Newsletter

Did you know: National Groundwater Awareness Week is an annual observance sponsored by the National Groundwater Association (NGWA). This year, it was celebrated March 6-12, 2022.

From simple tips like the most environmentally-friendly way to clean up a snowstorm, to the most energy-efficient way to heat your home - we’ve collected several resources for you for this month’s Spottlight.

This month, we’re talking about the ways that you can continue to keep the facilities, the communities, and most importantly the people that you love safe. We’ve provided some reminders and maintenance tips to keep on your to do list.

It’s this mission that drives the services and goals of the new division: transforming buildings into comfortable, efficient, healthy spaces to live and work.

Over the years, organizations like yours and like ours have navigated game-changing decisions, world-changing events, life-changing innovations. We’re here again. We’re on the crux of great changes ready, for new normals, reporting on big decisions, and embracing game-changers. From innovative ways of approaching common projects to lessons learned in preparing for the future- our focus this month is on forward-thinking. This month, we look to the lessons learned over the past few months, the challenges that were identified, and the questions that seek answers as many approach “big months” and game-changing adjustments.

There’s so much that we could say right now. But instead, this month, we want to show up.

At SSM, we knew from the day that the COVID-19 pandemic began to pose a serious threat to impacting our communities- that our number one job was to show up. This month, this Spottlight, we want to show up for you in one of the best ways we know how- sharing what we know. We’ve deployed our divisions to help us talk about some of the things we know are on your mind. From environmental to facility- take what you need.

This week, we celebrate the Earth. April 22nd, 2020 is not only Earth Day, but Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary. That makes 50 years of the world coming together to defend our environment, to mobilize volunteers, to advocate, to educate, and to appreciate the treasure that is our planet Earth.

This week, we celebrate National Surveyors Week. Our surveyors provide the pieces, the data, the knowledge, the information that allows us to develop the best designs, offer the most comprehensive alternatives, and deliver the most effective, efficient results.

During this week, we highlight the important work that engineers all around the world do- the decisions they make, the education they pursue, the designs they create, and the problems they solve. From the engineers that create something out of nothing, to the ones that bring new life to the existing- we acknowledge you.

Have you noticed the buildings around you today? Really, have you stopped and noticed them? Have you thought about how and why the building stood through our weather changes? Have you questioned how the lighting fixtures are perfectly spaced to provide exactly enough light at every angle of the room you’re in? What about the plumbing? Do you have any idea how the piping might run through the building to maintain the perfect amount of water pressure at all times? Or how strategically the sprinklers are set up- making sure no tiny space is missed in the event of an emergency. Have you noticed it?

GIS technologies allow you to make your data work for you. Instead of storing information in multiple locations- maps, spreadsheets, notepads, clipboards, cell phones, email chains- now we have the ability to put it all in just one, single place.

Checklists are an incredibly simple, incredibly powerful tool.

What we’re actually talking about is social infrastructure. These are spaces intentionally designed to support the formation of human connections and interactions. Social infrastructures are the places where human bonds are formed. They are the spots where relationships begin and where human interaction is created.

Water quality month reminds us to take a long, hard look at what our households, communities, and places of employment are doing to protect sources of water. But what does water quality mean?

• This month we tip our hats to mechanical engineer Willis Haviland Carrier and celebrate the idea that helped make those long, hot days a little more comfortable: air conditioning.

• REGULATORY UPDATE: America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 - Risk Assessments and Emergency Response Plans

Every year, more than 4.1 million workers suffer a serious job-related injury or illness.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY : Chester and Montgomery County

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program