Sandy Marohn
Owner, Ripple Effect Academy
VersaPile Inc.
VersaPile is Manitoba owned and operated and Central Canada’s largest piling contractor specializing in high capacity helical piles for important infrastructure across Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
Helical piles are generally budget competitive with other piling solutions while installing faster without curing time, reducing the carbon footprint of materials by 90% or more, producing minimal ground disturbance and zero tailings, easily remediating sites by uninstalling, recycling or reusing piles, and using equipment that reduces mobilization while being quiet and without creation of damaging ground vibrations.
As an Indigenous owned and Certified Aboriginal Business, VersaPile takes great pride in leveraging the benefits of helical piles to help Indigenous clients build better homes and community buildings.
Why did VersaPile sign the Climate Action Pledge?
Our mission at VersaPile is “to advance generational sustainability.” This is a loaded mission statement that is multifaceted but it boils down to adopting a generational thinking approach to business. We believe those companies that can find a way to conduct business without negatively impacting future generations are the companies that will sustain over time. By signing the Climate Action Pledge we are supporting a sensible and practical approach to climate change.
Why is it important that business owners speak up and show leadership on climate change?
Business owners should be concerned about climate change for the risks it poses and the opportunities it presents. Climate change is a global issue with wide-ranging impacts that requires agility, innovation and practical mindsets to drive solutions that have always come from entrepreneurs. By adopting sustainable practices within their own businesses and across industries, entrepreneurs can contribute to mitigating the impacts of climate change while gaining a competitive advantage.
What is something you hope BizForClimate can change through our collective efforts?
We hope that BizForClimate can rally a collective of entrepreneurs to bring a sensible and practical approach to climate change. We see a lot of “green” solutions which are unchecked such as supporting solar where the sun doesn’t often shine, wind in areas without much wind, electric vehicles (EVs) in cold climates, etc. Entrepreneurs ask the tough questions and challenge the status quo to bring about the practical solutions needed.
What’s a simple change that you have made for the environment and that other businesses could do?
VersaPile has started to calculate the carbon footprint of potential foundation solutions to its value-engineering process – we are now able to educate clients on the carbon impacts of foundation options. Furthermore, we have innovated to combine helical piles with geothermal technology which lowers the cost of traditional geothermal, making it more commercially viable and helping to greatly lower the carbon footprint related to heating and cooling buildings over their entire lifecycle.
Stan Higgins
VersaPile
