About Us
Since 1997, Environmental Design & Construction has delivered timely and professional construction and environmental services to its clients. Our mission is to stay abreast of cutting edge technological advances and apply this knowledge in the development of cost effective solutions for our clients.
Our core capabilities include:
- General Construction
- Environmental Services
Environmental Design & Construction, LLC provides its clients with the safest, most efficient and economical solutions to the environmental consulting and construction challenges of the 21st century. We provide "best value" by delivering top quality work, on time, within budget, with open communication, responsiveness and integrity.
Our commitment to Sustainable Design includes companywide training for all Executives, Project Managers and Superintendents in the subject areas of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Energy Star, and Green Globe and Green Advantage programs.
Our objective is to promote Sustainable Construction and Design practices. Following through with our dedication, EDC's new Headquarters are designed to LEED Gold standards and will be built by EDC. EDC's goal as a GC is to advise and assist with the Sustainable Construction process, in order to create seamless solutions for our client's projects.
Safety Program
As EDC's safety training has increased, over the past six years, our Experience Modification Rating has decreased over 15% to .89, which is well below the industry average. Please see chart below which reflects our progress.
Our safety training program includes instruction for all of our staff, from our Executives to our Laborers. All Supervisory field staff has mandatory CPR/First Aid Certifications, OSHA 40 Hour Training, and must pass the US Army Corps of Engineers CQC Management Program. Additional training for staff includes topics such as Fall Protection, Excavation Safety, and Personal Protective Equipment. Tool Box Talks are held at each job site, every week.
Environmental Design & Construction's Safety Strategies:
- As Environmental Design & Construction's safety training has increased over the past six years, our EMR rating has decreased.
- Environmental Design & Construction is committed to providing a healthy and safe workplace for all of our employees and subcontractors. Environmental Design & Construction's safety program has proven to be effective as reflected in the reduced number of incurred injuries. From 2006-2009, ED&C had zero lost work time injuries and achieved a zero severity rate. As a result of our lack of injuries during the last two years, our incident rate is the lowest it has been in the company's history.
- Upon the commencement of each job, the Safety Director and project management team develop a Safety Plan that is specifically tailored for that job.
- In addition, on every ED&C project it is a mandatory requirement that all workers wear safety eye-wear, hard hats and steel toe boots on projects.
- All jobsites have weekly safety meetings for all field employees and subcontractor personnel.
- Each year, our field staff attends safety training courses including OSHA 10 Hour, Personal Protective Equipment, Fall Protection and First Aid/CPR.
- All field members are required to take Personal Protective Equipment, Fall Protection as well as a First Aid/CPR courses.
Mission
The mission of Environmental Design & Construction is to provide our clients with the highest possible level of professional construction services in an atmosphere of teamwork, mutual support, and uncompromising ethical standards. We are committed to providing our clients with timely and quality service and the best value for their investment while delivering a project that is under budget, and that exceeds their expectations.
Core Values
Environmental Design & Construction operates under a short, but important list of values:
- People - We believe the potential of our company has no limit and is driven by our leadership, our employees and our imagination. We are committed to an environment that attracts highly skilled professionals, motivates our staff to achieve our company's Vision, and recognizes success and high performance.
- Clients - We are here to please our clients - without them nothing else matters.
- Quality - We must take pride in everything we do. From our people, to our services and in our relationships with business partners and the community, quality is our signature.
- Fiscal Prudence - We must operate our business through making fiscally responsible decisions, maximizing the use of our resources and mitigating waste.
Executive Leadership
Dennis Garbis, PE, LEED AP
Principal and CEO
As Founder, Principal and CEO of Environmental Design & Construction, Dennis is responsible for the direction and oversight of Environmental Design & Construction. With over 40+ years of military, Construction and Real Estate Development experience, Dennis relied upon his extensive business background and technical expertise in engineering, land development and environmental consulting to form the core foundation of Environmental Design & Construction. After his retirement in 1990 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dennis formed the Sigma Companies where he has been involved primarily in the design, development and construction of residential and commercial real estate in the Washington D.C. area, as well as numerous engineering and environmental consulting projects. Under his leadership, Environmental Design & Construction has been consistently ranked in the Top 20 Environmental Firms by the Washington Business Journal since 2004. Dennis is a registered professional engineer in the state of Virginia, Washington, D.C. and was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to serve as a member of the state of Virginia Gas & Oil Board for 6 years.
Dennis is a 1970 graduate of Texas A & M, with a BS in Architectural Construction Engineering. He also has the following Masters Degrees: Master of Science, Systems Management, University of Southern California, 1980; Master of Science, Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1979 and a Master of Engineering, Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1979.
Most recently, Dennis is a 2008 graduate of Harvard Business School's Executive Education, Owners/Presidents Management Program (OPM - 37) and is a LEED AP.
Peter Davidson, Sr
Director of Pre Construction
Mr. Davidson brings over 25 years experience in the design and construction industry in various project management positions, working on a wide range of commercial, government and institutional projects, utilizing his conceptual planning and organizational skills.
In addition, he has extensive experience in all facets of the construction project process, including but not limited to, business development, proposal preparation, negotiations, estimating, scheduling, contract administration, supervision, cost analysis, accounting and change order management.
Ed Fuller, LEED AP
Director of Construction
Mr. Fuller is a Senior Project Manager with over 18 years of increasingly responsible experience in the construction industry. He provides day-to-day management for assigned projects from inception to completion and is directly responsible for their successful delivery.
Mr. Fuller’s experience encompasses all aspects of construction from design/build, CM at risk, to traditional design/bid/build. It also includes new ground-up construction as well as renovation projects in historic buildings. He is particularly skilled in working in close coordination with architects, engineers, trade, and specialty subcontractors throughout all project phases to ensure constructability, provide value engineering, and facilitate compliance to budget and schedule.
Lea Crandell
Director of Finance
Lea Crandell has over 13 years experience in the construction accounting industry for both domestic and international corporations. As Controller for Environmental Design & Construction, she is responsible for Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis, Supervision of the General Ledger Operations, Job Costing and Audit Interface. Ms. Crandell is a graduate of University of Maryland, University College with a BS is in Accounting and Management Studies
John Garbis
Q/C and Safety Manager
John Garbis has over 35 years experience managing large and small-scale projects for commercial and industrial clients. He has successfully managed multiple, concurrent projects/delivery orders. As the QC Manager for Environmental Design & Construction's General Construction efforts, he is responsible for overall compliance with project performance and quality metrics. More specifically, Garbis' specialties include Mechanical and Electrical trades. Mr. Garbis also serves as our Safety Manager.
Carlos Saldana
Mr. Carlos Saldana is a Senior Estimator with over 20 years of experience in the construction industry. Educated as an Architect, he has 5 years experience in the design of residential & commercial projects, and 15 years experience in conceptual budgets, detail estimating and cost analysis of private, commercial and Federal and State projects. In addition, he provides assistance to the construction management team for proposal preparations, change orders and scheduling. Carlos has worked on projects up to $100 million dollars.