Pinchin Environmental has expanded its presence in the North and is now serving Sault Ste. Marie, offering its clients a range of environmental engineering, consulting, project management and training services.
The company began with one employee each in its Sudbury and Kenora offices, but expanded rapidly from there. In January 2012, Pinchin extended its reach into Sault Ste. Marie, bringing Christian Tenaglia on board to open its third northern office.
It was a one-man operation in Tenaglia’s basement for close to two months before another four employees came on board.
Now, a year and a half later, the office has expanded its staff to 10 employees, all between the ages of 25 and 35, who have been hired from the North.
“So we have three offices now servicing all of Northern Ontario at this point in time,” said Tenaglia, senior project manager. “We service all the major centres— Thunder Bay, Timmins—so we’re looking at growing outwards from those areas as well.”
For seven years in a row, Pinchin has been acknowledged by Great Place to Work Canada as one of the best places to work among small and medium employers across the country.
The Sault office offers all the traditional services of an environmental engineering firm. Hydrogeology, water quality sampling, testing, and building condition assessments form roughly 60 per cent of the office’s business, while another 30 per cent focuses on the handling of hazardous materials like asbestos, mold and designated substances.
“There’s definitely still quite a bit of asbestos in the North,” Tenaglia said. “It’s not as regulated as it is in southern Ontario, but we’re finding now the Ministry of Labour is getting more involved in renovation projects where asbestos could be present, so we’re finding more of those calls occurring.”
Pinchin was founded in 1981 in Toronto by Dr. Don Pinchin, whose work specialized in asbestos science, and the company evolved based on his expertise in essential substances. As the author of the 1982 publication Asbestos in Buildings, published by the Ontario Royal Commission on Asbestos, Pinchin was instrumental in assisting the Ministry of the Environment develop the guidance documents and regulations for asbestos standards in the province.
The company offers its clients a comprehensive package of services, but is supported in by its head office in Mississauga, particularly when technical expertise is needed, or in serving large, industrial clients.
Working to educate clients on the changing environmental requirements is included in Pinchin’s services, and the company regularly holds breakfast sessions for clients on various topics of interest. Roughly 15 to 20 people turn out for the events. Everyone from structural engineers and architects to developers and commercial lending institutions has come for the 90-minute sessions.
It’s a great marketing and development tool because we get to invite people into our office and tell them about our services, but at the same time we get to explain to them about environmental compliance approvals, what they are and who they’re for, what kind of liabilities they could be facing, and that sort of thing,” Tenaglia said.
Many people are unaware of their obligations, Tenaglia said, a persistent challenge in the North, so the breakfast talks provide the opportunity to help inform clients of the changing landscape of legislation and environmental standards.
