Is it possible to drive a business forward on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit?

This fundamental question is at the heart of a recent Construction Genius Podcast episode where our CEO & Founder Jonathan Orpin talks about at length with host Eric Anderton.

Highlights of this podcast conversation include:

The Entrepreneurial Journey: Jonathan’s path from a small business owner to a leader in sustainable practices is a testament to the power of vision and perseverance in our industry.

Triple Bottom Line Philosophy: Jonathan demonstrates that it’s possible to thrive while maintaining a commitment to people, planet, and profit - a balance essential for long-term success.

100% ESOP Transition: Jonathan’s move to make his company fully employee-owned in 2022 is a groundbreaking approach to business ownership in our field.

Green Building Movement: The evolution of this movement over the past decades has its challenges, but it’s an area ripe with opportunities for innovation and leadership.

Recently our team traveled to the town of Bar Harbor Maine to raise a very large, and very complex, timber frame Welcome Center for Acadia National Park.

Often called the Crown Jewel of the North Atlantic Coast, Acadia National Park protects the natural beauty of the highest rocky headlands along the Atlantic coastline of the United States, an abundance of habitats, and a rich cultural heritage. At 4 million visits a year, it is also one of the top 10 most-visited national parks in the United States.

Home to some of the most stunning landscapes and diverse wildlife on the Eastern Seaboard, Acadia National Park is open to explore year-round. Situated on the coast of Maine, the majority of the park’s 47,000 acres sprawls on Mount Desert Island, though portions of the park are on the Schoodic Peninsula and Isle au Haut.

Drawing inspiration from a home in Sweden that is encased in a one-of-a-kind greenhouse shell, this Scandinavian style glass and timber home is a marvel of minimalist engineering, European construction techniques, and good old fashioned American craftsmanship.

“The background on this project is that my partner and I sold everything we had in 2020 and bought a van, moved our family into the van, and decided to drive around the country,” said Katie Lesh, the homeowner and Interior Designer on the project. “Our ultimate long-term goal was to build a house, and we knew we had to kind of sell everything we had to make it happen.” 

“In France, where I am from, timber frame is considered an old style that is not slick or sleek, it’s very heavy. But the use of modern technology allows us to move past the traditional methods of timber frame and construct sleeker designs and expand the range of possibilities in what we can do with timber. This house was simple yet challenging with the timbers and so many windows all coming together in a minimal aesthetic, very European in its approach.” - Quentin Olivier, Engineer – New Energy Works