At PCL, the safety and well-being of our employees, their families and our partners is our highest priority. As COVID-19 issues and impacts continue to evolve, we are closely monitoring these changes and following guidelines supplied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada and the World Health Organization. Along with these guidelines, we are taking additional precautions to protect our offices and project sites including the following:

RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

PCL’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic document outlines COVID-19 safety measures and serves as a guide to keep our offices and job sites safe throughout the pandemic.

RETURN TO THE WORKPLACE GUIDELINES

We have produced Workplace Guidelines to help our employees reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

ADDITIONAL COVID-19 INFOGRAPHIC RESOURCES: 

True to our solution provider culture, we asked PCLers to get creative, share ideas and vote for the ones that will enable PCL to be a better builder and add more value for our people, clients and shareholders during COVID-19 and into the future. We implemented Ideascale, a collaborative platform to collect and share proven innovation practices, ideas and solutions that specifically address challenges related to working during COVID-19. 

PCL’s Los Angeles Buildings office is one of a handful of projects to engage the U.S. Green Building Council’s Safety First pilot credits to support safe reopening plans. The credits provide sustainable and healthy best practices that align with public health and industry guidelines and help address critical operations including indoor air quality, water systems, cleaning and re-entry. The pilot credits are intended to help building teams address critical health and safety adjustments in order to confidently welcome back tenants and visitors.

We worked with our sustainability consultant, Verdical Group, to modify the LEED® Silver office space and through the adjustments achieved the Safety First: Re-Enter Your Workspace credit. The changes included having the building team keep a daily journal of pandemic-related processes, procedures and feedback, using a QR code to survey tenant for potential symptoms before they enter the building, installing directional signage and hands-free door openers to limit the number of surfaces occupants need to touch and placing signage on desks to indicate if a space had recently been cleaned. Committing to a healthy and sustainable workplace will help with re-entry to the workspace and will contribute positively to occupant health and wellbeing.

The pressures of the pandemic require solutions that can be rapidly deployed with ready-to-use and energy-efficient operations. We employed our extensive modular and prefabrication manufacturing experience to develop a modular toolkit of solutions. The solutions are quick to market, offer levels of customization and rapid manufacturing and deployment and include the Citizen Care Pod, the Quaran-Tin Pod, modular handwashing stations, portable health facilities and office structures.

As the global pandemic descended on North America, passionate conversations ignited the creation of a modular, ready-to-use solution for COVID-19 screening and testing that would allow communities to reopen. A multidisciplinary team of industry leaders led by Citizen Care Pods Corporation, WZMH Architects and P​CL Construction collaborated with Insight Enterprises and Microsoft to bring the Citizen Care Pod from concept to completion in less than a month.

A true demonstration of the entrepreneurial spirit and a unique opportunity in the design and construction industry, the partners came together to develop a prototype without solicitation by a client, but with an end-user in mind – citizens across the world. 

PCL is manufacturing and assembling the pods by retrofitting 20-foot and 40-foot shipping containers with customizable options to support rapid delivery and installation to any site, including high-traffic and remote locations. Equipped with a suite of intelligent, customizable technologies powered by the trusted Microsoft Azure cloud platform and Azure AI, the Citizen Care Pod incorporates Insight’s Connected Platform and PCL’s Job Site Insights™ Internet of Things hubs to enable safety and security in the physical testing environment.

With its customizable features, the Citizen Care Pod makes COVID-19 testing mobile for any high-traffic business or community to expedite testing, screening and eventually vaccination on mass scale to support a health-secure future.

Along with Sterilray™, we created a solution to enhance sanitization. PURE Portal, the first in our product line, utilizes Far-UV light technology to effectively remove COVID-19 and other pathogens from shopping cart surfaces within seconds. 

Fueling the Food Banks

Food banks have been hit particularly hard during COVID-19 and PCL employees held drives to support. Edmonton's SNACK program provides more than 70 schools with nutritious snacks to help students be more focused learners. Employees also collected more than 22,000 items and raised more than $6,000 for the Edmonton Food Bank. 

Toronto Accepts the Lunch Box Challenge

When food’s involved, we’re always up to the task. In the Lunch Box Challenge, construction companies nominate each other to treat workers to a thank-you lunch from local eateries. The challenge shows appreciation for workers, and it supports local businesses during COVID-19.

“Our teams have experienced an incredible amount of stress and anxiety over the past few months due to COVID-19. They’ve responded well to all the new safety measures and continue to demonstrate a strong commitment to our projects,” says Mike Love, superintendent. “It was a privilege for us to provide lunch and offer our appreciation for their efforts.” From the look on this fellow’s face, it was pretty darned sweet.

Helping Angelenos Get Outside

The hottest accessory for Los Angeles County residents right now is the face covering. In fact, it’s a requirement for anybody heading outdoors, but not everyone has easy access to them, especially the physically or financially vulnerable. PCL California Buildings was happy to provide support with a donation of face masks that will help protect those in need. “It's critical that residents have access to the personal protective equipment necessary to stay safe during these challenging times, and it’s important for members of our community to look out for each other,” says Marqueece Harris-Dawson, council member for Council District 8. “We appreciate this donation of masks from PCL that will support our essential workers and most vulnerable constituents.”

Negative Air Machines for University of Colorado Health

We’ve found ways to support front-line health care workers and donate to local charitable organizations in need. In Denver, the COVID-19 crisis compelled Jeff Darnell, director of business development, to act. “We have a close relationship with UC Health, so I reached out to them and other health care networks and government agencies to see how PCL could support them,” says Jeff. “UC Health needed negative air machines so we coordinated internally with our Equipment group in Denver to donate and deliver several machines.

Negative air machines are used in hospitals to create negative pressure isolation rooms to treat patients with airborne infections.