Cambium Celebrates 15 Years in Business

05/7/21

Cambium marked its 15th anniversary this week as a consulting and engineering firm based in the Peterborough community. Although a formal celebration cannot be held at this time, Cambium staff proudly reflect on past accomplishments and the changes over the years.

Cambium’s growth and development as a company have been remarkable. Formerly a small business unit of SGS in Lakefield, Cambium was founded in 2006 with nine professionals offering environmental engineering services from an office in the Fleming Industrial Park. Their expansion activities began in 2010 with their relocation to a larger office on Hunter Street in East City. Not long after, Cambium added Geotechnical and Construction Quality Verification to its service suite from a second location on the Queensway.  Since then, the company ranks have swelled to 130+ professionals at offices located in Barrie, Oshawa, Kingston, and Calgary.

Throughout its history, Cambium has periodically received recognition including most recently the Employer of the Year and Professional Services Awards through the Peterborough Business Excellence Awards.  Nationally, Cambium has been ranked as one of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies and as one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.

The corporate mission of turning uncertainties into possibilities has been as important to the company itself as it has to the clients of Cambium.  Company founders John Desbiens, Jim Bailey, and Dave Bucholtz, “consider themselves fortunate to have established and grown a business based in a community that has always been special to them and their families.” 

Even in the past year, Cambium has been renovating a 25,000 square foot facility at 194 Sophia Street that will consolidate their multiple Peterborough operations. The renovations and relocation are scheduled to be completed by June of this year. This is an exciting revitalization of a unique space that carries the proud history of Fisher Gauge Limited.

Sustainability is foundational to the values of Cambium. Remodelling an existing building and reusing materials has been a rewarding experience that also consumes far less energy and resources than new construction. The design concept of the new future offices makes full use of the best features of the original building; open spaces and natural light.

“When we started Cambium 15 years ago, we had no idea that it would become what it is today.  We aimed to craft a workplace we would enjoy and seek people that shared our beliefs to join us,” says CEO/President, John Desbiens.  “As it turns out, we keep finding those people.”

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Meet Our Newest Team Member, Ian Murdoch

04/10/21

Cambium is pleased to welcome Ian Murdoch to our expanding team as a Business Development Professional! Ian brings over 17 years of experience in project management, client advisement and mentorship expertise to Cambium. Based out of our Kingston office, Ian is a graduate of St. Lawrence College’s Civil Engineering Technology program. With his tenure in construction, public service and portfolio management & development, Ian will be another value-add for Cambium’s client delivery programming.

We virtually connected with Ian on his hobby farm in Harrowsmith to get a sense of what he’s most excited about joining the Cambium team.

“Working with clients through project decisions and developing teams to provide exceptional service is the foundation of my approach to business growth and sustainability,” says Murdoch, “Nothing fulfills me more than helping build confidence and capacity in professionals for their own career growth. This level of personal interest naturally improves how we service clients.”

Cambium has also recently been recognized by the Kingston community as the top Engineering Firm in the Community Votes 2020 campaign, receiving the Platinum award.

Welcome to the team, Ian! We’re looking forward to having you contribute to the success of the Kingston community, our company and our clients.

Project Profile: Trent University’s New Forensic Crime Scene Facility

04/1/21

Trent University has enhanced experiential learning opportunities for students! The new Forensic Crime Scene Facility will be opening for use later this year for students. This state-of-the-art, 4,100 square foot facility will be used for hands-on learning by the forensics program.

The building itself is impressive by sustainability measures. The new facility is aiming to be the first zero-carbon certified building by the International Living Future Institute. Innovative solutions have been utilized throughout the building, such as carbon-storing building materials and solar panels to heat and cool the building.

In addition to the impressive sustainability features, the new building is setting academic standards as the first purpose-built facility of its kind. Within the space students will be able to stage up to eight crime scenes at once in a large modular space, analyze evidence and exhibits in the on-site lab and interact with professional practitioners.

Cambium’s role in this exciting build was to conduct tests and inspections to verify this construction project is built to last.  Construction materials were sampled and brought to our own CCIL certified laboratory for testing. Our services ensure safety and quality in construction projects, from the initial geotechnical investigation to on-site construction inspections and materials laboratory testing. Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QA/QC) on-site inspections are critical and ensure that systems and applications of materials during construction are safe, built to specification, and will last for generations to come.

Another service we provided was soil characterization. This is an important process to ensure excavated soil is suitable for reuse in other projects, rather than sending it to the landfill. This service is also cost-saving because the fee for disposing soil at landfills can be significant. Without characterization and an evaluation by a qualified person, soil may not be safely (or legally) reused in some circumstances.

We are proud to work on positive community projects like this and wish Trent Forensic Science students all the best in their studies.

Need guidance for your upcoming project? Find out more about our Construction Quality Verification and Excess Soil Management services on our website.

https://cambium-inc.com/services.php

March Waste Bulletin: Organics Processing Technology

03/12/21

Spring is on the horizon and we are looking forward to the changing seasons. With spring comes thoughts of gardening and … compost!  See the following waste bulletin about organic waste management.

Contact our Waste Management Project Manager Heather Dzurko with any questions you have about implementing organics management at your workplace. For more information on our entire suite of Waste Management serivces check out our Waste Audits & Waste Reduction Work Plans

Check out the full federal report

Taking Stock: Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Canada

Cambium’s New Materials Testing Lab

03/1/21

The first stage of our big move began one year ago when we moved our lab services from our Queensway location over to Sophia Street. Our operations were outgrowing the space we were in, so finding a building that could house both our head office and lab was very important to us. Through our renovations and the incorporation of some great new features, we have been able to customize the space to fit our needs.

The new lab space has some great new features and equipment that can help us better serve our clients, such as:

  1. Concrete Moisture Room: The Moisture Room is used to cure concrete test specimens. The room is maintained at 23 +/- 2o C and relative humidity of not less than 95% according to CSA standards. This feature has allowed us to reduce the required floor space compared to water storage tanks while still allowing the lab to cure up to 1800 cylinders.
  2. Dedicated rooms for equipment: We have built rooms to house specific pieces of equipment to help reduce noise and dust and improve the health & safety of our staff
  3. Upgraded and larger fume hood for safe testing and processing of asphalt samples
  4. A more thought-out design and overall layout of the lab to allow for better sample flow and improved efficiencies

We are excited to have our office and lab under one roof come this Spring! It will be great for our Peterborough team to be able to collaborate closer together in our new space.

Cambium’s New Office Space – 194 Sophia Street

02/22/21

At Cambium, we strive to practice what we preach. When we complete work for our customers, we want to leave the site with an environmentally positive impact. The same goes for our own personal project; the rejuvenation of our new Peterborough office, 194 Sophia Street. Not only does renovating an existing building generally have less of an environmental impact than building new or developing greenspace, but we have also incorporated several changes which help minimize our footprint.

Some of these changes include:

  1. Daylight Harvesting: We have opened up the entire upper-level ceiling to capture as much daylight as possible from the high, vertical clerestory windows. This will drastically minimize the need for artificial lighting during the day. Though, we will also be installing all-new lighting with high-efficiency LED fixtures.
  2. Heating and Cooling: We have installed new rooftop heating/cooling units which allow us to utilize more electricity for heating and minimizes our GHG emissions – electricity has much lower emissions than natural gas in Ontario.
  3. Reusing Building Materials: Throughout this renovation, we have looked to reuse existing materials wherever we could. For example, during the demolition process, we reused a dozen doors and even some wooden wall studs, which were previously used to build storage shelves.
  4. “Flowerpot”: Our renovations have included the addition of a passenger elevator to ensure that we have a fully accessible working environment. On the upper level, there is a fair bit of space between the top of the elevator shaft and the ceiling, where we plan to incorporate live vegetation on the top of the shaft. This feature has affectionately been named “the flowerpot” and will not only be a cool addition, but live vegetation in the office has been found to improve air quality and also team well-being.
  5. Multi-Functional Roof: Looking towards the future, we have had a study conducted on the roof construction for the possibility of adding solar panels or a vegetated roof.

We are looking forward to our move-in date in the spring and will to share more with you all soon.

Project Profile: Bay of Quinte Skyway Bridge

02/16/21

The Bay of Quinte Skyway Bridge gets traffic from approximately 5,200 vehicles per day. The bridge was constructed in 1967 and was due for updates and maintenance, including replacement of decks and pier repairs. Our Construction Quality Verification team in Kingston has been providing quality control for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Aecon Group, and McIntosh Perry. Concrete and grout quality is one of the many factors our staff regularly monitor on this major project. These tests confirm whether the delivered materials meet the required construction specifications. For example, just a small change in water to cement ratio will diminish the strength of the cement making the concrete structurally unsuitable for the task.  Small issues caught early will avoid bigger problems later.

The bridge rehabilitation will benefit the surrounding Prince Edward County and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory for generations to come. We are proud to have been a part of this project that will benefit the community.

Our five locations allow us to collaborate with varied clients in many different sectors across Canada. Interested in what other services we offer? Visit our website to learn more.

194 Sophia Street’s Legacy

01/25/21

Cambium Peterborough’s new home at 194 Sophia Street was once the home of the infamous Fisher Gauge Ashburnham Plant.

Fisher Gauge, later FisherCast Global, was founded in 1942, as a manufacturer of tools, gauges and diecast metal products at times employing approximately 300 people in Peterborough.

In more recent years, 194 Sophia has been home to Operitel and OpenText, both software management companies.

As we transform this building from its historic use to an environmental and cleantech future, we will strive to continuously support Peterborough and its community in a similar way.

We are excited that the opportunity to move came upon us and that Cambium can still operate in the vibrant East City community. Our move from 52 Hunter Street East office isn’t a far trek for us thankfully.

Sustainability is apart of our mission here at Cambium. It is engrained in the work we do for our clients, but we also hold ourselves accountable. We are dedicated to operating in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. Remodelling the building made more sense to us than tearing it down. With our renovations, we have been able to rejuvenate the building, and have created a bright open space for our staff and visitors.

Be sure to keep an eye out for future posts on the updates we have made to the building, such as our lab and office space!

Excess Soil Guidelines

01/13/21

Starting Jan 1, 2021 the excess soil rules come into force, with the online excess soil registry starting Jan 1, 2022. These two milestones don’t have a direct impact on landfills. Section 22 of O. Reg. 406 pertains directly to landfills and comes into force Jan 1, 2025.

Read more about the upcoming changes you might have to consider at Municipal Landfills:

Excess Soil Guidelines from CambiumDownload

Cambium’s Move to Sophia Street

01/8/21

Our team has been growing year over year to meet the increasing demand for our services. What started in 2006 as a company of fewer than 10 professionals has grown to over 120 diverse experts at the end of 2020! It is no surprise that we have outgrown all our facilities in all our locations.

Over the past few months, we have been in the process of bringing our multiple Peterborough operations to our new location at 194 Sophia Street. We began by first moving our materials testing laboratory in 2020; not missing a beat in their service activities. We will be finalizing the relocation of our remaining operations to our newly renovated building in the coming months. This is an exciting revitalization of a location that carries the proud decades-long history of Fisher Gauge Limited.

This transition has been a long journey. We are excited to begin a new chapter for Cambium when all our Peterborough employees and operations are under one roof.

Keep an eye on our social media over the next few months to cheer us on with the renovations and our big move in Spring 2021!