Nspiregreen Owners Named "Small Business Women of the Year"

WASHINGTON, DC - On Monday, January 20, 2014, the Congress Heights Community Training & Development Corporation's Great Streets Business Leadership Council will honor outstanding community and business leaders who have excelled in their fields at its 4th Annual Awards Ceremony.  

Nspiregreen LLC is proud to announce that our Partners, Veronica O. Davis, P.E. and Chanceé Lundy, will receive the "Small Businesswomen of the Year" award at this year's ceremony.

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Nspiregreen, LLC is an environmental consulting firm located in Washington, DC. We specialize in Environmental Solutions, Urban Planning, and Public Outreach. We are engineers who specialize in understanding the unique needs of communities and cater our solutions to uplift their needs.

"I am humbled and honored to be recognized, along with Veronica," said Chanceé. "Being a small business owner is both a challenging and rewarding experience and this award is a testament to our faith in building a business that is competitive and positively impacts the lives of others. I look forward to what the future holds for Nspiregreen."  

Veronica is thankful and honored as well. "Like Chanceé, I'm humbled to receive this award. The best part is being honored with a great business partner and an even better friend."   

The other Honorees for the 4th Annual ceremony are: Anwar Saleem - Community Developer, Arrington Dixon - Living Legend, Calvin Reid - Small Businessman of the Year, Aniekan Udofia - Arts & Humanitarian. There will also be two posthumous honorees James Bunn Sr. and Gregory Thomas Sr. - Lifetime Achievement. 

"Being honored in The Great Streets Awards is an important achievement," said Monica Ray, Executive Director of Congress Heights CTDC. "It means that the community has agreed that the nominee's contribution to our community is worthy of recognition in his/her chosen field. We congratulate all of the honorees on their achievement and thank them for their contribution to Moving Our Community FORWARD."

The event will take place from 11:30am until 2:30pm, Monday, January 20, 2014, at the Old Congress Heights School, 3100 Martin L. King Jr. Ave SE, Washington, DC 20032. Tickets are $60, available at www.greatstreetshonors.eventbrite.com.

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Breakdown with Commuting

This week, I missed my shuttle connection because of the backed up metro during rush hour, which means I had to wait for another 45 min to get home. A long commute of an hour just got extended by another 45 min.

I am sharing my experience of that day because I am resolved to speak up to make a difference in the quality of my commute and that of others.

On most days riding the metro to work and back is somewhat digestible, today it is frankly annoying. We stopped more than a dozen times between Navy Yard and East Falls Church. I have an upset stomach and I just want to get home, but my trip time got almost doubled. I already paid $40 this morning to take a cab to be in DC at 8 am so I can’t take a cab again to get home.

Ideally, I'd live close to work so that I maximize the quality of my life. For that, housing needs to be affordable, and land use and zoning accommodate uses like a mosque. Until then, I will continue commuting and regularly experience frustration, stress, and apprehension to get to work and home on time.

What would work is a reliable transit service that will help me better schedule time for other important commitments, such as spiritual growth, time with family and friends, exercise, community activities, and continuing education and development.

Since Washington, DC is taking on improving its transportation system, I highly recommend that its transit policy includes upgrading regional travel. The majority of the labor force commutes from MD and Northern Virginia to the District. I believe that enhancing regional travel will greatly impact commuters' well being and truly make DC a premiere destination for work.

Deadline Extended! - Environmental Engineer with 1-5 years of experience!

Nspiregreen LLC is a sustainability firm located in Washington, DC that provides consulting in the following service areas: environmental solutions, transportation planning and public involvement and outreach for civil infrastructure projects. 

Position: Environmental Engineer with 1-5 years of experience

Location: District of Columbia Residents Preferred 

Roles and Responsibilities:

Nspiregreen is seeking an Environmental Engineer to focus on the District of Columbia’s Stormwater Management Plan (Consolidated Total Maximum Daily Load Implementation Plan). This position will consist of full time technical support with some stakeholder coordination. At the conclusion of this project, the Environmental Engineer may also work on other technical storm water, solid waste management and planning projects within Nspiregreen. 

This position requires the candidate to perform well in a fast paced team oriented environment. Our planners and engineers work closely together to develop sound approaches for addressing our clients’ problems. Responsibilities include data management and analysis, development of inputs for models, and interpretation and presentation of results.

Nspiregreen emphasizes collaborative learning, advanced training, and professional leadership, providing team members with the tools and work environment needed to chart their career paths. Opportunities abound for increased responsibilities and professional growth.

The engineer will provide support for a variety of interesting and innovative projects in Nspiregreen’s service areas, which includes but is not limited to:

• Environmental consulting on storm water, solid waste, construction and environmental planning projects
• Public Outreach for civil infrastructure projects

Essential Functions:

·      Experience working with multidisciplinary engineering teams and contractors/construction managers is ideal. 

• Discussing requirements/ deliverables with the client and other professionals
• Assessing the environmental impact and risks connected to projects
• Preparing bids for tenders, and reporting to clients, public agencies and planning bodies
• Managing, directing and monitoring progress during each phase of a project

Experience or familiarities with the following are a plus:

•      Watershed assessments
•      Geographic Information Systems
•      Watershed restoration planning and design
•      Stormwater management, planning, and design
•      Green infrastructure and stormwater control measure design
•      Work with multidisciplinary engineering teams

Minimum Qualifications:

• BS, MS or MSE in Civil or Environmental Engineering, or related discipline from an accredited university program is required. DC Residents preferred.
• 1-5 years relevant work experience is preferred. Training/experience in data management and analysis, modeling, restoration, or other area is desirable. 
• EIT or PE desired but not required.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills are essential, as are strong analytical and computational abilities.

·      The ability to multi-task and work as part of a team is also required. Software requirements: MS Office, GIS, Wordpress, Social Media programs (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc),. General knowledge of the District of Columbia is preferred.

Please send the following to nspireus@nspiregreen.com: Resume and Cover letter. References – Please provide contact information (name, organization, email, and phone number) for three (3) references. Incomplete applications will not be considered. This deadline has been extended to 5:00pm, September 13, 2013. 

Compensation: Nspiregreen offers competitive salaries and excellent benefits to qualified employees including: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance coverage; paid holidays and vacations; the opportunity to telework each week and other perks for company and individual performance. Nspiregreen is an equal opportunity employer.

We're Hiring - Position: Planner I with 0-3 years of experience

WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING RESUMES FOR THIS POSITION

Position: Planner I with 0-3 years of experience 
Location: DC residents preferred 

Responsibilities: Nspiregreen is seeking a Planner I to focus on the planning and implementation of the North-South Corridor as part of the DC Streetcar Program. The position will be half-time planning support and half-time public involvement support focused on transit. This position may also work on other urban planning projects, such as development forecasting, and transportation corridor planning.

Planning duties may include data collection and analysis for planning projects, report writing, quantitative analysis related to corridor studies and other transit/transportation planning duties, understanding and developing fiscal policy, understanding and developing legislative analysis, and a wide range of writing projects. Ability to transform data into visual presentations and GIS mapping will also be requested. This position requires the candidate to perform well in a fast paced team oriented environment.

Public involvement duties may include assisting with public outreach strategies and techniques, planning and staffing community meetings and special events, writing and coordinating public information/outreach materials/community messaging, assisting with graphics and document design, and assisting with social media.

This position will require attendance at weekday evening and weekend meetings.

Keywords: Transit Planner, transit, streetcar, rail, planning, transportation, public involvement, community, public meetings, social media

Requirements: Bachelors degree, MS preferred. 0+ years experience in transportation planning, civil engineering, or related field. Strong written and oral communications skills are required. The ability to multi-task and work as part of a team is also required. Software requirements: MS Office, GIS, Wordpress, Social Media programs (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc), Photoshop, InDesign. General knowledge of the District of Columbia is preferred.

Please send the following to nspireus@nspiregreen.com: Resume and Cover letter References – Please provide contact information (name, organization, email, and phone number) for three (3) references. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Compensation: Nspiregreen offers competitive salaries and excellent benefits to qualified employees including: medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance coverage; paid holidays and vacations; the opportunity to telework each week and other perks for company and individual performance. Nspiregreen is an equal opportunity employer.

We Moved!!!

Nspiregreen Supports DC Small Businesses

 On Friday September 28th, the DC Council Committee on Small Business held a small business summit. It was an opportunity to for small businesses to meet with DC agencies, such as the Department of Small and Local Business Development. During the session with the Office of Contracting and Procurement, Nspiregreen co-owner, Veronica O. Davis, P.E. asked a question that was quoted in this morning’s Washington Examiner.

Excerpt:

Small business owners in D.C. say they are being yanked around by a city that's taking months -- and in some cases years -- to pay for contracted work.

The complaint came as news to the head of the D.C. Office of Contracting and Procurement James Staton, now in his second year after coming to the District from North Carolina.

"We call it the 'okey doke,' where you could perform work in November and you don't actually get a check until July the next year," Veronica Davis, owner of environmental consulting firm Nspiregreen, told Staton at a small business roundtable Friday. 

We believe it is important to put some context around Veronica’s statement to Director Staton. At the end of the panel discussion with the Office of Contracting and Procurement, Veronica asked if there were vehicles in the contracting process to ensure that businesses, especially small businesses, are paid in a timely manner per the contract terms. Specifically, she cited the term “30 days from an approved invoice” as a common term in DC government contracts. She explained that invoices are often rejected for minor reasons, which resets the 30 days clock. We have had invoices rejected over a penny.

Other small businesses in the room shook their head in agreement, and cited personal examples of waiting 120 days and even years to be paid for services rendered. The sentiment in the room was if DC wants to be a world-class business friendly city, we all need to work together to improve the contracting, invoicing, and payment processes.

 Nspiregreen felt that it was important to address the comment, as we were not complaining via a statement; we were asking a question regarding a solution. This is am important distinction for us as the word “complain” is not in our corporate vocabulary. We strive to be a solutions-oriented company. We have testified at several hearings related to small business, such as the Committee on Tax and Revenue and the Committee on Small and Local Business. In all of our testimony we have provided recommendations and solutions to streamline processes that make it easier for businesses to operate in DC, contract with DC government, and employ DC residents.

As a company built on the foundation of advocacy for community improvement, we will continue to be vocal on the challenges facing small businesses in DC. As with many other business, we have rooted ourselves in DC and are committed to helping DC achieve the goal of being the most business friendly city in the country.

Happy Birthday to us!!!!

Happy birthday to us. 
Happy birthday to us.
Happy birthday to Nspiregreeeeeen.
Happy birthday to us!!! 

It's our birthday!!!  Look we even have a "birth" certificate from the District of Columbia!

The seed for Nspiregreen was planted in 2002, when we first met at a leadership conference for the National Society of Black Engineers.  Literally in the first 20 minutes of us meeting we said "we should start a business".  Who knew the idea of two starry-eyed, enthusiastic graduate students would lead to the creation of Nspiregreen.

Some say we are brave to start our own company, while others say we are crazy.  We say we are both. It takes a certain amount of insanity to leave good paying jobs with benefits to enter a world where everyday has its own uncertainty. Three years ago we took the leap and we haven't looked back.