Ameresco meets federal government's compliance punchlist

The Challenge

Ameresco’s complex public projects are held to an impeccable standard—at the insistence of both the federal government and the taxpayer. From bi-weekly project meetings with geographically scattered stakeholders, to document control and distribution, to the rigors of remote Federal oversight and reporting—Ameresco needed a way to streamline these complex projects and consolidate efficiencies.

The Solution

Ameresco chose to pilot Procore’s construction management platform where it could do the most good; a complex, geographically dispersed project job called the National Deep Energy Retrofit Program Project Number Two. Procore’s transparent, single-source hub consolidated all communications, automated workflows, and clarified the countless moving parts of the complicated project within a collaborative platform.

The Results

• Reduced rework with real-time RFI reporting and decisions in the field, cutting rework on time-sensitive projects
• Met compliance standards with Procore’s security measures, ensuring data protection for federal stakeholders
• Increased speed and efficiency while maintaining familiar workflows across Ameresco’s complex processes

Daunting Scope and Scale

Ameresco is a leading independent provider of energy infrastructure upgrades and renewable energy solutions for businesses and government entities. Their energy infrastructure and performance upgrades for federal government facilities combine scope and complexity in a rigorous compliance environment. Recently their United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island received a Top Project of the Year Award in the Environment + Energy Leader Awards program, while their geographically dispersed GSA National Deep Energy Retrofit Program Project Number Two tested the very limits of project management reach. "The GSA project had eleven buildings in five cities across three states," says Ameresco’s Senior Director of Construction, Patrick McNabb. "All the buildings were multi-use federal buildings, and each was—in effect—its own project with its own project stakeholders, its own approval chain, its own coordination chain." Parris Island also included an impressive 10.5 megawatts of renewable energy generation as a part of the project.

One Platform Fits All

"In the beginning, we were looking to streamline and enhance our document control," said Alycia Reynolds, Ameresco’s Senior Administrative Project Manager – Federal. "We wanted a system that would make everything immediately available, so associates in our Federal Division could readily review all our projects and see standards that we put in place." Procore’s platform centralized document management—and all communications—in a transparent hub, addressing the internal goal of a trackable, sealed document ecosystem.

What about the stakeholder’s cyber security concerns? This was the federal government, after all. Nicole Bulgarino, who heads up Ameresco’s Federal Division, takes this one. "Procore had an acceptable cloud-based model, and the way they managed their firewall and security satisfied our most particular customers, including the DoD, the VA, and the GSA. Procore allows us to take advantage of that real-time sharing with clients, but in the context of meeting their protocols."

A Rework Story

Patrick McNabb is talking rework—the elimination of it. "Parris Island was a super exciting project. Lighting, water, and building energy management systems were implemented in over 120 buildings. For our Combined Heat and Power Plant, we had very rigorous equipment foundation requirements, and those required constant adjustments as our energy output from the equipment, or energy interface with the equipment, changed." Changes are the enemy of fast-track, but do they have to be? "On more than one occasion," Patrick continues, "we were able to capture and rework the formwork and reinforcing profile of these equipment foundations moments before they were scheduled for concrete placement. By having our information immediately at hand in real time, it flowed out to the team within just a matter of moments—from the engineer right to the project manager and construction manager’s devices in the field. There have been multiple specific examples where rework was absolutely eliminated by this real time information sharing."