A “Light” Note During Coronavirus Crisis

Mazzetti friends and colleagues:

Let me start by apologizing for delivering one MORE email to your almost certainly flooded inbox. And, while it is true that we are here to help anybody who needs it (and our people are already helping many of you), we wanted to give you a few other thoughts about ways our community can work together to use this situation to make positive change. “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

MINDFULNESS FOR EVERYONE

First, we have a strong wellness initiative inside of Mazzetti, including a focus on mental wellness. As part of that, we host a twice-weekly meditation for all employees. (A couple of years ago, we worked with UCSD Center for Mindfulness re Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training for our employees, based on the practices of John Kabat-Zinn). Now, as our global community faces the anxiety that comes with the coronavirus, we want to extend an invitation to all of you to join us. If you’re interested, please contact my colleague Jess Hamann who will be happy to share dial-in info with you. (This is suitable for all levels of meditators, including those who have never experienced a meditation – we invite you to join us too!)

OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE ELECTRICAL CODES

Second, in the spirit of “let no good crisis go to waste”, we have an opportunity. What happens to electrical systems during a pandemic? Can we correctly size electrical systems to have enough capacity for these surge events? How much must we oversize our systems to be sure we have enough? And, how do we know how to set appropriate National Electrical Code demand factors without data on this topic?  The current situation provides us with a rare opportunity to try to gather this much-needed data. More context here. Please contact me if you are at all interested to partner on this cause.

ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE TO PROTECT HEALTH

A recent communication from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been lost in the necessary news deluge regarding the virus. On Tuesday, Guterres said , “It is important that all the attention that needs to be given to fight this disease does not distract us from the need to defeat climate change.” Even as we work together to get through this crisis, let’s use the community we are building to tackle other daunting common challenges.

In an interesting way, both of these challenges require similar responses from each one of us. I heard one public health official say, if we go to all of this trouble, and the pandemic doesn’t seem too bad, it will seem like we over-reacted. But, that is exactly the point of public health interventions; you intervene to ensure that something bad does not happen. Protecting health works best when we work together to prevent harm, rather than trying to fix later.

Mazzetti’s priority is the same as yours — taking care of each other. With 85% of our business in Healthcare, we can best do this by ensuring our Healthcare system has the buildings it needs to face any situation.

We welcome your questions in this time of exceptional need. Let’s all take care of each other, and let’s not forget to take care of our planet. Now’s the time.