Energy and Infrastructure

It may all feel surreal, but the Covid-19 pandemic has had some lasting impacts that are affecting companies of all sizes across the country. Now, as we struggle to overcome the Delta variant, organizations are trying to understand what to do next.

In this episode, host Aaron Lauinger talks with Joel Flanagan, Technical Director of Ulteig’s Substation Team, about some of the most significant impacts of the pandemic on organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

They discuss the new office of the future, managing culture, addressing the Great Resignation and the Great Fatigue, creating collaboration centers, and living DEI.

Born between 1997 and 2012, the first wave of Gen Zers is starting to be felt far and wide in how they intend to approach work and the world. This includes their proactive involvement in designing infrastructure to meet the needs of towns, cities, states and provinces years into the future. 

In the latest segment of the Ulteig Energy & Infrastructure Podcast, host Aaron Lauinger is joined by three Generation Z engineers who joined Ulteig over the past two years, to learn about their perspectives toward work, living through the pandemic, and how they intend to use their skills and thinking as engineers to change the world. 

On Earth Day 2021, President Biden announced a bold new climate change goal for the United States: cut greenhouse emissions in the United States by 50% by 2030. 

Making the announcement within the president’s first 100 days of office is one of the many moves the Biden Administration is making on climate change, the environment and clean energy, and it’s the focus of this podcast.

Host Aaron Lauinger, Ulteig’s Market Director-Transportation and Water, is joined by Jen Turnbow, Associate Director, Transportation at Ulteig, and Chief Services Officer for WEST, Clayton Derby, a Wildlife Biologist.

The discussion hits on topics such as applying environmental considerations to infrastructure, changes in environmental policies, the 30 x 30 Initiative, environmental racism, and thinking local. 

Wondering if CMGC is right for your project?

To moderate a discussion on the pros and cons of CMGC, host Aaron Lauinger is joined by Matt Hogan, Vice President with Kraemer North America, Michelle Pinkerton, Senior Project Manager, at Dallas-based Jacobs, and Bob Smith, P.E., Ulteig’s manager of construction services.

They discuss the importance of shared expertise on complex projects, creating value for the owner, meeting available funding, continuous communication, finding innovative solutions, owning risk, and more. 

Aaron Lauinger, Ulteig’s market director-Transportation and Water, and host of the Ulteig Energy and Infrastructure podcast, is joined by Brian Sharpe, Ulteig market director-Power, Sarah Beckman, program director-Key Clients, and Chad Crabtree, Ulteig market director-Renewables, for a robust discussion about lessons learned from the disastrous storm that hit Texas. The conversation hits on key aspects of resiliency, balance, and weighing costs to avoid similar tragedies in the future. 

If You Thought 2020 was Crazy, Wait ‘til you see what 2021 has in store. Power, Renewables, Water, Transportation – Ulteig infrastructure experts highlight the key trends they’re watching in 2021.

Change is occurring rapidly as a new presidential administration gets up to speed, and the impact of that change could have huge ramifications for the power, renewables, water and transportation industries in the United States in the coming year and beyond.

That’s the consensus among four Ulteig infrastructure experts who gathered to share their insights and opinions about what’s in store for 2021 on the latest edition of the Ulteig Energy and Infrastructure Podcast.

In the latest installment, focusing on Trends to Watch in 2021, Ulteig’s Director of Corporate Communications Craig Davies moderates a panel of Ulteig infrastructure experts including, Aaron Lauinger, Market Director-Water and Transportation, Sarah Beckman, P.E., Program Director, Brian Sharpe, Market Director-Power, and Chad Crabtree, Market Director- Renewables.

The podcast conversation addresses a number of key issues, including:

- Impact of the Biden Administration on power, renewables, water and transportation

- What may happen from a legislative perspective with both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats;

- The passage of a $1 trillion+ infrastructure bill – will it actually happen;

- What a new emphasis on climate change will mean for U.S. infrastructure;

- How the growth of battery-powered electric vehicles may impact paying for transportation infrastructure; 

- The resiliency of America’s infrastructure to super storms and significant flooding;

The panel also discusses their visions of the future for their respective market segments, and the reality of those future visions actually becoming a reality.

Some key highlights from the conversation included:

- At least for the first part of the year, the focus of the Biden Administration will be on stopping COVID-19. - If there is an infrastructure bill, the Biden Administration will push for investments in mass transit, for climate change reasons, even though a lot of people are avoiding mass transit now and for the foreseeable future because of COVID-19.

- An infrastructure bill is a high priority, but will most likely stall in the Senate. Big companies are committing themselves to carbon free goals – this will trickle down to requiring vendors to make carbon free commitments.

- The Biden Administration and Congress will keep pushing tax credits that favor renewable energy;

- With growing number of significant weather events, utilities are becoming just as concerned about investing for resiliency as they are for meeting carbon-free commitments and ensuring reliability.

- Congress will be forced to take action on funding for the nation’s highways.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you thought 2020 was crazy, wait until you see what 2021 has to offer, wild cards and all. To join in on the conversation, tune into the Ulteig Energy and Infrastructure Podcast.

In this episode of our ongoing Energy & Infrastructure podcast, our guests are Eric Stern, who leads Ulteig’s Innovation and Emerging Technology practice, and Crissy Fanganello, Director of Smart Mobility at Panasonic. They join host, Aaron Lauinger, Market Director at Ulteig, to discuss the state of innovation and technology in 2020. The good. The bad. And the many challenges that lay ahead. It’s a good one and you won’t want to miss it.

It’s safe to say that no one expected the size or the depth of the impact that the COVID-19 virus has had on the United States.

Beyond the health story, the virus has affected every aspect of day-to-day life – our workplaces, our education system, how we shop, and how we socialize, play, and worship.

All of these impacts have not gone unnoticed in the world of those who plan, build and maintain our nation’s roads, bridges, and public transit systems. 

In episode 5 of the Ulteig Energy and Infrastructure Podcast series, Aaron Lauinger, Market Director–Transportation and Water for Ulteig, is joined by Steve Harelson, chief engineer for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Andi Schmid, Ulteig’s Transportation Team Lead to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the nation’s transportation system, and specifically in Colorado.

Learn about one major utility's ambitious goal to advance the generation and distribution of clean energy and be 100% carbon-free by 2050. 

Understanding the Implications of President Trump’s Two Recent Executive Orders Limiting the Purchase of Communications and Bulk Power Supply Equipment for U.S. Utilities from Countries Adverse to the U.S.