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Construction Precautions During Covid-19

Evolve Builders Site Protocols Updated

Information, recommendations and requirements regarding the COVID-19 outbreak continue to evolve.

As you might expect, Evolve Builders Group is taking proactive steps to address the health and safety of our clients, trade partners, employees and the continuity of our business operations.

Effective March 16, the Evolve Guelph Office is closed to the public. Office staff have begun working remotely from home. Meetings with colleagues, clients or external stakeholders will be conducted electronically by means such as Zoom/Skype, phone or otherwise rescheduled.

Field operations will continue to remain active on job sites but with important new controls in place:

• Hand washing stations and provision of further instructions on safe working conditions have been shared with our team
We are temporarily forgoing our usual practice of carpooling
• we will be keeping small teams of field staff together without adding/substituting others into or out of the team as we ordinarily might do to maximize proficiency. In this way, should one person require future isolation, the impact will be limited to a single team and not result in organizational shutdown.
• we may occasionally have more than one such team at the same site operating concurrently but only if distinctly different activities are possible and in physically separate areas of the building. In this instance, we anticipate also providing additional, separate Evolve tool trailers and additional separate sanitary facilities to ensure that risk of cross-contamination is minimized.
• at our discretion, we may need to restrict the number of different subcontracting firms that are active on site simultaneously and may further need to avoid having our own forces active while these third parties are on site. This may necessarily change the current project schedule to permit successive rather than concurrent completion of critical-path activities.
• In order to continue with progress while we are still permitted, we are have requested all clients no longer attend site (for currently active construction sites), even if after hours, until further notice. We can and will provide photographs and/or other updates on our progress – or to aid in requests for decisions – through our cloudware project management system.

We may be required to halt work on projects in those municipalities that are suspending construction inspection services, at such point as an ordinary inspection would be required. Otherwise, our key suppliers remain carefully ready to deliver goods and we can continue to build for the time being.

Evolve has a standing Business Continuity Plan which is being actively followed. We also long ago migrated most of our operational and project management systems securely to the cloud, which means we are accustomed to and equipped for remote management.

Further, we have a strong team that is cross trained to help ensure that people can step in should the ordinary participant(s) be unable to do so. Our staff are additionally capable and considerate; they can be trusted to do their careful best to help manage the situation.

We feel that our systems, people, and plan combine to make us well positioned to weather the current threats.

Please note that the additional demands now incumbent upon us may sometimes affect our workloads and responsiveness. We ask for your patience and support as we navigate these extraordinary circumstances while continuing to deliver on many important projects.

Keep well.

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