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The following article, which highlights GMI's experience in the wind energy industry, appeared in the January/February issue of Energy International Quarterly.

Environmental-consultancy firm leads the way on wind-energy research

by Denene Brox

The company's Vice President of Environmental Services Jason See says Geo-Marine, Inc. (GMI) kind of fell into the wind industry. "We'd done a lot of work with the Department of Defense and the US Navy," See says. "And so when wind, and specifically off-shore wind, began to take off, we were uniquely positioned to address all of the needs of this growing industry.

GMI provides engineering design, construction management, environmental planning and programming, and other archeological services in support of a wide range of government, industry, and commercial clients. The company was founded 36 years ago and has grown to seven US-based offices. In July, Applied Research Associates (ARA), an international research and engineering company specializing in the physical sciences, acquired GMI through a merger. The company will continue to operate under the name GMI and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA. It will also continue to occupy what is an increasingly valuable niche in its industry.

"There's not much competition from companies doing exactly what we do," says See, who's been with GMI for four and a half years. "To look at it another way, there are lots of companies that do parts of what we do. For example, there are companies that can just do cultural resource work; but as far as companies that have all of the capabilities in-house and highly experienced people that can do this, they are few and far between."

GMI specializes in four key areas: environmental resources, cultural resources, environmental engineering, and energy engineering. Clients call on the company for siting, routing, and permitting projects in order to meet federal, state, and local requirements. The firm is currently working on a $4.9 million contract with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, working in coastal waters to collect data on birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals over the span of 24 months. One of the primary goals for the New Jersey project is to determine the needs, costs, and benefits of offshore wind turbines in comparison to other electric-power sources including fossil, nuclear, and renewable fuels, as part of the state's long-term energy needs.

The firm's expert team consists of scientists, engineers, and statistics experts who conduct studies in support of off-shore wind-power development. The GMI team helps clients balance the importance of environmental stewardship with accomplishing their goals of developing offshore facilities. The level of expertise required for this kind of analysis is what sets GMI apart from other firms, See says. "One of the key things that Geo-Marine does is to make sure that we have high-quality employees and well-known experts in the field,” he says.

To this end, GMI relies on university recruiting and industry networking to locate qualified employees. "We go to universities that are training biologists in understanding things like radar systems in conjunction with bird migration," says Dan Wilkinson, PhD, senior vice president of GMl's environmental division. "There aren't too many universities around that fit the criteria, so we go to select universities, like Clemson University in South Carolina. We also recruit a lot of specialized staff, and work with universities when we don't have expertise in-house."

Most of the company's marketing is done through old-fashioned networking, like attending conferences sponsored by associations such as the American Wind Energy Association. Its word-of-mouth marketing strategy has also spread overseas, landing GMI a healthy number of projects in Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia.

"One of our best marketing strategies is the quality of work that Geo-Marine does. We're often referred to other developers because of the data that we produce for the industry," Wilkinson says, noting that to date, GMI has completed more than 3,500 projects.

"This field is a pretty tight-knit community at this point," See says. "Producing top information for the industry is one of the best marketing tools for us."

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