset.

Service became and has become a key aspect of Vector’s identity and an area marked for growth; beginning with only one service engineer in the original six companies, the company now sports closer to thirty.

Over the past decade, Vector has aligned with over thirty industry partners. Endress+Hauser stands as both the flagship brand and the genesis of the company, being that it is the business that helped start the company. Both companies now reside on the same Houston campus.

In 2013, the company began with over one hundred manufacturing partners, which was a practice that Boudreaux realized was not sustainable. The first twenty-four to thirty-six months became about getting behind manufacturers that aligned with the Vector brand and saw growth opportunities within it; from there, the company was able to narrow the focus and move forward with both short- and long-term strategies.

As Vector continued with mergers and acquisitions early in its lifecycle, the team found power in communicating its story through both word-of-mouth and social media. The company, Boudreaux remembers, “didn’t have the horsepower of a corporate brand at the time,” as a hub company usually has a marketing department to help mergers happen smoothly but was able to tell its story through face-to-face client relations and now has grown to the point that it has adopted an effective engine for marketing.

He credits partners like Process Level Technology, Phoenix Contact, Brooks Instruments, Smith Analytical, and Endress+Hauser for staying aligned with Vector, as these relationships have made a difference to customers, establishing the company’s marketplace identity and inspiring confidence. These relationships are important to its continued success.

Boudreaux feels that a lot of companies can get wrapped up in only one industry or with a few specific customers. “Without diversification,” he notes, “we can’t go forward or grow,” so focusing on this in the last three to four years and making investments toward that goal has been of great importance so as not to simply rise and fall with the market’s tide.

Vector works with some core industries like oil and gas, food, water, and chemical, but is also investigating investing in emerging ones. Industries can be volatile, with large- and small-scale economic pressures and global implications, so the company focuses on what it can control. The industry is constantly growing, with consumer demand being a primary driver. Boudreaux explains that market share growth will be another constant focus, regardless of any kind of industry flux.

He indicates three major, regular challenges for the company: growth during uncertain times, adaptation to the speed of a customer’s business, and supply chain and labor constraints. Each of these areas has its unique aspects and are always being actively managed. The company is keen to focus on its diversification and market share, and most importantly, on selling its value-added services to take care of the lifecycle of a product or solution.

Boudreaux believes that the better Vector is at onboarding new people, the better it will be at having workers that understand every tool available to them. “Our people make the difference during uncertain times.”

Vector is still small enough to be flexible, meaning it does not take long for it to get a feel for or react to its customers’ needs. This became especially helpful in the initial year of the pandemic when many of its customers’ businesses were forced to fluctuate. By showing its flexibility, it earned the trust of its clients.

As for market constraints, the company stays in touch with its manufacturers and customers to understand the business climate and to avoid supply chain complications. Many manufacturers appreciated the approach of adjusting to client positions and to where the supply is, which allowed Vector to do unique things like order ahead of time without formal purchase orders. This led to better market share and further business, as its competitors were not able to pivot as well as it did.

Boudreaux cites the company winning the Top Workplaces – Houston for 2022 distinction in its fifth straight win in the category as personally meaningful, as it is an external signifier of a strong internal culture. One practice the company sticks by to benefit its workers is excluding non-compete contracts. “With non-compete agreements, we stop competing for our employees. We took a different approach and began to make ourselves more attractive as an employer to recruit and retain the best talent.” Vector also prioritizes work-life balance for its employees, especially after a fraught time in the industry like the one resulting from the pandemic.

He recalls how the team taught him a lot during that time about rallying around the common goal of survival and about the resilience and grit of the organization. “We treat team members like we treat our customers: respectful, sincere, flexible, and [encouraging] healthy challenges,” he says.

With respect to these healthy challenges, the company has gained a reputation both internally and with its partners for encouraging one another to constantly mark areas for growth and improvement. In the last few years, it has introduced a new pool of people to its veteran engineers and has put together a strong and efficient and rigorous onboarding process that has narrowed the typical settling-in window for new workers from two to three years down to three to six months. This has created an environment wherein, given the right tools, talented people can be generated to take on new positions while improving their skills and the output of the company.

As for the common customer question, ‘What else can you do for me?’ once Vector earns a customer’s business, their questions become more complex and the bar for the level of support is raised. This means that Vector must continue to raise its processes, infrastructure, and knowledge to further increase its value.

For the upcoming two to three years, the company will be focusing on its processes and infrastructure investments, with 2023 marked for adapting to incoming economic pressures.

This year marks the company’s tenth anniversary, and Boudreaux reveals that a banquet is planned in celebration. “When we have those functions,” he says, “It’s not about an entity or brand, it’s [about] celebrating the people… our people make the difference… individually, we’re good, but together, we can be great.” He forecasts that his team will come out with another record year and that big things are on the horizon for Vector CAG’s second decade.

The post Celebrating a Decade of People-Led Success<p class="company">Vector Controls and Automation Group</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The company’s areas of expertise include software development, project management, program management, business analysis, system administration, and systems architecture. Current and past clients include NYC Department of Education, New York State Department of Labor, New York City Fire Department, NYC Administration for Children’s Services, New York City Department of Sanitation, NYC Department of Social Services, NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, NYC Employees’ Retirement System, MTA, Port Authority of NY NJ, New York City Department of Transportation, NYC Office of Payroll Administration, and NYC Mayor’s Office of Contract Services.

The company’s secret to winning these coveted government contracts is straightforward. “Our customer service is focused on providing good people,” says Operations Coordinator Renee Dufek. “The easiest way to get a second look and have a competitive edge in our business is to just do good work. We try to leverage everything that we can, all the recruitment tools to best satisfy them,” she explains.

This tactic includes listening carefully to clients in order to understand their unique requirements so the team can deliver the best talent for their specific job. “Our approach with customer service is to provide exactly what our clients need,” Dufek summarizes.

Clients know they can rely on Universal Technologies’ twenty years of experience and network building to find the right match for them. And the Universal Technologies’ team knows they can rely on the predictability of the government sector, making the relationship a win-win. “The processes are set in place and that is one of the benefits of working in the government sector,” Dufek shares. “Things are straightforward and they [follow] a process, not only for simplicity, but it’s mandated. The government has many protocols for the vendors that they work with so that there are fair ways of doing things. And it eases our process on the back end as well because we know what to expect.”

As a woman-owned business, Universal Technologies enjoys a strong relationship with many government clients, but that is only the beginning of the advantages of woman leadership. “Being woman-owned definitely has its advantages when you work in the government sector because there are certain initiatives that aim to help women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses,” Dufek says. “But more importantly, being in the IT world and being woman-owned and woman-led—it’s mostly women at our small office—goes a long way in being able to relate to women in IT in general.”

This ability to relate to women who work within the industry is critical to recruiting and retaining top talent. “A lot of the consultants we hire are women,” says Dufek. “I believe the reason for that is that they can relate. They feel like they’re working with a company, and they’re being employed by a company, that they can trust because they know that we’re people who have gone through the same things as them in a mostly male-dominated industry. So I think that’s a big connection for us and it helps us employ very talented IT professionals.”

The desire to support women goes beyond the business benefits; it is also a key component of the company culture. “I think it is important to have women represented in today’s market,” says Dufek. “[It goes] back to our company culture.”

This company culture also focuses on hiring young people. “We do have a lot of young professionals working for us and we’re trying to continue that. It’s the way of the future, bringing in young talent and people whose growth we can foster as the company grows too. I think that plays into both the culture and the woman-owned piece; we certainly need to understand what young professionals are looking for in a prospective employer and try to fit into that mold.” With its strong emphasis on positive work-life balance and representing women within the IT field, Universal Technologies fits this mold remarkably well.

The company’s size also helps cultivate close relationships and makes it possible to maintain core values. “We have a very small, tight-knit group that works very well together,” Dufek says. “The company culture is pretty unique, especially in comparison to a lot of our competitors. We are smaller in the industry, so that means that we work in a really small office. We know each other personally. Everyone works together and it creates a family atmosphere. We have lunch together, we talk about what we did last night, we ask about each other’s families at home. That’s part of what I like about being in a small, people-centered office. It feels like a family. And I think a lot of places say that, but we actually carry it out at our headquarters.”

The company’s relatively small size also helps the team stay light on their feet. “It allows us to be a little bit more flexible, a little bit more adaptable,” Dufek says. “There aren’t as many company memos going around; it’s talking face-to-face. It’s being able to brainstorm together. It’s being able to make changes when we need them and then celebrate the wins together. It’s very fun to work here.”

After two decades of growth and success, Universal Technologies continues to move forward, while holding on to the unique qualities that have made the company thrive. “As we move into the new year and beyond, we want to grow our partnerships,” Dufek says. “That’s something that, in this industry, goes a long way. In the consulting business, there are always new vendors you can work with, new subcontractors, new consulting firms that we can partner with for both the government sector as well as the private sector too.”

After finding success through a focus on the public sector, the team is open to expanding into new opportunities within the private sector. “Obviously government is our primary focus currently, but expanding beyond New York City and New York state” is a viable option, Dufek says, especially with the rapidly shifting, post-pandemic work environment. “This really is a global workforce at this point, with remote work situations and everything on the forefront since 2020. We’re just looking to diversify a little bit more.”

Diversification could even mean expanding beyond an exclusive focus on IT. “Our bread and butter is IT, but that’s not to say that it always has to be,” Dufek says. “We’re willing to branch out into other industries both public and private.” As the team explores new opportunities, they will work hard to maintain their tight-knit company culture and to keep representing women in whatever industries they pursue.

The post Supporting Women in IT<p class="company">Universal Technologies</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Ever wondered why janitors sprinkle “the green stuff” on the floor before sweeping, thereby creating even more mess that has to be swept up? Wonder no more!

The “green stuff” is a biodegradable compound, designed to reduce airborne dust created by sweeping, and was the first product manufactured and sold by Dustbane Products Ltd., the company formed by Chester Pickering in Ottawa in 1908. Considering what we know today about how disease is spread through airborne particles, it appears he was ahead of his time.

115 years later, the privately owned company, now in its third generation of ownership, continues to be prescient. For example, Quat Plus, an ECOLOGO® Certified product, is a liquid disinfectant and germicidal detergent that destroys a wide range of fungi, bacteria, and viruses, including Influenza A (H1N1), without any harsh chemicals.

It isn’t only effective against that virus. Dustbane’s claim of virucidal efficacy against the Coronavirus with a three-minute contact time was independently tested by ALG Analytical Lab Group. Their results showed that Quat Plus fully met the performance standards stipulated by the U.S. EPA and Health Canada for SARS COV.

Rising to the occasion
In total, Dustbane manufactures 126 high-performance cleaning solutions, many of which are also ECOLOGO® Certified, and 111 pieces of equipment to meet the needs of commercial industries. A few of the vertical markets it serves are education, building service contractors, food service, senior care, industrial, office and government, retail, property management, sports and recreation, and travel and tourism sectors—essentially any facility where people gather to work, study, eat, receive medical care, shop, enjoy indoor recreation, or travel.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, the Dustbane team rose to the occasion, going from a regular five-day, 40-hour production schedule, to double shifts, seven days a week, to keep up with the demand.

Shannon Hall, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, joined President Ben Merkley and the rest of the leadership team on the filling lines, shipping, and anywhere needed to get the product out to customers. She’s now concerned that people “don’t care about the pandemic anymore, even though it’s still with us.

“It seems that some people have forgotten they need to continue with their great cleaning practices, and they need to keep disinfecting because as employees return to the workplace, we’re seeing many more cold and flu viruses,” she explains. “I think we need to incorporate some easy best practices to get back to the right level of cleaning and identify the tools that can support indoor air quality, because that’s a challenge.”

While Dustbane is not an HVAC company, Hall says the company’s products and equipment can help customers achieve cleaner air by removing the dirt, dust, and bacteria that collect on both hard and soft surfaces, especially on carpeting that may look clean, and so prevent these tiny particles from becoming airborne.

Hygieia, Greek Goddess of Cleanliness
In May 2022, Hall was instrumental in launching the Canadian region of ISSA Hygieia Network, which was formed in 2016 as a charity of the International Sanitation Supply Association, the industry’s professional association, of which Dustbane is a member.

The ISSA Hygieia Network is designed to help with the advancement of women in the cleaning industry. Today it is co-chaired by Maureen Carroll, National District Sales Manager, S. C. Johnson Professional, and Kimberly Price, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Georgia Pacific, and is supported by 12 councillors, including Hall.

The network was exactly what Hall was looking for as she considered ways she could help with the advancement of women in the industry, since it addresses best practices in recruitment, training, and retention, all aimed at helping women to emerge as leaders, through a variety of educational, mentoring, and networking opportunities.

Conferences, both in-person and virtual, feature educational activities, inspirational speakers, and networking opportunities. Further to that, Hygieia members can join one of eight regional online networking communities on LinkedIn; register for webinar series that feature industry leaders discussing relevant topics about women in the workplace; and join an online, one-on-one mentoring program to gain knowledge, insight, and skills.

High-value mentoring
Mentoring is something dear to Hall’s heart, as she believes it can “really help elevate women and help them achieve their goals, either in their personal lives or in their careers in the cleaning industry. In the mentor-mentee relationship, everyone wins because we learn from each other.”

She herself has benefited from being mentored. “Early in my career, I hired a business coach because I realized if I wanted to develop my career, I needed to build some skill sets that I didn’t have in my toolbox. Having a mentor really helped me with that,” she shares.

“I also worked with a male mentor on the other side of the country who was on a career path within the organization, and who helped me identify areas of opportunity where I might be able to excel, as well as weaknesses that I needed to work on. It pushed me in the right direction and got me to align my thought processes with what I needed to do as I moved into my role at Dustbane.”

Now Hall is giving back by mentoring other women within the organization as well as students through their sales and marketing programs at Algonquin College, which she finds rewarding.

“I think getting into a mentoring program is one of the best things you can do for yourself, and being a mentor is one of the best things you can do for others. Too often women have had ‘imposter syndrome’ and took a ‘fake it until you make it’ attitude, rather than reaching out and getting assistance with what’s holding them back. I feel we’re responsible for our own destinies, and for shaping the future by making sure we and other women have the confidence to drive forward,” says Hall.

“What we’ve seen throughout the Hygieia Network is that women who have been through the mentorship program and have taken some of the courses are starting to see career advancement, because the program opens doors, whether within their own organization or outside it. Now our goal is to make more women aware of the services that are available to them, at no charge, through Hygieia, so they can utilize the tools and skills that will help them build their futures.”

Cleaning for a reason
Long before Dustbane was formed in 1908, founder Chester Pickering had been helping those less fortunate, even as a homeless youth when he exchanged chores for food, which he shared with other homeless youth.

Over the years, and through two successive owners, Pickering’s care for others was formalized through Give Meaning to your Cleaning™ program. Acts of Kindness, in which distributors across the country participate by giving back to local communities and doing what is right for people and the planet.

On a global scale, in 2020, Dustbane initiated a tree planting project on the island country of Madagascar, which has been ravaged by deforestation and climate change, to plant one million trees by 2025. To date, nearly 500,000 have been planted.

It’s no wonder then that Dustbane was quick to sponsor Cleaning for a Reason, an ISSA charitable organization founded in 2006 to provide home cleaning for patients undergoing chemotherapy, which weakens their immune systems, leaving them too stressed to clean but extremely vulnerable to bacteria.

Since its inception, Cleaning for a Reason and its 1,200 partner cleaning companies have provided free home cleaning for more than 47,000 patients and their families across all 50 states and Canada, with their services valued at over $15.9 million.

“It’s an incredible program designed to work with residential cleaners, because there’s nothing worse than coming home from a treatment and having to clean while exhausted and mentally stressed,” Hall says.

In support of this effort, Dustbane sponsored a chilli cook-off event this past February, with the goal of raising $20,000 while raising awareness of what Cleaning for a Reason does and how the Hygieia Network can help residential contract cleaners take their businesses to the next level.

In the coming months, Hall plans to organize and host eight ‘Meet & Greet’ opportunities across Canada for women in various elements of the industry—sales and distribution, contract cleaning, and residential cleaning—to build on the ISSA Hygieia Network. Some, she says, may be set up as a ‘happy hour’ while others will be breakfasts that will feature panels composed of women in the industry.

The future for Dustbane
“Not a lot of companies have managed to remain private for so long, so we’re proud of what we do as a mid-sized manufacturer, which gives us a unique ability to tailor our solutions to our customers’ needs. There are companies bigger than us, but they don’t have the opportunity to make changes in an instant in the way we can,” says Hall.

“We’ve been here for a long time, and we intend to be here for a long time yet. Our president, Ben Merkley, is young, in his mid-40s. He has lots of ideas and has made a significant investment in a new building infrastructure, just 10 minutes from the present facility which has served us since 1912.”

She describes the new building, scheduled to open in mid-summer, as “a state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to take things to the next level, meet market demands, provide ultimate customer service, develop new formulations, and offer employees a bright, attractive workspace with all new equipment. We want to be here for another 115 years, and this facility ensures that we will be.”

The post Keeping Canada Clean—and Canadians Safe—Since 1908<p class="company">Dustbane</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Salmon farming is a type of aquaculture that involves raising fish in underwater pens as opposed to trawling them in the wild. It’s a very big business: on the East Coast of Canada, the sector generates $2 billion in economic output and $800 million in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) annually, while employing over 8,000 people. Atlantic Canadian salmon farmers produce about 350 million nutritious meals each year.

Headquartered in Letang, New Brunswick, the ACFFA has 81 members. Besides fish farmers, members include service providers, research groups, and feed companies. The ACFFA continues to operate the Letang-based Limekiln Wharf Service Centre on behalf of the aquaculture industry.

A return to form
As part of the transition to normality, the ACFFA hosted its annual Research, Science, and Technology forum in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, from October 25^th to 27^th, 2022.

“It was our first time back in person without health restrictions in years”, says Farquharson. The Association opted to retain a hybrid format, offering presentations, seminars, and speakers in-person and online. That way, people who couldn’t travel to the event were still able to take part.

The forum proved to be a big hit, with approximately 150 registrants, two days of events and presentations, and an inaugural Women of Salmon Farming Symposium. The latter event focused on issues relating to women in the industry, with a view toward promoting gender equity and opportunity. Symposium guests included Marie Terese Letorney, a European opera singer turned communications specialist. Letorney ran a well-received session “on how men and women communicate differently in the business world,” says Farquharson.

In a similar fashion, the Association is putting the finishing touches on a report titled, Gender-Based Opportunities and Challenges in Salmonoid Farming in Atlantic Canada. “We had some details from the draft [report] going into the Symposium, but now, with the results from the Symposium and new statistics from Statistics Canada, we want to incorporate all of those into the final report,” explains Farquharson.

The report will show that women in aquaculture tend to be higher educated than their male counterparts, even though educational achievement has little impact on gender pay ratios, she continues. The Association will host a Women in Seafood roundtable at an upcoming Responsible Seafood Summit “to continue the conversation,” she says.

An international event, the Responsible Seafood Summit used to be called GOAL (Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership). Co-hosted by the ACFFA, the rebranded summit will take place this fall in Saint John, New Brunswick. This will mark the first time the event has been held in Canada, with British Columbia hosting the summit a few years ago.

“We’ve put a big effort into bringing that conference here,” Farquharson says. “[It will feature] the thought leaders, the CEOs, the executives of seafood companies… government officials, NGOs; they will all gather. We are working closely with the Global Seafood Alliance to co-host.”

Farquharson also attended the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) conference in Edinburgh, Scotland from June 6th to 9th, 2022. An annual international event, the conference rotates between countries that have wild salmon (a list that includes Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Farquharson typically participates in the conference each year as part of the Canadian delegation.

Advocacy, always
The Inner Bay of Fundy Salmon Recovery Project (iBoF) continues to be one of the ACFFA’s flagship programs. This project aims to replenish stocks of wild salmon, and to achieve this goal, wild smolts (salmon that haven’t reached full maturity and can live in saltwater) are raised in custom-built pens, and then released into Bay of Fundy rivers. This huge undertaking involves a partnership between the ACFFA, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Parks Canada, the salmon industry, First Nations groups, and provincial authorities.

Last year, there were “158 returns”—that is, salmon returning to rivers in the inner Bay of Fundy—and things look equally promising this year, says Farquharson.

Advocacy also remains central to the ACFFA’s mission. “I’m always advocating for effective regulatory policies… that’s 90 per cent of my job, communicating for effective regulatory policies and processes in Atlantic Canada. We were really pleased when New Brunswick released its Finfish Aquaculture Development Strategy… Salmon farming started here 40 years ago, so it’s really encouraging to see New Brunswick step up to the plate and want to be leading again in the development of the industry,” states Farquharson.

Finfish include salmon, which is why the report is so significant for the ACFFA. The recently released New Brunswick Finfish Aquaculture Growth Strategy 2022 – 2030 document touches on seven “strategy themes” (land-based aquaculture, governance, competitiveness and science support, fish health, promotion and advocacy, strategic infrastructure, and regulatory efficacy). Presented by the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fisheries, the Strategy aims to grow the province’s finfish sector.

As part of its ongoing mission, the ACFFA also works to raise awareness about the importance and realities of Atlantic Canadian salmon farming. “There are still people out there who think we stand on the side of a net pen and throw fish feed in the water with our hands. It’s ridiculous,” states Farquharson.

People are often unaware of how high-tech the field is, employing the latest sensors, computers, automated feeding systems, cameras, monitors, and more. Every aspect of salmon development in aquaculture pens is closely monitored and farmers adhere to strict environmental regulations.

For all that, certain myths continue to prevail, including the notion that aquaculture is bad for the environment and that farmed fish is less nutritious than wild fish.

As the ACFFA points out, aquaculture helps blunt the impact of climate change. According to a 2018 study by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP), salmon farming releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than terrestrial animal farming (i.e., raising cows, pigs, and sheep on land)—which is a good thing, given that climate change might have a hugely negative impact on oceans and aquatic life.

“I think anybody that says climate change isn’t affecting them is not looking out their window or paying attention,” states Farquharson.

As for nutrition, Farquharson points to a 2020 research paper in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, by Dr. Stefanie Colombo (assistant professor of Aquaculture at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia). Colombo found there was little difference in the nutritional value of wild salmon and farmed salmon. When it came to health, the key factor was the species involved (Colombo’s study looked at six types of salmon, examining each for levels of fat, protein, amino acids, mercury, fatty acids, and cholesterol), not whether the salmon was farmed or wild.

To enhance its public education efforts, the ACFFA developed a 360° virtual reality Atlantic Canadian salmon farming tour. People can don VR goggles and take a virtual tour, starting at a wharf and leading to a salmon farm, hatchery, and fish lab.

In a similar fashion, the ACFFA launched a “Uniquely Atlantic” digital campaign last spring to highlight the merits of Atlantic Canada farmed salmon. As part of the campaign, the Association refreshed its website and created Instagram reels (short videos that are a hugely popular feature on this social media platform).

“This year, we’re going into TikTok,” notes Farquharson, citing another online platform for user-contributed videos that is much used by young people.

Growing the industry
In addition to raising awareness about the salmon farming sector, the ACFFA hopes such efforts encourage more young people to consider taking aquaculture jobs. Like many industries, Atlantic Canadian salmon farming is suffering from a labour crunch. Many older workers have either retired or are reaching retirement age, and not enough young people are stepping in to fill their positions.

To this end, the ACFFA recently hired a community outreach and education coordinator, whose job involves talking to students and developing packages for guidance counsellors about the industry, says Farquharson. Farquharson herself makes presentations in schools, pointing out how the aquaculture sector is rapidly expanding and in need of new workers.

The ACFFA’s messaging seems to be having an effect. Each year, the Association hires a third-party polling firm to determine what Atlantic Canadians think about salmon farming. In the most recent poll, aquaculture garnered an 81 per cent approval rating (up slightly from the usual 80 per cent result).

Asked to provide a five-year industry forecast, Farquharson envisions more post-smolt facilities, larger hatcheries on land, and a growing awareness of the economic, nutritional, and environmental benefits of Atlantic salmon farming.

The post Promoting Aquaculture with Advocacy and Action<p class="company">The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In Alberta, aquaponics research began in 1994, when the association started its first experiments in growing fish and underwater crops under the guidance of then-President Mark McNaughton. Dr. Nick Savidov, a senior research scientist at Lethbridge College in Lethbridge, Alberta, credits the association with enabling him and others to engage in aquaponics projects over the years. Dr. Savidov’s aquaponics project at the college began in 2015 at the behest of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. At that time, he occupied the head position of the greenhouse research program with the Alberta Agriculture department.

The department was given the task of running projects in aquaponics, especially using fish water to grow vegetables, and so got involved with provincial aquaculture specialist Eric Hutchings, who played a great role in establishing the association itself.

“Eric believed that… aquaponics was a technology… which was viable both technically and economically,” Dr. Savidov recalls. In his experience, the association played the role of initiator into the research like what he and Hutchings were doing, and it is still considered an important player in aquaculture and aquaponics development.

Dr. Savidov cites the triploid grass carp project at Lethbridge College from the ‘90s through 2015 as one of the association’s most notable projects in its early years. It undertook the project with the partnership of the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (ACE), which itself is part of the Integrated Agriculture Technology Centre at Lethbridge College. The project was intended to supply the industry with sterile grass carp to control aquatic vegetation in irrigation channels and dugouts.

Dr. Savidov mentions Clay Boyes as another important figure in the association, as his involvement in the industry led to constructing an aquaculture system to start grass carp and developing Lethbridge as an important industry resource. Another key figure is John Derksen who, along with Boyes, became a major resource for the association by providing important species information through close work with aquaculture specialists like Eric Hutchings, who was later succeeded by Dan Watson in this position.

Lethbridge College’s ACE and Alberta Agriculture worked together with the Alberta Aquaculture Association to tackle problems in aquaculture. They worked to bring new fish species into the local ecosystem by building an isolation / quarantine facility for incoming species to be successfully introduced. This centre was the first of its kind in Alberta and continues to be a great help to the industry, spearheaded by the association.

Recent years have seen more impressive projects being undertaken in Alberta. In 2015, Lethbridge College received a $2 million grant to push research to the next level with Dr. Savidov’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada aquaponics project. NSERC also funded another project with support from the association, which resulted in developing carbon-based-filtration systems to aid the aquaculture industry in improving water treatment technology.

Dr. Savidov names Dr. James Rakocy of the University of the Virgin Islands as both “the godfather of modern aquaponics,” and a key figure in helping to build the first research aquaponics facility in 2002. This facility was the first in the world to add an innovative reactor technology that can revolutionize waste treatment across multiple industries. The research centre in Brooks, Alberta has also produced the first zero-waste aquaculture system in the world, which is also the first zero-waste food production system.

“Canada has led the way in these developments on a global scale,” Dr. Savidov notes. He feels that the aquaculture industry is facing many challenges as well as many opportunities and admits that so much more is known about fish farming now than was known even a decade ago thanks to the vision and strides made during the lifetime of the Alberta Aquaculture Association.

An ongoing challenge is supply, as fish populations are beginning to vanish, resulting in a greater need for fish farming to provide a valuable protein source to North America. Dr. Savidov lists two ways one can fish, by using net pens in a natural reservoir like a lake or an ocean, or using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), which allows for higher density fish catches and does not have limitations on catches produced. Each comes with unique drawbacks, however.

For net pens, there is still an element of pollution as the fish produce waste after they are fed, so some provincial governments across Canada are beginning to put limits on industry expansion by decreasing net pen operation numbers, and this has been a big change in the Canadian aquaculture industry. Although net pens are cheaper to build and operate, the restrictions they are facing make them not ideal.

With RAS, a self-sufficient system can be created with less environmental impact. In these fish production systems fish are produced in separate tanks or raceways and the water is predominantly recycled through the system, having reduced interaction with the natural environment; however, these RAS are far more expensive to build and operate then net pens.

The Alberta Aquaculture Association is very interested in keeping the aquaculture industry alive but acknowledges that there are feasibility issues for both incoming and continuing fish farmers and industry workers. “We are facing a dilemma [with] how we can expand our aquaculture industry,” Dr. Savidov shares, but a potential solution lies in what is called integrated production systems, like aquaponics.

To help offset the cost of a system like RAS, an integrated production system would include other revenue sources for farmers, like producing vegetables through hydroponics that can be sold along with fish and related products. This is a possible answer to help improve the economic feasibility of modern fish farms, an answer that the association has been keeping atop since the early 2000s.

Looking ahead, Dr. Savidov foresees more innovative technologies which will hopefully allow fish to grow with less risk of pollution. “The industry has to adopt these technologies in order to be more sustainable,” he stresses.

He also feels that changing the profile and perception of the industry is important, and this can be achieved by integrating operations and making them more economically efficient for farmers. This trend is already being adopted in Alberta as well as in other provinces like Ontario.

Several big companies involved in fisheries are also interested in this and are becoming more convinced of the benefits of the method. Agriculture, as a whole, is struggling to produce food sustainably, to the point where “we are living at the expense of future generations as it relies mostly on synthetic fertilizers produced using finite resources, such as fossil fuels and rock deposits,” as Dr. Savidov puts it. The recycling of resources such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, is fast becoming mandatory, which is why aquaculture is using hydroponics to recycle water and nutrients, enabling a more sustainable practice.

The price of fish will likely increase for consumers in the short term, but he points out that it still takes less water to produce fish to eat than red meat, and the fishing industry will be much more sustainable in the future. Throughout the challenges to come, the Alberta Aquaculture Association will continue to stress innovation and development to benefit the aquaculture and aquaponics sectors it has been aiding for nearly thirty years.

The post Aquaponics Solutions for a Better Fishery Industry<p class="company">Alberta Aquaculture Association</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.