Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

This podcast raises an awareness: If new building codes pertaining to HVAC are mandated after COVID-19, there will be a ripple effect in the industry. They will affect HVAC design, equipment installation, energy efficiency, and local laws. Use this down time to recreate yourself and learn something new, use the online resources that didn't exist in 1918.

Meet Dawn Jones Redstone. Dawn worked as a union carpenter before teaching at Oregon Tradeswomen, a non-profit that helps women access living wage careers in construction. During the sixteen years she spent in these positions, she was also making films and is now a full-time filmmaker. Dawn made a short film called Sista in the Brotherhood, which involves a female African American apprentice carpenter who experiences discrimination on the job site and has to choose between making a stand and keeping her job. After winning multiple awards during its festival run, the construction industry began using it as a training tool. Dawn explains why using her film for this purpose is quite different compared to other training methods. I think that the film does a fantastic job at depicting what actually does exist in the construction industry. Currently doing research in pursuit of making a feature-length film, Dawn had the chance to talk to a woman whose job it is to ensure that her company is meeting its workforce di

Meet Nancy Novak, she is the Senior Vice President of Construction at Compass Datacenters and has been working in construction for many years, you can see her bio here. I first discovered Nancy through a LinkedIn post she shared back in February this year. I checked out her profile, immediately recognized our similar interests, and did what most people on LinkedIn do; I requested to connect and messaged her to be on the show. After many attempts to sync our calendars, we were finally able to connect and on April 22nd, we made it happen. Below is just a glimpse of our insightful conversation. Nancy cites that there is so much opportunity in the industry, yet few people know about it. She likes teaching children about this from a very young age and emphasized the lack of construction visibility at most school career days and the importance of educating teachers about the industry as well. I briefly shared Mike Rowe’s worse advice he got from his guidance counsellor, when he was in high school, back in 1977. Acc

While facing growing, life-threatening risks from climate change, city leaders across the US have pledged to completely transform their cities to meet clean energy goals within 30 years or less.  Many believe that turning these promises into a reality will never happen on this aggressive timeline.  H.G Chissell is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Energy Group, a quarterly stakeholder engagement platform focused on collaborative leadership operating in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago and San Francisco. In this podcast, I discuss with H.G. Chissell the different approach Advanced Energy Group takes to help cities and their communities achieve the seemingly impossible. You can listen to our interview directly on the web by clicking on the player above or listen on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. To request an invitation to participate in these stakeholder meetings, please visit the calendar section of the Advanced Energy Group website where you can also see the impressive list supporting companies

On October 1st 2015 Hurricane Joaquin took down the SS El Faro cargo ship along with the lives of 33 people. This tragic event ranks as one of the worst Maritime disasters in the United States history. Sophia Meyer, a 16-year-old Thornton Academy student from Maine became interested in the El Faro after reading an article about a year ago. She wanted to learn more and decided to research the El Faro for the 2019 History Day Contest. In her research she found out there was an additional ship the SS Matsonia. Liz Gotthelf wrote an article posted by the Journal Tribune on February 18th 2019 highlighting Sophia’s research. I was impressed by this 16 year Old’s desire to learn about the Maritime industry and I wanted to get an interview with her. Only days after Liz Gotthelf’s article was posted about Sophia’s research, the Matsonia was discovered to have a crack in it’s hull. On February 28th, 2019 I was lucky enough to get Sophia on the phone and had the following interview. 

A little bit about Geir Isene, he is a nerd from Norway. Yes I said that! He loves mathematics, astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, chemistry, hardware and software. He is the most diverse person I’ve had on my podcasts to date. What’s most awesome is that he helps people, he is a coach and mentor who inspires others to reach their goals and potentials. If you would like to learn more about him, you can visit his website. https://isene.org  Geir held a workshop at the annual WISTA conference (WISTA being the “Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association”) and after leaving Tromsø he launched the podcast: Women will be last to be replaced by robots and AI - that title intrigued me to listen to his episode and after I asked him to be on my show. Since the points he made concentrated on men, I asked, So how will men stay significant? Listen to the episode to hear what was said. The music on this podcast “Clouds” was produced by Geir Isene.

Before I apologize for not launching an episode in over a year, I want to thank the operator who called me out on this. I was at a hospital the other day, an operator opened up his podcast app and showed me my cover photo and asked, “is that you?” I smiled and said "yes", he then said, “You haven’t launched one in a real long time”. That’s when I knew he was a true subscriber. Thank you for for calling me out, it has inspired me to get me back on it. When I initially launched the first episode I didn’t know if the industry was ready for it. Heck some of the guys were still using flip phones but I was told, “build it and they will come”. I’m glad I did because they are listening. If you know of any products or services that save energy, will impact owners, and help operations please let me know, I’d love to learn about it and have you as a future guest. https://www.ebs.nyc/contact/ (background music provided by Geir Isene)

Asit has taught over 2,200 students in several different courses related to energy efficiency in multi family residential buildings ranging from 20 to 1000 units. His students include facility maintenance and operations staff, facility management and owners, trade contractors, as well as other energy and engineering professionals. Asit and I met when I spoke on the topic of Preventative Maintenance at AEE in 2015 and again when he discussed Condensing Boilers at NYC’s 32BJ Union in 2016. I asked Asit to be a guest because I was most impressed with his extensive knowledge and understanding of residential heating systems from a practical perspective. During our interview Asit emphasized on the value of waste prevention vs. energy conservation and identified three opportunities to optimize and improve heating systems in residential buildings with existing controls. The simple adjustments can provide significant savings without installing new equipment only if certain management protocols are revised. He also t

Join me in an interview with Don Yeganeh. Don is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York State and also a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional who graduated from Columbia University as a Mechanical Engineer in 2009. Since then he has spent 6 years as a commissioning engineer and the last 2 years of his professional experience has been with a start-up company Ener.co In our interview we talk about the existing problems with Air Cooled Condensers and their solution that has a payback in less than a year in some cases. Enercoat® is a performance coating designed to prevent corrosion and increase thermal conductivity, resulting in the most energy efficient condenser coils on the market. Their coating does the following: Reduction of energy cost by 14% Increase in energy efficiency by 50% Reduction peak kW consumption by 8% Increase in cooling capacity by 55% Improvement of indoor air quality with an increase in moisture removal and YES they have the field monitoring to prove these results. A

James Park (Jim) is an Energy Conservation Specialist who currently works for I-Star Energy Solutions, a company that focuses on Mechanical Insulation Assessments. Jim brings 42 years of experience in the building industry and has had many different roles since he started as an asbestos worker back in 1974. He has reinvented himself many times to stay relevant and it was a pleasure chatting with him to hear about the significant of amount of money he has helped save companies over the years. Jim shares some of the challenges he deals with when trying to convince clients about savings in their building that is mostly always overlooked. You’d be surprised to hear how some small changes can pay for it self and put money in your profit margins each and every year. If you’d like to learn more about Jim and his industry experience you can find him on LinkedIn. Enhanced Building Solutions LLC, offers a “train and retain” turn key solution for training and development that embraces staff involvement. Building equipme

Steven is the CEO of NYC Cooling Tower Inspection and Services operating out of Queens, NY. Steven graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s degrees in biology and has been in the water treatment industry ever since; he’s also a Certified Water Technologist. The reason I asked Steven to be a guest is because I wanted him to share some of his expertise on the topic of legionnaires disease. For anyone who doesn’t know in 2015 NYC had its worst outbreak in the city’s history — 12 people died and more than 120 people got sick. The outbreak that started in the South Bronx resulted in strict mandates that most buildings must comply with today. Since there have been many mixed messages, as to what’s required, I wanted Steve to shed some light. As a consultant he typically gets asked a series of questions that most facility operators would like to know. I thought it would be a great idea if we shared that information. Be sure to listen to the interview, below are just some of the questions Steve answered, if you ever wante

Join me in a passionate podcast interview with Thomas Mitchell, Jr. A former chairman of the International Facility Management Association Board of Directors, Tom brings over 28 years of facility and asset management experience gained from serving in positions of increasing leadership responsibility within the government, commercial and not-for-profit industries. He presently serves as senior vice president and chief operations officer for FM3IS Associates, L.L.C., where he oversees organizational strategic development actions, and directs corporate business operations for independent contracted consultants who specialize in the development and delivery of service offerings in the areas of facility portfolio performance, workforce capability development and organization functionality alignment. He retired from U.S. Air Force active duty in the grade of Lieutenant Colonel, after serving twenty years as a civil engineer officer in a wide variety of positions where he was responsible for leading people and/or ma

Joseph Bohm is the CEO of Dual Fuel. Joe share why he started his company, the culture he’s creating, and where he sees our industry going. He mentions the primary qualities he looks for when hiring and the services he offers not only to his clients but also to his most valued asset, his employees. Dual Fuel is an integrated service provider of cost savings and energy efficient solutions. A culture driven company that offers energy, compliance, and mechanical services to residential, commercial and industrial plants. They are committed to providing the best quality service to their customers - whether it's an equipment upgrade or a full-blown system revamp, they've got you covered. They are located locally in NYC and I encourage you to visit their website www.dualfuelcorp.com

Welcome to the first episode of “Annmarie’s Breaking Ground”. First of all thank you for listening. I want to let you know what you can expect in the upcoming episodes, briefly introduce myself, and let you know why people in this industry is so important to me. This podcast is for you if are in the building industry and would like to learn about best practices, new products, and ways to optimize your building efficiency. You’ll hear what some pioneering CEO’s and leading executives are doing to improve their bottom line in an effort to train and retain their staff. You’ll hear how some have recreated themselves in our growing age of technology to stay relevant and you’ll also hear about how certain products, services and innovations are affecting our industry. To give a little background on me, I am a consulting engineer from New York City and the owner of Enhanced Building Solutions, a company that’s committed to transforming the culture of the building industry through training and development. I’ve work

Robert Berninger (Bob) is the Director of Plant Operations, Energy, and Engineering at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is responsible for nearly four million square feet of facility space in New York City. He oversees managers and supervisors who support a staff total of approximately 90 employees. He was named the 2016 Energy Manager of the Year by the Association of Energy Engineers and honored as 2008 Corporate Energy Management of the year by the New York chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers. His recognitions are well deserved for the $23million dollars saved in energy for the vast amount of projects completed during the past 10-years. However, as impressive as those numbers are, I asked Bob to be a guest for a different reason. Bob encourages his staff to continue their education! For years operators were kept in the dark and were never allowed to be involved in the decision making process. Bob depends on his team to provide feedback on what they believe will or will not work. He wan

Comfort Systems USA is a nationwide company that provides commercial HVAC, mechanical, and electrical contracting to customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies offering a wide range of technical expertise and experience. They employ approximately 7000 employees, 1600 that directly service customers and is amongst the top 5 HVAC service providing companies in the country. James is a fellow Brooklyn, New Yorker who started as an apprentice when he was only 18 and is now the Senior Vice President of Service. He comes from a family that’s dedicated their lives to serving others. His initial boss who gave him the apprenticeship opportunity, had one stipulation and that was for James, to go back to school. Following through on his word, education and teaching set the foundation of his career that led to 7 years at Carrier and 14 years at Johnson Controls. He left as the Vice President and General Manager of Service for North America at Johnson Controls to join Comfort Systems USA approximately

On August 10th, 2016 Dan Holohan a known authority on steam systems, and legend to many in the building industry, shared deeper insight on how he started his teaching and speaking career. This self-taught expert has been able to continually captivate new audiences for years that followed his initial start in 1970. His original masterpiece, “The Lost Art of Steam Heating” started the domino effect for creating 18 books that followed. This interview delivers a deeper insight of the Man himself. He explains how listening to stories told by his father and contractors became the premise of his career; and if you haven’t heard about “Fixing Charlie Malloy”, you’ll discover why it may be the next best seller. Be sure to visit HeatingHelp.com and find it’s new owner Erin Holohan Haskell. She plans to carry out the Legacy of her father and continue her 13 year involvement with the archived discussions that date back to 1997. If you’re not signed up, be sure to visit The #1 Online Resource for Heating Answers. With alm

On July 20th, 2016 Lee Cockrell, former Executive Vice President of Operations at Walt Disney World Resort for over 10 years, provided additional insight on his book Creating Magic. His latest book Career Magic is currently available in stores. This “Retired and Inspired” 72 year, energetic author of 4 books, who’s been married for 48 years, and a grandfather to three is probably more active now than he was, when he was in charge of over 40,000 employees at Disney. He’s travelling the world, writing books, and delivering speeches to audiences as small as 8 to over 7000 people. He also delivers a 15 minute weekly podcast on leadership and knows what it takes to motivate, lead and inspire others to increase the bottom line.  He explains how clarity can produce great, not just average employees. At Disney, Cinderella can’t have tattoos on her neck, and Mickey can’t be seen smoking, it’s a show that impacts many and there are no exceptions. The philosophy applies to all areas of life. Setting expectations will br