The New Frontier of Decarbonization with Built Environments and the City of Tomorrow: Part 2

Listen and viewing audience out there, welcome to disrupt part two with Ron Henry, the self proclaimed most efficient human. And, with a R arresting heartbeat of twenty six, the man is an efficiency model. But he's also an urbanite who's come down to the city of Detroit where he heads up customer relationships and a whole lot of things for Saxy Construction, and he has overseen the explosive growth of his organization from a hundred million dollars to well in excess of three hundred million dollars. So, Ron, welcome back. I wanna focus in this next episode on, you know, what you're seeing because where we started our conversation, our friendship was on the issue of talent. We were going to workforce conferences here at Detroit. Right. And you were speaking about the talent implications of your business and skilled trades, man. It is You know, it's where it's at, but it's also where there's a good point of need, where we just have, a dirt of people moving into skilled trades at a time when you need more bodies, as you were describing in our last episode, construction remains an essentially unchanged primitive act Right. And so you need a lot of bodies to throw at that in in order to construct this built world of yours. So let's talk a little bit about talent and what you're seeing out there. So in the Metroid trade area, and in fact, across the country, construction is thriving. There is a tremendous amount of activity right now. What we're challenged with here in South Eastern Michigan and throughout the state is a significant shortage in the talent pool for skilled trades. So what happened? How did we end up here? So -- Wait. -- two thousand and eight There was a time that we all, not so fondly remembered where the market was extremely tough. So what happened then? A lot of skilled trades moved south. They moved where there was still work going on down in Florida and Texas and wherever wherever else may be. So they left the state and they didn't come back because they the economies down there kept them busy. So there wasn't need to come back to the north. Simultaneous with that, There was less need in the construction industry, so people were looking for alternatives rather than going into the skilled trade. So if your father was a carpenter, you were necessarily following his footsteps because you saw he went through some hard times. So you looked at different paths. And that resulted in a significant shortage. And there weren't the veterans there to mentor the younger people. So here we are fast forward from two thousand eight fifteen years later. We're still seeing scarcity in the skilled traits. We have, A workforce that aged out, so the ones that stayed have retired. Others left, and that leaves the younger ones that don't have necessarily the mentors They're wonderful people, but they don't have the experience, and they weren't taught the same, way that they're predecessor. So a very simple example of why construction costs are going up so quickly. Imagine hanging a door, you buy a, a simple door. And you're gonna put it into a wall. If you are a thirty year vet of Harpundry, you could put that door in in forty five minutes. Today, you take a five year professional that's bet in the trades. It might take him. Probably will take him an hour and a half. To do the same door. So what just happened to your labor costs on the construction project? Which is about sixty percent of the construction cost? It went up by a hundred percent. Because you want it from forty five minutes to an hour and a half. Doesn't sound like much, but when you multiply that through every single trade, that's contributed to the significant rise of construction costs. Detroit, we are in the roughly the hundred and twenty first or hundred twenty fourth percentile. Of construction costs in America, which means we are twenty four percent higher than the national average. So we're getting close to Chicago numbers. Which people don't quite understand that because we're in Detroit. Why would we have such a high construction cost? It's for this very reason. We have a shortage of skilled trades. Interesting. Now you guys have not taken this, you know, lying down. It's actually you guys have done a number of things to invite more young people into skilled traits, and you've supported a lot of initiatives to do that. Yeah. You know, can you, share with us some of the things you guys have been doing and that have been successful in helping to address that issue. So we're constantly inviting the youth into our office to see what construction is all about and get them interested. Construction and the skilled trades is not a path for everybody. We understand that but there are a significant number of people in the area where college is not for them or They might truly enjoy the skilled traits, but they don't have exposure to it. So we created, about ten years ago, what's called Saxy Construction Academy. So each year, around six hundred Detroit students, high school students are brought in and exposed to all the traits, hands on experience where they could be, wiring a, an electrical panel. They could be, you know, bening, sheet metal. They could be laying tile. They could be laying brick. All these different things are brought they're brought into an environment where they can really get their hands dirty and experience what It's all about because generally as you go through your education and junior high or high school, you're not exposed to all these different things. You don't know what's available. Much like a college, right, bound student. You don't know all the different types of, for example, engineer. You just think of one word. You don't think of electrical mechanical civil structural. So by exposing it to them, it creates a path that they may be of to do it. We do it every year. We've gone to two times a year now where once it's an eastern market, where six to eight hundred kids will come in, for the day, And then we do it a second time of the year now where we go to an actual project site. So they could see a real live construction site and what it's like to be working So that's one of the items that we're doing. Others, we we're a big supporter of junior achievement in Detroit, and then the Detroit, boxing, youth boxing chip. Where we're promoting and helping kids to learn how to box, which you might think is odd, but in order to do that, they are able to have to learn how to read. And but it's it's connecting them to the skilled trades. Why? Cause we know that they're not just coming into the trades on their own, somebody has to encourage them or expose them to it. And that's a big part of our social mission. We have a huge network of people within the company that are really dedicated to the the youth of of the city of Detroit. And finding opportunity for them. You know, I, I I applaud your efforts and specifically with the Detroit box Jim. You know, I've been the direct recipient of largest from that organization, that connection because, about, five years ago, there was a young man who was reading at, kindergarten level, and he was in high school. And so he watched the boxing gym to learn how to read I was asked at that time to consider being matched with him as a big brother, which I did. Right. And Rodard Robinson is my little brother. Yep. I I've been with him for five years. I told him, as long as he had my phone and his phone, you know, my phone number at his, I was not going to end the you know, the program, and we'd be we'd continue to be big and little brother. Yeah. And so what's interesting about the boxing team and to your point is that Renard became interested in engineering. Yep. And so, I met with him and, my co host on our ed tech series, Doctor. Caesar Mickens formerly at the Trape Public Schools. And Caesar convinced Bernard to go to an HBCU and to consider going to an historically black college or university. So you looked at those that had engineering programs and decided the biggest one was Southern University in Baton Rouge. So last year, we drove him down to Baton Rouge, and this year, we just sent him off for his second year at, at Southern in engineering. So, you know, to to say that those programs work is an understatement because I seen it firsthand. Bernard just, clicked when he saw what engineers were doing, and he became fascinated with that. Yep. And now he's applying it to his study of, electrical engineering. And, so I think those are really important programs And we've talked about that. You invited me five years ago to the Academy down at Eastern Market. You spent a day there watching kids, you know, learning how to do various things, the brick, you know, brick lay and they they, you know, they were actually doing it. And I think sometimes that kind of exposure is all that's needed. For students to have a visual picture of something that might, be of interest to them that they then turn into trait in our turn into a a skill. For us, it's really self serving in a good way because we need people. We need these skilled trades, men, and women to work on our projects. We also encourage them to rise throughout the course of their career because ultimately, not only do we need all our trades to be gainfully, employed. We need superintendents to manage these projects. So if you're a a plumber, you can work your way up through your career to become a superintendent of a job site, because you now you've gotten exposure to the entire process. And so we we expose students to this. We're we're a unique company in that we do One of our market sectors is high end retail. So all across North America, we're building Gucci's, and Tiffany's, and Louis Vuitton's, in those types of stores that it's pretty interesting to be connected with those projects. We just did the Gucci store here in downtown Detroit. Which one? It's just gonna say Gucci's back in the d man. I mean, you brought it right down. That's literally right next door to our former loft building, the library lost, and then building. And it's it's beautiful down there. And hopefully, we're gonna see more and more of those things coming into the city. So for those intercity youth to be associated with projects like that is, nope, fun. So we're hopeful that those types of things continue. And One of the biggest challenges that we face is because we do projects like this all over North America, is finding that travel superintendent, person that's gonna live on the road, And there's a certain age for that. You know, it's easier to live on the road when you're a youth, either you're, you know, in your twenties, or when you're past your chariot child, rearing years when you're, you know, getting up there with you know, perhaps guys that have gray hair, not like us. But, at that point, your crew might be able to very interested in going to a project in Miami or Anchorage or Austin or wherever it may be. So -- Right. -- there's a tremendous amount of opportunity. It's just exposure. So we encourage other companies to do the same thing to try and get people into the trades. Because it's a good career. You can make some fruity to good money, six figures as a skilled tradesman, after you get some years at. Right? Well, it's also interesting because I think for many students, we pulled back from, CTE programs. We pulled back from skilled trades programs in high school. And as a consequence, there wasn't that exposure that, right, folks like you are providing to students, so they didn't see what was possible. And they moved away from that. And we sort of gutted those programs in high schools to our own detriment because now as you suggest, we have a major talent issue on are hit redo. Yeah. I remember woodshop and metal shop when I was in junior high school. And ultimately, I took the architectural path, but there's a lot of people that I know that took the skilled trades path, and they're doing very well. We need to promote it more. I do. My my own nephew Colin is is an example that he was going off the couch because everyone did. And when he got there, it just wasn't for him. And he was able to, connect with an apprentice program -- Yeah. -- within electrical contractor. And now he's a journeyman electrician, and he's never incurred any debt Yeah. He didn't like school at all, never did. And he loves the hands on. He was going to school to get his journeyman for four years. And in the process, he became the valedictorian of his class. Now that never happened. Because he didn't have the interest in school up until that point, but now he's working with something that he really enjoys and has been tremendously successful. So I think I think the models you're talking about about creating these hands on learning opportunities for young people to see what's possible in your industry, in your you know, is is a key. I think the other thing that drives more interest to is the loftier ambition you have to lower carbon footprint because There are a lot of young people now that don't want to simply have a job. They wanna make a difference. Right. In nowhere, can you make a bigger difference in construction and the building trades then in lowering the carbon footprint and getting to net zero. And I show you a picture. So one of my colleagues, her daughter, seven year old daughter came into the office. And she was looking for a project to work on. And I said, you know, we need to, we need to really think about what the city of tomorrow looks like. So she did this last week, but I saved it. She created this drawing of what the city of tomorrow is gonna look like. And wow. She took a factory, and she put a big x through it. And then if you could see in the cars, she took and put circles around the exhaust on those cars. As as a seven year old. She's thinking that what does her city of tomorrow or her city of the future look like? It looks cleaner. It looks Like, it's more inviting. Unbelievable. That's fantastic. Like, you actually took and you circled the exhaust fumes out of the car to make that go away in society in those big ugly factories, which we're seeing incredibly, increasing numbers of those coming down just like the incinerator that I remember that I'm so old. I remember when that thing was being built back in the eighties with they're working down And now it's gone. So, that's a good thing. It's a good thing. So we need to protect this environment in the world for, that those future generations. So, Rod, as you look to the future closing thoughts as we end this second episode, I talent in the decarbonizing disrupted world of building and and construction. What are your thoughts? So to get to a decarbonized world, it's going to take skilled trades to put us in position to to have a better future for generations to come. So there will be increasing opportunities for people to get into the skilled trades and to contribute and to have great careers from it. So we continually encourage people in the city and beyond to talk to their kids about that. For thirty years or more, it was the general consensus of society that you have to go to college to be successful And that's not always true. And I think the stigma we have as a society, we have to get past that. We have to Absolutely. Positively about skilled traits and the life that it can give people because, like, again, somebody's gonna have to build all these things if we're gonna make it. Absolutely. You know, as we're talking about decarbonization, are you optimistic that we're bringing our carbon footprint down fast enough and furiously enough to make a difference in this built world that we have I'm not optimistic that we have been to date. I'm optimistic that tomorrow which is soon, with meaning within the next few years, that we're gonna see a rapid increase, exponential increase in the focus on this area. Because just look at simply the weather systems around the world today and how noticeable it's become from the tragic fires in La Aina. To the Canadian fires, to the fires in Greece, constantly seeing this, it brought awareness to it. And that awareness will cause rapid -- Translate. -- translated to policy and to proactive activities by all of us in a good way. You know, as I started this series on the heels of, Peter Tim decarbonization summit here earlier this year in Detroit. I have, you know, the biggest takeaway, for me, talking with all kinds of people across different industry sectors in the decarbonization conversation. I it has restored my optimism. I don't go to bed at night as anxious about the fact that we're gonna burn this, the world out that there are tremendous forces that are building that are gonna have exponential impact on our carbon usage and our carbon footprint in the years to come. So Ron -- Yep. -- it has been truly a delight having you on the show, having you talk about decarbonization. We're gonna have to do this again. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you for all the work you're doing, for young people in the city because I think it's a really, really important step forward for a lot of young people to have these kinds of opportunities to be able to do. Made made available to them. So for our listening and viewing audience, you've been listening to Ron Henry, the senior vice president of construction at Saksi Construction here in downtown Detroit, a man who has lowered his own carbon footprint walks to work is an efficient body building machine and is doing a tremendous amount of work to help make the bill environment, a better one for all of us. So thank you, Ron, for all that you're doing. And -- Sure. -- to our listening and viewing audience, hey, we wanna hear from you. We wanna hit and you don't have to just talk about how old we're both looking. You can tell us what you thought of this show by posting your comments, by reacting to us by joining us and getting disrupted with us by subscribing to our podcast, subscribing to our newsletter, get disruptive with us. Give us your comments and feedback. Tell us what you wanna hear, and we're gonna have Ron back in a few months to talk more about this very important topic Thanks for listening. We'll see you again on another episode of disrupt debt.