We all talk about it: Sustainability and Transparency in the workplace. This is how an Architect’s Office stays open in this ever-changing business climate. Next year JHAI will have sustained 30 years of continued assistance to our clients.
All companies are accountable for their own and their office's efficiencies, in business and in their services. Creating an integrated building design that includes sustainable designs needs the same amount of care. When you are on the job, the time card and what you did are used to invoice projects. If it is not well documented then the client will want further descriptions of the services performed. If you do it right the first time, then everyone on the team saves time and everyone on the design team will get paid faster. The same is true for a building's utility performance.
Green Design Jim
This article just keeps reminding me about why one group of people or their investors make financial bets, like investing in business activities while those same activities work against others. As an example, this is true in the energy production and its use. These specific activities are changing the way our natural earth cycles work. This makes all past planning for future needs change. Our air, water, soils, and oceans are all changing. Science shows this every day. Some of the worst scenarios from a few years ago of ice sheets melting have already become a reality. Low lying lands are flooding more frequently and the oceans are rising. Countries are already planning and implementing new protections and new structural designs to prepare for the new realities.
Who is paying for all of this? In some cases the large corporations get sued and have to come up with the cash. In other cases smaller companies just go out of business. In all cases most of the money is coming out of our tax dollars. So most of the time you’re paying for the ability for many of the largest companies to support a profit margin so the CEO's can make big bucks and the stock holders get the returns on their investments. Most stocks investments are from the wealthy. So who is paying the cost of this unsustainable method of living on the planet? Who gets most of the government tax incentives? With a level playing field on true costs, renewable and sustainable energy is competitive in today's market place. But with all the government subsidies and no accounting in the current energy policy the other real cost to society is it makes the balance of energy goals slower in coming. Do we have time to wait?
At JHAI we want you to know what you get in our fee structure. We customize each proposed fee to our client’s specific needs. More than anything else, we want to be fair and realistic meeting your goals in the least amount of time and at the lowest possible cost. Our continued long term client relationships, repeat work, and referrals all mean we plan out and maintain our service oriented practice. Next year will be 30 years in business with over 2000 projects under our belt.
Our top priority is to watch over your interests. To provide this level of service, we support fully qualified professional staff and design consultants. This supports our management, communication, design, and production systems with our efficiency and quality control. Our business model allows for the time it takes for dealing with government regulators, oversight and up to date client communications, and great design. This saves time and money during the construction process, ending up with well built, efficient and functional projects.
As an architect my primary roles is to assist our clients in their design and construction activities. We have advised our clients to what we see as the true picture of their projects. As the economy picks up we are getting a lot of people looking to build a new property or upgrade their exiting site with additions or modernization of their properties. We advise as to the development opportunities and the risks we see. If we do not believe the project is appropriate for our level of risk allowances we let our client know! We do not try to sell the project just to get the project on our books. We want to give the best we have to give. Being true to our beliefs is part of that. We sleep well because of this.
Justice John Paul Stevens recently told Congress “Money is not Speech”
I don’t know about you, but I want my vote to count. I surely don’t want to worry that a big corporation’s lobbyist is taking my Congressman’s attention away from the general public.
In the USA all citizens need a level playing field and have the opportunity to rise up from their current economical situation. The level playing field is what gives each person the same opportunities. So when the Supreme Court defined Corporations as “equal to an individual with the same rights”, you lost a lot of the equality. The courts allow corporations to lobby politicians and donate funds to campaigns in public or private. The companies or politicians then need to keep raising more dollars, mostly from the wealthy and the corporations diluting your share and your representation. The politicians, as always, look to raise campaign funds and then need to provide a preferred level of representation to those groups. Otherwise they might not receive the funds they need in the ever increasing costs of campaigns. If you want to keep your job and all the perks that come with it then this is the system that is in place today. Money buys representation.
Agriculture uses 75-80% of all the water in California. Industrial, business, and entertainment uses are all another 7% each of the total uses. That leaves around 10% for all multi and single family residential units. Read the article
Because of the current drought, California’s Business and Home Owners are being asked to reduce their water usage by 20%. This is on top of the 20% reductions asked by the state a few years ago. With all the restrictions and reductions going on, it’s hard for me to believe that changes in the agricultural system can’t be made. Large farms get subsidized to plant high water usage crops while drilling 2000 feet down draining our precious underground aquifers to maintain them. The smaller farms could not afford to drill that deep and don’t get the government bailout like the large farms do. If this is wrong, let me know. Large farms could change those crops to a more water efficient product. Irrigation could change to a drip type system or use underground watering. This would save the state millions of gallons of water and potentially lift the water restrictions business and home owners are now facing.
