Crafton Tull invests in biking, energetic life-style

Crafton Tull, a Rogers-based engineering and design agency, continues to spend money on biking and energetic transportation amid progress by acquisition when the tradition is an effective match.

Earlier this 12 months, the corporate acquired Bentonville-based Laneshift, an expert improvement and training agency that teaches folks tips on how to plan and construct energetic transportation or bike infrastructure of their cities. Also this 12 months, Crafton Tull invested about $150,000 into biking and energetic transportation infrastructure at its Rogers workplace.

Matt Crafton, president and CEO of Crafton Tull, stated the corporate has been investing in biking and energetic transportation for about 20 years.

“As a business, we’ve encouraged it in our staff,” he stated. “We have company-branded cycling gear that we help pay for … We have a wellness program where we reimburse the cost of entry into different rides and races … We’ve sponsored cycling teams here in Northwest Arkansas. So it’s just been … our culture going back many years.”

Crafton stated because the area has embraced biking over the previous 20-30 years, the corporate has been the design agency for “many miles of paved trails all around Northwest Arkansas,” together with a part of the Razorback Greenway. The firm continues to work on space path initiatives. It’s additionally designed a number of bike parks in Northwest Arkansas.

Ryan Hale, founder and vp at Laneshift, stated he defines energetic transportation as something that’s human-powered, together with strolling, biking, rolling and operating. It additionally contains using electrical scooters and e-bikes.

Crafton Tull’s about $150,000 in investments in biking and energetic transportation had been accomplished at its Rogers workplace. The firm renovated the previous surveyors constructing into recreation station The Brake Room for bike storage and showering, added a brand new path connection and bought company-owned e-bikes for workers to make use of for space conferences.

“I don’t know that that’s common in the business world for a company to make those types of investments,” Hale stated. “We’re seeing that more and more here. More companies are doing that, but historically that’s not been common.”

Crafton stated the roughly 2,000-square-foot surveyors constructing behind the Rogers workplace turned unused after the surveyors moved into the workplace.

“So we remodeled it and built a couple of showers, some bike storage and lockers for our staff just to make it easier for people to ride, have a place to clean up and take a shower,” he stated. “We also connected our site to an adjacent street with a little sidewalk connection, so our staff can get easily onto the greenways from our office rather than going out onto a busy street.”

The connection work included including a few 30-foot-long pedestrian and bicycle path between the workplace and an adjoining neighborhood, permitting workers to get onto the realm path system with out having to take Olive Street.

Crafton stated the corporate additionally purchased two e-bikes for employees use. Laneshift already owns a fleet of e-bikes that it makes use of for its skilled improvement programs.

“We have to go to meetings all the time, whether at the city of Rogers, Bentonville, or other places,” he stated. “Our staff can just hop on an e-bike and zip over to a meeting, get there in 10-15 minutes on an e-bike and then come back.”

LANESHIFT ACQUISITION
Crafton stated the corporate’s acquisition of Laneshift is “as much culture as it is money and revenue.”

He stated he’s identified Hale for greater than 20 years. Hale performed sports activities in highschool, for the Arkansas Razorbacks within the late ‘90s and for the New York Giants, together with throughout the 2001 Super Bowl. The Rogers native labored for the Walton Family Foundation earlier than he began Laneshift in 2017.

“We both grew up in Rogers,” Crafton stated. “I’m a little older than him … I’ve always admired him. We just like having his people and him in our company. That’s a big benefit for us … What he does fits within what we do … hand in glove. He gets people from all over the U.S. out there thinking about planning … trail networks in their town, and that’s what we do. We help plan, and then we help design … The culture is what’s really important to us.”

Hale stated Laneshift and Crafton Tull are aligned of their mission and values, which helped to make for a clean transition.

Before the acquisition, Hale stated the 2 corporations labored collectively on numerous initiatives, and “we had a high comfort level with their staff and good relationships with their staff … Going from a team of four to a team of over 300 peers and fellow teammates is pretty remarkable.”

Hale stated becoming a member of Crafton Tull has offered Laneshift with extra sources and allowed him to give attention to its work extra narrowly.

“Before we joined Crafton, I served as the IT department, the HR department … I wore a lot of different hats,” Hale stated. “What’s really great is that Crafton Tull was able to take a lot of those things over and let us focus on the things that we’re really passionate about and the things that we’re really good at.”

TRANSPORTATION ACADEMY
Laneshift hosts folks from throughout the United States for skilled improvement programs in Northwest Arkansas.

“They ride around our trails, they see things and learn how to do it in their town,” Crafton stated. “There’s mayors, city planners, city engineers and state highway officials … and they see what we’re doing in Northwest Arkansas and … take those lessons back to their communities.”

Hale stated Laneshift is “laser-focused on helping strengthen people and places through active transportation.” It teaches its course members “how to build connected communities through active transportation.”

Laneshift’s flagship program is the Active Transportation Academy, which is targeted on particular person skilled improvement. The four-day “immersive experience” takes place in Northwest Arkansas, Hale stated. It’s hosted 4 occasions yearly, and he seems to be so as to add extra periods within the coming years.

The firm additionally gives skilled improvement programs for teams or Benchmarking Tours. Participants spend two to a few days in Northwest Arkansas studying about energetic transportation infrastructure and initiatives that they’ll implement of their communities.

Laneshift additionally travels with shoppers outdoors Northwest Arkansas to find out about energetic transportation in different cities, akin to Austin, Texas, or New York.

Additionally, Laneshift gives consulting to help shoppers in creating plans for connectivity, security enhancements and grant writing — all associated to energetic transportation.

Recently, the corporate has been enterprise extra skilled improvement work targeted on a particular area. Hale stated Laneshift is working with a big metropolitan space in one other state to develop an energetic transportation improvement program for the realm, much like its academy. He expects this work to proceed to develop.

Hale cited a number of advantages of energetic transportation, together with that it’s good for folks’s psychological and bodily well being. He additionally famous the current University of Arkansas examine that reveals biking has an financial influence on the area of about $159 million yearly.

“That’s really compelling data,” he stated. “We just want to help more communities. We want to … continue to help promote cultures of movement and activity, and we think if we just continue to serve our clients and serve professionals in the way that we have, we think that we’re going to continue to grow.”

GROWTH TRAJECTORY
Crafton stated the corporate is a 100% employee-owned enterprise with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and emphasised the significance of progress, including that the corporate is all the time trying to broaden.

“The cultural fit is the most important thing beyond the numbers,” he stated. “We’ve got to make sure that any company that wants to join us … is going to be a good cultural fit. We’re careful and cautious about that. Jim Tull is our chief strategy officer, and that’s one of Jim’s primary responsibilities is looking to acquisitions. We’ve got some discussions going on. They don’t happen to be here local. They’re in other places. But we’re cautiously looking at some things to help us grow our business.”

The firm has places of work in Rogers, in Fayetteville (two) and eight different areas, Crafton stated. The Rogers and Fayetteville areas have bike racks and different gear to accommodate workers who need to commute to work.

“We’re trying to take that culture to other office locations,” he stated. “In those communities, some are further along than others … That’s what the next steps are: bringing that bike culture to our other offices and other places where we’re located.”

Courtney Guppy, senior vp of human sources at Crafton Tull, stated a gaggle of its Northwest Arkansas workers is “really into biking,” and the curiosity is rising. They prefer to bike to work and participate in biking occasions and applications all year long. Guppy stated the current investments on the firm’s Rogers workplace help the group’s biking curiosity, and the path connection improves security. The Brake Room, which is open to workers day or night time, gives an area to chill off or bathe after biking or operating earlier than going to work. Also, an ice machine will quickly be put in there.

“Your employees, if they’re healthy and they feel well and they feel like you’re taking care of them, they’re happier at work,” Guppy stated. “Happy employees are productive employees.”

She stated workers suggestions about The Brake Room has been constructive. It may also be used for different occasions to accommodate those that aren’t into biking. The work on the Rogers workplace was one in all many current workplace renovation initiatives, Guppy stated. The firm just lately renovated workplace house in Fayetteville and Little Rock. Also, its Jonesboro workplace is being renovated.

The firm has 316 workers, together with 155 workers in Northwest Arkansas, she stated. The quantity is up about 5% from final 12 months, with numerous progress in Northwest Arkansas. Job openings embrace engineers, panorama architects and surveyors.

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