Award Winning Safety One Step at a Time

Investing in cutting-edge technology keeps his crew safe and business a step ahead of the competition, said Scott Knightly, president of EnviroVantage Inc.

Knightly started his business in 1984 and now has 80 employees in two locations: Epping, New Hampshire, and Westbrook, Maine. EnviroVantage serves customers across the upper East Coast by offering environmental and specialty services, including demolition, decontamination, disaster recovery, historical restoration, asbestos abatement and environmental cleanup.

While serving on the board of the National Demolition Association, Knightly met Peter Bigwood, Brokk’s vice president of sales and marketing.

About three years ago, Knightly asked Bigwood to show his entire company what Brokk could offer. Bigwood and August Scalici, Brokk training specialist, traveled to the EnviroVantage team to demonstrate the equipment.

The team, liking what it saw, purchased the lightweight Brokk 100 and several hydraulic attachments, including the Darda concrete crusher, hydraulic hammer, Brokk metal shear and grapple. Scalici provided on-site training to EnviroVantage’s two certified operators.

“Our Brokk operators love coming to work, and the rest of the team loves seeing them show up,” Knightly said. “They know when the Brokk arrives on the jobsite, it will complete the project fast and safely.”

EnviroVantage combines the Brokk with its own innovative techniques to take on specialized demolition projects. The demolition of a landlocked 55-foot-high elevated announcer’s platform built as part of a bomb shelter is one example. The demo team built ramps and platforms to drive the Brokk through the complex and into the elevated structure to handle the challenging project. There was no hydraulic hammering allowed on the 12-inch thick concrete structure, so the hydraulic crusher was the only way to get through the reinforced concrete. The crew’s ingenuity and equipment allowed them to complete the work in just 2.5 weeks.

Another time, the crew took the stairway to success. When they needed to remove an old self-supporting stairway in the middle of a school, they knew it would be too risky to put people in the stairwell. The crew operated the Brokk remotely from a doorway on each level, walking the machine down the stairs backward and demolishing the stairway from the top down.

“By using the Brokk on the stairway, we were able to take it down three times faster,” Knightly said. “With indoor projects like this one, we really benefit from Brokk because it’s electric and has zero emissions.”

Safety matters to the team at EnviroVantage. It shows in the 32 safety and industry awards the company has received since 2002. Just recently they earned the Associated Builders and Contractors Gold Level 2016 STEP National Safety Award, which recognizes companies that exhibit a continued commitment to jobsite safety.

“We are focused on safety and keeping our workers out of harm’s way,” Knightly said. “And as a result of our commitment, we have won more bids and have received these safety awards. We owe our success to our people and to using equipment like the Brokk.”

In the end, Knightly’s motto reigns true: To achieve success, you need the right tools to complete your projects safely and efficiently. Knightly’s willingness to try a different approach to demolition ultimately increased productivity and safety for his crew, and that is what makes him a Brokk Star.