In 2022, the Board of Directors voted to add two more types of awards to the honors the association bestows to deserving contributors to IAPMO’s success. This one is the President’s Green Oval.
This new award will be presented each year during the education and business conference to individuals and/or organizations who have demonstrated outstanding service in support of The IAPMO Group’s mission and strategic directives.
This year IAPMO honored two inaugural recipients, both of whom are no doubt among IAPMO’s most familiar faces.
AWARD RECIPIENTS
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Pete Skinner John MacArthur, P.E. About 12 years ago, profound concerns about water safety and wasted water and energy resulting from oversized water supply pipes in homes and buildings motivated IAPMO to lead a research project, along with the American Installing new plumbing systems with properly sized piping can help address water quality issues attributed to lower flows in oversized premise plumbing while simultaneously using less water and energy. Properly sized pipes are also more compatible with modern fixtures and appliances and can deliver hot water in quicker times, both of which help save water and energy. Pete Skinner, founder and owner of E2G Solar in Albany, New York, and John MacArthur, P.E., of Beardsley Architects and Engineering, utilized the Water Demand Calculator to design the premise plumbing systems for three 35-unit apartment buildings for Beacon Communities in New Hartford, New York — the first multi-family buildings designed and built using the WDC. Working with Beacon on solar heating systems for their prospective properties in New Hartford, Skinner put flow meters on some of their existing big multi-family systems. He noticed the hot water flow rates were really small. While peak water demand was 70 gallons per minute, he never measured more than 3 gallons per minute on the hot water. Consulting with Gary Klein after having read one of his articles about hot water distribution, Skinner asked if the flows are so low why are the pipes so big? Pete, at the encouragement of Gary, made the decision to utilize the Water Demand Calculator for these new properties. Though the project was already in Phase 2 of development, Pete pushed forward. The calculations using the WDC came back at 16 gallons per minute, requiring a 1 and a quarter inch main — a reduction of four pipe sizes. Skinner and Klein redid the math multiple times, always coming up the same. Beardsley was hired as the Mechanical Electrical Plumbing firm for Phase 2, which brough MacArthur on board. He was skeptical at first but kept an open mind as Skinner demonstrated the efficacy of a WDC-designed system and eventually convinced him it would work. Since New York does not use the Uniform Plumbing Code, MacArthur leaned on language from Chapter 4 of the New York State Plumbing Code: The design of the water distribution system shall conform to accepted engineering practice, which is defined as that which conforms to accepted principals, tests or standards of nationally recognized technical or scientific authorities. As IAPMO’s Water Efficiency and Sanitation Standard, WE•Stand, is an American National Standard, and it contains the Water Demand Calculator, the accepted engineering practice requirement was met. From there, MacArthur communicated with the water district, put the drawings together, and carried the WDC-designed system across the goal line. The project went from Phase 2 design to completion of construction within the same calendar year, providing affordable housing for seniors with the most efficient premise plumbing system mathematically possible. In recognition for giving the Water Demand Calculator its first real-world success story for a multi-family dwelling, IAPMO is pleased to honor Pete Skinner and John MacArthur with the 2023 President’s Green Oval Award. “I am a big fan of green; renewable energy is what got me into engineering in the first place,” MacArthur said. “Sustainability is something I bring to the table on every project. “I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to IAPMO for their role in bringing such an easy-to-use and important tool for the plumbing design community. I use the Water Demand Calculator on every multi-family project I am involved with and hope the future brings similar tools for other occupancy types.” “This award is very meaningful to me after 15 years of research, design and installation work and publishing in the solar thermal and hot water heating and distribution field,” Skinner said. “IAPMO’s Water Demand Calculator method reflects this emerging awareness about water use in buildings." “Thank you and the selection committee for considering our work to collect and analyze real domestic water consumption data and then apply fundamental principles to the design of water distribution plumbing at multifamily buildings. We hope that this work will find acceptance nationwide and inform the work of other designers who will choose approaches that better serve the public in the decades to come. That will be a legacy that I will be really proud of.” |
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UA Local 562 UA Local 562 Business Manager John O’Mara and his dynamic team — Scott Ramshaw, government relations and business development; Fred Searcy Jr., director of minority recruitment; Tom Malacek, political director; and Don Summers, retired assistant training director — provided endless resources earlier this year to ensure the city of Saint Louis maintained the highest standard in public health and safety with the updated adoption of the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code. Over the course of a multiyear effort, the 562 team often had to navigate politically turbulent waters, all the while demonstrating its ability to effectively collaborate with policy makers. The level of expertise and professionalism exhibited by the 562 team was exemplary and all the hard work paid off when Mayor Tishaura Jones signed the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code into law on Feb. 21, 2023. IAPMO is grateful for the resources that have been allocated over the years to ensure the Uniform Plumbing Code is maintained as St. Louis’ model plumbing code. In 2016, before the plumbing code update initiative, IAPMO was awarded the St. Louis County trade testing administration contract. When exploring examination sites, it was O’Mara and Local 562 who stepped up to the plate, offering the use of Local 562’s state-of-the-art training facility to IAPMO for examination administration. This generosity allows trade professionals an affordable avenue to test for journeyperson or master licensure in eleven disciplines. Further, it displays the commitment O'Mara and Local 562 have repeatedly shown in maintaining a highly qualified workforce throughout the St. Louis region. In honor of the vital work that UA Local 562 performs to ensure the highest standards of health and safety through code adoption, training, and professional qualifications, IAPMO recognizes John O'Mara and UA Local 562 as recipients of the President’s Green Oval Award. “Thank you for this wonderful award. We’ve been with IAPMO and the UPC since 2005 and we are very happy with your code,” Searcy Jr. said. “We really love this code and hope to be with you guys as partners for years to come.”
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Shabbir Rawalpindiwala The first recipient, Shabbir Rawalpindiwala, has demonstrated his commitment to the advancement of the plumbing industry through the development of effective, progressive codes and standards for nearly 50 years. When you talk about a subject matter expert on standards, he’s a real one. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1976, Rawalpindiwala found employment — and his calling — as a testing engineer at U.S. Testing in Tulsa. The expertise and connections he derived in that capacity led him to IAPMO, where he was hired as director of Quality Control in 1985 and later director of Standards in 1989. For the next 13 years, he enriched and expanded IAPMO’s Standards department and its scope of work into a dynamic organization, serving the industry more expertly and intuitively than ever before. He even stepped in as IAPMO executive director on an interim basis for a few months in the early ‘90s. In 1998, one of the leading plumbing product manufacturers in the world, Kohler, lured him to Wisconsin to serve as its manager of Codes and Standards, a position he held for 22 years, continuing to work closely with IAPMO and the industry on myriad codes and standards of mutual interest. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement. Rawalpindiwala serves or has served on the IAPMO Product Standards Committee as vice chair, ASME A112 Plumbing Committee as vice chair, IAPMO/ASSE Product Standards Committee, US TAG to ISO 316 Water Efficiency Standards, Canadian Standards Association technical committees and numerous other codes and standards working groups addressing plumbing products and water efficiency. He has also been integrally involved in legislative advocacy at the federal level and is frequently recognized for his tireless efforts working with industry stakeholders to advance the harmonization of plumbing standards in both the United States and Canada. As he has dedicated his career to the promotion of science, the art of plumbing, and advancement of codes and standards, his contributions and influence have not gone unnoticed by appreciative peers. Rawalpindiwala will no doubt have to make room in his crowded trophy case for this latest honor, as he has received such honors as PMI’s 2019 Ambassador Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ 2019 Patrick Higgins Medal, The Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating’s 2015 Joseph K. Seidner Award, the Canadian Standards Association’s 2013 Award of Merit, and the 2009 PMI President Award. IAPMO is pleased to add inaugural recipient of the IAPMO President’s Green Oval Award to the list of deserved accolades bestowed upon Shabbir Rawalpindiwala. |
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Tim Collings The second inaugural recipient of the President’s Green Oval Award is a true embodiment of the term mentor. Whether it be through professional guidance of his peers or his unique gift for teaching, it’s fair to say each IAPMO member who has had any opportunity to learn from his tutelage has carried forward something helpful to their future work. Raised in a family of plumbers, Tim Collings attended a certified apprenticeship program at Salt Lake Community College starting in 1970. After moving to Wyoming, he completed his plumbing apprenticeship and became a licensed plumber. He returned to Utah in 1981 and became the owner and sole proprietor of Tee Pee Plumbing and Heating. At the same time, he started working as a plumbing inspector in Salt Lake City — and remained there for the next 40-plus years, during which he served as chief plumbing inspector, chief plumbing and mechanical inspector, and senior inspector, supervising the plumbing, mechanical, electrical and building inspectors. He also began teaching in the plumbing apprenticeship program at Salt Lake Community College where his own journey in the trades began, honing his skills as an educator that have now enriched the careers of so many of us gathered here today. Over his five decades in the trades, Collings has served on numerous committees and boards working to improve the plumbing and mechanical industry, including the UPC Technical Committee as chairman, IAPMO’s Plumbing Certification Committee, IAPMO Education and Training Committee, the UMC Workshop Committee, the IAPMO Board of Directors, director on the Utah Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials Board, including two as president, and member of the UAPMO education committee, teaching dozens of classes in the continuing education program. Anybody who has attended an IAPMO conference the last 20 or so years has no doubt attended one of his code review seminars and later been better equipped to perform their job back home as a result. To honor a remarkable career of volunteerism, shared expertise, and steady leadership, IAPMO presents Tim Collings with the President’s Green Oval Award. “It’s been a heck of a journey,” he said. “I started in 1981 as a member of the association. I guess it snowballed from there a little bit. It’s kind of like having had two careers. I think of IAPMO as my family. It’s been a great journey and taken me all the way around the world. I’ve got no complaints. Thank you, everybody, I appreciate all this.” |