We had the opportunity to interview industry professionals who not only serve our industry but also served our country in this special veteran Q&A series. We chatted with Joe Bennett of Lightspeed Restoration, and we discussed his leadership style, operational strategy, aligning your team and more. Joe is an Air Force veteran; he has more than 20 years of environmental and construction experience and he focuses on sustainable home restoration. 

Question: How has your military background influenced your leadership style and operational strategy? 

Answer: My military background has instilled a strong sense of discipline and attention to detail in my leadership style, and I try to instill these qualities and mindset in my team. We have the same discipline, knowing that the little things can make all the difference when we are serving our customers.

I focus my team on the short-term and immediate goals while I keep an eye on the long-term strategy. This helps me communicate the big picture vision to my team at the start of each year, but on a day-to-day basis. I want them laser-focused on what's in the pipeline and what needs to get done now, not down the road and towards the end of the year. This balance of short-term execution and long-term planning is a crucial part of my leadership.

Q: What practices or technologies are you using to make you more environmentally responsible? 

 A: The nature of our work makes it difficult to reuse some of our materials; we are committed to sustainability in other ways. We prioritize using plant-based, green cleaning products whenever possible, as we know our customers care about having non-toxic solutions. Both in their homes and businesses, especially around their around their teams, family and even pets. We have invested in upgrading our equipment to be more energy efficient. By selecting air movers, dehumidifiers and other essential equipment and tools that use less power, we can reduce the electrical footprint at our job sites. Most people don’t think about this, but when we’re utilizing our tools and equipment, we significantly impact a customer's utility bills.

Before we invested in upgrading our equipment, we made sure we properly maintained and cared for our equipment to ensure we maximized its lifespan, and it ran at its peak. Of course, we still maintain and care for our energy efficient equipment, but for the equipment that isn’t energy efficient, if you fail to maintain or care for your equipment it can negatively affect how your equipment performs. I cannot stress how important maintaining and caring for your equipment is.

Q: How do you approach training and development within your team to ensure they're equipped with both technical excellence and environmental stewardship? 

A: Training and certification are a major focus of mine. I make sure our technicians take part in regular corporate training, in addition I also send them to industry training and certification offerings through entities like the EPA, OSHA and the IICRC. The variety of training we use, allows us to equip our team with both the technical and non-technical support needed to handle all types of restoration scenarios. Beyond the hard skills, I have also created a culture of environmental responsibility within my team. We use green cleaning products as our standard practice, and technicians know to only deviate from that, if necessary, after getting approval from our customers. 

Q: What role does community engagement play in your business, and how do you see restoration companies contributing to local resilience and recovery? 

A: Community engagement is important to us. We sponsor local youth sports teams as a way to give back. I even coached for a few years to stay connected to the community. We also do regular lunch-and-learn sessions with real estate agents, educating them on restoration services so they can better inform and assist their clients.

Our team’s commitment goes beyond marketing. One instance that really stands out to me was when a family reached out about a lost pet hamster, and while we don’t specialize in that, we felt we could still assist a family with a different type of crisis. We took it upon ourselves to use our thermal imaging camera to track down their beloved pet. We wanted to go the extra mile, because we were equipped with the proper tools to do so. We ended up locating their hamster in an air duct and returning it back to the family. Needless to say, the hamster was hungry and thirsty, but alive and well.

Community support goes beyond helping them in a time of need. We just want to make sure that we take care of our neighbors however we can even if it’s not one of their best days.

Q: What innovations would you like to see in the restoration industry in the next couple of years? 

A: I am particularly excited about the potential for robotics and automation to transform our industry. Especially when it comes to accessing tight, hard-to-reach spaces and many other things we face daily. I also see a future where we leverage not only bots but drones into places like crawl spaces, HVAC systems and utilizing them in damage assessments. We already see them utilized now, but they will continue to evolve and push the envelope and help us streamline our processes and procedures.

We will not only become more efficient, but it will also allow us to have an extra layer of safety and reduce the need for technicians to put themselves in precarious positions.

One final thing I would like to mention is the continued advancement of green cleaning products, with solutions that have a longer-lasting effects even after they’re applied. I would also like to see additional innovations that help make our industry more sustainable, both in the term of materials, but also energy usage.