SCS Engineers is excited to announce the appointment of two new National Market Leaders for the firm, set to take effect at the beginning of 2025. This strategic move follows the announcement of its new Executive Leadership Team in January 2024, marking another step in SCS’s ongoing commitment to growth. One SCS is how the firm works proactively as one team to leverage talent across the company, applying systems and processes locally that deliver the highest quality and value to clients.
Mike Miller will take the reins from Mike McLaughlin to lead the Environmental Services (ES) practice. Mike Miller has been with SCS for nearly 20 years, serving in various roles across the company. While most of his responsibilities have been with the Central Business Unit, where he served as the ES Leader and grew and led the Omaha and Des Moines offices, he has also served SCS as one of the National Experts for Environmental Due Diligence. Mike is a Project Director and was appointed as a Senior Vice President in November of 2023. Mike Miller will oversee the strategic direction, growth, and performance of the company’s ES market. Undoubtedly, he will continue to be fueled by his passion for engaging SCSers across the company with his One SCS spirit to provide exceptional service for clients.
Dan Cooper will lead SCS’s Solid Waste practice, taking over from Bob Gardner. Dan joined SCS in 2005 and has been an integral part of the Southeast Business Unit, most recently serving as their Solid Waste Leader. Under Dan’s leadership, the Southeast solid waste practice has grown by over 70% since 2019, when he took on his current position. Dan is a professional engineer in several states and serves SCS as a Project Director and Vice President. Dan, newly elected to SWANA’s Board of Directors, is the Region 5 Director for Florida and the Caribbean. Similarly to Mike, Dan will focus his efforts on the strategy, growth, and performance of the solid waste market for SCS with a heavy focus on enhancing our One SCS approach to serving clients.
SCS’s employee-owners and clients are deeply grateful to Mike McLaughlin and Bob Gardner, who have been instrumental in guiding the firm to its current success. Their dedication and leadership have left an indelible mark on the organization, and we extend our heartfelt gratitude for their years of service.
Mike McLaughlin was appointed the firm’s first corporate ES Leader in 1993, following SCS’s adoption of a new strategic plan. He previously served as the Director of the Mid-Atlantic business unit. As ES Leader, he helped business units find needed resources from across the company to solve client challenges, and in 1997, was instrumental in establishing SCS’s National Partner/National Expert subject matter expert roles. Mike sought to identify industrial trends and position SCS to be successful as the firm’s services evolved over the years. He has been a key technical resource and a valued member of the SCS executive team, serving in numerous capacities, including Senior Vice President, Board member, and Corporate Secretary, among many others.
Mike McLaughlin is working closely with Mike Miller for the remainder of 2024 to transition the ES corporate role effective January 1, 2025. He will continue to serve SCS in various capacities beyond 2024 as he plans to continue working full-time after the transition.
In the Solid Waste practice, Bob Gardner 2024 will be his last year as a full-time employee and, as such, will transition the Solid Waste Leader role to Dan Cooper. Bob assumed the position from Jim Walsh when Jim was named SCS’s President in 2002, and he has provided tremendous leadership and guidance for the past 22 years. Before being named SW Leader, Bob established and led the Southeast Business Unit. Under Bob’s direction, SCS continues to be viewed as the world’s premier solid waste management services provider. Like Mike McLaughlin, Bob has mentored many people over the years and has served in many capacities, including Senior Vice President and Board Member.
Bob will work with Dan for the remainder of 2024 to transition his role. Beginning in 2025, Bob will transition to a part-time role but continue to be an asset for SCS, especially within the solid waste due diligence practice he is passionate about and one that brings tremendous value to clients.
Please join SCS in thanking Mike McLaughlin and Bob Gardner for their passion, commitment, and accomplishments to the environmental and waste industries that span decades, and congratulate Mike Miller and Dan Cooper as they move toward their new roles in 2025.
Additional Information:
About SCS Engineers:
SCS Engineers’ consultants, scientists, engineers, and contractors provide expertise in designing and implementing solid and hazardous waste management, biogas, RNG, carbon capture – reduction, measurement, air quality, greenhouse gas verification solutions, and land recycling, each compliant with the most rigorous regulations and standards. Our award-winning teams work with industries, manufacturers, developers, and municipalities to prevent, mitigate, and remediate environmental challenges while applying our knowledge of environmental regulatory systems and technologies. SCS professionals work effectively to shorten project timelines, stay on budget, and close gaps between sustainability goals and achievements so our clients can produce and deliver products and services more efficiently.
SCS Engineers and Florida East Coast Industries (FECI) are to be honored at the annual conference in Florida planned for August 2021. The firms will receive a 2021 Engineering Excellence Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida. The honor acknowledges SCS for the environmental engineering firm’s innovative design that integrates groundwater remediation with the stormwater management system on a 500-acre former landfill site. The design enabled the developer to remediate the former landfill into the Countyline Corporate Park in Southeast Florida.
Industrial real estate is in high demand, but former landfills and brownfields present environmental challenges that can become cost-prohibitive to redevelop without sound environmental expertise. FECI retained the professional services of SCS Engineers to provide consulting and design services addressing the environmental concerns preventing the transformation of a former landfill into a state of the art business park.
Environmental guidelines require 28% (or about 140 acres) of the site to be set aside for stormwater retention. The set aside would require the relocation of several thousand cubic yards of waste and prevent the 140 acres’ redevelopment. The estimated loss of $300 million in potential real estate sales, coupled with the groundwater remediation expense, made the site redevelopment cost-prohibitive. Unless resolved, the problem also impeded FECI’s corporate sustainability goals.
SCS’s experts in landfill design, closure, and remediation, developed a solution tying together the groundwater remediation and stormwater management systems. The integrated system allows for shallow aquifer recharge with stormwater and captures impacted groundwater at the site’s boundary. “We were able to provide an alternative design acceptable to all the permitting agencies, eliminating the need to set aside large areas for stormwater retention,” said Mr. Som Kundral, P.E., SCS’s senior project manager.
SCS’s remedial actions protect public health while opening the site for reuse. The project will be completed in phases. Phase I, consisting of 160 acres, is complete, with two million square feet of occupied businesses and a 30-acre community park. Development of the other three phases, which include another six million square feet, is underway.
The development will create hundreds of new jobs, deliver several hundred million dollars to the city and county tax base, and provide a 30-acre public park. “The engineering solution protects the environment while meeting FECI’s strategic, social, economic, and sustainability goals,” said Mr. Eduardo Smith, P.E., SCS’s senior vice president of client success.
Learn more about these related topics, events, and case studies at SCS Engineers:
You’re not just an employee at SCS; you’re an Employee-Owner which means as you grow professionally, you develop yourself, exponentially. We value our team members, so we offer them more.
Have student debt? Join the SCS team, and we’ll make a monthly payment toward your eligible student loans up to $10,000.
 |
 |
 |
Our Employee Stock Ownership Program – ESOP provides stock ownership and retirement savings over and above our 401k program.
Instead of non-industry investors making a profit, we provide more to our employees for a job well done.
College is an excellent start to your professional career, but there’s so much more to learn. SCS offers professional and people skills development, mentoring from the best in the industry, and an environment of continual growth.
Already an experienced professional? Consider joining a firm that puts your expertise to work, creating the most innovative environmental solutions, and helping municipalities and businesses meet some of the most challenging issues of our time. SCS offers you opportunities to share your knowledge with industry peers, in publications, and with our client community.
 |
 |
 |
In addition to medical, dental, vision, Life, AD&D, LTD, STD, Accident & Hospital Indemnity, we personalize the employee experience with service achievement awards, blog and social media shout-outs, industry association networking, and community service opportunities.
Be more, do more, grow more.
Why settle for being employee #10234 when you can experience a deep sense of personal satisfaction where your achievements have a positive impact on our environment. SCS Engineers, one of the most respected environmental companies in North America, has open positions now.
SCS’s environmental services supporting COMM22, a mixed-use, mixed-income redevelopment project in San Diego will be recognized at Environmental Industry Summit XV
When the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) presents its 19th annual Business Achievement awards this March, SCS Engineers will receive an award of Project Merit: Redevelopment, for its investigation and design program for COMM22, a multi-family residential development by BRIDGE Housing.
COMM22 is a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented development built on a former bus maintenance facility. SCS addressed several issues including underground storage tanks and the testing of fill soils. The firm’s pre-construction characterization and three-dimensional data analysis resulted in time and budget savings.
“Our remediation effort on this property ensured that human health and the environment were protected as cost-effectively as possible,” said Dan Johnson, vice president of SCS. “Affordable housing is important to San Diego communities and we applaud the work of BRIDGE Housing and the collaboration it takes to create urban projects like this.”
BRIDGE Housing Corporation, a leading nonprofit developer of affordable housing, creates and manages a range of high-quality, affordable homes for working families and seniors. Since it was founded in 1983, BRIDGE has participated in the development of over 16,000 homes in California and the Pacific Northwest.
More award-winning redevelopment projects of interest:
Petco Park and East Redevelopment – San Diego
Emerald Ridge Homes – East Alton
NFL Stadium Site – Los Angeles
Commercial Real Estate Transactions blog
