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Revenue scaled from small contractor to majorindustry player
Unlocked access to new clients and projects
Alliance Environmental Group (AEG)partnered with Avetta to strengthen safety practices, achieve green-flagstatus, and connect with new clients, fueling growth and competitive advantage.
Small contractor and supplier companies – especially those experiencing very little growth – can often fly under the radar when it comes to health, safety, and environmental regulations and standards. But a supplier that expands to a $43 million organization with hundreds of employees, like Alliance Environmental Group & Airtek Indoor Air Solutions (AEG), must consider audits, insurance, litigations, injuries, and even loss of life. With regulatory fines and lawsuits on the rise, a proven safety program is essential to scale.
AEG, one of the fastest growing environmental specialists in California, provides commercial and residential services including asbestos removal, mold remediation, lead removal, and much more. Not long ago, as a smaller company, a proper safety program was more of an afterthought for AEG. As the organization became a major industry player, it needed to elevate safety practices and procedures.
Bill Wood, Director of Client Relations for AEG, experienced this challenge when his company saw rapid expansion, more winning bids, more workers, and more jobs.
“I have to care about every slip, fall, laceration, jobsite, worker, safety document, and inspection – and we didn’t want to sacrifice safety as we grew,” he shares. “For example, we wanted to establish a superior way to manage and track our total recordable incident rate (TRIR).”
Wood and the AEG team were familiar with Avetta (formerly PICS) as a supply chain risk management provider for client/operator organizations, but were unaware of exactly what Avetta could do for suppliers like AEG. They were invited to join Avetta by a client that prequalified its suppliers and de-risked its own supply chain through Avetta. This meant that only vetted, green-flagged suppliers in the Avetta system would be eligible to work for this client, including AEG.
“The choice to join Avetta was based on revenue and growth opportunity. At the time, it would cost us about $800 to join Avetta and connect with the client, and we’d obviously do much more than that as an active, green-flagged supplier for this company. I’m willing to spend a little to make a lot – it’s really about vision,” Wood explains.
Uploading documents into the Avetta system was quick and easy for AEG as well. The web-based platform can be accessed anywhere, at any time. Once a supplier’s documents are in the system for one client, that same information often satisfies the requirements for other clients.
“I uploaded my OSHA logs and financial statements without issue,” reports Wood.
While the initial decision to join Avetta was to work for a particular client, which was achieved, AEG also saw its safety culture optimized and elevated as a result of the move. This is a byproduct of being screened, prequalified, and brought to green-flag status as an Avetta-approved supplier.
“Before joining Avetta, our TRIR data wasn’t calculated and managed to our own high standards and expectations. Avetta enabled us to properly establish, calculate, track, manage, and prioritize our TRIR and overall safety culture,” says Wood. “Now, I look at our competitors, and their core safety structure looks like it was built on toothpicks compared to ours; Avetta helped us make health and safety a priority, which resulted in business growth and the competitive advantage.”
The AEG team is also finding it easier to showcase their services to prospective clients and operators.
“When we tell them we’re Avetta-approved and green flagged, it definitely adds some juice,” explains Wood. “Now that we’re in the Avetta ecosystem, we’re connecting with potential clients that we’ve never met before. I personally put a high value on simply meeting the right people – and today we’re doing that with more clients.”
Wood says joining Avetta aligned with AEG’s strategy of always looking 5-10 years ahead, which includes expanding into new territories.
“It’s such a great opportunity that we’re looking at new ways to leverage the Avetta dashboards to gain even more exposure. Since Avetta makes us discoverable to its hundreds of global client companies, we plan to fully exploit the system. When clients are locating and calling us, that’s a big win. You can’t buy advertising like that.”
“After 20 years with AEG, I’ve seen two types of companies – those that have a growth plan and those that don’t. There’s no middle ground. If you try to keep up with regulations and do everything yourself, you may think you’re saving money and resources, but you’re really setting yourself up to fail. You’ll ultimately have more overhead and more people stretched thin. There’s a steep cost associated with cutting corners. It really comes down to expanding or declining.”
Wood reflects on his two decades with AEG to sum up his Avetta experience:
“In the old days, the process was to open the Rolodex, try to find work, get onsite, and get the job done – you just hoped everyone was safe,” he shares. “With Avetta, we’re equipped with the tools to connect with more clients, operate at the highest safety levels, do great work, and avoid hefty fines or lawsuits. You don’t get this type of springboard opportunity elsewhere.”
Founded in 1989, Alliance Environmental Group is one of California’s fastest-growing environmental specialists, providing asbestos removal, mold remediation, lead removal, and more.
Avetta empowers contractors by simplifying qualification processes and automating compliance tasks to improve safety outcomes with hiring clients.
Talk to us today to build safer, more resilient partnerships.
