ENVIRONMENTAL & INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP2 In three short years, Environmental & Infrastructure Group has experienced rapid growth and emerged as an important player in the demolition and environmental contracting field. This, however, should not be a surprise as each of the three founding members have over thirty years of experience in demolition, remediation and related fields. This expertise, along with solid, longstanding relationships within the industry have been the catalysts. We caught up with President Rich McManus, and Vice Presidents Ed Vernier and Mike Duffy.Written by Mark GolombekEnvironmental & Infrastructure Group is a turnkey provider of environmental and demolition trade services. The doors opened in 2016, with three partners in the orga-nization: Rich McManus, Edmund Vernier, and Mike Duffy. The three had worked together for many years at one of the largest demolition / remediation contractors in the country, and all have extensive experience in demolition and environmental remediation work, having worked in the construction industry, in similar fields, from a young age.“First and foremost, EIG is a demolition contractor with equally deep roots in environmental remediation work. We specialize in the industrial sectors, such as the power industry, nuclear power industry, the chemical sector, oil and gas, paper, metals, ENVIRONMENTAL & INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP23 Written by Mark Golombekand mining,” says Mike. EIG also performs civil demolition and infrastructure work including heavy highway, bridge, and highway structure demolition, saw cutting, concrete cutting, and core drilling.What makes the company unique is that all of the founders have worked together for a lengthy stretch prior to the formation of “Their expertise means superintendents and foremen have the critical support and resources to run the field work with some of the best operators, laborers and iron workers in the country.”34 EIG, understanding the commitment to safety and sustainabil-ity in their field. They have great appreciation for each other’s skill sets and roles within the organization, leading to consis-tently successful projects on some of the most high-profile, complex projects in the U.S. “In this way, not only are we doing the work we love to do, but we are attracting like-minded professionals to work with us and our senior managers, both in the office and the field. They come to an organization that strives to put them in a position to do the type of work they enjoy and have a ladder to climb,” says Rich.The ability of employees to ascend in their careers has enabled the company to not only bring in good people to contribute at the project or site level but also at the management level. A union contractor, Environmental & Infrastructure Group has had great success in finding skilled labor, even with imminent expan-sion. All of the craftspeople it employs are trained by their unions, though additional training is often supplemented by EIG.The company claims one of the strongest teams in the industry. Aside from its three founders, there is also Thomas Gilmore, who heads up the federal and nuclear work. With over 30 years of experience, Tom is a well-respected Subject Matter Expert in the Federal and Nuclear Sectors who brings a wealth of knowl-edge and reputation for project excellence. Mark Frank is EIG’s Operations Manager. Mark is an extremely knowledgeable and well-rounded industry veteran whose 20 plus years of project knowledge, consistency, and leadership have helped consider-ably to build EIG up to where it stands today. Recent addition to the team, Vice President Gary Basford, joins the team having previously led a portion of one of the nation’s premier indus-trial demolition firms for several years. With emphasis on safety culture and experience across multiple disciplines, Mr. Basford brings a unique blend of talent and success in a leadership role. An exciting new service offering that EIG provides is that of saw cutting. Doug Walker is the Vice President of Operations heading up EIG’s saw cutting division. Doug is an industry pioneer with 40 plus years of expertise in performing road and slab sawing, wire sawing, diamond core drilling, sawing and sealing, pile cutting and metal cutting. “It’s a brand-new vision that we started in October of 2018 because it all goes hand-in-hand with what we do,” says Rich. There is a certain expertise to this kind of work. In addition to Mr. Walker, EIG has been able to attract proven industry veterans to join the team by opening this specialized new cutting services division. Although this division has only been underway for a short period, the new staff have secured work with good clients, including owners and general contractors.“The company has been able to attract proven industry veterans to come in by opening its specialized new cutting services division.”5 When combining the core team of seasoned management, experienced superintendents and full-time union employees consisting of some of the finest operators, laborers and iron workers in the country working exclusively for Environmental & Infrastructure Group, EIG has built a recipe for success. Several of the craft employees and superintendents who have been with the company leadership for over twenty years have aided in the rapid growth of EIG, as the familiarity and expectations have expedited the learning curve that many new companies experience. The combined expertise means critical support and resources needed to execute challenging projects are in place and has allowed EIG to hit the ground running. There is significant competition in this business on the local, regional and national levels. One of the contributing factors to the company’s success in overcoming this potential obstacle is the collection of long-term relationships that have been nurtured by all three founders.“Starting the company and acquiring clients was somewhat less of a challenge than anticipated. We have done some great work with valued clients over the years, and because our clients understand our expertise they have been excited to utilize EIG on their projects. This helped us to get going quickly,” says Rich.“Since 2016, we have brought in $50 million in revenue, which is pretty impressive for the industry as a whole,” says Ed. The multi-disciplined contractor has had great success in per-forming a diverse range of work on time, within budget, and without injury. “Though it is important for us to continue to build our project résumé, the amount of revenue we bring in is not EIG’s main focus. What is important is our ability to provide a turnkey service to our clients. EIG’s reputation is safety. That said, EIG strives to provide our clients with an array of services for which they can confidently rely on a single source to safely perform each component to their projects,” says Mike.EIG’s main source of seeking out new business is through existing relationships. Many of those relationships that were formed prior to starting Environmental & Infrastructure Group have led to the early success of the company. “Our clients understand through past performance that we are safe and experienced with complex, high profile work. This is not to underscore the importance of being competitive, but safety and experience most certainly come first. Relationships have definitely helped us to be successful in securing projects, but we also search for project opportunities in a number of differ-ent ways,” says Mike. The contractor keeps a database of all its clients and stays in constant communication, both in the office and out in the field. In addition to repeat business, many referrals come from clients.A revamped website should be live by the end of the year into January of 2019. The company is rebranding its website and logo, which will be modified to make it more streamlined and make the website more attractive to clients. “Mike and I started this two-and-a-half years ago. I think it looks pretty good, but it’s not a website that you would normally see today. The rebrand will have more emphasis on our capabilities, safety, experience, and people,” says Ed.Five years from now, the company sees itself increasing its revenue to between $80 million and $100 million. It is also looking at the potential for more diversification, as indicated in its recently added asbestos abatement and saw cutting services divisions.“Over the course of time, from our equipment fleet to our per-sonnel, EIG will continue to grow responsibly and at the right pace. We want to be the gold standard. All of this furthers our goal to provide EIG’s clients with a product that fulfills their vision,” says Mike. EIG’s focus is on safety, integrity, and diversity of services, and nothing is more important to the company and its clients than project safety. Through continuous training and EIG’s behavioral based safety program, every one of its clients and personnel work together to ensure that proper procedures, protocol and work plans are adhered to in order to maintain a safe work environment.“Hard hats, safety glasses, safety shoes and high-visibility vests are mandatory tools for the work we do. We train our folks well and have an in-depth health and safety program along with health and safety officers on all of our projects. That is the greatest factor in everything we do,” says Rich.As featured inDecember 2018 - January 2019204 Mill Street, Suite 102, Bristol, PA 19007 | P: (215) 458-7602 | F: (215) 458-7921ENVIRONMENTAL & INFRASTRUCTURE GROUPNext >