ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Finger Lakes Technologies Group, Inc. (FLTG) celebrated the grand opening of its new Broome County office with a ribbon-cutting ceremony onMarch 16. The formal-opening event took place at the Huron Campus Office located at 1701 North St. in Endicott, according to a company news release. FLTG moved into the office in late […]
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Finger Lakes Technologies Group, Inc. (FLTG) celebrated the grand opening of its new Broome County office with a ribbon-cutting ceremony onMarch 16.
The formal-opening event took place at the Huron Campus Office located at 1701 North St. in Endicott, according to a company news release.
FLTG moved into the office in late February.
This marks the sixth office for FLTG in New York. The firm said 10 employees work from the Endicott office.
FLTG provides voice, data, and Internet services to business customers across New York state. The company said that it is certified in all Cisco solutions and has built its own 2,000-mile, fiber-optic network to serve the Finger Lakes region. It is a subsidiary of Ontario and Trumansburg Telephone Companies.
FLTG and its parent companies employ more than 125 people combined and have offices in Victor, Buffalo, Phelps, Romulus, and Trumansburg, the release said.
Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com
DeWITT — Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists, PC (SOS), headquartered in Widewaters Park in DeWitt, is a growing 30-doctor group that currently has offices in Auburn, Baldwinsville, Camillus, Cicero, Clay, DeWitt, Fayetteville, Liverpool, North Syracuse, and Onondaga Hill. The health-care provider’s recently expanded footprint comes on top of explosive growth in the past few years with
DeWITT — Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists, PC (SOS), headquartered in Widewaters Park in DeWitt, is a growing 30-doctor group that currently has offices in Auburn, Baldwinsville, Camillus, Cicero, Clay, DeWitt, Fayetteville, Liverpool, North Syracuse, and Onondaga Hill.
The health-care provider’s recently expanded footprint comes on top of explosive growth in the past few years with the addition of two SOS-Plus locations for after-hours care (DeWitt in September 2011 and Onondaga Hill in August 2013), and the acquisition of seven physical-therapy centers.
SOS is responding to a few emerging trends in health care.
“There are several things driving our need to grow,” says Dr. John Francis Fatti, president of SOS. “In order to meet the demands of our community, we are developing contractual relationships with our payers: the government, private insurance companies, employers [who pay for worker’s compensation], coaches and trainers in sports medicine, and the hospitals. Second, to recruit a staff of well-trained physicians, SOS needs to offer a variety of sub-specialties, and ancillary services to create efficiencies. Third, the demand for the latest technology is a huge capital burden which can best be supported through economies of scale. And fourth, all payers are ratcheting down their reimbursements to providers. To maintain our revenue, we need to become more efficient and care for more patients. It’s also clear to me that reimbursements are finally moving to a bundled, capitation model, so SOS will need to be involved in the entire episode of the care continuum.”
The initial business plan originated in 1999, when three local orthopedic groups — University Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, P.C., CNY Orthopedics, and Onondaga Hill Orthopedics (a d/b/a owned by eight doctors) — began talks to merge the entities. The merger resulted in the founding of SOS in 1999.
“Today, SOS offers comprehensive medical care for musculoskeletal disorders, which includes not just bones but also muscles, ligaments, and tendons,” Fatti emphasizes. “Our practice offers an extensive list of sub-specialties including foot and ankle, hand and wrist, sports medicine, joint-replacement, and spine. The only sub-specialty not included is pediatric orthopedics.”
Fatti continues, “Our extension into physical therapy (PT) is a natural fit that dovetails with our strategic plan. Last year (June 16, 2014), we closed on five local centers of Fitness Forum plus Salt City Physical Therapy and Orthopedic Rehabilitation Services [PT, PC].”
SOS did not disclose the financial terms of the deals, but indicated that Jim Smith, the president of Fitness Forum, signed a 5-year contract to help SOS expand. “The decision to expand into PT was not a financial decision, but rather allows us to offer enhanced, therapeutic services for our patients,” states Fatti. “It also positions us for the ‘bundling’ of reimbursements.”
Size and scope
What started out as a concept 18 years ago is now a major business spread over 18 locations. In 2014, the practice saw more than 60,000 patients. The enterprise occupies 135,000 square feet, of which SOS owns approximately 54,000; the rest is leased.
SOS employs 620 people, which includes temps and per-diems (81 are in the physical-therapy division). SOS has grown its employee count 56 percent in just the past five years. Of the group’s 30 doctors, 25 are shareholders in the corporation. The Business Journal estimates SOS’s annual revenue at $75 million.
SOS also offers management services to other health-care practices, such as the New York Spine & Wellness Center (NYS&WC) with locations in the Syracuse area and a presence in the Greater Buffalo region. NYS&WC specializes in the area of acute and chronic pain with special emphasis on spinal disorders.
Along with Dr. Fatti as the president, Michael Humphrey serves as the CEO of SOS, and Dr. Brett Greenky is a corporate vice president. Five other doctors in the group join these three to act as the executive committee. The members serve 3-year terms. To help support its rapid growth, SOS has turned to area professional firms: M&T Bank is its primary lender; The Bonadio Group handles the accounting; Wood & Smith, P.C. is the company’s legal firm; and Harbridge Consulting Group provides retirement-planning consulting.
“The need to grow rapidly by attracting new patients is supported by our marketing program,” Fatti says. “I like to think that SOS is everywhere. We spend 1 percent of our annual budget on community events and promotion, everything from a weekly employee newsletter to sponsoring area events. (Some of the community organizations sponsored by SOS are On Point for College, the Syracuse Chiefs, the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, the First Tee of Syracuse, and the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation.)”
SOS is gradually increasing its public profile. “I don’t think the public understands yet how diverse the organization is and how many services we offer. But word is getting out, and we’re receiving great feedback,” says Fatti. “For example, our two SOS-Plus, orthopedic, immediate-care locations, which are open from 5 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends, are a big hit with the public, who appreciate both the convenient hours and locations. We have a quality product, and we need to promote it.”
Challenges
The path to growth is not without competitors and difficulties in recruiting. “SOS is now one of two major orthopedic groups in the region,” notes Fatti. “The Upstate Bone & Joint Center [located on Fly Road in DeWitt] has 21 doctors on staff and also offers comprehensive orthopedic care. Like SOS, Bone & Joint promotes one-stop shopping, offering consultations, evaluations, and treatment for a full spectrum of orthopedic conditions. What’s unusual is our friendly rivalry. I’m personal friends with the president, Stephen A. Albanese [M.D.], which makes for a unique relationship. For example, we both share in supporting Syracuse University athletics, and in June, our two organizations will begin offering joint services at Community Hospital (now renamed Upstate University Hospital Community Campus). That makes us both competitors and friends.”
Finding doctors is another challenge. “Recruiting is also a concern as SOS accelerates its growth,” Fatti continues. “We have an aging practice and need to attract young doctors to ensure not just our continuity but also our growth. Frankly, it’s hard to attract talented physicians to Syracuse. I teach at Upstate University Hospital, so I know that 90 percent of the residents and fellows have a sub-specialty in orthopedics, thus requiring us to offer a broad range of sub-specialties within the practice. Also, the doctors aren’t interested in employment unless the group offers ancillary services which allow for participation in and control over the patients’ entire episode of care. I can’t overstate that this is a major attraction, maybe our best recruiting tool. We utilize recruiting agencies to help identify candidates, but the best technique is word of mouth. That’s why our doctors are always talking directly to candidates. In the end, the best success is with prospects who grew up in this area and [who] have family ties.”
While Fatti is optimistic about SOS’s business plan to be the leading, regional orthopedic practice, he has concerns about the direction of health care in America. “This is my 35th year as a physician, during which I have seen a number of changes in the delivery of health care,” reflects Fatti. “I think the advances in technology are absolutely amazing. Our increasing capacity to image is critical to a proper diagnosis; advances in joint-replacement … [remind me that the bionic man is here]; and physical-therapy techniques have improved manifold. Add to this the latest research to help us understand how the body heals. We also have electronic-medical records that allow any provider to have real-time information on a patient’s medical history. That’s a tremendous aid to the physician. And we offer multiple locations and extended hours for the convenience of our patients.
“But challenges have also come with the changes in medicine,” Fatti continues. “To begin, doctors seem to have less time to spend with their patients because of declining reimbursements. After all, medicine is not all science and technology; there is no substitute for personally observing the patients and interacting with them. I also think we need more medical candidates in the pipeline. Health care has taken a hit, because we’re not attracting the top numbers to our profession. I see this from decades of teaching medical students and from declining applications to medical schools. Many of our best and brightest students have abandoned medicine for a better way to make a living. We need to bring those students back into the fold of this noble profession.
“And finally, technology and the reimbursement system have created the need for a huge support staff,” Fatti adds. “When I started in my first practice, there were five docs and five support staff. Today, SOS has 11.3 support staff for each doctor. Now, some of that is because we have so many locations, but some of it has to do with the overreaching need to obtain authorizations. We have many talented employees who spend much of their time just calling for authorizations. We also have more than 10 employees focused on our IT needs and more than 30 X-ray staff members in support of our multiple locations. For those of us who went into medicine to take care of people, it’s becoming much more complicated and less directly rewarding.”
Change
The many changes at SOS are designed to keep the practice ahead of the changes that are reshaping health-care delivery. The creation of multiple locations, the proposed geographic expansion, the inclusion of multiple sub-specialties, the surgery center, and the decision to offer physical therapy are all examples. The most recent example occurred on Jan. 1 of this year when SOS was selected to participate in an innovative program created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The “Bundled Payments for Care Improvement” (BPCI) initiative is an agreement with CMS to reimburse providers based on financial and performance accountability. BPCI replaces the fee-for-service model in the expectation that “… bundled payments can align the incentives of all providers — hospitals, post-acute-care facilities, physicians, and other practitioners — allowing them to work closely together across all specialties and settings.” (according to a CMS fact sheet dated 1/30/14.)
SOS is one of only three area providers to join the program. “I think the future of medical reimbursement is the idea of bundling,” notes Fatti. “We call it bundling, but it’s really capitation: One payment to cover the entire cost of a patient’s care. Done correctly, this model delivers higher-quality patient care, better care coordination, and even lower costs. For SOS to be the leading practice in our region, this is just one more step to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing health-care landscape.”
Fatti, 60, is a Syracuse native. He graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in 1972, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1976, and earned his medical degree in 1980 from the Upstate Medical Center. Fatti completed a general-surgery internship at Hartford Hospital in 1981, his residency in orthopedic surgery from Upstate in 1985, and his fellowship in hand surgery from the Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston. He joined CNY Orthopedics in 1986 and SOS in 1999. Fatti and his wife, Jacqueline, live in Camillus. The couple has three children, one of whom is a doctor in the SOS practice. When not helping patients, Fatti enjoys golf and fly-fishing.
Humphrey, the SOS CEO, earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Utica College. He worked with Ernst & Young as a CPA and then worked in finance at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Crouse Memorial Hospital in Syracuse before joining SOS. Humphrey has been CEO for more than 10 years.
Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly (about every month) in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in
Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly (about every month) in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in a conversational Q&A format.
In this edition, I speak with Eboni Britt, manager of marketing at POMCO, which says it’s one of the nation’s largest benefits administrators for self-funded health
and risk-management plans. From developing strategic plans to implementing the company’s first social-media channels, if it’s marketing, branding, advertising, public relations, corporate communications or creative, it comes through Eboni. She lives in Jamesville with her three children.
JEFF: So Eboni, talk to me about your career journey. How did you get to be where you are today?
EBONI: I’m from Colorado and I obtained my bachelor’s in communications in Colorado, moved to Syracuse, and worked at Syracuse University (SU) in the human resources department for some years. One of the great benefits of working at the university is the tuition assistance that is part of your compensation package. My role at SU really helped shaped my career, because I was able to identify the things that I enjoyed doing and the things I didn’t enjoy doing. Once I zeroed in on my strengths, I found they easily aligned with the offerings in the public-relations program of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. I applied and got in, which was surprising to me because the program was so competitive and I was its first part-time student. I worked full time, raised two children, and received my master’s degree in public relations in about two years. Once I obtained that degree, changing careers became essential.
Even though I worked on aspects of communications at the university, I was looking to get into straight-on advertising and marketing; so it was quite a shift. I worked at Mark Russell and Associates as an account executive. The work was extremely high-paced and stressful, but it was a creative and a fun place to cut my teeth [in the business]. Much of what I learned about the industry, I learned there. About a year later, Eric Mower + Associates bought out Mark Russell and Associates. I survived a massive employee cut, and was promoted to a senior account executive during the transition. Because I enjoy taking the time to become an expert at something — rather than knowing a little about many things — I quickly realized that I would be more suited for client-side work. So, when the opportunity presented itself for me to move to POMCO, I jumped at it.
JEFF: What was the transition like in moving from an ad agency to the client side, specifically in the benefits-administration field?
EBONI: Well, one of the things about marketing is that it’s horizontal. If you understand the basics and the principles of marketing, it’s going to apply no matter the industry. From a marketing standpoint, that was easy for me. But then obviously, once you’re trying to really identify the things that make you different from your competition, that’s where [dedicating] the time and [developing the] expertise in your industry comes in. That is the main difference between the work that I did at
the agency and the work I do for POMCO.
The pace is also much slower, much calmer. I mean, in advertising, it was just go, go, go — all the time. People were yelling, cursing, playing music, running down the halls, all throughout the day in some instances. Deadlines had to be met, clients had to be appeased. Things are much more manageable client-side. We certainly have our stressful times, but the environment is completely different.
JEFF: How many employees does POMCO have now?
EBONI: Right now it’s close to 700.
JEFF: What do you think makes POMCO so successful?
EBONI: Because POMCO started as a six-person organization nearly 40 years ago, we still focus a lot on being that partner for our clients that’s very much involved, that offers very high-touch service. Our differentiator is that we customize everything for our clients. They don’t have to stay within our specifications; it’s their plans and their choices. Because of that enhanced level of customization, it requires us to deliver exceptional service to our clients. We talk to them frequently, we visit them [often], we work to control their costs, we take many calls from our members, and we try to make things easier for them.
JEFF: What do you think the marketing challenges are for such a large organization?
EBONI: I don’t know if the marketing challenge is necessarily because we are larger. I think that the challenge comes from the fact that we’re different from what everybody thinks of us. People tend to think that we are an insurance company. So, not only are we trying to promote why it is that [prospects] should come to POMCO, we have to take a step back a lot of times and promote why it is that you should look at having a self-funded financial strategy for employee benefits and risk management. From a public-relations standpoint, the fact that we have more than doubled in size in the last year-and-a-half brings new opportunities. We are a major player in the community now, so there is more focus on the impact we can have on our communities. How are we giving back? How are we making sure that we’re supporting our communities in the best way possible?
JEFF: What do you think is the biggest risk that you have taken in your career and has it paid off?
EBONI: Leaving Syracuse University was a huge risk. It’s a massive employer, great recognition, great benefits … I think that for what I’m trying to accomplish personally and professionally, it paid off. I think that it was worth it.
JEFF: Describe to me what it’s like to not only be a female, but also a minority in a leadership position.
EBONI: I would say in some roles that I’ve had, in some organizations that I’ve worked in, the fact that I was a woman and/or a minority played a bigger role in the opportunities I [had]. People will always have their biases, but in some places they are more obvious than others. As a woman of color, I see many opportunities in Syracuse; major organizations like National Grid, Wegmans, and the Syracuse City School District have black women in leadership roles. There is great opportunity for me to continue to grow in my position. What is most important is that the young black women in the city of Syracuse see us and know that they are the future generation of leaders.
JEFF: When you were younger, were you in leadership roles?
EBONI: I wouldn’t say that I held traditional leadership roles…, outside of being captain of the pom-pom squad. But, I definitely think that I was the person that commanded a level of attention and respect.
JEFF: You are in a demanding position. How do you unwind at the end of the day?
EBONI: Well, I have three children, so I think that it’s a little bit difficult to unwind. But, I read and I spend a lot of time with my kids. I have a great group of friends, so we travel and do many things together as well. I don’t feel that now is the time for me to unwind. There would be time for that later on, so for now, I will keep myself relatively busy between work and the kids. I just feel that’s where my focus is right now.
About the author: Jeff Knauss is managing partner & president of a digital marketing firm, DigitalHyve.com, and has always been interested in hearing successful executives’ stories. He lives in Camillus with his wife Heta and son Max. For more, check out his blog at www.CnyCeo.org
AUBURN — Welch Allyn, Inc. has signed a lease to use the former Mustad Manufacturing and Assembly building at 247 Grant Ave. (State Route 5) in Auburn. The Skaneateles Falls–based medical-device manufacturer needs the 54,000-square-foot facility for additional warehouse and shipping space, the company said in a statement it issued to CNYBJ on March
AUBURN — Welch Allyn, Inc. has signed a lease to use the former Mustad Manufacturing and Assembly building at 247 Grant Ave. (State Route 5) in Auburn.
The Skaneateles Falls–based medical-device manufacturer needs the 54,000-square-foot facility for additional warehouse and shipping space, the company said in a statement it issued to CNYBJ on March 10.
The privately held company declined to disclose how much it is paying to lease the structure.
Welch Allyn said “recent growth” has increased operations at its Skaneateles Falls headquarters. The growth includes the addition of several new production lines in its final-assembly and product-service areas, the company said.
The company is also involved in “new activities” resulting from its business-development efforts, including partnerships with “multiple” original-equipment manufacturers on new-product fulfillment, specifically the spot vision screener.
Welch Allyn said it chose the Auburn facility because a “large percentage” of its workforce lives in the area and the building had the proper layout and overall size.
The company said it isn’t initially planning to create new jobs at the Auburn site, but will instead deploy between 10 and 20 full-time employees “over time” from its headquarters to help manage inventory and shipping.
Welch Allyn has a small team preparing the site for operations, including some “minor” repairs. The firm hopes to begin operations there “in a few weeks.”
“It will be several months before all operations are in place based on our current plan,” Welch Allyn said.
John Bouck, broker and owner of Bouck Real Estate of Auburn, first announced the Welch Allyn lease-signing in a news release on Feb. 24.
Bouck represented the building’s owner in the lease negotiation.
The building is in “excellent” condition and will only need “minor” changes to accommodate the Welch Allyn business.
The building has been vacant for several months after Mustad Corp., the largest fish-hook manufacturer in the world, moved North American operations from Auburn to Miami, according to the Bouck news release.
Welch Allyn also considered its former Jordan Road facility in Skaneateles Falls, but determined it’s “simply not a cost effective option for our warehousing needs,” according to the Welch Allyn statement.
The company said it plans to continue to “pursue the sale of that facility.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business-conditions index fell less than a point to 6.9 in March. Economists had been expecting a reading of 8.5, according to MarketWatch. Still, any reading above zero indicates improving conditions. The New York Fed, in its March 16
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business-conditions index fell less than a point to 6.9 in March.
Economists had been expecting a reading of 8.5, according to MarketWatch. Still, any reading above zero indicates improving conditions.
The New York Fed, in its March 16 report, described the general business-conditions index as “little changed,” suggesting that conditions for New York manufacturers continued “to improve modestly and at roughly the same pace as in the past several months.”
The monthly survey found 26 percent of respondents felt that conditions had improved, while 19 percent reported that conditions had worsened.
The March report provides an “accurate” picture, says Randall Wolken, president of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY).
“I think we’re still seeing a modest expansion at a reasonable pace,” he adds.
When the general-business conditions index remains in positive territory, “expansion and modest growth usually is what we see,” says Wolken.
He spoke with CNYBJ on March 17.
The Empire State Survey’s new-orders index declined for a second consecutive month, falling 4 points to -2.4, which the New York Fed sees as “evidence of a slight decline in orders.”
The shipments index fell 6 points to 7.9, and the unfilled-orders index declined 7 points to -13.4.
The delivery-time index dropped to -2.0, indicating “slightly shorter” delivery times, and the inventories index fell to -5.1, signaling that inventory levels were “lower.”
The index for number of employees climbed 8 points to 18.6, pointing to “significant” gains in employment, and the average-workweek index rose 6 points to 5.2, indicating a “small increase” in the average workweek.
“The labor-market indicators usually are a solid sign that people are believing that an expansion will continue because they wouldn’t be bringing on additional employment or lengthening the average workweek if they didn’t expect the expansion to continue,” says Wolken.
Pricing pressures remained “subdued,” the New York Fed said.
The prices-paid index edged down 2 points to 12.4, signaling a “moderate increase” in input prices for a sixth consecutive month.
The prices-received index climbed 5 points to 8.3, indicating a “modest increase” in selling prices.
As in February, indexes assessing the six-month outlook, though generally positive, conveyed more restrained optimism about future business activity than they had throughout much of the past year.
After plunging last month, the index for future general business conditions rose 5 points to 30.7, remaining well below readings that were generally above 40 from
May 2014 through January 2015.
The future new orders and shipments indexes declined, the New York Fed said.
The future prices paid and future prices-received indexes edged higher, but remained subdued. A significant expansion in employment levels was anticipated, with the index for expected number of employees rising to 28.9.
After reaching a multiyear high last month, the capital-expenditures index fell back to 18.6, and the technology spending index dropped to 7.2.
“Those [indexes] are still … good indicators for future growth,” says Wolken.
The New York Fed distributes the Empire State Manufacturing Survey on the first day of each month to the same pool of about 200 manufacturing executives in New York. On average, about 100 executives return responses.
SYRACUSE — It’s been just over two years since Destiny USA received Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, but the giant retail center’s environmental efforts are far from finished. In fact, those initiatives will expand beyond the walls of the mall and reach out further
SYRACUSE — It’s been just over two years since Destiny USA received Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, but the giant retail center’s environmental efforts are far from finished.
In fact, those initiatives will expand beyond the walls of the mall and reach out further into the community this year, says Lauren Staniec, sustainability coordinator at Destiny USA.
It was 2012 when Destiny received its LEED gold certification for the core and shell building that houses all the mall’s various tenants. Efforts to obtain that certification included using biodiesel fuel on the construction site, deploying recycled construction materials and low-emission products, implementing a construction waste-management program, and even installing a rainwater-harvesting system. The collected water is used for flushing toilets and irrigation and has resulted in a 40 percent reduction in water usage, Staniec says. Through all its efforts, Destiny has reduced its carbon footprint by 129,524 metric ton carbon-dioxide equivalents — equal to the emissions from burning 748 railcars worth of coal.
Along with emissions reductions, the end result of that effort was the LEED certification, making Destiny the largest retail facility in the world with that designation, Staniec says. More importantly, that effort set the stage for the next phases of environmental initiatives at the mall.
Through 2013 and 2014, the main focus shifted toward tenants and helping them attain LEED certification, Staniec says. The first step in that goal was an internal re-education process because the previous way of doing business and writing leases wasn’t going to work, she says. These days it is a lease requirement that facilities are built to the minimum LEED certification requirements.
To make that requirement easier to meet, tenants can earn 27 pre-approved points on the LEED scale just from being located in Destiny USA, meaning tenants only need to achieve 13 more points in order to hit the required 40 points for LEED certification.
“We knew that in order to do this, to be successful, we had to make it as simple as possible so people would be inclined to participate,” Staniec says.
To date, Destiny has 60 LEED-certified tenants: 30 certified spaces, 25 silver spaces, four gold spaces, and one LEED platinum space.
“It’s been amazing,” Staniec says of the response to the LEED requirement. While tenants’ utilities are metered separately, she says tenants have indicated savings of 25 percent or more on lighting.
Additionally, several tenants have indicated they will take the things they have learned at their Destiny location and implement them at other locations. “They’re taking away the things they’ve seen to be successful,” Staniec says.
As it continues to assist retailers with their LEED certification, Destiny will push its efforts this year to reach further out into the community and beyond, Staniec says.
Eco-tourism will be a hot topic for Destiny this year, she says. In fact, Syracuse in general is becoming a hotbed of eco-tourism activity. Destiny will work with tourists requesting sustainability tours during their travels.
“We have so much going on in this area,” she says, giving credit to the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) for making it easier to be environmentally friendly.
“They make recycling and composting effortless,” Staniec says. Destiny works with OCRRA to compost food waste and composted roughly 260 tons of pre-consumer food waste in 2014. This year, two tenants have expanded into post-consumer food-waste recycling, she says.
To expand its efforts even further into the community, Destiny is planning its fifth Earth Day event including an electronics-recycling collection. This year, the event will feature a vendor showcase of businesses and organizations within the community that help promote recycling and reuse of items instead of just throwing things away, Staniec says. That includes the Salvation Army, where people can donate items they no longer want instead of tossing them in the trash, and the Rescue Mission, which has already created two full-time jobs around the collection of returnable bottles and cans at Destiny, Staniec says.
“We’re looking to develop more of those [synergies] going forward,” she says.
LINCOLN — Madison County later this year will break ground on a 2.4 megawatt solar array, hoping to “significantly reduce energy consumption and pursue renewable-energy sources for all the county’s municipal electric needs.” The nearly $5 million, solar-photovoltaic system is the “cornerstone” of a proposed agriculture and renewable energy (ARE) business park in the
LINCOLN — Madison County later this year will break ground on a 2.4 megawatt solar array, hoping to “significantly reduce energy consumption and pursue renewable-energy sources for all the county’s municipal electric needs.”
The nearly $5 million, solar-photovoltaic system is the “cornerstone” of a proposed agriculture and renewable energy (ARE) business park in the town of Lincoln, just east of Chittenango. That’s according to a joint news release that Reading, Pennsylvania–based RER Energy Group and the Sunvestment Group issued about the project in late January.
Madison County expects the solar-electric system will be operating by the fall, “providing power to offset county electric use via a remote net metering program, reducing county electric bills,” according to the release.
RER develops and installs systems and often obtains third-party financing for projects, says Jim Kurtz, the company’s founder.
Madison County will be able to pay a “significantly” lower cost for its energy, says Kurtz, who also serves as president of Sunvestment Group, which is currently headquartered in Tully.
Kurtz spoke to CNYBJ by phone on March 13.
Sunvestment Group, which spun out of RER Energy in 2013, was incorporated in Tully but “is in the process” of moving to Rochester, perhaps by April, says Kurtz.
Kurtz founded RER Energy Group, which focuses on renewable-energy projects, in 2009.
A grant of about $1 million from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) facilitated the solar-array portion of the ARE business park in Lincoln, he adds.
The grant came from Gov. Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative, which NYSERDA administers. NY-Sun is a $1 billion initiative that the state says will advance the scale-up of solar and move New York closer to having a “sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry.”
RER’s Mike Roach is serving as the project developer for this solar array.
“He helped to determine the right size, the right location … things specific for the project,” says Kurtz.
Roach is currently focused on “community outreach” for the project and expects to start the construction phase in the next few months, he said in a March 17 email to CNYBJ.
Roach attended Morrisville State College and graduated from its renewable-energy program, according to the RER news release.
A former professor had suggested that RER contact Madison County, knowing that the county government was investigating solar energy, according to Kurtz.
Funding
The Sunvestment Group’s community-sourced funding platform will pay for “most” of the Madison County project’s cost, according to the news release.
The group’s website describes it as a “service platform that allows prospective site hosts and investors to connect and create community-based power-purchase agreements.”
To date, the Sunvestment Group has developed more than 105 projects with a cumulative production capacity of over 21 megawatts, according to its website.
The financing structure involves an anchor investor who will fund the majority of the project while allowing local, community-based businesses and accredited investors to participate in the investment opportunity, the news release said.
The community investors will receive an “attractive” return on their money, and their dollars will stay local, creating a “multiplier effect by facilitating further economic development in the county,” Sunvestment Group contends.
The group has “multiple” anchor investors who have “expressed interest in” and “are willing to fund” the project, says Kurtz. The company is currently exploring how much funding the local investors can provide for the project.
“We’re going to pick the anchor investor based in part on how much [funding] we obtain from the local community,” says Kurtz.
He declined to name any of the investors because he hadn’t requested their permission.
In addition, Madison County will incur no maintenance fees for the 25-year contract period, according to the release.
During that timeframe, the county will obtain the solar-generated electricity at a “significantly discounted” rate compared to other options currently available in the energy market, it added.
“…the current effort to implement large-scale solar with RER Energy Group continues our commitment to alternative energy, fiscal sensibility, and forward-thinking governance,” Scott Ingmire, director of planning for Madison County, said in the news release.
ONEIDA — The board of directors of the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. (EFC) has approved a $3.3 million, interest-free loan for a sewer-line project in Madison County. The loan will help pay for the construction of a three-mile sewer line to carry leachate from the county landfill to the city of Oneida’s wastewater-treatment
ONEIDA — The board of directors of the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. (EFC) has approved a $3.3 million, interest-free loan for a sewer-line project in Madison County.
The loan will help pay for the construction of a three-mile sewer line to carry leachate from the county landfill to the city of Oneida’s wastewater-treatment plant.
The new line will also serve present and future businesses at the agricultural and renewable energy (ARE) industrial site located next to the county landfill in the town of Lincoln.
The EFC announced the loan approval in a news release issued March 17.
The EFC’s short- and long-term financing will save Madison County about $7 million over the cost of borrowing on its own, the EFC said, citing county estimates.
The new sewer line will also save the county about $200,000 per year over the cost of trucking the leachate to the Oneida wastewater-treatment plant, the EFC added, again citing information from Madison County.
The EFC is “pleased” to help Madison County undertake a “money-saving” wastewater project that will help attract businesses to a new industrial park, Matthew
Driscoll, president and CEO of the EFC, said.
“These projects not only protect the environment and improve public health, they can also be the catalyst for new economic development,” said Driscoll.
Driscoll previously served as mayor of Syracuse.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in February announced a $4 million grant in NY Works funding to extend municipal-water service to the ARE park and to residents in Lincoln. That investment will leverage as much as $4 million in county funding for the $15.7 million project, creating a “shovel-ready site” for potential businesses, EFC said.
Besides the Madison County project, EFC also approved financing for projects in Saranac Lake and in Westchester County.
EFC is a public-benefit corporation “dedicated to promoting environmental quality through a wide range of funding and technical assistance focused on protecting, improving and restoring New York’s precious natural resources,” according to its news release.
ITHACA — Tompkins County recently announced that its recycling efforts received high marks in an audit from the New York State Comptroller’s Office. The audit examined performance measures of the Solid Waste Management Division from Jan. 1, 2013, to July 7, 2014. It concluded that the various recycling programs the county implemented have been
ITHACA — Tompkins County recently announced that its recycling efforts received high marks in an audit from the New York State Comptroller’s Office.
The audit examined performance measures of the Solid Waste Management Division from Jan. 1, 2013, to July 7, 2014. It concluded that the various recycling programs the county implemented have been successful in diverting waste from the landfill, while saving the county more than $1.4 million since 2011.
“We commend county officials for implementing these programs, reducing waste, and monitoring performance to continue to improve results,” the State Comptroller’s Office said in the audit.
The audit found 43,532 tons of waste was diverted during the period examined, or the equivalent of the annual greenhouse- gas emissions of 23,539 passenger vehicles. Additionally, the county projected it averaged 3.3 pounds of waste per person per day in 2014, much lower than the state average of 4.5 pounds per person.
“The audit demonstrates how the residents and businesses of Tompkins County have supported our programs to reduce the amount of waste that is generated, while also saving a significant amount of money,” Barbara Eckstrom, manager of the county’s Solid Waste Division, said in the release. “We have successfully decreased the waste stream by nearly 60 percent,” she added.
Eckstrom cited the success of curbside recycling, the public’s use of the Recycling and Solid Waste Center, food-scraps recycling, and the household hazardous-waste management program for contributing to the county’s waste-reduction efforts.
New York state was the third-most productive state in announcing potential new clean-energy and clean-transportation jobs in 2014, according to a new report issued March 5 by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), an advocacy group that promotes environmentally friendly economic policies. According to the report, 12 separate projects in the Empire State announced last year could create
New York state was the third-most productive state in announcing potential new clean-energy and clean-transportation jobs in 2014, according to a new report issued March 5 by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), an advocacy group that promotes environmentally friendly economic policies.
According to the report, 12 separate projects in the Empire State announced last year could create up to 7,175 total jobs in the clean-energy and clean-transportation fields. Most of those would be seen in the Buffalo (5,000 jobs) and Albany (1,000 jobs) areas.
In Central New York, fewer than 70 clean-energy jobs from two projects in the region were announced in 2014, according to the E2 website. Twenty jobs were announced last summer in Binghamton when Rensselaer–based Monolith Solar Associates, LLC, issued a news release on its website stating it plans to build a regional office in the city.
The second jobs source was through a program run by the nonprofit Solar Tompkins — a community group that promotes the use of solar energy — which set out to double the total solar-generated, electric-power capacity of all homes and businesses in Tompkins County in the last year. The nonprofit posted on its website last November that the program was successful, and that it generated “43.5 new, permanent, full-time, living-wage jobs … in our communities in just the last 6 months.”
The press secretary for E2, Jeff Benzak, compiled the E2 report, and emphasized to CNYBJ that the data in the report is not exhaustive; not all projects and potential jobs have necessarily been counted.
The report, entitled “Clean Energy Works For Us: Q4 and Year-End 2014 Jobs Report,” found that nearly 47,000 clean-energy and clean-transportation jobs were announced at more than 170 projects across the U.S. in 2014.
That’s a significant decrease from the 78,000 announced jobs counted at 260 projects in E2’s 2013 report.
E2, in its news release, attributed the decline to the “ongoing uncertainty over public policy at both the federal and state levels, coupled with the expiration of beneficial tax policies, [which] cast a cloud over clean-energy industries. This resulted in fewer announcements than in the past.”
Only Nevada and California outpaced New York last year, with 8,591 and 7,323 jobs, respectively, according to the report.
E2 is an affiliate of the nonprofit National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit, international environmental-advocacy group. It first began tracking clean-jobs data in 2012.
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