In this current economy how can a business stay afloat and compete efficiently? This is a question that had been lingering in my thick little head for some time and it may have been answered yesterday morning. I attended a Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Affiliate breakfast at Chicago’s Metropolitan Club yesterday; the view was amazing by the way. Burnham has been a BOMA Affiliate since I started here about a year ago and to be frank, I wondered why. Even after showing in this year’s trade show and sponsoring a signature drink at the after party, we returned to the office with zero leads, a hangover and our tail between our legs.

What is the purpose of being on an organization that doesn’t provide a return, a tangible return for your investment?? I entered the Sears Tower with a head full of questions, wondering if answers would be provided; if I’d be able to come back and justify our BOMA membership for another year…I think I got my answers.

Here are some key points I gathered:

Participation – when purchasing a membership, you need to take advantage of more than the association’s brand/logo on your marketing materials. Represent your company in committees and events, be as involved as possible. Making your voice heard assures the other members of the association that you are motivated and serious about conducting and delivering your business.

Motivation – as in anything, you must be motivated and you must motivate or have a motivated company. One person can make a difference but saturating the association with your company’s presence is a strong branding method.

Cross – Network – become a point of reference for other association members and/or your own clients. Take advantage of the resources offered by the association(s) you belong to, leverage your membership to get contacts and refer clients to those you’ve met, they’ll return the favor!

BOMA is a great association, it provides leverage to the building owners and managers and to the affiliates; the third party services that target building owners and managers. As an affiliate it is important for Burnham to get to know the other affiliates, participate in the cross-selling of each others’ brands and services, leveraging off each other to build relationship and foster trust when conducting business. It’s not just about lowering prices, meeting the current expense of the client or beating the competition’s offer but about a strong, trusting relationship that assures the client you will deliver.
Needless to say, it was a fulfilling breakfast.

Posted by: Marisol Sanchez

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About a year ago I heard about this landfill in the ocean, called The Eastern Garbage Patch. It’s inside the Northern Pacific gyre, which is basically a giant whirlpool. This gyre is only 1 of 5 in all the oceans, and each has its own version of the Garbage Patch.

While researching this I found an article about it and this man, Captain Charles Moore who’s dedicated his life to researching its affects on the environment and our health. He’s established the Algalita Marine Research Foundation to do so. The article said that the Patch is now twice the size of Texas! Moore is doing extensive research on the affects it’s having on our health. It primarily consists of plastic: shopping bags, cigarette lighters, toys, etc. The problem is that plastic never really goes away; it only breaks down into tiny pieces. So fish and birds eat it, thinking that it’s food, then larger fish such as Tuna eat the smaller fish and then we eat the tuna.

Plastic surrounds us, and scientists are discovering that all these chemicals, like BPA, are leaching into our food and drink. This happens by microwaving plastic containers, leaving your water bottle in a hot car, even eating canned food that was hot when packaged. One scientist Dr. Vom Saal has said, “These findings suggest that developmental exposure to BPA is contributing to the obesity epidemic.”

Annually we produce about 60 billion tons of plastic, and a lot is used for disposable products to make our lives more convenient. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer said, “If you could fast-forward 10,000 years and do an archaeological dig, you’d find a little line of plastic. What happened to those people? Well, they ate their own plastic and disrupted their genetic structure and weren’t able to reproduce.” It’s a frightening statement.

To help, you can limit our use of plastics and whenever possible recycle them. Records indicate that only 3-5% of plastics are recycled in any way. We can also look into the use of alternative products and just become more aware of our actions and the affects they may be having on our future generations.

To read the full article visit: Our oceans are turning into plastic…are we?

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Chicago’s Mayor, Richard Daley announced the appointment of two new commissioners to head city departments created by the department consolidations. According to the Mayor’s Press Office the appointments announced are:

• Patti Sudiero, Commissioner of the new Department of Zoning and Land Use and Planning and Zoning Administrator. Scudiero has been the city’s zoning administrator since 2006. Created by the merging of the Zoning Department and the  land use section of Planning, this department will provide a central location for economic development, land use, business and consumer services.
• Rich Monocchio, Commissioner of the Department of Buildings where he has been serving as Acting Commissioner.

For more information regarding this announcement, please visit the City of Chicago website.

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“Paper or plastic?”  We’ve all been asked this question at the grocery store and the fact of the matter is, we shouldn’t be using either. The production of paper and plastic bags uses an incredible amount of renewable and non-renewable resources. After the materials are extracted/harvested, transported, manufactured and transported again to be brought to you the consumer, they’re most likely used once and thrown away.

Paper comes from trees, which are probably clear-cut, causing habitat destruction and weaken the soil composition; large trucks need to come and take the logs away; heavy machinery is used to strip the bark, cut it into chips and turn it into pulp. Then many, many gallons of clean water is used to wash, bleach and color the pulp to make it into paper.

Typically plastic bags are made from oil, the oil is heated up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit and at this temperature it can be separated into its various components and molded into plastic bags.

Here are some frightening facts from reusablebags.com about plastic bag usage.

• As a society, we consume almost 1 million plastic bags per minute
• The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store
• Plastic bags will accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years
• 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals die every year because they mistake the plastic bags for food.

So what should you use when shopping? You can use a reusable bag. I’d like to recommend using a Chico Bag, it’s a small pouch that fits in your pocket and holds 20-25 lbs. when opened. So do your part by reducing your disposable bag consumption and go get your reusable bag today so you can say neither, I brought my own.

To read a full article about paper and plastic bags you can visit Treehugger.com

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For 12 years I have been work on securing permits for developers, contractors, owners and design professionals.  Early on in my permit-expediting career I learned that what you submit is what you get.  Not trying to be cliché, but garbage in is garbage out.  Shoving less than adequate documents into a municipality only leads to delays and mistakes in the field.  To be successful with permits these days you need to do your homework; this means hiring a reputable design professional knowledgeable in the building code and design.  If the design is not code compliant then what is it worth?

Select licensed contractors familiar with the municipality that you are working in.  Contractors that have worked within the jurisdiction of your community will be more knowledgeable on the rules and regulations of that community and/or municipality.  Get an early start on your documentation.  Procrastinating on gathering forms, documents and signatures may delay the acceptance of your project into the municipality; if this is not complete expect delays.  Finally, hire an expediter.  The rules and regulations of a municipality are constantly changing.  Having someone on your side that is knowledgeable about the process and required documentation saves you time and headaches.  If you miss one submission or over look a particular document it can cost you weeks or even months to the schedule of your project!

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Burnham has taken the plunge into the blogosphere! We have obtained the appropriate permits and built ourselves a blog! As the resource to many of our clients for municipal updates, building code , permitting news and LEED related questions; Burnham’s Blog – Final Review will be a platform for all of these to be addressed.

Our goal with Final Review is to give our clients, vendors, partners, and visitors the opportunity to peek into Burnham, our practices, our services, and our culture, and interact with us. Our Bloggers are the experts in their fields; they are our project managers, our code consultants, our LEED APs and our entire Burnham Team! The Burnham Team strives to live according to Burnham’s core values – we are eager to interact with you and share our ideas and thoughts on the most pressing issues in building permits, code consulting and sustainability.

We encourage you to become part of our new community by signing up for our blog to keep updated on all industry news as well as all Burnham news. We are the experts in our field yet we also have fun – come take a gander! We’ll see you at the Final Review!

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