Federal Campaign Underway

Over the past few months we have been planning and developing our 2010 – 2011 marketing campaign to target federal owners. This includes federal facilities managers and owners at the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Department of Veteran Affairs, Department of Interior, and Department of Health and Human Services.

The goal of the campaign is to reach out to key decision makers within the federal facilities and construction world and remind them of the value of Job Order Contracting and Centennial. We are also touching base with past customers and current ones as well. With all the demands of federal facilities to grow to support new staffing requirements, requirements to reduce energy and carbon use, along with demands to grow local and small business use. These combined demands require responsive, collaborative construction and renovation solutions platforms to deliver on. The goal is to remind the market that there is a tool they all need in their contracting tool box – Job Order Contracting.

We are reaching out every month via either a postcard, brochure mailer, or an e-newsletter. In addition we are attending key industry events like SAME (Society of American Military Engineers) as a Gold Sponsor of this years event in Atlanta and DBIA’s conference this fall in Las Vegas as a Diamond Sponsor (their first ever!), We want to be creative, simple, and just remind federal owners and stewards of federal facilities they have an option ready to help them meet their time deadlines and project backlog that also helps the local small and minority businesses.

Our Busy Schedule

Throughout the year, we attend conferences around the country. Coming up, we’ll be at SAME, School Building Expo, and IFMA Capital Chapter Focus On Sustainability in Facilities. We love these conferences because we get to talk to so many different people and learn about what’s going in your world, what challenges you face and what needs you have. So if you’re going to these events, please stop by our booth and say hi—we’d love to meet you!

Sustainability Continues to Grow at Centennial

The Centennial Sustainability Council, an internal group made up of representatives from all areas of the organization, has put together a list of training and awareness efforts for the next 12 months. The council meets once a month and shares best green practices, training and education of green skills, and makes recommendations on green strategies. The group also works with each site's Project Sustainability Officer (PSO).

One of the outcomes of this list was the creation of support materials to help build awareness and excitement around the sustainable focus of Centennial. This included hard hat stickers, posters and as part of our on going marketing campaign to Federal facilities, a postcard mailer.

On April 15th, 2010 at George Mason University, Centennial is sponsoring a conference with Virginia Sustainable Building Network on Green Building Outlook 2010 and beyond. The day long conference includes Michele Russo, LEED AP, director, Green Content & Research Communication, McGraw-Hill Construction, presenting Green Outlook: Trends Driving Change Over the Next Five Years. Additional speakers include, Dr. Anthony Sanders, director, Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, George Mason University; Sally R. Wilson, AIA, LEED AP, global director of environmental strategies, CB Richard Ellis; Elizabeth Heider, AIA, LEED AP, Skanska and Anne Gardner, vice president of business specialties & education, Northern Virginia Association of Realtors®.

Just recently Centennial wrote an article in the April edition of Modern Contractor Solutions, JOC Achieves Value: Using Job Order Contracting to Implement Sustainable Practices and Approaches at Existing Facilities.

We see the integration of, growth of, support of green practices for facilities renovation and construction for public funded facilities as a cornerstone of our future services. It is just like in the early 1990’s when safety was, and still is key, to our ongoing support for our customers. Both safety and sustainability are not “nice to have” but instead are integral and “must have standards” of the support we provide everyday on every project.

Safely - The Only Way We Do It!

Recently NICCjv a joint venture of North Island and Centennial received a safety award from NAFAC, Naval Facilities Engineering Command of Washington, DC. The award is titled, ‘Safety Excellence Award and Recognition of Outstanding Safety Performance” presented by H.R. Hemstreet Captain, CEC U.S. Navy dated March 31, 2010.

This is a great award to receive and it is a reminder that safety means so much to those we support and requires continued leadership. Recently we updated our Safety First solution snapshot. Safety is more about building a culture that allows safety to flourish. Back in November we wrote an article, 5 Ways To Promote A Culture of Safety in Construction, which provides some examples of how to grow a safety thinking culture.

This month we'll be holding our PSO (Project Safety Officer) conference in Houston, Texas, where over 100 people will get together for a few days to focus on site and project safety. This includes training, best practices sharing, feedback and planning ALL focused on safety!

Melding Yesterday’s Homes and Today’s Technology

Centennial is thrilled to be Seattle City Light’s partner in updating its historic housing district to be energy efficient. These homes were built for Seattle City Light’s employees in the 1920’s and people have lived in them continuously ever since.

Centennial and Seattle City Light will install energy efficient heat pumps, lighting and water heaters, and additional insulation to maximize energy savings in 34 homes and roughly 24 commercial buildings. The improvements will save 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. That’s enough to power 277 average Seattle homes for a year.

This project is just one example of energy efficiency projects happening all over the country and it’s great when your job contributes to real change. I hope we have many more opportunities to do these types of projects because if an historic home can meet today’s energy standards, can’t any home or building?

Growth of the JOC Industry

On February 17th, the Center for Job Order Contracting Excellence (CJE) held its annual board meeting to hold elections of the new officers. This is both an exciting and challenging time for the organization and for me personally. In 2006, we began the journey of transition from an organization that was placed under ACE (the Alliance for Construction Excellence) which was part of Arizona State University to a stand alone national organization. Centennial was one of the key founding supporting organizations of CJE nearly 15 years ago.

This transition included the set up of the bylaws, the incorporation, the filing with the IRS for a 501(c) 6, a new Web site, new board, set up of an office in Washington DC, transfer of the old organization intellectual property and the raising of almost $100,000 from past donations and new dollars. This was a fast paced change with the goal of evolving the organization and growing its long term viability.

This recent election is a milestone, resulting in the first female Industry Chair . My goal was to help lay the ground work and give the organization the best chance to thrive. The addition of regional chapters, new blood on the board, a growing membership, and an owner lined up to be the Industry Chair in 2011 are all good things for CJE and the industry!

This is the first time since re-creation I am not on the board and the success of CJE is tied to the new leadership. I feel proud of where we are today and hopeful for where we are headed as an organization.