One of Alberta’s largest builders and its quest for a greener world

In early 2009, Bijan Mannani was talking about work with his son, a Grade 3 student with a keen awareness of the physical environment around him. Bijan was working in Alberta’s oil and gas sector at the time and the controversial energy found in the northern oils sands was topical news.

His son posed the question around the dinner table: “Don’t you know that you are damaging the environment with the work that you are doing?” Bijan recalls.

At that moment, Bijan understood a change in his life was necessary and today he’s talking environmental sustainability as the chief operating officer of one of Alberta’s largest builders.

Landmark Group of Builders is considered a leader in innovation and sustainable development in the building sector, and Bijan says the organization’s journey towards minimizing environmental impact began long before he started.

“It was the vision and the passion of our CEO, Mr. Reza Nasseri, to make sustainability a focal point of the corporate vision; eliminating waste and changing the building process makes achieving the vision possible,” says Bijan.

“I’m just glad to be part of the organization, implementing the change and adding value.”

He says that while numerous initiatives had been undertaken towards a culture of sustainability in previous years, the company stepped up efforts by partnering with The Natural Step Canada in 2009 to embark on a widespread effort to fold every staff member into the quest for sustainability.

Educating the team and developing a business case for adopting The Natural Step Framework for Sustainable Development as a value-add was the first step, Bijan says, and since that process was undertaken, much progress has been made.

An internal sustainability group of champions has been established, a five-year plan to identify key sustainability goals and challenges was created and overall, the company has a greater understanding of the impact of its current processes and how to target future innovations.

Earlier this year, an all-staff education workshop was help to ensure everyone had a full understanding of where the sustainability journey was headed.

“We need to be working and placing sustainability ahead of everything else and looking after the interests of the environment, and I think that the business would flourish if you do that,” Bijan says, considering the personal and professional value of going green.

“Our focus is not that we are at conflict with the environment, but we have to embrace the environment,” he says.

Precision building systems and automated construction technologies in Landmark’s building process conserves energy and drastically reduces waste in the homes and units it creates, during construction and the entire lifecycle of the home.

Bijan says the innovative building process enables construction of engineered and sophisticated home designs that have elegance, appeal and comfort in hundreds of models, layouts, and elevations.

To learn more about the Landmark Group of Builders and its sustainable development commitments, visit www.landmarkgroup.ca, or visit www.naturalstep.ca to learn more about the Natural Step Canada.

By: Kristian Partington of Axiom News