After spending about a year and a half with them, I am very excited to see this update!

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The CP Environmental Group team wishes you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year and would like to thank you for helping us make 2009 another successful year. 

As we look forward to this exciting and challenging New Year, we would like to share some highlights from 2009 that continue to shape us, and that ultimately become the building blocks of our future success. 

CP Environmental Group (CPEG) has continued providing favorable business solutions for our clients’ environmental challenges throughout the year by continuing to serve our repeat client base while adding key additional industrial, commercial and government clients including the 99th Army Reserve, the City of Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, the Mon Valley Initiative, the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, and the US Department of the Interior.

Recognition of our success came in several forms, the most important being outstanding client satisfaction.  In addition, CPEG was again named to Pennsylvania’s Top Business List by DiversityBusiness.com. This List is a classification that represents the top small businesses in the U.S., in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services. We were honored to have been selected as one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 diversity-owned businesses, for the third year in a row. 

Another of the year’s exciting news bites came when President, Peggy Carpenter was featured in the July edition of the Pittsburgh Magazine in the Spotlight on Women in Business – a full page in the magazine! 

CPEG was also honored in 2009 by being selected for the Best of Business Award in the Environmental Services category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA). The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognized the top 5% of small businesses throughout the country. The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based on information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports. 

Other highlights included graduation from the Athena PowerLink program with recognition at the 2009 Westmoreland County Winners Circle luncheon, and our President being “locked up” for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Ending the year on a very positive note, we were notified on December 29th that our President was selected as a winner of the 2010 Women in Business Awards by the Pittsburgh Business Times – the awards ceremony will be held on March 15, 2010 at the Westin Convention Center.  Look for a special supplement honoring the winners of the 2010 Business Women First Women in Business Awards distributed in the March 19, 2010 issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times.

We are proud to share these recognitions with you, and are excited to take on the New Year’s challenges.  As always, we want to thank you for your support and business, invite your comments and constructive criticism, and wish you the best for this New Year! 

After all to long, I am very excited to announce the launch of the new Brand or Culture website at http://www.brandorculture.com/. The site is a collection of companies that I have interviewed over the last 3 years about topics surrounding brand, culture, communication, perception and how technology influences them.

Some of the companies listed are even going to be included in the upcoming books, CONTRACTORS: Doing It Right Not Just Getting it Done or Contagious Cultures. The Contractor book is due out late this year while Contagious Cultures is not expected until 2011.

Like all websites, Brand or Culture is always a work in progress. I will be updating it regularly with more companies and interviews. As the site is updated, I will make a note of it on the main page. This way, you will be able to focus on what is new and relevant to you. But in the meantime, some new things that were not there before, are the entire list of contracting companies that were interviewed, a list of books to help you with these areas of your business and of course a survey so you can speak your mind.

I am also pleased to announce that both Brand or Culture and Omicle are on Facebook! I encourage you to become fans and get involved. Omicle’s posts are focused around tips and articles about improving your culture, brand, and perception with an occasional debate added, while the posts on Brand or Culture focus around the latest with the project, spotlighting great companies and articles that are aligned with the books that I am writing.

So check out the site and the Facebook pages, get involved and let me know your thoughts. I want to know, what do you like, what needs work, what is something I forgot, or what great idea have you come up with that I should implement? I am looking forward to your feedback and all the best until then . . . .