As David Suzuki said in his recent speech in Adelaide, "clean air, water, soil and biodiversity are the things that make us flourish, we must be protected them before anything else."
Over the past 3 years I had the pleasure to develop a new installation division dedicated to greening our planet for a product only company Atlantis, in Sydney. I am now designing a new company dedicated to the environment using a range of products inspired by my travels. Our new company is called Evolvement Pty Ltd.
Understanding your clients needs, use of good products and attention to detail is what it takes to make quality.
At the Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE students of the Advanced Diploma of Environmental Management receive "Green" business development training. It has been my pleasure to provide some 200 students structured training at TAFE. Skills and knowledge gained have great potential to increase the human resources required by the green industry.
It goes without saying you need to employ good staff, train them well and reward them for their efforts.
Planning for success, a short business plan was written that identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A to do list was prepared and prioritised based on our strategic competitive advantage. Budgets and targets were prepared for the new division.
Planning gave us a benchmark to aim for. Increased sales, quality clients and beautiful projects were the result.
The green roof at Bondi with iconic Bondi Beach in the background. The plants are a special variety of Carpobrotus (the greener ones), I propagated for the job in my nursery. They grow very flat and flower well. I keep these in stock for green roofs.
Install the business management systems, I was able to share the following systems developed over my 30 years in the industry. None of which existed in the company previously. Your are sure your business is unlikely to fail and will be worth more when you decide to sell it.
- Proposal templates, that show you understand client needs and provide solutions
- Job filing and numbering, to organise the business as it grows
- Tendering budgets, to provide targets for the site staff
- Invoicing systems, to maintain cashflow
- Cost control, to monitor job performance
- Risk management, to reduce problems and learn
- Work safety plans, to meet government regulations
- Contract review, to keep the balance right with clients
- Quality Assurance were instigated, to meet international ISO9000 compliance
The upshot of this is we won the first installation project soon after I started followed by many more including iconic sites. See pictures below.
Here I worked with Lend Lease to establish an all green indoor wall for their Winter garden development in Sydney Atlantis Wall system.
Marketing
Along with web marketing, I sent regular newsletters out to many thousands of contacts. All newsletters highlighted successful projects we implemented for green roofs, vertical gardens, food production and water sensitive urban design. Over this period I had the pleasure of providing green infrastructure training to over 2000 professionals in Australia, The UAE, Malaysia and Turkey. My structured courses gave each individual an understanding of what can be achieved in terms of water management, reduction in carbon emissions, biodiversity and local food production.
See some successful green walls we built whilst I managed the installation division at Atlantis below:
Here we worked with Trico Constructions and the developer to pick suitable plants for this hot western facing wall in Bondi Sydney Atlantis Growall. I predominantly chose succulents that would provide an attractive display under the conditions.
THE BRIGHT Comprehensive Cancer Centre Randwick Hospital, here green walls and beautiful landscaping help patients cope with their predicament. I selected plants for windy shady conditions on the North side of the building. Plants are growing well. I worked with Oculus landscape architects an AW Edwards builders to ensure plants were safe for patients. Atlantis Growall.
More landscaping by Oculus at the Hospital for patients and staff alike. Beauty helps recovery.
On this one I worked with the architects, Mirvac and the builder Mainbrace to develop a green chimney for the kitchens below. North Sydney Council would not let Greenwood shopping centre build any more restaurants unless they had chimneys, and chimneys had to look beautiful from the surrounding high rise buildings.