Aug u s t 2017
www.constructionglobal.com
TOP10: Most Influential construction executives in the US
FOUR FEMALE EXECS ON INSPIRING WOMEN INTO STEM
NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES: Data that walks on water
DATA CUBE AN INNOVATIVE, SCALABLE AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT DATA CENTRE
THE ROLE OF 3D PRINTING IN CONSTRUCTION
FOREWORD WELCOME TO THE August issue of Construction Global! A major issue in the global data centre market is energy efficiency and cooling. Step forward Data Valley Group. In our special report, we speak with the COO and Founder Jef Gorrisen about how, through the patented Data Cube concept, the company is looking to lead the way in the growing data centre market of the Netherlands. Our features look more closely at how green infrastructure will shape the future of our world and how important it is for the industry to embrace this growing trend. We also look at the emerging role of 3D printing on the construction industry of tomorrow, with more and more global markets integrating 3D printing into large homes and multi-unit apartment buildings. And finally, we detail our 10 leading construction executives across the industry. As always, please tweet your feedback to @ConstructionGL
Enjoy the issue! www.constructionglobal.com www.bizclikmedia.com
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F E AT U R E S
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WHAT PLACE DOES 3D PRINTING HAVE IN CONSTRUCTION?
PROFILE
HOW WILL GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE SHAPE OUR WORLD? TECHNOLOGY
WHAT PLACE DOES 3D PRINTING HAVE IN CONSTRUCTION?
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TOP10
INFLUENTIAL CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVES IN THE US
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Uptime Institute
EVENT REPORT
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C O M PA N Y PROFILES
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Data Valley Group EUROPE
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Dataplex Ireland EUROPE
SAK
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Nautilus Data Technologies USA
Crescent Communities USA
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Fairfield University USA
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Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc CANADA
120 Plafond
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PROFILE
HOW WILL GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE SHAPE OUR WORLD? Written by: C AT H E R I N E R O W E L L
Tom Armour, Leader of Global Landscape Architecture at Arup, and founder of Grant Associates, Andrew Grant, discuss the growing importance of embedding green infrastructure within construction projects
PROFILE “GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE HAS become a central focal point for both architects and landscape architects over the past five years, and the prominence and the way in which it has been treated has increased significantly,” explains Paul Lincoln, Deputy CEO at Landscape Institute UK at Ecobuild, London. Climate change is costing £3bn per annum, leading construction workers to play a significant role in developing healthy city environments. Environmental, economic and social drivers are all linking with the subsequent rise of green building and utilisation of renewable resources within new and existing building projects. “What we need to do is bring green construction into the mainstream and move away from the idea that green infrastructure and landscaping is something we can do at the end, or if we have enough money for it,” comments Tom Armour, Leader of Global Landscape Architecture at Arup. Becoming a fundamental part of construction and design, construction companies and architects are increasingly aiming to integrate the natural world into new and existing buildings in order to build healthier 10
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cities. However, the way construction companies retrofit cities, towns and villages by implementing green infrastructure requires different ways of thinking. For example, climate proofing cities and providing sufficient buffers from extreme weather will provide healthier living environments and increased quality of living, in comparison to areas which are often abused in city environments, such as water and high energy usage. Behind the development of iconic landmarks Gardens by the Bay and the future development of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Andrew
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
“GREEN CONSTRUCTION AND HOW WE DESIGN FOR THAT HAS TWO ASPECTS TO IT. ONE IS MECHANICS; HOW WE CALCULATE THE BENEFITS AND PROMOTE IT. THE OTHER ONE IS HOW WE THINK ABOUT THE QUALITY OF LIFE OR PEOPLE WHO INHABIT THIS SPACE”
Grant, founder of Grant Associates says: “Green construction and how we design for that has two aspects to it. One is mechanics; how we calculate the benefits and promote it. The other one is how we think about the quality of life or people who inhabit this space. The way we operate is changing - we need a different language, ways of working, and we need to think much more three dimensional and holistically about projects. We start to worry about systems, water management alongside the aesthetic, the visual, the spatial. Green infrastructure has brought another way of thinking.” 11
PROFILE With an even larger proportion of the world’s population set to move into cities by 2050, construction companies will need to think long-term from a strategic planning point of view with regards to new and developing projects. Arup’s regeneration project in London, for example, provides 22 new bridges and an accessible green space at the Olympic Park, creating a calm space for tourists, locals and families. Visitor levels have increased significantly, in addition to an increased level of biodiversity in the area. Additionally, Arup’s
9.7BN Predicted global population by 2050
A new railway for Australia’s biggest city Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project. The city-shaping Sydney Metro West project is proposed to deliver a new connection between the central business districts of Parramatta and Sydney, linking communities along the way. Industry engagement has started
17120 SM West Industry Ad_196x137_GC
Sydney Metro is seeking input from across all industry sectors – both locally and internationally – to ensure a market led and innovative approach in the project’s development.
This engagement includes helping define the project to meet transport and land use outcomes as well as market sounding on how the project could be delivered.
The growing Parramatta city centre
Interested parties are invited to register to participate in the industry engagement process taking place between 25 September and 27 October 2017. Registrations of Interest close on Friday 1 September 2017. For a registration form, contact the Industry Engagement Team at: industry.sydneymetro@sydneymetro.info or visit www.sydneymetro.info/industry
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
installation of ‘living walls’ in London, where a vertical green wall has been factored into redevelopments, reduces pollution throughout, offers something new to think about. With this in mind, throughout the UK and Asia, Grant Associates has been implementing green infrastructure, undergoing regeneration projects to provide a higher quality of life for residents. Trees and hedges have been added in new projects, and streets have been reconditioned, enabling increased collaboration between cost consultants, engineers, safety inspectors, highway
individuals, amongst many others. “Trees are fundamental to the future of cities to allow us to maintain the environment that we need,” explains Grant. “The transformation of streets from something very traditional to something rich and biodiverse is the big challenge.” One such complex example of green building and infrastructure is the Bosco Verticale in Milan. Designed by Boeri Studio, the urban forest houses over 800 trees, which would normally cover two hectares of land. Spanning 27 floors, the development tackles the rising levels of air pollution 13
PROFILE
in the city and integrates nature within existing buildings. Similarly, Atocha Train Station in Madrid houses an indoor botanical garden, therefore integrating nature within its design, creating a calm, tranquil space. By utilising existing spaces efficiently, Grant says “it’s about how we reform our spaces and recondition our world. It’s about people and the quality of life within 14
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“IT’S ABOUT HOW WE REFORM OUR SPACES AND RECONDITION OUR WORLD. IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN THIS ENVIRONMENT”
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
this environment; recycling materials, launching a creative ecosystem for art and participation.” One such project completed to international acclaim, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay adopts an embedded energy cycle, integrated systems and exceptional landscaping. Spanning a total of 101 hectares, the gardens have become a main gathering space in Singapore, attracting over 25mn visitors worldwide. All water is collected and fed back into the lakes and ecosystem, with two self-sufficient glass biomed conservatories and manmade supertrees that incorporate a continuous energy cycle. The relationship between buildings and cities is one which is forever being broken down with the implementation of green infrastructures, where the gardens will now be connected through a 150km Round Cycle Island Route, enabling cyclists to travel around the island. Grant adds: “With a beautiful, complex city, what is that relationship and what does it mean to the city? Participation and collaboration, makes it worthwhile.” Quoting Darwin, Grant concludes: “In the long history of humankind
(and animal kind, too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” By bringing sustainable building and green infrastructure into the mainstream, cities will become healthier and drive further efficiencies. With the implementation of new technologies and processes, the construction sector is in transition, at which the role of designers and architects will become increasingly vital in driving these transformations in years to come. 15
TECHNOLOGY
WHAT PLACE DOES 3D PRINTING HAVE IN CONSTRUCTION? Edited by: ANDREW WOODS
Many believe it won’t be long before we can 3D print an entire house - Construction Global takes a look at the process that could change construction forever‌ WHILE 3D PRINTING for construction is still in its infancy, innovators around the world continue to make strides with technology, bringing us closer than ever to the full printed house. From China to Amsterdam to Australia,
here are some shining examples of 3D in construction around the world.
TECHNOLOGY The 45 Day, 2 Storey (China) Chinese construction company HuaShang Tengda printed a two-story, 400 sq ft home in just a month and a half. The team took about 90 days to print the home on site; the frame being constructed first and then walls, exterior and other components which were completed and installed later in the process. The company cites the printing speed, low cost and sustainability as a way to improve conditions for rural and impoverished families. China is actually a hotbed of 3D technology competition; other companies in the country have incorporated 3D printing into larger homes and even multi-unit apartment buildings. Several companies are competing for
Huashang Tengda 3D printed house
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dominance in the construction industry in the country and this battle continues to drive innovation and ever more complex projects.
Concrete houses (USA) In California, one construction firm is combining the strength and durability of concrete with the innovation of 3D printing. Contour Crafting is working on offering single homes, multi-unit dwellings and other buildings, constructed on site of concrete and other materials. One of the company’s stated goals is to reduce the amount of time it takes to make a home. It also hopes that its process will drastically reduce construction waste, offering homeowners a more sustainable home building process.
3D PRINTING
The Wasp Project (Italy)
Printed 3D office space
Printed 3D office space (Dubai)
Italian based 3D printing firm CSP is concentrating on printing full houses on site. So far, the firm has created a printer designed to create vegetable fiber, adobe style bricks and walls for construction use. The Wasp project is an eco-friendly 3D printed village CSP is launching in the area just outside Bologna. According to spokesman Maurizio Andreoli: “Our dream is a house for everybody. We can replace slums with natural houses, which don’t leave waste when they aren’t used anymore.” Huashang Tengda 3D printed house
The world’s first 3D-printed office space debuted last year in Dubai. While both the design and the printing method utilises innovative printing technology, this project is distinctive in the way it is being used. It has gone beyond being a prototype or sample and is fully equipped with working staff, furnishings and everything needed to run a business. 19
TECHNOLOGY
MX3D to 3D print a steel bridge in Amsterdam
Steel bridge (Amsterdam) MX3D, a Dutch robotics firm, is working on a 3D printed steel bridge in the heart of Amsterdam. While the project remains in testing, hopes are high that actual construction on the horizontal structure will begin soon. “We are going to see if the bridge is possible – not to show that this is the new way to construct a bridge, but to demonstrate what the possibilities are and then people can use their imagination to come up with new ideas,” says Tim Geurtjens, CTO, MX3D. 20
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3D PRINTING
The making of the Kooky Cubby: Assembling the walls
The Kooky Cubby (Australia) Show-goers at the most recent Melbourne International Flower and Garden show got a surprise – the revelation of a full-sized 3D printed treehouse. The Kooky Cubby, created by a team of robotics engineers, architects and designers is just one of the latest innovations in 3D printing and an excellent example of how this technology can be applied to construction. Designed and printed to answer a call for projects for a kid-friendly cubby house, the Kooky Cubby took over a year to design and
is made up of eight separate panels. The design team, which included architects, designers and robotics specialists even consulted with kids to get feedback on the design. Once complete, the cubby debuted at a flower and garden festival, raising awareness for both 3D printing in construction and the need for safe outdoor play spaces for kids. “If it doesn’t need to be a thing of beauty and it just needs to be rapidly produced, then it’s only a matter of time before it [3D printing] is seen to be viable,” said John Hainsworth, Kooky Cubby project team member.
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TOP 10 INFLUENTIAL CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVES IN THE US The United States is one of the largest construction markets in the world with expenditures reaching over $1.162bn and a market expecting to grow by 2.9% between 2016 and 2017. Meet the people who drive the construction projects that shape America… Edited by: ANDREW WOODS
TOP 10 MARK LINENBERGER Linbeck Group (Senior VP and General Manager)
MICHAEL BRUYNESTEYN Turner Construction (VP of Strategic Finance)
Bruynesteyn places a special emphasis on resourcefulness and persistence and has built a reputation within the industry for powering through problems that would have stopped other construction executives. Aside from his current position as VP of Strategic Finance for Turner Construction, Bruynesteyn has also served in advisory positions to Levant Power and Superior Industries. One of his greatest talents is in executing many merger and acquisition transactions with Strauss Capital. 24
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With more than a quarter century of experience in construction, Linenberger has been executing high-level decisions within the industry since 1984. As a leader of the Fort Worth division of the Linbeck Group, Mark is directly responsible for accounts that include Texas Christian University and many other institutions of higher learning.
CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVES IN THE US
MICHAEL ANDERSON Georgia Power Foundation (Chief Executive Officer)
As a member of the Georgia Power Management Council, Anderson oversees one of the busiest corporate safety and workforce development forces in the United States. Mike also serves on many boards, including the Georgia Tech Advisory Board, Zoo Atlanta, the Emory University Board of Visitors, the Chick-fil-a Bowl and the Southeastern Council of Foundations.
J. KURK WALTON Kimball Construction (Chief Operating Officer)
Walton has created a consistent reputation of being able to grow companies within slow markets and is an expert in strategic innovation, with experience in profitability improvements. Walton is also known as a fierce competitor, performing just as well in aggressive markets as he does in stagnant ones. Before serving as the COO of Kimball Construction, Walton was a top-level executive for Iron Mountain as well as serving at a private equity company. 25
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CHAD TYSON Blach Construction (General Superintendent)
MARK KNIGHT Foothills Contracting (President)
Aside from serving as the President of Foothills Contracting, Knight has also been a Senior VP of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Knight was the first person from the state of South Dakota to be given this position within the AGC because of his 30 yearsplus of experience in putting together some of the biggest construction projects in the U.S.
As the General Superintendent of Blach Construction, Chad is the final decision maker on construction operations throughout the entire Bay Area. Tyson is known as an innovator in safety measures and has been tapped many times by the state of California for his expertise in this area. Blach Construction has been the recipient of the America Construction Safety Excellence Award and has been named a Cal-OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Contractor under Chad’s leadership. Chad has been at Blach for more than 20 years and also serves as the Chairman of the Santa Clara/San Benito Carpenter’s Training Committee for Northern California 5.
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TOP 10 EGBERT L. J. PERRY CAP (Executive Chairman and CEO of The Integral Group)
Egbert is leading the charge that combines the talents of many of the South’s top performing construction professionals. As the founder and executive chairman of The Integral Group, Egbert is responsible for driving new construction projects in burgeoning cities such as Atlanta.
BOB WILSON AGC (Executive Director)
Bob Wilson serves as the AGC Executive Director for the state of Mississippi. Wilson looks to involve the organisation in the rebuilding of historical structures and utility contract work for power plants and is known as a facilitator; giving more local contractors the opportunity to bid on large jobs within the state. He is also a staunch advocate for workforce availability, spearheading efforts to communicate opportunities in the construction industry to children as young as 13 through school outreach programs. Wilson has coordinated programs through educational institutions with more than 1,600 students in attendance. 28
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CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVES IN THE US
KENNETH S. CHESTNUT IntegralGuide LLC (Senior Executive)
A past president of IBG Construction Services, Chestnut is now a senior executive at IntegralGuide, driving new projects around the South as a part of an all-star team of top performers. Chestnut has served in many top-ranking positions in the construction industry, including spots at the J. A. Jones Construction Company and the Gilbane Building Company.
DANIEL MOORE Blois Construction (Finance and Risk Management Director)
Moore is known as a forwardthinking innovator. With more than 15 years’ experience in construction, he has led multiple multi-million-dollar projects at many of the nation’s leading contracting firms. Moore is a team builder with a definitive skill in creating high performance executives and on-site teams that have a history of driving subcontractors to new levels of productivity. 29
THE PATH OF
RESILIENCE The seventh annual Uptime Institute Data Center Industry Survey shows that businesses are as wedded as ever to their data centers, cloud or no cloud Written by: John O’Hanlon
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he cost of not having a robust plan for managing your company’s data properly can be very high – a major outage at a data center is an existential threat to any business that has relies on it to store and manage its operational and transactional processes. Even if recovery is possible, the consequences can set the business back severely through loss of productivity and the consequent dip in revenue. Down the line, customer relations may sour as a result of system unreliability. The list goes on and any senior executive should be concerned about it – after all, top jobs may be on the line as the dominoes fall. If they want to sleep better at night they should be moving towards IT-based resiliency, says Matt Stansberry, Uptime Institute’s Senior Director of Content & Publications. Uptime Institute is best known for its Tier Certification, accepted as the design, build and operational standard for data centers round the globe. Furthermore one of its key roles is to
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help business assess and improve their strategies in respect of data management. Any colossus of the digital world, Google or Amazon, for example, could lose an entire data center and nobody would notice because the affected traffic would be re-routed elsewhere in the world. This is the paradigm of multi-site application resiliency, and the world of enterprise is moving towards it though it may take some time before that tanker turns to its new heading. This year’s Data Center Industry Survey, drawn from the perspectives of more than 1,000 international data center professionals and IT practitioners, reveals that IT resilience is growing and that 68 percent of businesses rely on it. The extent varies from sector to sector – for example 85 percent of logistics companies have a multi-site resiliency strategy that incorporates multiple data centers and relies on live IT application failover. Surprisingly, retail can only muster 58 percent and is one of the sectors with the lowest adoption rate. What really surprises Matt
EVENTS
Stansberry though is that only a third of companies say that they will meet the demand for increased data center capacity by shifting workloads to the cloud. “Many people don’t seem to be willing to throw out their legacy systems but are still investing in diesel generators and backup power.” One statistic thrown up by the survey has changed very little over the last four years. 65 percent of organizations deploy their IT assets in an enterpriseowned data center; 22 percent use a colocation or multi-tenant data center provider and only 13 percent have moved their assets to the cloud. “It
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UPTIME INSTITUTE
Matt Stansberry is the Uptime Institute Senior Director of Content & Publications and Program Director for Uptime Institute Symposium. He has researched the convergence of technology, facility management, and energy issues in the data center since 2003. Stansberry operates the Uptime Institute social media outlets (Blog, Twitter, and YouTube channel), conducts the annual data center survey, and develops the agenda for Uptime Institute industry events including Symposium and Charrette. 34
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“Many people don’t seem to be willing to throw out their legacy systems but are still investing in diesel generators and backup power” – MATT STANSBERRY, Senior Director of Content & Publications
EVENTS
is moving slower than I’d have thought,” he says. “It is probably because it’s not easy to re-architect their legacy applications for a cloud environment.” Digital transformation is a seismic and traumatic operation for a large organization, and it can be costly too, but it does clear the way to future growth. So don’t expect an exodus of enterprise data centers’ workloads to co-location or the cloud. Inertia is an enemy to change. Stansberry predicts that investment in traditional data centers will continue for some years to come. Though Uptime Institute still earns its bread by monitoring the design, build, commissioning and operation of data centers, it has a big role in promoting effective management policies to its clients and across its network. More than 70 percent of respondents to the 2017 survey admit that their organizational processes for evaluating colocation and cloud providers left room for improvement and at worst were incoherent. “Managers may
VIDEO: Uptime
Institute’s 2017 Data Center Industry Survey Results
not have the breadth of vision to make effective decisions. We are really going to work on helping people look across silos.” The survey does show that there’s a much more realistic awareness of the business critical nature of data to a business and the consequences of outages. However, though 90 percent of organizations say they conduct root cause analysis of any IT outage, only 60 percent report that they measure the cost of downtime as a business metric. There still seems to be something of a gap between perception and action.
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DATACUBE
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An innovative, scalable and energy-efficient data centre Written by: Dale Benton Produced by: Lewis Vaughan
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Through the innovative DataCube®, Data Valley looks to break down the complexity of data centres and transform the marketplace
“
If I can’t explain the DataCube concept to you in under five minutes, then we have failed,” says Jef Gorissen, COO and Founder of Data Valley Group. For what it’s worth, Gorissen completed it under four. DataCube® is a patented concept from Data Valley Group. The ambition? To create a data centre that caters to customers’ current and future data solutions requirements. Data Valley as a company was born in the mind of Jef Gorissen, Janine Wildschut from by Minga and their business partner Gerard Kuijs, following 20 years working in industrial and technical automation. In this role, Gorissen had one particular task – removing the element of a large process control system stored on an oil relay terminal.
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This is where Gorissen first began looking into the world of data centres. “I began to investigate the data centre market in Europe. I visited the Netherlands, England, Spain, Switzerland, just looking at a lot of data centres. This was the first time I thought about building one of my own,” he says. Over the course of the next few years, Gorissen left his role and started Data Valley Group, focusing on the development of a new kind of data centre – the DataCube®. It is because of Gorissen’s work throughout industrial automation and processes that he could “remove the complexity” of data centres. This was the mentality that he wanted to inject into Data Valley moving forward. For any start-up company, particularly in the data centre
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space, the first obstacle that anyone must overcome is locating and securing investment. “You need lots of it to build,” says Gorissen. “Experience is all well and good but you need a track record and cash flow for investors.” In the first 12 months, Gorissen sought out private equity organisations for investments as well as seeking companies that could
partner with Data Valley to realise the DataCube. He had the basic concept, but he needed 3D detailed drawings, prefabrication and companies that were capable of meeting a threefour month build time. He admits it took time finding the right people. Gorissen, of course, was not alone. His business partner Kuijs had sold his company previously to join him, and so he made the initial investment
“Experience is all well and good but you need a track record and cash flow for investors” JEF GORISSEN, COO
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The right solution
for every data centre project
Water Usage Effectiveness 1.0 Power Usage Effectiveness 1.05
Email: datacenters@flaktgroup.com Website: www.flaktgroup.com
European market leader for energy efficient Air Handling Technology Solutions, providing our Customers with the highest quality standards. - Global availability and supply with 19 manufacturing sites. - The right solution for every data centre project. - Excellent sustainability credentials combined with exceptionally low running costs. - Configurable & modular design based on 40 years experience in the air handling industry.
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2014
The year that Data Valley Group was founded
on which Data Valley Group could build. Over time, the two secured an investor who pledged to fund the first five locations for the company’s data centres. The first step then was to secure a location. “The first location I wanted in Eindhoven. It’s one of the most high-tech regions in the world,” he says. But finding the location was not without its problems. It took Gorissen and Kuijs almost two years to find it and the reason as to why it took so long is a simple one, connectivity. “The advantage of data centres in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt is that they are all well connected. Outside of cities? Not so much. We found three areas of connectivity good enough for a
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D ATA VA L L E Y G R O U P
“The actual building is part of the equipment; it’s not just a shell but very much a part of the cooling system”
JEF GORISSEN, COO
commercial data centre, so we lost a lot of time in the beginning,” he says. During this downtime, the company was able to work on and continue to develop the DataCube concept. This included a number of elements, but there was one that was key: a cooling system like no other. Gorissen spoke with local and international companies to try to develop a cooling system that would make Data Cubes
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unique before finding two Germanbased company to work with. “90% of energy usage in a data centre is computers and storage. When you put one megawatt into a data centre, you have 90% waste through heat,” he says. “Data centres need cooling and we want the heat of our PPUs in our servers to be reused to produce cold for our cooling system. We want to generate
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VIDEO: Explaining the high level vision of the DataCube® facility our own cold from the heat.” Data centres are very much affected by external temperatures and so the DataCube concept is built with 200mm of uninsulated prefab concrete, an idea of Kuijs and Gorissen that points to a cooling advantage realised through using concrete in excess of 25%. This is just by using convection of outside cold through the concrete,
additional low speed ventilation and indirect adiabatic cooling. This cooling element, rooted very much in the makeup of the DataCube itself, all comes together under a patent that Data Valley Group only recently obtained. But this is no regular patent, as Gorissen points out. “It’s actually really strange. We applied for the patent in
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CRITICAL POWER: CREATE YOUR OWN GUARANTEES Business processes need power. But how reliable are these types of deliveries actually? And what happens when a temporary malfunction occurs? Is everything silent or is there an emergency power supply. Critical Power is only about one point: how dependent are you on your energy supplier? Guarantees do not exist in life. Unless you create them yourself. For this reason, more and more companies choose our modular Critical Power Solutions. This is often a combination of a genset with a dynamic UPS. Electroproject designs, realizes and maintains this type of Critical Power system, focusing on ease of use, continuity, durability, power consumption and efficiency. At the same time, we ensure that they connect seamlessly with your infrastructure. In addition, we put your business process in addition to your regular energy supply, and we will analyze the critical components on this basis. Then we will proactively work with you to find the right alternatives for this, so that the chance of disturbing your business processes becomes even smaller. Create your own guarantees.
ABOUT ENGIE-ELECTROPROJECT The world is changing around us. However, your needs remain the same: You still want guarantees. That your business processes are safe, reliable, energy-efficient and sustainable, but especially: they do not stop at once. And when that happens we make sure you do not notice anything about it. Electroproject gives you this assurance. We deliver and guarantee “movement� so your continuity is never compromised.
www.electroproject.nl an ENGIE company
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2012, but immediately we were greeted by questions about what really makes it new? Unique? Different?” he says. “It’s the building. The actual building is part of the equipment; it’s not just a shell but very much a part of the cooling system.” The patent was formalised in October 2016 and Gorissen has already begun to see the benefits that it can bring. “When you have a patent, investors are not only investing into you but investing into that patent,” he says. “They begin to see the added value of their investment as they own a part of that patent,
2016 The year the patent for DataCube® was granted
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D ATA VA L L E Y G R O U P
that USP.” It’s not just the physical makeup of the Data Cube that Data Valley Group is extremely proud of. DataCube’s offer flexibility, as the company’s vision is to provide a data centre that is flexible enough to grow with customers as customers grow. The Data Cube is a building of only 30 by 30 sq m with a data room of 600 sq m. This makes it a very small
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area. Data Valley Group builts its first cube with only 50% of its power. The second space is built only 10m away without any equipment in it. This is where the flexibility comes in. “When a customer wants to work with us, we have the space for them to move in to as opposed to agreeing and then waiting to build a new space,” he says. “They tell us what they want for cooling options and we
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“When you have a patent, investors are not only investing into you but investing into that patent... They begin to see the added value of their investment as they own a part of that patent, that USP” JEF GORISSEN, COO
put in the right containers and can be operating effective immediately. That’s very different to other data centre providers. Customers don’t have to move to other data centres when their IT equipment changes through the years, but we change the data centre.” Data Valley Group is a colocation data centre provider with a vision of establishing a connected network of
data centres across the University cities in the Netherlands and Europe. This network fully utilises that flexibility of the DataCube. Customers can pay a licence fee and own the data centre. Data Valley can work with the customers to tailor the data centre to specific changing needs. Customers can then either choose to work with Data Valley to arrange maintenance and operations or
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allow the company to establish maintenance and operations contracts with companies in the region and those companies then work directly with the customer. For Gorissen, this network will be made up of regional IT service providers, companies looking for colocation capacity and start-up companies. The start-up element is something very close to Gorissen’s heart. “Our biggest goal is to create a community of intelligent companies, full of innovative people, pushing our company further,” he says. “We work with start-ups, drive them and enable them. They are the key to the future of our economy and our industry. “I remember the challenges we faced in creating this company. Through Data Valley Group, we can help others grow and continue to grow with them.”
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DATAPLEX IRELAND THE DIGITAL LANDLORD Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Lewis Vaughan
> Dataplex Ireland’s CEO, Eddie Kilbane, describes the ways in which the business overcame adversity to become a recognised choice for global giants, with simplified IT and strong partnerships
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ataplex Ireland is a newcomer to the data centre world and is already making itself known, having acquired worldleading businesses as clients and becoming the greenest data centre company in Ireland. Eddie Kilbane is the CEO and co-founder of the company, and has watched Dataplex flourish since 2009; the business signed its first client in 2012, in the B10 Data Centre in North west Dublin. Among other things, this signing allowed it to showcase its Green Energy cooling solution, a deployment that was years in advance of any other data centre in Europe. A turning point for the visibility of the business came when Dataplex won a contract in 2015 with a large global operator. “Having somebody on board with an internationally recognisable brand name gave it the validation through the global operator’s due diligence which we were struggling to get elsewhere,” says Kilbane. “The global operator’s data centre team was extremely tough and thorough in terms of their processes, so by winning that contract, we had an
example to show other customers.” Kilbane has a long history in the construction industry, as part of a management team on large projects such as Chelsea Harbour, Canary Wharf, and the Channel Tunnel. Whilst developing vast amounts of construction and communication network experience and gaining contacts, Kilbane saw the deregulation of the telecommunications market in Ireland as an opportunity to establish a company that would provide a turnkey solution of design, wayleave, construction and commission for the new telecomunications carriers. More companies would be moving to the country to build a new cable and telecoms industry, and in 1998, he moved his family there from the UK to become a part of it. While the inclusion of a global operator as a client did provide Dataplex with much-needed weight in the industry, it is elements of the company from within that have created the rising star it is today. For example, thanks to the temperate climate in Ireland, Dataplex maintains and operates the greenest data
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‘The company people want to work for and with’ Established in early 2005, Ethos Engineering is Ireland’s largest dedicated MEP consultancy. An award winning practice, winning Ireland’s Consultancy of the Year Award for three years running (2015, 2016, 2017), CIBSE’s coveted Employer of the Year Award and winner of the ACE European CEO Award 2016. Ethos Engineering is recognised as the leading MEP consultancy for Mission Critical projects. To date, we have over 550 MW of Data Centre designs completed in Ireland and Europe for a range of the world’s top software and colocation providers. Ethos Engineering is the Irish member of the First Q Network with direct access to over 2,500 engineers and technical knowledge sharing across 12 European countries “Ethos Engineering is a solid, trusted partner for design, pre and post contract” Dataplex Ireland’s CEO, Eddie Kilbane
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D ATA P L E X
centre business in the country. “We’re using a system to bring the cold air into the server room to cool it,” Kilbane explains. “In the middle of June it’s still 14 to 19 degrees outside, and these are not temperatures you’re going to see in many other parts of Europe. We’re lucky to have this weather for our business.” Sustainability is an ever-present issue and a factor that can make or break a choice for a customer, and Dataplex’s green status certainly allows it a competitive edge, “but ultimately it’s a combination,” Kilbane says. “Certainly, green capabilities are important to hyperscale companies who are looking at Ireland because the power availability and climate mean they don’t have to run very large cooling solutions. So it’s definitely a factor, but it’s no one thing that brings companies to Ireland. They make a huge difference to our economy by providing resources, and they become a catalyst for other companies to move closer to the source of these data centres.” “We’ve seen a rise in technology companies coming in and clustering
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“We’ve rolled back what our technology does, switching to a simpler method. We’ve got to make sure our clients can’t get touched, and that they know there’s no chance of someone hacking in and shutting us down” around data centres. In this business park, we have PayPal, Xerox and Vertis, amongst others: all very good, strong breeds of companies who then feed off having this data centre local to them.” Simplified technology Another huge aspect of what makes Dataplex an attractive choice is its stripped-back approach to technology. In Kilbane’s words, “we’ve made our systems dumb,” meaning that the business offers a
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EDPAC design and manufacture a full range of precision air conditioning equipment for the Datacentre, telecommunications, speciality storage and building service markets. EDPAC has been supplying products to a worldwide client base for nearly 50 years. Currently EDPAC are on site with some of the global industry’s largest and high profile Datacentre and collocation providers implementing large scale custom built Free cooling solutions. In recent years we have diversified into carrying out large scale Legacy datacentre CRAC unit and AHU upgrades. And have retrofitted modern components including EC Fans, VSD Compressors and Controls upgrades. Retrofitting energy efficient technology can reduce legacy data center cooling costs by up to 90% with minimal disruption to your data halls. Phone or email us for more detail.
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solid and reliable ‘vanilla’ service. “My business is purely to support the real technology, which is the client’s business,” he continues. “We are a technical landlord – as data centre operators, we don’t operate any data.” Dataplex simply offers the infrastructure which allows the data to flow. Its data centres sit in a silo; no information can be broadcast, ensuring a safe haven for customers. In the event of a malware attack, Dataplex doesn’t have to worry about vulnerability because its building systems and servers are not connected to the internet. “If we don’t connect to the internet, the internet can’t talk to us,” says Kilbane. “We’ve got to make sure our clients can’t get touched, and that they know there’s no chance of someone hacking in and shutting us down. We’ve rolled back what our technology does, switching to a simpler method. This is one aspect of the business clients don’t have to worry about, so they can concentrate on their own data.” To allay any concerns regarding this
Dublin The location of Dataplex Ireland HQ
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“We’ve rolled back what our technology does, switching to a simpler method. We’ve got to make sure our clients can’t get touched, and that they know there’s no chance of someone hacking in and shutting us down” process, Dataplex even allowed its larger customers to send their security teams to validate the security process put in place by Dataplex. As an extra level of support, Dataplex offers resilient N+1 specification, meaning that for
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every single plug a client requires, a second plug that matches it is independently cabled and wired back the main power. Everything becomes dual-powered, and that service is enabled at all times, even during a service, meaning no downtime.
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Dataplex’s youth as a company is among the reasons it has thrived so well even after a slow beginning. With the lack of the ball-andchain of legacy systems behind it, Dataplex can be especially flexible. “We’re not carrying any baggage,
so we’re able to be a bit more daring,” says Kilbane. “We have to be different and push small buttons – enough that attractive companies come to us.” In some ways, Dataplex has already proven itself to have industrychanging potential. In terms of the
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cool air technology the company uses to save energy, “there was nobody doing that in 2012 when we started off, so we were quite ‘out there’, and we’ve continued to stay out there in terms of innovation with our suppliers. As a small company, that’s one of the differentiators we have in the market that attracted clients like the global operators to our front door, as opposed to our competition which may be more traditionalist.” Concrete partnerships None of this would have been possible without Dataplex’s trusted internal partners. Dornan Engineering enables the business to build what it needs to precise, well-negotiated specifications, allowing the best possible flexibility and speed to market. “Dornan even represented us at meetings early on, pitching business and working with our customers,”
Kilbane says. “They’re very much a partner rather than a contractor, and clients can be assured that they don’t have to wait three to six months for us to find a contractor – we already have one on board. It creates a very strong partnership.” Anord is Dataplex’s panel manufacturer and has also been working with the business since the start, ensuring deliveries are simple and smooth. EDPAC is the cooling partner creating bespoke solutions to a consistent quality, Schneider provides UPS’s and goes the extra mile for Dataplex regardless of its size as a company, and Ethos Engineering is a solid, trusted partner for design, pre and post-contract. This combination of reliable partnerships, high levels of innovation, and stable, simplified service will undoubtedly serve Dataplex well to create a bright future for Kilbane and his team.
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: K SA GY R Y, E C N E IEN ED C N I I F F F E E ED R
ton ghan n Be Vau e l Da ewis : y n b by: L e t d it Wr duce Pro
// ST. GALLISCH-APPENZELLISCHE KRAFTWERKE AG (SAK) IS CURRENTLY CONSTRUCTING A DATA CENTRE IN SWITZERLAND THAT COULD BECOME THE GREENEST DATA CENTRE IN EUROPE
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or data centres, sustainability and being “greener” is fast becoming one of the more pressing issues across the industry. In a data centre one of the largest outputs and wastes is heat – heat generated through power. A number of data centre providers across the world are looking for ways to reduce that heat and ultimately the power consumption and energy efficiency of the building. Some companies choose to reuse the heat and utilise it as cold air for the cooling system. For St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG (SAK), the company has found a much more unique way. “Around 20m away from our data centre, a local cheese factory is building a new facility and we can bring in 1.5mn KW of heat energy that they can then use to heat up 10mn litres of milk every year,” says Christoph Baumgärtner, Head of
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Business Customer Services at SAK. 1.5mn KW may sound like an incredibly significant amount of heat and energy, but if SAK’s data centre was at full capacity, it only represents 10% of what the company could deliver. “That’s part of our business. Heating networks, wind parks, solar power, fiber to the home network, data centres. Our entire core business is changing, slowly, but surely.” He says. SAK is a colocation data centre provider and a fiber network provider based in Switzerland. Baumgärtner comes from a background in electrical engineering and working on connectivity as a manufacturer of cables and connectors. Quite literally, he knows the makeup of a data centre inside and out. This provided Baumgärtner with an opportunity to grasp the major issues that each and
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every data centre provider must face when building a facility. “Power and efficiency, heating and cooling,” he says. “There’s also security and agility. These really are the key issues and headaches for companies and operators of data centres.” It was this understanding that brought SAK and Baumgärtner together as he could, at the very first step of designing a data centre, look at what would make an efficient and effective data centre. “If you build a very efficient data centre, automatically you use less power and that helps the cooling problem. From the very start the goal was to build an efficient data centre, one that stands on the edge of the possibility for colocation data centres,” he says. SAK is building a data centre with the aim of having a power usage effectiveness (PUE) below 1.2 and this meant that the company could achieve this through a free cooling concept, using low external air temperatures to assist in the cooling of water. SAK partnered with a company
called Hoval and designed eight cooling machines to be used as part of the data centre. “They are really huge – we designed our buildings around these cooling machines. Around a quarter of the building is used just for cooling,” says Baumgärtner. The design of the build, centred around this cooling mechanism, significantly altered the design and build process. “It made it more expensive in places, more difficult,” he says. “But it also took away some of the complexity in cooling, such as water pipes that we no longer need. Quite literally, you are never going to run out of air for the cooling.” The culmination of these cooling elements provided SAK with freedom as the company had ultimately found a solution to one of the major problems right from the start. Looking at the energy usage perspective, SAK uses a fly wheel concept from Caterpillar, together with the company’s diesel engines. Flywheel energy storage uses a rotational system, which lowers in speed as energy
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SAK
“WHEN YOU FACTOR IN THE COMBINATION OF OUR ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDING, MAKING OUR OWN POWER THROUGH SOLAR PANELS AND REUSING OUR HEAT THROUGH A THIRD PARTY, IT’S VERY UNIQUE. I DON’T KNOW ANY OTHER DATA CENTRE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW DOING THIS” CHRISTOPH BAUMGÄRTNER, HEAD OF BUSINESS CUSTOMER SERVICES, SAK
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is extracted, to conserve energy. Reversely, adding energy to system will increase that rotational speed. “Through these flywheels, in fifteen seconds we can have enough power to power the building before the diesel engines have even started,” he says. “We are saving around a half of the energy that a battery would use.” As a colocation data centre provider, SAK is ahead of the game. The company is the only colocation data centre in East Switzerland, with the nearest colocation data centres being in the city of Zurich. As the data centre market in Switzerland begins to set its sights on colocation, Baumgärtner is all too aware that for bigger companies, choosing a data centre in Zurich is the preferable choice. It is the smaller companies that SAK looks to work with. “These smaller companies don’t want to drive to Zurich just to change a hard drive and maintain IT equipment,” he says. “That’s why we started with just a 900-sq. m area of white space, which in
essence is just a server room.” That white space is part of the sell for SAK. As companies choose to work with SAK, the company will continue to sell its server space but leave 10% of that space spare. Why? So that when these existing customers look to expand, they can do so in their current data centre space and not pack up and seek a different location. “Companies here can either restructure their entire IT infrastructure, or choose to build their own DC and outsource it to an IT company based in Zurich,” says Baumgärtner. “Or they can run their own data centre in a very professional, local, colocation data centre. We could be that data centre.” The other major issue for any data centre provider is efficiency. SAK set out to create an efficient data centre from the outset and other data centre providers struggle on this front. Most data centres are built and operating before the owners look to change that efficiency, which proves to be a challenge.
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“Redesigning that entire concept, in operation, is practically impossible,” says Baumgärtner. “New data centres should take as much care as possible to prevent high power consumption in the beginning, so cooling efficiency and UPS efficiency, the most power consuming parts of the infrastructure must be taken care of.” This is where SAK differentiates itself. The company has incorporated a number of solar panels to help with power generation. But this in
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itself is not enough, as solar panels experience peaks and dips – where will the power be coming from overnight? “Solar power will assist with those peaks,” he says. “But for us we don’t only generate power through the heat we reuse, such as with the cheese factory. We use 100% natural electric power, from natural sources. We generate power through water.” With a construction completion date set for August this year, and the implementation of the technical elements for November and an eye
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for the first customers to come early 2018, SAK looks ready to make its mark on the data centre industry. “I believe we are the greenest for sure in Switzerland, but also in Europe,” he says. “When you factor in the combination of our energy efficient building, making our own power through solar panels and reusing our heat through a third party, it’s unique. I don’t know any other data centre in the world right now doing this.”
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DATA THAT WALKS
ON WATER Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Tom Venturo
Sometimes the best solutions are the most obvious. As the market wakes up to Nautilus Data Technologies, the question many will be asking is why nobody thought of this before
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he world is facing a data tsunami. With exponential growth happening already, how can more capacity be added quickly and economically? Where will all the energy needed come from when data centres are expected to consume 140bn kilowatt-hours annually by 2020, costing American businesses $13bn in electricity bills and emitting nearly 100mn metric tons of carbon pollution each year? How can emerging markets, the world’s fastest growing, even hope to keep up? The traditional model is unsustainable; that’s for sure.
Some eight years ago, Arnold Magcale had a lightbulb moment. A recognised technology industry expert with decades of
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experience in data centres and cloud management, he is also a US Navy Special Forces veteran. While assessing the large amounts of data that naval command centres process as they cruise in the Pacific, he asked the question: why can’t we integrate the compact watercooled solution they use to the world of enterprise? Why indeed do most of the world’s data centres rely on outdated air conditioning technologies for cooling? This led him to found Nautilus Data Technologies in 2013. At the time data centres were major contributors to the fact that 10% of global power production was being consumed by IT – a model that could not be sustained after 2025. He and his Director of Operations, Byron Taylor, set about bringing together the best engineering and technical minds to bear on the problem. Magcale had helped build one of the first data centres in Silicon Valley, close to where Nautilus is now located at Pleasanton, California. Taylor had
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held senior positions in the delivery of critical infrastructure – together they brought 60 years of experience in the data centre environment. They did not waste any time. “We launched a proof of concept (POC) in 2014 to validate our idea, partnering with the US Navy, Applied Materials and Veolia. It was called ‘Project Nautilus’ and the goal was to demonstrate how our water cooling technology could cut power usage,
We have something really different – we are pretty confident that the market will respond to significant cost savings Jim Connaughton CEO
Jim Connaughton CEO Jim Connaughton has served as Executive Vice President at several prominent clean energy and information technology companies. In 2001, the United States Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Connaughton as Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he served until 2009 as President George W. Bush’s senior advisor on energy, environment and natural resources. There he helped develop and implement market-based policy and technology solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges - including energy production, air and water pollution, climate change, wetlands restoration, and conservation of marine resources.
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eliminate water consumption and significantly reduce air emissions without using any water treatment chemicals. The results exceeded our greatest expectations.” Validated by Jacobs Engineering and Critical Engineering Group, they succeeded in hitting unprecedented levels of power utilisation efficiency (PUE), using high density racks. The exercise showed that Nautilus could cut a data centre’s operating costs by 30%, while delivering fivefold higher power density per rack and an 80% improvement in overall energy efficiency. How? Taylor explains: “Data
Our goal was to show how our water cooled technology cuts power use, water usage and emissions to the atmosphere Arnold Magcale CTO and Founder
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centre temperatures must be kept cool inside the facility to maintain the equipment, but traditional air conditioning methods have been expensive and inefficient. Nautilus technology changes that. Arnold developed a way to use naturally chilled water to cool data centre facilities. He integrated proven maritime and industrial technology with next generation data centre infrastructure to advance the data centre industry.” The POC project was a fully
functioning prototype, says Taylor - a 100ft vessel containing a five rack data centre. “We ran that for five months, proved out all the systems and used it to do final design engineering. It helped us with componentry and design and it was on that basis that our final patents were issued.” The technology has been tested and validated at 74KW of load per rack and the new design is expected to reach 105 KW, with 10 times more capacity per rack than what’s available in the commercial
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marketplace, he adds. The vessel was built at the yard of Linn Marine at Mare Island just 45 miles north of Nautilus’ headquarters. Here too the company is currently building a much larger 500-rack data centre. Named Eli M, it is 230ft long and 55ft wide, nearly as big as a football field. Sustainable
By siting the data centre racks on a floating facility – basically a barge – a very high density could be achieved, reducing the footprint of the data centre by a factor of 60%. The modular build methodology
also allows Nautilus to deploy additional facilities in the same location, using the same connectivity and backbone infrastructure, by bringing another vessel to the site as demand dictates. The impact on its environment is greatly improved. The racks of servers are on the data deck with mechanical and electrical equipment and UPS systems housed below. Cooling is achieved through an open loop that draws in seawater and returns it to the ocean at a differential temperature no more than four degrees
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The modular build methodology we are using allows us to deploy additional footprint in the same location Byron Taylor Director of Mission Critical Operations Fahrenheit – undistinguishable 100ft from the vessel. Through a heat exchanger it cools a closed freshwater loop that in turn cools the air being drawn from the racks. In March 2016, Arnold Magcale succeeded in attracting one of the country’s foremost environmentalists to lead the business, and himself stepped into the role of CTO. Jim Connaughton was Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2001 until 2009, and President George W. Bush’s senior adviser on energy, environment and natural resources. The task he took on as the new CEO was to transition
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the company to full commercial deployment. “We are leading the industry’s transition from air-cooled server farms to water-cooled facilities. Significant cost savings plus sustainability and innovation is our hallmark as we proceed to building our first commercial facility.” Connaughton is spending a lot of his time traveling the globe, particularly Europe and Asia, meeting with international business leaders, technology professionals and environmental experts who want to pursue a more sustainable and economical data centre solution. His latest trip was to Monaco to pick up the 2017 Cutting Edge Breakthrough
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Award from Datacloud Europe. “This kind of recognition only comes if the market sees a real opportunity,” he says. “The sector is ready for it. We have something really different – we are pretty confident that the market will respond to significant cost savings. They also like the low environmental footprint and will be interested to see how we accelerate the transition to high performance computing.” Connaughton believes that in 10 years’ time most data centres will be water cooled. For now the global market is wide open to Nautilus and its investors, who according to Arnold Magcale, are right behind another of his visionary aims – to democratise the storage and transmission of data for the good of the developing world and the environment shared by us all.
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BUILDING
A STRONG EDUCATION Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Tom Venturo
FA I R F I E L D U N I V E R S I T Y
Associate VP for Facilities at Fairfield University, David Frassinelli, discusses the various construction projects that have transformed the university into an incredibly attractive prospect for students and subcontractors alike
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airfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, is dedicated to keeping itself fresh, innovative, and relevant; as a result, it is consistently a top tier choice for over 4,000 undergrads and their families per year. Fairfield is currently undergoing over $85.5mn in campus renovations, including a $12mn lacrosse pitch, a $22mn recreation complex, a $60mn residential building program, construction of a parking garage, a student center expansion, and the completion of the $31mn Center for Nursing and Health Studies, as well as an expansion to Fairfield Preparatory School. David Frassinelli, Associate Vice President for Facilities at the university, leads the innovative construction projects. He has spent his career in construction, having worked for Gilbane Building Company for 12 years before joining the Fairfield team. As he explains, the projects are part of the University’s strategic plan. “Our strategic plan explores how Fairfield University is going to be sustainable from a financial perspective on a long-term basis,� says
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David Frassinelli
Associate Vice President for Facilities
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“Image is a factor in deciding
to attend a school, and it’s important to continue to be a leader in modernizing college campuses, as Fairfield does� David Frassinelli, Associate Vice President for Facilities
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Frassinelli. “We are focused on the future of Fairfield, where we’re going, and how we maintain sustainability financially with the challenges of the private education market. The plan includes growth and undergrad enrollment, which begs the question: where do they eat, sleep, park, and learn? That informs our master plan to talk about the facilities needs we currently have and need.” Hence taking on multiple construction projects at once. The Rafferty Stadium lacrosse and athletic field is the beneficiary of a major donor; a project fitting the now nationally ranked teams. One of the goals of the Leslie C. Quick, Jr. Recreation Complex renovation was to promote the campus’ health and fitness concentration, which extends their Jesuit education dedication to mind, body, and spirit. “One project that’s approaching completion is the $31mn Center for Nursing and Health Studies building, which has been a bright star on the horizon, and is not necessarily limited to nursing,” Frassinelli says. “It’s about health studies in general,
and we see overlap with our Dolan School of Business and School of Engineering,” says Frassinelli. “For example, the Dolan School offers a Masters in Public Administration, so you can take some business classes and some health studies classes and come out with a multidimensional degree. Like most universities, we’re seeing a general increase in interest in the sciences, so we believe, in terms of academics, that we need to make an investment in those facilities.” As part of the school’s strategic plan, Fairfield began working on some projects this year to align with its 75th anniversary; it is important to Frassinelli that any additions are for the benefit of the student experience, as has been one of the main goals since the school’s founding in 1942. “There is a large amount of construction, but we found that we often have our best enrollment years when we are doing major building programs because it really speaks of a university that is thriving and growing,” he says. “It’s rare you’ll see this level of capital investment that is not only aimed at taking on
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more students, but also of improving the experience for enrollments we’ve consistently maintained. “It’s common to have competition with other schools, but what do the students actually look at on a college tour? Image is a factor in deciding to
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attend a school, and it’s important to continue to be a leader in modernizing college campuses, as Fairfield does.” Of course, priorities for students often go beyond the facilities available to them. Sustainability is an everevolving importance in deciding which
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college to attend, and Fairfield dedicates itself to address those needs with their continuous projects to be greener. Frassinelli chairs the sustainability committee for Fairfield, helping it to achieve local and national awards, including the EPA’s Energy Star Award for its 4.6MW cogeneration facility. The University even ended up on the Sierra Club’s
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list of “cool schools” for its sustainability efforts. “We typically design and build to the LEED silver standard, but we don’t necessarily pursue LEED certification,” Frassinelli explains. “We invest money associated with their certification back into our projects. For the parking garage, all the lighting is LED and one side of it has green screens growing up the side. One thing that’s unique about our university is that the heating and cooling of our central campus is
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handled by a combined heat and power cogeneration facility, so we are producing electricity and heat at very efficient rates. The buildings are also well insulated, and our school of nursing has some passive solar components in the form of baguettes – these are all very positive steps,” he adds. Fairfield collaborates with a group of architects for design of these projects. Frassinelli and his team took a lean approach to incorporating what was needed, bringing architects in early to ensure that necessities were met.
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Fairfield has the flexibility as a private institute to pre-qualify subcontractors for construction, but it does hold open and competitive bidding. The University’s ultimate goal is to create an attractive campus – not just for the students, but for contractors. “We have meetings with the subcontractors, and I encourage them to continue to do their best and how important their hard work is to the University, both esthetically and financially,” says Frassinelli. “If they work efficiently and safely, we make decisions quickly and pay quickly.
“The payback for the University is that if a subcontractor is shown four jobs and can pick one, they pick Fairfield University. I’ve received a lot of feedback from subcontractors to say they really do enjoy working here, and from one project to the next they’re bidding aggressively to stay on campus. That, to me, is an indication we’re doing something right.” Fairfield recently held an event during National Safety Week while four construction sites were active. Construction managers and trades were invited to have
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lunch and see a motivational speaker. 250 tradespeople arrived, signifying the popularity of the university within the industry. “We talked to them about how the university feels very strongly that everybody needs to go home in the same condition they came to work,” Frassinelli explains. “The event also provided the university with a forum to say ‘thank you’ to the trades. They
arrive on our campus, they work hard, they leave, and sometimes it may seem thankless, but the facilities they’re creating are so critical to our mission that as a university we wanted to thank them. I think that meant a lot.” By the time Fairfield’s students arrive in Fall 2017, the nursing school, student center, and the precasting for the parking garage and dormitory will be complete, minimizing the impact
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on students. Creating a streamlined construction process from planning to building helps to cement its status as a positive and innovative environment. Frassinelli concludes: “We aim to make decisions in a timely manner and do everything possible to mitigate or dissuade extensive changes when projects are already under construction. Those are the areas in which an owner can help themselves to make the process more efficient, so ultimately they end up with a better value at the end of the project. Because it’s really all about creating value in terms of cost and quality of the projects.�
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Building communities for a better quality of life Whether it’s envisioning communities with orchards and herb gardens, or with easy access to public transportation, Crescent Communities ensures the people who live in their neighbourhoods experience life on another level
Written by: Leila Hawkins Produced by: Tom Venturo
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typical neighbourhood built by Crescent Communities might feature upscale grocery stores and shops on the ground floor, with apartment homes suitable for families above. They may be positioned intelligently next to multi-modal transportation hubs so cars are used as little as possible. Or they could be strongly themed around food, encouraging residents to grow their own produce and cook at home. Whatever the case, the element they all have in common is that they are designed to offer residents premium quality of life. Eric Rothrock, the company’s Vice President of Preconstruction, manages all estimating, general contractor selection and agreements, and design processes and standards of Crescent’s entire
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nationwide portfolio. Projects can vary from garden apartments for families who enjoy a suburban lifestyle to homes in high-rise buildings leased to millennials, along with increased numbers of people hailing from Generation X. In construction Crescent Lucerne in Orlando is one of several ambitious projects Crescent is currently working on. Formerly a hospital site, it is being transformed into a ground up luxury residential community stretching over 4.6
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Project Portfolio
Established in 1968, Johnson's Modern Electric Company, Incorporated provides electrical construction services throughout the Southeast. JME is licensed and has completed work in over 12 states. From our offices in East Bend, Mooresville, and Raleigh, North Carolina, we provide all facets of electrical construction services.
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acres, integrating 373 multi-family apartments with food retailers and parking. When it opens in the summer of 2018, it will comprise two separate sites bifurcated by a thoroughfare but connected by two bridges. In Charlotte, the largest city in the mostly rural, South-eastern state of North Carolina is witnessing a huge boom in people moving in, Crescent is developing Crescent Providence Farm, which will be centred on food. Adding to the master planned restaurants, Crescent Providence Farm will have a garden for residents to plant their own herbs, communal dining areas featuring tables made from salvaged trees, and even an outdoor kitchen programmed for cooking demonstrations. Rothrock explains that although Crescent Providence Farm is in the suburbs, it will have a distinct urban vibe one might typically find in an urban setting, with the garden component being strongly influenced by the surrounding farmland. “It’s unique in the fact that
BRIAN J. NATWICK PRESIDENT, MULTIFAMILY
it’s not a traditional garden apartment,” he says. “It’s a fourstory elevator-served building with a food inspired theme that’s in a real hot spot with easy access to highways. We thought it made sense for people who wanted to live next to a boutique grocer, and wanted to make sure we delivered something harmonious.” Also underway in Charlotte is Crescent Stonewall Station. This community will feature a 19-story high-rise building directly adjacent to the public LYNX light railway station; allowing residents the luxury of never having to drive.
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Started in 1976, Quality Stone Veneer, Inc. has expanded to 13 offices located up and down the east coast and Colorado. Quality Stone Veneer, Inc. has served homeowners, builders, suppliers and architects with a unique blend of exceptional manufactured stone and masterful installation.
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DOUG LAWRIMORE
ERIC ROTHROCK
VICE PRESIDENT OF CONSTRUCTION
VICE PRESIDENT, PRECONSTRUCTION
The light rail has been in use for more than 10 years, but it is still expanding and its usage makes the areas it serves highly attractive sites for developers. “Obviously it’s great for us,” Rothrock explains, “because for anyone living in Uptown Charlotte for the last 10-15 years, the experience is different from what it used to be. This will be a great way for someone to never need to use their car. [They can] jump on the light rail, step right off the platform, get their groceries or whatever they need, jump back on the light rail, and head home
without ever getting into their car.” “It’s unique in the growing sunbelt” he adds. “In Chicago, or larger cities, people don’t use their cars as much; that’s common place. But in Charlotte and many cities in the south, everyone loves their car and that’s something that’s changing.” The first phase of this vast project is set to be completed in late 2017. Before construction began, Crescent reviewed seven different potential configurations. During a meeting with the various stakeholders, developers construction managers, architects,
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and Crescent Pre-construction personnel, the latter used 3D modelling to illustrate the massing of the project as the group was collaborating in real time. The Massing Models were saved using Nextplans, a workflow tool that makes it possible for them to be accessed by all. At the end of this six-hour meeting they arrived at Crescent Stonewall Station’s ultimate design. “The concepts created that day are very similar to the building you see standing today. It’s pretty amazing how that all came together,” he says. Brand new tech This real-time methodology, using software such as NextPlans that allows all the partners to be involved from start to finish is typical of Crescent’s projects. “It’s a collaborative platform. We’re able to customise folders and have secure access to all our projects, granting access to partners. This software for internal construction serves as
JARED FORD SENIOR VP OF CONSTRUCTION
a facilitation software. It also has a tablet and phone app so you can walk around and pull up the drawings on an iPad.” Crescent has recently started using Bluebeam, a piece of software that allows them to edit and share documents online. “We saw that most of our architects were using it” Rothrock says. “We prefer to control certain aspects of preconstruction and be the initiators of discussions, so we have all the stakeholders in the room and we can take notes in real time on the cloud. Our architects like it because it’s
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all in one place. It’s been super beneficial for us, certainly from a time-saving standpoint.” Another piece of software that has proven invaluable is a photographic indexing database called Multivista. This service allows users to zoom in and capture crystal clear images of different building components during each phase of construction. One example could be a window, where constructors can very easily identify issues such as leaks or a lack of proper waterproofing without having to get up close or remove any of its components. Setting apart “Construction pricing is at an all-time high,” says Rothrock. “Over the last four years it has consistently Southern Energy Management (SEM) is proud of our long term partnership with Crescent Communities. Crescent adheres to the highest standards of construction and development in their projects and the work they do aligns well with SEM’s core mission of changing the way people make and use energy. We look forward to continue supporting in them in developing and constructing highly efficient and sustainable projects for years to come.
escalated and that makes it more difficult to get deals done. “General contractors and certainly developers, are feeling the pinch of the market pricing,” he says. However, using novel technology to cut down on costs and time, Crescent is ensuring it continues to get the best value both for itself and its customers to maintain a competitive advantage. “We’re doing everything we can to add value,” says Rothrock. “Particularly behind the walls and looking at the soil and under the ground, in places where no one sees so we can spend more money on the things that make an impact for our residents. “We’ve really taken a deep dive, and we look hard at how we can minimise unnecessary or inefficient costs. We’d rather spend our money on things that our residents want and value.”
WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY Recognised as a top 100 industry manufacturer and as one of Canada’s best managed companies, Durabuilt’s 29-year journey is inspirational Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Tom Venturo
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oe Sunner and his 19-year-old son Harry, came to Canada from the UK in 1994. Harry is engagingly frank about their complete ignorance about Edmonton, about Alberta, and about any business except perhaps smallscale shop keeping, in which father and son had worked together since the latter was 11. They thought they would simply continue in the business they knew – beyond that it is hard to see that they had any significant assets that would mark them out for business success. They didn’t even have a lot of money and they definitely had no plan. But, in fact, they had assets that are beyond price and which make theirs a story to be digested by any aspiring entrepreneur who thinks you need seed capital, an expensive education, an MBA and deep business knowledge to build a sustainable enterprise. Upon embarking on Canada’s soil, Joe Sunner encountered a small window manufacturer who encouraged them to join them in their business venture. With no manufacturing ability or familiarity, Joe took on the challenge alongside his son, Harry, with a go-to attitude to face the obscurity meticulously. Within two years of amalgamation, the partner decided to part ways. Thereon, the Sunners painstakingly embraced full-on, the business wholly, surpassing bridges of challenges together. The Sunners bought out their partner and took a good look at what they were left with.
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“We were working 14 hours a day and a seven day week for much of the first 10 years” – Harry Sunner, President
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Durabuilt Windows & Doors had a small workshop, some very basic machinery, a dozen employees, a ramshackle company structure and no strategy for future growth. Having taken on the business, they secured enough private loan finance to keep the show on the road. With everything on the line, Harry Sunner promised his father that come what may they would work as a team for as long as it took. “We were working 14 hours a day and a seven day week for much of the first 10 years,” he says, admitting that he saw too little of his own growing family as a result. Clearly the bond between father and son was very strong, but Harry is frank about their differences too. “He is cautious and analytical whereas I am a visionary optimist. I want to fly too high and he likes to keep his feet on the ground.” Seeds of conflict? Maybe, but these differences made for a strong team. Where one was overstretching the other would pull the reins; where one was tentative the other would push forward. When a plan was advanced, Joe would insist
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Harry Sunner President
Harry Sunner, President at Durabuilt Windows & Doors Inc. Fixated on shaping a better future for his family at an early age, the move from Birmingham, England to Edmonton was a natural fit. Despite arriving in a new country they knew nothing about, and with no background in construction, they tackled the window business buoyantly. In the 20 years since, with an infallible passion for his vision and a dedicated team, he has grown his small business into a 400-employee powerhouse. Harry is an engaged participant and a hands-on leader who’s continuously embracing the TEC value of life-long learning. He is married to Pam and they have three children: Henny, Amany and Joban.
D U R A B U I LT W I N D O W S & D O O R S
on doing the risk assessment, while Harry would point out that growth is always attended by risk. At all events, today Joe remains CEO of the company and Harry, its President. Springboard Despite their lack of any engineering or construction background the Sunners were quick learners. After two years Durabuilt broke even, and in the 29 years since then average growth has
been 19% per annum. Having moved premises three times in its first decade, it now occupies a 190,000 sq ft factory at Edmonton, with branch locations in Calgary, Lethbridge, Saskatoon and Winnipeg with 100’s of dealers across Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and employs more than 400 people. Its bespoke products go to customers in the replacement
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window market, which accounts for around 20% of turnover; new construction whether commercial or domestic (50%); and to dealers, agents and builders merchants. This has not been achieved without growing pains. In fact, the manufacturing footprint has shrunk as the business has expanded – there’s been a transformation, and Harry hands a lot of the credit for this to General Manager Amar Randhawa, who joined Durabuilt right at the outset of its new era, aged 17, with even less experience than the owners,
but sharing their values, work ethic, pragmatism and willingness to learn. Lean It’s about 10 years since Durabuilt set out on its lean journey, and here it really does begin to look more like a textbook manufacturer. The leadership team learned about TPS, six sigma, kanban, kaizen, CPA and ERP. They began to introduce lean practices incrementally with a series of continuous improvement iterations rather than trying to revolutionize practices overnight. Their natural
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D U R A B U I LT W I N D O W S & D O O R S
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“Becoming IMS certified … brought us up to a completely different level” – Harry Sunner, President
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instinct was to adopt what works – for example as part of the lean initiative, the plant had modified the assembly line to single-piece flow and needed to configure its ERP system to support that process. Now, instead of having batches of parts sitting around in boxes waiting for hours to be used, the parts are brought to the line as needed. Changing the company culture was another matter. “We wanted quality, environmental practices and efficiencies but we didn’t know how to drill that down into a 300 strong workforce. How do we get people on the shop floor to share our vision?” asked Sunner. The route decided on was to acquire ISO accreditations, not at the time commonly found in the industry, starting with the international quality standard ISO 9001 and moving on to the environmental standard 14001 and OHSAS 18001 which governs health and safety practices. In 2011 these three accreditations qualified Durabuilt to become the first and still the only window and door manufacturer in Canada to
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receive Integrated Management Systems (IMS) accreditation, based on systematic processes and approaches that are implemented throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. Sunner continues: “Becoming IMS certified is a way to measure and improve the way we do business: it’s about enhancing the quality of products and services, the health and safety of our employees and reducing our environmental footprint. It brought us up to a completely different level. It has driven accountability in every department. When we get audited, nobody wants to fail the audit or even get a red flag! We wanted people to feel pride in their daily work.” Bespoke technology Again, he points to the dedication of Amar Randhawa as the driving force behind these improvements. “Amar really took personal ownership of the lean process, not relying on others to drive it.” The transformation was done without outside consultants, he emphasises, however it is a continuing transformation. Currently, having been through
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Joe Sunner CEO Joe Sunner, CEO at Durabuilt Windows & Doors. He plays a protagonist in leading the family to Western Canada for a promising future. He made a choice in his late 40s from England where he spent most of his younger years, to take a chance and risk all they had beyond the ambiguity, hoping for a positive change in their lives. Surely, Joe was right about his decision to migrate as an opportunity stood waiting for them when they purchased the inexperienced Durabuilt Windows & Doors in the early 1995. It took vision and fortitude to invest precious capital into an uncertain industry, but the investment paid-off. An analytical dad, Joe and a visionary son, Harry are unequivocally brilliant to propel their window business to success; successes built on solid relationships. For some fathers, allowing their son to take the plunge in leading a company may be a difficult pill to swallow, but Joe Sunner says watching his son Harry excel as President of the company he rehabilitated, has been a source of pride. Apart from strategically maneuvering finances, Joe is an active marathon participant in his community and constantly promotes healthy habits and encourages the team to be earnestly active. He is a firm believer that individuals need to appreciate every moment life offers and never let heritage and roots be forgotten.
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four different ERP platforms, each of which has proved a brake on progress, Durabuilt is migrating to a new system, WTS Paradigm, specially configured for the industry. Durabuilt has been a member of Built Green Canada for 10 years, emphasising its commitment to the environment. The difficult task of balancing necessary investment in automation, weathering a hit from currency fluctuations and complying with ever more stringent regulations like the recently upgraded North America Fenestration Standard as applied under Canadian building codes, as against the need to remain price competitive and return an annual profit, keeps Harry Sunner and his father, who at a mere 70 shows no sign of wanting to retire, as busy as ever. Entrepreneurs to the core, they see their success in context. Sunner says: “Sometimes business leaders feel that if they are doing a little better than the competition that is fine. We do not. We are not into self-congratulation – we celebrate our successes then move on to what will be better. It took us a long time to build credibility, a trusted brand and a trusted workplace, to the point where people now want to come and work at Durabuilt.” Durabuilt’s success, he concludes, is not just about the leadership and the workforce – it is about the health of the industry, of Edmonton, of Alberta and of the Canadian economy.
“It took us a long time to build credibility, a trusted brand and a trusted workplace, to the point where people now want to come and work at Durabuilt” – Harry Sunner, President
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Sustainable growth in the UAE Written by: Catherine Sturman Produced by: Jon Bennett
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DIMITRI PAPAKONSTANTINOU MANAGING DIRECTOR
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We speak with Managing Director Dimitri Papakonstantinou about how Plafond has undergone significant growth throughout the last three years, delivering quality services to clients within the UAE
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ith the ability to carry out any fitout work in house and provide world class end-to-end solutions, Dubai based multi-disciplinary, fit out, MEP and Facilities Management Specialist Plafond has seen increased sustainable growth throughout the last three years. With improved control over processes ranging from procurement, to execution and delivery, the company has a significant edge over rivals. Implementing a personalised service, in contrast to other management contractors reliant on external companies to deliver services, Plafond continually utilises key technologies to ensure it remains ahead within the construction industry, and is involved with projects ranging from hospitality and food and beverages, all the way to
residential. With approximately 1,500 employees, the company continues to go from strength to strength. “Three quarters of our clientele are repeat customers and repeat business. However, we’re selective with who we work and the projects that we take on,” explains Managing Director Dimitri Papakonstantinou. “We do what we say – communication between us and our clients is key, but particularly in this part of the world, relationships are key.” One of the company’s key projects is with HSBC in the UAE, where it has acquired an MEP subcontract. Responsible for providing full MEP services at HSBC’s headquarters, Papakonstantinou states that the company “is about a quarter of the way through the construction phase.” However, he explains that as a result of Dubai’s Expo 2020, there has been an increased focus
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“We do what we say – communication between us and our clients is key, but particularly in this part of the world, relationships are key” – Dimitri Papakonstantinou, Managing Director
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on hospitality and hotel construction in order to cater to increased global tourism numbers. “There has been significant growth in the food and beverage sector, retail and theme parks. In the last couple of years, we’ve been involved in projects, such as Dubai Parks, where we have been working in the Bollywood section,” he says. Building services Consequently, with increased competition, Plafond is utilising key technologies to provide world class builds, such as 3D modelling, which is being incorporated into new and existing projects. By implementing these tools, the company is looking to see how these technologies will impact work requirements long term. Additionally, Plafond is also looking at prefabricated and modulated services, where certain components are produced offsite in a facility which the company set up eight months ago. “It reduces labour costs, electricity, and increases productivity and the quality of services which we deliver,” explains Papakonstantinou, and also ensures that the company continues to provide competitive rates. Plafond has also placed significant investment in its workers, providing various training courses, where all technicians are trained in multidisciplinary services. This commitment filters all the way down to office staff, who are provided with software training
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and any other appropriate training. To this effect, the company has placed a strong focus on health and safety, of which standards or concerns are reported and monitored regularly. “We have a very good record to show for the last 10 years surrounding our health and safety records,” adds Papakonstantinou. The company has achieved ISO14001 accreditation, and awarded BH OHSAS18001 with regards to occupational health and safety management systems to highlight this commitment. Market challenges Whilst Papakonstantinou reflects that the industry is indeed complex, one common snag for all companies is contractual, where companies rely on external parties to deliver work on time and on budget, against an increased client expectation. “It’s a challenging industry even when things go well, but it’s a difficult industry to manage. It really is about planning,” he says. “The biggest challenge that the market is facing here, is the fact that it is cash flow heavy. The market has been very slow in the past few years in
terms of release of payments, so cash is probably the biggest challenge that everyone is having in the market.” Nonetheless, the company’s financial year runs from April to March. With a 360-million-dirham target to reach, this is an increase of over 30 percent from last year’s revenue. However, Papakonstantinou concludes by stating, “we’re on track so far to secure more than 80 percent of that budget already, and really focusing on optimising what we do and increasing profitability where possible.” With a focus on expanding its operations throughout the UAE, the company will continue to grow sustainably and provide quality services to clients, ensuring world-class delivery and exceptional planning throughout its future operations.
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