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004 - Comfort Systems USA - Mylett Interview

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Release Date: 09/05/2016

018 - How the Global Influenza of 1918 Impacted Heating and Ventilation show art 018 - How the Global Influenza of 1918 Impacted Heating and Ventilation

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

This podcast raises an awareness: If new building codes pertaining to HVAC are mandated after COVID-19, there will be a ripple effect in the industry. They will affect HVAC design, equipment installation, energy efficiency, and local laws. Use this down time to recreate yourself and learn something new, use the online resources that didn't exist in 1918.

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017 Sista in the Brotherhood show art 017 Sista in the Brotherhood

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Meet Dawn Jones Redstone. Dawn worked as a union carpenter before teaching at Oregon Tradeswomen, a non-profit that helps women access living wage careers in construction. During the sixteen years she spent in these positions, she was also making films and is now a full-time filmmaker. Dawn made a short film called Sista in the Brotherhood, which involves a female African American apprentice carpenter who experiences discrimination on the job site and has to choose between making a stand and keeping her job. After winning multiple awards during its festival run, the construction industry began...

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016 Diversity and Inclusion show art 016 Diversity and Inclusion

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Meet Nancy Novak, she is the Senior Vice President of Construction at Compass Datacenters and has been working in construction for many years, you can see her bio . I first discovered Nancy through a she shared back in February this year. I checked out her profile, immediately recognized our similar interests, and did what most people on LinkedIn do; I requested to connect and messaged her to be on the show. After many attempts to sync our calendars, we were finally able to connect and on April 22nd, we made it happen. Below is just a glimpse of our insightful conversation. Nancy cites that...

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015 Can Stakeholder Engagement Enable Cities to Meet their Energy Transformation Goals? show art 015 Can Stakeholder Engagement Enable Cities to Meet their Energy Transformation Goals?

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

While facing growing, life-threatening risks from climate change, city leaders across the US have pledged to completely transform their cities to meet clean energy goals within 30 years or less.  Many believe that turning these promises into a reality will never happen on this aggressive timeline.  H.G Chissell is the Founder and CEO of , a quarterly stakeholder engagement platform focused on collaborative leadership operating in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago and San Francisco. In this podcast, I discuss with H.G. Chissell the different approach Advanced Energy...

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014 SS El Faro A Tribute to the Unsung Heroes show art 014 SS El Faro A Tribute to the Unsung Heroes

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

On October 1st 2015 Hurricane Joaquin took down the SS El Faro cargo ship along with the lives of 33 people. This tragic event ranks as one of the worst Maritime disasters in the United States history. Sophia Meyer, a 16-year-old Thornton Academy student from Maine became interested in the El Faro after reading an article about a year ago. She wanted to learn more and decided to research the El Faro for the 2019 History Day Contest. In her research she found out there was an additional ship the SS Matsonia. posted by the Journal Tribune on February 18th 2019 highlighting Sophia’s research....

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013 How Men Will Stay Significant with Robots and AI show art 013 How Men Will Stay Significant with Robots and AI

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

A little bit about Geir Isene, he is a nerd from Norway. Yes I said that! He loves mathematics, astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, chemistry, hardware and software. He is the most diverse person I’ve had on my podcasts to date. What’s most awesome is that he helps people, he is a coach and mentor who inspires others to reach their goals and potentials. If you would like to learn more about him, you can visit his website.  Geir held a workshop at the annual (WISTA being the “Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association”) and after leaving Tromsø he launched...

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012 Breaking Ground is Back  show art 012 Breaking Ground is Back

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Before I apologize for not launching an episode in over a year, I want to thank the operator who called me out on this. I was at a hospital the other day, an operator opened up his podcast app and showed me my cover photo and asked, “is that you?” I smiled and said "yes", he then said, “You haven’t launched one in a real long time”. That’s when I knew he was a true subscriber. Thank you for for calling me out, it has inspired me to get me back on it. When I initially launched the first episode I didn’t know if the industry was ready for it. Heck some of the guys were still using...

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011 - Residential Heating Systems - Waste Prevention vs. Energy Conservation - Asit Patel show art 011 - Residential Heating Systems - Waste Prevention vs. Energy Conservation - Asit Patel

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Asit has taught over 2,200 students in several different courses related to energy efficiency in multi family residential buildings ranging from 20 to 1000 units. His students include facility maintenance and operations staff, facility management and owners, trade contractors, as well as other energy and engineering professionals. Asit and I met when I spoke on the topic of at AEE in 2015 and again when he discussed at NYC’s 32BJ Union in 2016. I asked Asit to be a guest because I was most impressed with his extensive knowledge and understanding of residential heating systems from a...

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010 - Air Cooled Condenser optimization with Enercoat® show art 010 - Air Cooled Condenser optimization with Enercoat®

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Join me in an interview with Don Yeganeh. Don is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York State and also a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional who graduated from Columbia University as a Mechanical Engineer in 2009. Since then he has spent 6 years as a commissioning engineer and the last 2 years of his professional experience has been with a start-up company Ener.co In our interview we talk about the existing problems with Air Cooled Condensers and their solution that has a payback in less than a year in some cases. Enercoat® is a performance coating designed to...

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009 - I-Star Energy Solutions - Jim Park - Interview show art 009 - I-Star Energy Solutions - Jim Park - Interview

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

James Park (Jim) is an Energy Conservation Specialist who currently works for I-Star Energy Solutions, a company that focuses on Mechanical Insulation Assessments. Jim brings 42 years of experience in the building industry and has had many different roles since he started as an asbestos worker back in 1974. He has reinvented himself many times to stay relevant and it was a pleasure chatting with him to hear about the significant of amount of money he has helped save companies over the years. Jim shares some of the challenges he deals with when trying to convince clients about savings in their...

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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.