It’s the last month of Winter here in New Zealand – YAY! I'm so excited. The days are getting longer, the air a bit warmer and well I don’t know about you but I’m already planning my spring clean, garage cleanup and backyard tidy.

In fact I’ve already started my cleanup which has already involved one trip to the tip! In this trip to the tip I discovered a few things.

In New York State we are fortunate to be surrounded by family farms, a beautiful landscape, and (some) thriving local communities. In the towns in and around the mountains and valleys of the Hudson Valley you will find communities that are supporting their neighborhood businesses, farms, and farm stands. Local produce, beef, chicken, duck, and pork are the rule in resident’s refrigerators, not the exception. Yet local economies in New York are struggling, like much of the rest of the country.
New jobs are needed, along with tax revenue. The fossil fuels industry has made billions upon billions for the elite upper class in this country while very little has seen its way into the betterment of the lives of residents in each town, village, hamlet, or city in this country. In fact, the drilling and mining exploits of big oil & gas has left many areas of the country devastated by environmental damage.  Centralized, globalized Multi-National Conglomerates are dominating and leaving little choice to be had for the average citizen.

The alternative energy industry has been marginalized ever since its inception, even though the possibilities for a renewable & sustainable energy economy are real and expanding as we speak. Thermal Mass Construction INC has developed a system that achieves energy independence for home owners by reducing or eliminating their reliance on fossil fuels for heat and electricity. The call to retrofit homes for energy efficiency is just beginning in New York, and the goal is to create jobs. We are hoping that the new 'Green Jobs Financing Law' will put real investment into helping residents substantially improve the efficiency of their homes and put money back in their pocket. The local contractors can have consistent work rebuilding their communities. Excavators, general contractors, finishers, trucking, and drilling will all get a major boost from this law if serious funds are implemented to make the transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy for home owners.

Working class citizens deserve a break. They are locked into the grid and completely reliant upon the fossil fuels industry for the necessities of life (running their home). Renewable energy used with our "Thermal Mass Concrete/Radiant Panels can break that reliance and generate local wealth for the local businesses that are innovating to harness it in the most beneficial and effective way.  By choosing to support Green Construction we are in turn supporting our neighbors, local economies, and the environment.  Once you build a TMC INC Green Home you no longer are tied to the price fluctuations of fossil fuels.  Once they no longer receive billions in government subsidies they will be unable to buy politicians with donations and job offers.  Their industry has caused countless environmental catastrophes and needs to be moved away from.

The cost to our environment is too much.  There are only so many mountain tops the coal industry can blow up, only so many water aquifers Natural Gas can pollute with fracking, and only so many lifeless, industrial swathes of land we can tolerate.  We see things degrading all around us in terms of quality of life; I say it’s time we did something about it.  The planet cannot sustain it, and our wallets cannot sustain it.  Let’s go Green NOW!

The truth is we can actually take you completely off the grid with the right combination of Geo-Thermal, Solar, and Thermal Mass Construction panels. The geo-cell will provide the storage space for heat in the hot Summer months; the stone aggregate holds the heat in and reradiates it back into the structure when the outside temperatures begin to drop, a proportionate solar array will supply the heat for your hot water as well as supplying electricity for mechanical needs, and the thermal mass panels that will make up the housing structure will be the core of the heating and cooling system. The panels lined with radiant tubing will absorb and retain the heat while circulating pumps will transfer the warm air throughout the entire structure, keeping every inch at 70 degrees.

Can retro-fitting be done to existing homes using Thermal Mass Construction? The answer is YES. As long as the structure is supported we can retro-fit one panel at a time. If you want to do it in stages it is very easy to do one side of the structure at a time. Our structures do not require load bearing walls so adjusting the positioning of the panels prior to setting is easy.

As fuel electricity prices rise the average working class citizen is wondering how to keep up with the cost of living. Heating oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed in the past decade due to speculation in the market, and wages have stagnated leaving the average workers reaching for lint their pockets.  Many economists believe the cost of food and fuel will cause another recession, and if the government allows the United States default on its debt we will suffer a hardship not many in this country are prepared for.  It makes us all wonder if there is something more we Americans can do to solve the energy crisis.  The short answer is, we need to empower ourselves, not industrial corporations.

The truth is alternative energy solutions exist all over the globe, but in America we have not done all we can to support and grow the industry. Oil & Gas companies are some of the most profitable corporations on the planet and are extremely influential in the political arena.  The fossil fuel industry is connected to nearly every quadrent of our economy, which is why there is valid hesitation concerning a transition to a sustainable~renewable energy economy. They have worked to suppress alternative energy to some degree on the local and national level, yet right here in New York State we have created a company that can build you a residential or commercial structure 100% off the grid for good.

'Thermal Mass Construction INC' has developed a set of building materials and procedures that allow us to build residential or commercial structures 100% off the grid. With our “Thermal Mass Green Building System” we have a set of options for the level of efficiency a home buyer/owner can afford to achieve according to their budget including the amount of government subsidies and tax credits are available at the time. A client may have certain restrictions on the size and scope of a new build, or the amount of retrofitting they can do at a time.  Yet we are able to offer sustainable energy efficiency in varying degrees to our clients that can be built one phase at a time according to their needs and budget.

Using the materials and procedures developed by Thermal Mass Construction INC new construction for a client is priced at approximately $100 a square foot for the panels and assembly of the structure itself in terms of new construction, which leaves considerable room for profit by the local contractors. Our “Thermal Mass Green Building System” incorporates the heating & cooling system into the mass of the structure itself by way of thermal mass insulated concrete panels that have radiant loops embedded in them.  The system can gather heat from a solar array that is connected to a heating manifold, heating the water in the radiant system to 100+ degrees, or can work in concert with a geo thermal deep well recovery component.

We have been invited to deliver a keynote speech at the MEP Qatar 2011 Summit that was held at Oryx Rotana Hotel, Doha on 27^th & 28^th of June 2011. The conference theme was about identifying and exploring current and future opportunities in Qatar’s MEP industry, with a highlight on the key solutions to the latest challenges in Qatar’s MEP sector. The event featured technical presentations from key experts, demonstrating best-practices in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sector.

What are the Options?

By Bari Faye Siegel

The population of the United States almost doubled between 1950 and 2000. However, in that same 50-year period, public demand for water more than tripled! Americans now each use an average of 100 gallons of water each day—enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses. 

And there’s one thing that is certain – wherever there’s water, there will be leaks.

Systems are the only way the owner can take the information and expectations out of their heads and effectively pass it on to the employees.  If all the necessary information is stuck in the owner’s head, the business will constantly be dependent on the owner to make every decision, to inspect all work, and to be responsible for ensuring proper execution and methods.  This responsibility and work will decrease the owner’s quality of life and limit the growth and success of the business.  In this article, I’ll be examining the role that operational systems plays in inventing a successful future.

Operational systems –

Operational systems include people, processes and culture. The first thing to focus on is people. Great companies are made of great people.  You need great people to build a great business. The next part is processes to keep the best people and, lastly, you need to focus on culture.  Know that constant reminders and enforcement is essential for culture as changing or creating company culture is often a slow and gradual thing.