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Climate Engineers has provided Eastern Iowa with quality commercial HVAC and industrial services since their first shop opened in Cedar Rapids in 1947. After 49 years of growth, the company expanded by opening a branch in the Quad Cities.
Heath Allard has been with the company since 2002 and with the QC branch since 2003, moving steadily up the ladder to vice president, his current position. When the QC office was established, it had one project manager and a crew of three-to-four people. Today they employ roughly 60 union employees out of a 25,000-square-foot shop in Eldridge.
“There’s been steady growth in those 28 years being in the Quad Cities,” Allard said. “We’ve been around long enough now that we’re starting to update equipment from projects we did 20 years ago.”
With the QC and Cedar Rapids branches so reasonably close to one another it makes sense that they specialize in different things. In Cedar Rapids the focus is more on industrial and manufacturing work. The QC office focuses more on commercial HVAC but is expanding into industrial.
Allard mentioned his office’s work on the Genesis East Tower, a seven-story addition to Davenport’s Genesis East Hospital, as a highly visible, community changing project highlight.
“At 205,000 square feet, that’s one of the biggest projects we’ve ever done,” Allard said. “It included 11 operating rooms, 96 inpatient beds, a kitchen, a cafeteria, a lobby and a whole mechanical floor. We installed nine air handling units, 360,000 lbs. of ductwork and 223 VAV boxes.”
With no shortage of HVAC contractors in Eastern Iowa, what sets Climate Engineers apart? To Allard, it’s the company’s dedication to improvement. He mentioned CE’s Continuous Improvement Group, which meets monthly to brainstorm and discuss implementation of new ideas. All Climate Engineer employees are encouraged to bring ideas to the group.
“Having a set time each month to discuss new ideas really puts us in a forward-thinking mindset,” Allard said. “We’re continually trying to improve over here, not just in how we install ductwork in commercial buildings, but better in every process that we have. Better in how we treat our people. Better in how we partner with LU91.”
Climate Engineers is into much more than self-improvement; they’re also working to improve the local community. Every year the company participates in a United Way campaign and allows employees to choose which charitable organizations they want to support. Climate Engineers also supports nearly 20 different youth sports teams in the Quad City area, from baseball and basketball to mountain biking and trap shooting.
“We believe in quality — a high-quality product made by high-quality people,” Allard said. “We spend a lot of time and money making sure our workers are getting the right training and are shown how much they’re appreciated. It’s not always an easy thing to do but it goes a long way.”