Room for one more New Year’s resolution? SSOE is celebrating our 60th anniversary this year and we’ve decided to make it our “green anniversary.” Our focus will be on the small, incremental steps we can take as individuals to make a positive impact on the environment. You have to know where you are before you can figure out where you want to go. If you’d like to join us this year, visit our website for a comprehensive list of quick and easy calculators you can use to benchmark where you currently stand, and resources that can provide tips on how you can make 2008 the year you embark on the green frontier. www.ssoe.com/LP/calculators.aspx Continue Reading →

Anna Koperczak does more to safeguard the environment in a week than most of us do in a decade. As an SSOE specialist in environmental permitting, she’s a lynchpin connecting regulatory agencies, companies whose products and processes impact the environment, and the engineers who design the systems. Her mission is to help SSOE clients grow their businesses in harmony with environmentally safe practices. Manufacturing and industrial companies need an “Anna” any time new regulations are enacted, when they are building a new facility, or designing or changing a process. Doing so invariably requires compliance with a series of regulations starting at the federal level with the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, then on to state-specific requirements, and finally whatever local environmental laws are in place. Continue Reading →

Grocery stores in India are beginning to stock up with more western-style food products to satisfy the country’s growing demand for packaged, meal-in-a-hurry options. In fact, packaged food retail value sales in India grew 15% in 2007—the largest jump the country witnessed in the last nine years (Source: Euromonitor International). Thanks to a booming economy, an emerging middle class, and the rise in the number of two-income families, Indians have a growing “appetite” for convenience. India is already known as a large food producer; in fact it is the second largest in the world. In terms of value addition (food processing) however, the country has a long way to go to increase the share of processed foods as a significant contributor to its export base. India, especially South India, which has a well-diversified presence in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, livestock, dairy, fisheries, and seafood is well positioned to significantly increase the "value addition" categories and assist India in becoming a "food factory" to the world in the years to come. Aiding this effort is the thrust by the Central and State Governments through various initiatives for the food processing sector. To take advantage of this market opportunity, the Chennai, India construction and development company, Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited (CCCL), purchased 200 parcels of land near the ancient port city of Tuticorin in southern India. It plans to create Pearl City™ Food Port, a 300-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) that will house at least a dozen food manufacturing plants and the housing, Continue Reading →

SSOE Adds Fourth Ohio Office The opening of our new Columbus, Ohio office brings the total of SSOE locations to 19. Under the leadership of Scott Hathaway, we plan to grow this location to serve many of SSOE’s markets and key clients. Our tremendous growth—we’ve doubled our revenue and staff since 2004—is due to many factors. One key fact is that we’ve built a solid reputation among clients in the nation’s fast-growing markets: healthcare, alternative energy, science and technology, and retail. Telling Fact from Fiction in Healthcare Design SSOE will be presenting Urban Legends of Healthcare Design on Tuesday, March 10 from 9:30 am to 10:45 am at the 2009 International Conference and Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design, and ConstructionTM (PDC), in Phoenix, Arizona. SSOE will take a close look at several popular design strategies and the clinical motivations that lead to their use. Citing specific case study examples, he’ll present research evidence to support, or debunk, the myth on which the design intention is based. He’ll distinguish between design fact and design fiction, and discuss just exactly where, when and HOW design makes the critical difference. You can register for the conference online at www.ashe.org/ashe/pdc/index.html. Continue Reading →

If you think of interior design of medical facilities as picking out homey furnishings and a friendly color spectrum, it’s time for a short, friendly tutorial. In reality, designing healthcare environments is a complex discipline that draws on biology, chemistry, patient-outcomes research, psychology, physiology … and the list continues. SSOE’s interior designers explained how this varied knowledge comes into play in the day-to-day work of specifying healthcare facilities. Saying No To “Nosocomial” Infection Materials and finishes are among hospitals’ arsenal of weapons to prevent nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections and to establish sterile areas. In the majority of today’s hospitals, seamless floors and countertops, anti-bacterial carpets and upholstery fabrics are standard, which explains the prevalence of solid surface counters and work surfaces and the popularity of carpet tile or vinyl backed carpeting. Although rubber is low on glamour, it is a popular option for hard floors since it is both naturally anti-bacterial and durable. And even if it sounds like something from a sci-fi novel, there are fabrics that kill bacteria on contact and reduce them to dust. Manufacturers continue to broaden their product lines to include more anti-bacterial options that are aesthetically pleasing. As an example, ceiling tiles now come with an anti-bacterial finish. Continue Reading →