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ATCO empowers its people

Focus on Leadership

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ATCO’s leaders believe a company known for being safe and reliable can also be innovative and exciting — a place where ideas are freely shared, celebrated and implemented.

“I came from another industry to head up their innovations practice and help move the culture into a place where new ideas and new concepts are welcomed and encouraged and implemented where it is feasible,” says Francois Blouin, director of innovation with ATCO’s Electricity Global Business Unit, who has decades of experience in telecommunications as well as transportation and logistics.

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“We want our teams to become more entrepreneurial in their thinking and empower them by implementing their best ideas.”

With nearly 7,000 employees and assets of about $20 billion, ATCO couldn’t have gotten to where it is today without innovation.

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While its business lines are diverse, the company is best known as a provider of natural gas and electricity, as well as its iconic yellow-banded modular structures, which are broadly credited with creating the workforce housing industry seven decades ago.

In recent years, the company has pioneered several imaginative solutions for its customers, from the Drake Landing solar community in Okotoks, Canada’s largest subdivision of energy-efficient and environmentally responsible homes, to its hybrid house project in Red Deer, which combines solar, battery and combined heat and power technologies to reduce home emissions by up to 75 per cent.

In fact, from the very beginning, innovation has been part of the company’s DNA.

Recently, some of the company’s innovation leaders held a series of internal contests to reinvigorate its employees’ desire to challenge the status quo and suggest operational changes. The leaders took the feedback to heart and is implementing the Top 5 ideas as chosen by a review panel of external participants.

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“We want our employees to know we are listening to them and we are actively considering and reviewing their ideas,” says Blouin. “We collected 100 different ideas in just four weeks. It has been a tremendous success.”

The suggestions explored all kinds of concepts, from using augmented reality glasses and drones to conduct pipeline inspections and apps to engage customers on energy management.

Of course, to take these sorts of steps an organization has to embrace risk.

“When I speak to our people, I talk about being brave,” says Greg Caldwell, senior manager in research and innovation with ATCO’s Pipelines & Liquids Global Business Unit. “We need to debate ideas openly, not just supporting each other’s ideas, but really examining them together and deciding what makes sense. Whether it’s an engineer or field staff or an administrative co-ordinator, we need them to be heard, and we need to listen and to talk honestly.”

Partnerships and outside influences are also critical to success. The innovation group engages with dozens of partners, says Blouin, and Caldwell adds that partnerships are also highly practical in that they help organizations share risk and resources.

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“It’s fantastic to work with partners who have different skills or talents or even redundant skills or talents, so that if you lose a team member that is integral to an initiative, you can still move forward,” says Caldwell.

Partnerships also enable organizations to learn from one another. There really aren’t failures, just learnings, says Caldwell.

“When you take risks, things don’t always turn out as you hoped, but there is always something to learn and a way to grow,” adds Blouin.

There’s no doubt that this process of continuous learning has driven ATCO’s success for the past 70 years. By continuing to empower its people to embrace innovation, the company is not only delivering the progressive products and services its customers need today, but is ensuring it will play a leading role in providing imaginative, integrated solutions for decades to come.

Carol Shepstone, university librarian at Mount Royal University, says the spacious new facility offers top-level technology and many more spaces for collaboration and learning.
Carol Shepstone, university librarian at Mount Royal University, says the spacious new facility offers top-level technology and many more spaces for collaboration and learning. Photo by Wil Andruschak /Content Works

New MRU library embraces the future

This is a destination library.

The nearly 172,200- square-foot, four-storey, LEED gold certified Riddell Library and Learning Centre at Mount Royal University more than doubles the current library seating to about 1,800 people and increases its high-demand group study rooms ten-fold to more than 30.

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“The Riddell Library and Learning Centre was designed to meet the current and, most importantly, the emerging needs of MRU students and faculty,” says Carol Shepstone, university librarian at Mount Royal University.

“We are thrilled to be leading the way in state-of-the-art library design. Based on years of research exploring best practices in academic library design informed by attention to advancements in teaching and learning research, we have created a truly transformational library.

“It is flexible, future-focused and brimming with innovative new ways to engage with information and ideas and to create critical thinkers with new knowledge and skills.”

Shepstone says managing the project made it very evident to those involved that a successful library and learning centre had to be about the staff, faculty and students — the people who will work, teach, learn and help others in the new facility. 

“This new facility was designed with student needs in mind,” says Shepstone.

Health and wellness was a priority and was incorporated into the design.

“We added many unique features to the Riddell Library and Learning Centre that support health and wellness — from end-of-destination bike lockers and showers to height adjustable stand-up desks and treadmill desks,” she says.

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With 34 group rooms, the facility is designed for collaboration while presentation practice rooms allow students to hone their skills and leading-edge technology provides opportunities to create podcasts, video productions, music and sound effects.

“They can explore new ways of learning using our Immersion Studio, which projects images and information in a 360-degree format or through virtual reality,” says Shepstone.

The facility is also open to the public and community users are welcome to enjoy the inspirational spaces, access collections and engage with some of the creation spaces such as the Maker Studio, which is equipped with 3D printers and scanners, industrial sewing machines, laser cutters, circuitry kits and specialized design tools.

The public can also access speakers and events in the Ideas Visualization Lounge or peruse the archives and special collections in the exhibition spaces.

“We know the community will enjoy these spectacular new spaces, our programming and events, and of course much improved access to our collections, whether doing research, finding something fun to read or reading to their children from our children’s literature collection,” says Shepstone.

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“We are really excited about how prominent and accessible this new standalone building is for the community and the wonderful new ways the Riddell Library and Learning Centre can help connect faculty, students and the community.”

Always top of mind during the facility’s thorough 10-year develpment were emerging tools and the philosophies attached to best practices in teaching, learning and research environments.

“The planning, design and construction of the centre was a complex and exciting project,” says Shepstone.

“It was definitely one the more challenging building projects — not simply because of the size of the facility, but also due to the rapidly changing nature of academic libraries and the number of building partners involved in the project.

“But we are so excited to see the new Riddell Library and Learning Centre completed and open for business.”

This feature was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Calgary Economic Development.

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