The Ontario Construction Report – April 2011 – PAGE OCR B1 omen inConstruction receives ORBA


distinguished service award for leading the green movement in Ontario’s road building industry


STAFF WRITER – The OCR Construction Report Special Feature


Marlene Yakabuski has led the Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) re- sponse to environmental issues and, as a re- sult, the association has recognized her with its distinguished service award. The story of how Yakabuski, vice-pres- ident of corporate affairs at the Bot Con- struction group of companies, earned the honour in February from the traditionally male-focused industry, is even more in- triguing, considering that she has only worked in the construction industry for about five years.


She helped to focus the mandate of


ORBA’s environment committee and be- came chair in 2009. Already, the committee has introduced a “green construction course,” a green leadership award in part- nership with the MTO and OGRA, and is taking steps to support our members ef- forts to “operationalize the values of envi- ronmental protection” in the road building community, she says.


In an interview with OCR, Yakabuski says she joined Bot Construction after years of practice in regulatory affairs, busi- ness operations and communications – in- cluding 15 years in the life insurance and mutual funds industry. She didn’t know much about road building and construction when she under- took a consulting assignment when com- pleting a Master of Business Administration at Royal Roads University. “I became enchanted with the industry,” she said. “It is an industry that has a great deal of passion, great teamwork and an amazing problem-solving focus.” “People in the road building industry love what they do and are very passionate about their work. Our clients expect excel- lence, and we compete hard to deliver it.” Regulatory and public sector issues cer- tainly are as relevant to the road builders as the insurance and mutual funds indus- tries – after all, most projects are publicly funded and built in an equally complex regulatory environment – but the results are certainly much more tangible. “What we are building will be there for for 50 years and more. It’s critical to do it right, we touch a lot of publics and issues along the way, ” she said. However, Yakabuski’s experience in the intangible financial services industry al- lows her to understand the mind-sets of


regulatory authorities and the public values that drive changes in environmental re- quirements impacting the industry – meet- ing the highest environmental standards while avoiding bureaucratic bottlenecks and confusion which, of course, can delay projects and significantly increase public sector costs. “Timing is everything,” she said.


“I


came into the industry when ORBA as an organization was in the midst of adding environmental practices to the areas for which it acts as a resource to its members. Pulling together, the environmental com- mittee is working as an interface, bringing together people who come to the table with specialized skills and experience.” Yakabuski certainly needs her commit- tee members’ support to work on the cru- cial issues. “I don’t have technical engineering or life sciences qualifications or construction operations experience,” all a part of road building. However, she certainly understands the regulatory and business management processes necessary to work within a changing environment. “We’re working on a best environmen- tal practices guideline to help member companies to deal with a broad range of environmental issues,” she said. The ORBA environmental course, meanwhile, has attracted a cross section of road construction workers, from practiced project managers to newly graduated tech- nicians, and with government representa- tives now participating, the course is bringing the two sides together in a part- nership approach to teaching and learning. “On a more practical level, we’re work- ing with ORBA staff and talking with the Ministry of the Environment on processes around issuing permits to take water (for road building),” hopefully together we’ll identify ways to overcome the potential for lost efficiency through delays in permit- ting. Yakabuski says the first ORBA Green Leadership and Sustainability Award will be announced on Earth Day 201l (April 22). “We’re excited about the opportunity to recognize ORBA members for their leadership, and to let our stakeholders know about the green initiatives that are a part of road construction.”


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