"LEEDS" and "Going Green" seem to be the buzz words in the construction industry these days. It seems every body wants to click and jump on the band wagon. Pick up any news paper or listen to any newsworthy radio or television station and you will hear about complete communities "Going Green". Our own local WESH television station has added the "Green Sheet" to their website. Going green is a good thing that is probably twenty years late in coming about, but at least people are paying attention.

      I heard it said at a conference recently, "Whether you like the man or not, Al Gore has done more to bring global attention to this topic than anyone else." This is true! Not only is America more aware of the changing environment, but the world as a whole has become more in tuned with the issues that face us all. We cannot continue to rape and plunder this great world God has entrusted to us and expect it to last forever.

      Central Environmental Services, Inc. (C.E.S., Inc.) has been "green" since our inception, not because it was cool, but it was a necessity in the demolition industry to salvage as much from a project as you could. In the demolition industry, anyone who would demolish a building and "not" gather the salvageable items to sell and offset the bottom line of operating his or her business, is simply foolish. Especially in today's tumultuous business climate. Metals theft from job sites has placed copper into the "precious metals" category. Stiffer penalties for job site theft is being discussed in legislative forums daily and still the problem is growing. Richard Lorenz Owner and CEO of C.E.S., Inc. learned the value of recycling when he was just a young teenager back home in Illinois. He began collecting soda bottles and returning them for their deposit to get his spending money. This valuable lesson has been ingrained into who he is and how he approaches every demolition project. "How much "jag" can we gather form this job?" He'll ask his well qualified staff. Each and every person knows this term just days after they hire on and take their valued position as a C.E.S. employee. "Each employee knows the price we pay when we don't glean every penny we can from a job site", says Todd Delay - General Manager of C.E.S., Inc.

      It has been our approach to salvage everything we can prom our job sites for numerous reasons, but our most compelling reason is we simply don't like to have to take anything to a landfill. We have to pay land fill fees; transportation to the landfill and back; insurance on the vehicles and employees driving that load. Our biggest reason though is we try to see just how little debris we send to a landfill, because we know they will fill up sooner or later and we want to do our part to make sure it is later. Much later!

      For a closer look at the entire field of services we have to offer individual home owners up to mega corporations, please visit our website www.centralenvironmental.com and allow us to become your demolition company of choice.

Jobsite Theft becomes big time crime

            “Copper thieves cripple construction site”; “Aluminum stolen from air conditioners”; “Man dies from high voltage while stealing copper wound transformer”. It seems our news headlines are riddled with these reports. Arrests are made on a daily basis and yet the theft continues to rise.

            Current economical failures, lost jobs, rising gas costs and an election year seem to fuel the  problem further. Drive through any city today and it is not surprising to see more individuals and family people with their vehicle loaded to the hilt with scrap iron and metals, headed to cash in at the scales at the salvage yard. “When our trucks pull up to the recycling centers to dispose of salvage metals from demolition job sites, their wait is sometimes over an hour to be weighed in”, says Tom Barnhill sales manager for C.E.S., Inc. the leading demolition firm in the Orlando/ Central Florida area.

            Salvage (JAG as it is referred to in the demolition industry) is also being stolen off jobsites by other trades. It has become increasingly difficult to guard and protect the one commodity we use to offset our costs. Arrests are on the rise for this theft, but unless stricter penalties are dealt for the crime, this problem will not go away in the near future. In the demolition industry it is a common practice to mark a structure doomed to the wrecking crew prior to work beginning. Today it is best “not” to post a notice on the building until the day you are ready to start the project. Even then, protecting what is justifiably your product after the contract has been signed can be hard.

“We have arrived at our job sites to catch plumbers, electricians and laborers helping themselves to copper and aluminum”, Tom said. “On two recent (separate) hotel jobs, the land owner signed the contract at an agreed price, with the jag in place for C.E.S., Inc. to salvage and offset the demolition costs. The owner had a team of day laborers in the building stripping out the windows to gather the aluminum framing, with no regard to asbestos containing materials. Their process was to break out the glass (scattering glass debris over the remaining work site), walk through the glass (with many wearing thread bare tennis shoes) and prying out the aluminum frame work.”  There is usually little or no regard for safety, liability or risks involved when people take it upon themselves to steal these products.

“I have and will continue to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law whenever we find someone stealing from our jobsites. I don’t care if it is even one of my own employees, says Richard Lorenz, owner and CEO of Central Environmental Services, Inc. He goes on to say, “We made seven (7) arrests when the “Mercado/Titanic” project went down on International Drive in Orlando and we intend to prosecute every one of them.”

Things are so bad, says Tom that in 2007 we were sitting in our offices quoting jobs and taking care of business. We noticed the air was warm and turned the air conditioner down a notch or two, but the room got warmer. After an hour of not getting cooler, one of the sales staff went behind the building to realize a thief had waited until the unit went off and then stole the aluminum and copper components, leaving the rest of the machine just torn up and spread around the ground. There is now a six foot chain link fence around the new unit.

What are the steps required to rectify this problem or at least bring it in line? Stiffer penalties on the thief is a start, but a closer eye on the salvage companies paying for these items might be an answer. If a person comes to you with a few aluminum soda cans to sell, you don’t worry, but if someone brings you coils or sticks of un-used copper tubing, a flag “should” go up and maybe a background check of where they got these materials. It will not get better any time in the near future unless violations are addressed in a more stringent manner. “Copper is now listed as a “precious metal” on the open market”, said Rich who adds, “Two of the Mercado/Titanic thieves have already been prosecuted and will be serving hard time for their actions.”

      Lord & Taylor Department Store located on the north perimeter of the Florida Mall was a task that might require two months to take down. Central Environmental Services, Inc. accomplished the job in twenty eight days. Six days ahead of schedule. "We literally surgically removed this portion of the operational mall facing numerous obstacles while maintaining a work safe environment for our staff and the shoppers at the mall", says Rich Lorenz, owner and CEO of Central.

 Statistics:

• 144,000 square feet - two story, poured in place concrete structure
• 2,600,000 pounds of steel salvaged
• 15,200,000 pounds of concrete removed and salvaged
• 12,000 pounds of non ferrous metals salvaged
• 7,500 tons of rebar salvaged
• Two chiller units; two elevators; two escalators and all the electrical equipment was removed and salvalged as well.

      A project of this size and a 82% salvage rate creates a great start for future development planned in this spot. Again, C.E.S., Inc. keeps it green with our positive approach to recycling everything we can from a project.