The Grass is Greener, on the Hagerman Side

The Hagerman Group takes every opportunity to celebrate our successes.  With that being said, and in the spirit of the ever so common end of the year lists, I would like to take the time to celebrate some of the Sustainability Department’s successes in 2011. 

This year marked the formation of our Sustainability Department; with the appointment of Laura Bailey as our Director, and myself as the Sustainability Coordinator.  In addition to defining our department’s mission, vision, and goals, the Sustainability Department made sure to have some fun!

The Earth Day 2011 competition was as fierce as ever between the competing North and South offices; with the North office pulling ahead in the final week to win the prized Harbinger Trophy.  Our Fall Initiative congratulated Steve Larracuenta for suggesting the winning resource-reduction initiative.   Steve suggested we have our faxes forwarded directly to an email address versus being automatically printed; therefore only those pertinent faxes would have to be printed.  Kudos to all in The Hagerman Group for your sustainable spirit throughout 2011!

We saw yet another one of our construction projects reach LEED certification, and are proud to announce having  another 10 registered projects awaiting certification.  Moreover, the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Arts & Nature Park was awarded the Indianapolis Sustainability Award from the Mayor’s Office in the Land Category.  The Hagerman Group was the Construction Manager on this project, and served an integral role in the project’s successful completion.

Outside our office walls, Laura and I have been able to network with some like-minded folks in various organizations and conferences throughout the state.  While we didn’t make the trip up north to Toronto for Greenbuild this year, we did enjoy networking with our regional cohorts at the Greening the Heartland conference, in Cincinnati.  Additionally, we look forward to having Indianapolis host the 9^th Edition of this regional conference on May 16-18, 2012. 

http://www.greeningtheheartland.org/

As 2011 winds down and we plan for the upcoming year, we intend to narrow our focus a great deal by measuring and reducing The Hagerman Group’s carbon footprint.  Furthermore, we anticipate additional fun competitions and initiatives to help involve all members of our Hagerman family in being active environmental stewards, while increasing our market share of sustainable construction.

Karen Schutte,                                                                                                                                              Sustainability Coordinator