Engineered Miracles

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 wanted a better understanding that you can review at any time, this is it or visit their website at http://www.nyc-inspections.com/

• What is legionnaires disease or the legionella bacteria?
• How is it caused?
• Where can it be found?
• How far does it travel?
• How is it contracted in your system?
• If my building has more than one cooling tower, do I have to register each tower separately?
• What if my cooling tower has multiple cells?
• Do I need to register each cell as a separate cooling tower?
• If an outbreak is detected, do they have to notify the City and/or State? What happens if they don't?
• How long does it take to flush out your system if an outbreak is detected?
• How do you notify the city or state agencies?
• How do the City's requirements differ from the State's requirements?
• If I registered my tower, and I'm missing documents, will I get fined?
• Do I need to have my reports in hard copy?
• The City and State requirements mention "microbiological" and "bacteriological" testing. What do those terms mean?
• How often do these tests have to be done?
• What if a cooling-tower on my site was decommissioned, do I have to register it?
• Do I also need to disinfect my tower every 90 days?
• Will the City and/or State start requiring owners to test tap water for Legionella bacteria?

Enhanced Building Solutions LLC, offers a "train and retain" turn key solution for training and development that embraces staff involvement. Building equipment technology is advancing faster than operators can keep up with and buildings account for approximately 40% of CO2 emissions in the United States alone. Training staff to operate buildings efficiently is necessary. Enhanced Building Solutions encourages video training in addition to hands-on. Videos provide consistent information, saves on employee turnover, and minimizes liabilities. Nothing will ever replace hands-on learning but blending the two will create an ultimate training solution. Are you ready to be a pioneer in the industry?

~Annmarie Bhola

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 managing programs that directed the development, acquisition, sustainment, and protection of facilities at military installations throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Be sure to visit his LinkedIn profile to learn more about him.

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. In this opening episode, I share what this podcast is about, who it’s for, and why the building industry matters so deeply to me.

This show is for people working in the building industry—operators, engineers, leaders, and owners—who want to improve building performance, stay relevant as technology evolves, and create better training and work environments. You’ll hear conversations about best practices, innovation, leadership, and how forward-thinking organizations are improving efficiency while supporting the people who keep buildings running.

I’m Annmarie Bhola, a New York City–based consulting engineer and founder of Enhanced Building Solutions. I’ve worked across residential, commercial, healthcare, educational, and maritime environments, and I specialize in building-specific training that helps operators truly understand the systems they run.

My connection to this industry started early. My father was an HVAC technician in New York City, and I grew up around tools, equipment, and job sites. After his passing, I attended SUNY Maritime College and entered the industry at a time when new technologies were emerging faster than training could keep up. Like many operators, I was expected to “just know,” often without proper instruction—an experience I later saw repeated across the industry as expensive equipment failed due to lack of training.

That’s why this podcast exists.

The building industry cannot stay reactive. As technology accelerates, training, leadership, and culture must evolve with it. Operators deserve clarity, structure, and support—not blame. Owners and leaders must take responsibility for creating environments where learning is encouraged and questions are welcomed.

My work focuses on empowering operators, improving team communication, and helping organizations run more efficient, resilient buildings through better training and leadership.

If you’re interested in learning more, visit www.ebs.nyc.
Be sure to subscribe, and share this episode with someone who works in—or cares about—the future of the building industry.

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 wants everyone to understand the common efficiency goals, accountability and for all operators to have a voice.

In our interview Bob discusses the top three projects he focused on to obtain the most energy savings. You'll have to listen to the podcast to hear how he and his team did it.

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 3 years ago. With the recent strides accomplished, he is fulfilling on the initial reason he joined, which was to help build their service team.

In the interview you'll hear what was discovered in their research when interviewing recent hires, existing technicians, technicians who worked for other contractors, and those who left them and went to other companies. This information gathering session involved James putting on a uniform and shadowing a technician for a day in the field. It was an interesting learning experience as he compared the similarities and differences of what was once wanted by the field technicians to what's expected today. It took almost a year of collective research before they implemented their Technician Development Program with HVACRedu.net, the number 1 online resource for HVAC training, but they have been open for enrollment since November of 2015! What you'll really want to hear is the results of the group they least expected to embrace this online method of learning.

You should definitely take a look at this video that provides a condensed version of the details. When you listen to the interview you will get the full details of what was anticipated to where they're at as of August 2016. Enhanced Building Solutions is proud to be an affiliate partner with HVACRedu.net and excited to share the similar methods, as a turnkey solution to potential clients, for what Comfort Systems USA has offered their technicians.

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 almost 2-million active users, and over 5-million page views, you'll surely find any steam or hydronic answer you need when you type in your questions on the powerful search engine within the heatinghelp.com website.

Dan openly discussed his learning disability that took a long time to discover, but even with his inability to do simple math today, his determination to really understand people allowed him to pursue a degree in sociology. His understanding of how group's work and his relatable struggle in learning with most building trade workers, is the core reason for his success. He effectively learned to deconstruct complicated math problems in a simplistic format for everyone to understand.

We had a heart felt discussion on the importance of training and how changing the way we teach can possibly save owners lots of money in the future. His message is never stop learning. Don't wait for your employer to teach you. You need to teach yourself! Be sure to listen and subscribe so you can hear about new products, more interviews, and industry news. Thanks for listening! Hope you enjoy it.

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 bring people you want to represent your company and have in your life. We also discussed the true meaning of leadership and how these principles, he's helped develop, are now used across the world. After listening to this interview, you'll understand why he says:

It's not the magic that makes it work. It's the way we work that makes it magic.

Join me on the podcast so you can hear the topics we discussed below:

• The Busiest Retired Guy I know - Meet Lee Cockerel and find out what he's up to.
• What Do You Call Your Employees? - Learn why Disney calls all their employees cast members, and why terminology is important.
• What's Your Hiring Process? - Learn how Disney hires, and how Clarity can help YOUR company.
• Do Referrals Matter? - Learn how Disney gets most of their business and why the internet and social media can make or break YOUR business.
• How Often Do You Apologize? Learn what causes this behavior and how it can be changed. Understand how trust and control plays a part on how we behave in our everyday lives.
• Does Exposure Change Your Views? Lee explains how getting out of your environment can change your views, and help you become a better leader.
• Is there a Difference between Managers and Leaders? Understand the difference, maybe your hiring process will change.
• What does the Acronym R.A.V.E. stand for? Disney wasn't always a place where everyone was valued or felt comfortable visiting. Learn how R.A.V.E. and diversity increases your bottom line.
• Is Your Company Ready For the New Generation? Will we, as a country, have the workforce to support YOUR business?
• How Online Learning is Changing the Way We Learn and why it's necessary to keep up with technology and the demand for it.

Be sure to check out Lee Cockrell's website and check out his 4th book Career Magic which is currently available in stores.