This is the time of year when many of us raise our gazes from the immediate task at hand and start thinking about the coming year and how to plan for it.

 I asked 20 of my colleagues to tell me what “sustainability” means, I’d bet you $20 that I’d get 20 different answers. 

As I think about the words of the Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, “Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis,” I can’t help but think how that relates to us today.

Last month, I urged specialty contractors to watch out for conflicts between project specifications and building code requirements, especially where the 2018 edition of the International Building Code has been adopted. 

The 2018 IBC references AISI standards exclusively. Watch out for non-code compliance issues at the job site.

In a competitive market environment, I believe in aggressive promotion and a robust defense of the industry I represent.