34 Melloul-Blamey in Canada

Team 73 Poster

Team Reflection

Melloul-Blamey is an extremely compassionate and understanding firm that understands the needs of people domestically and internationally. Since 1982, their passion for energy efficiency and surpassing community needs has been shown internationally. Bernard Melloul and David Blamey founded the company in Waterloo Ontario, but has demonstrated over the past decade his passion for meeting international and domestic needs. Since the beginning, Melloul-Blamey has constructed 750 commercial, institutional, industrial, and residential buildings with a majority meeting Certification of the LEED Canada Green Building Rating System. Domestically, on top of constructing some of the most energy-efficient and high-tech structures in the Greater Toronto Area, they have participated in numerous fundraisers every year in support of multiple causes. Internationally, for the past consecutive 5 years, they have traveled to Nicaragua to integrate safe cooking utilities into their lives.

Melloul-Blamey is truly an inspiring company. In today’s society, most multi-million dollar companies get caught in legal scandals and are fueled by greed. Melloul-Blamey proves how loyalty to precise building techniques and community involvement will provide continued growth in clientele. With the ever-growing case of climate change, the prioritization of building energy-efficient units is of high importance. We believe if all buildings were built by Melloul-Blamey it would create a more sustainable future for all. Another growing problem in Canada is the need for affordable housing. An article written in 2023 stated, In Canada, there is an estimated need of approximately 3.5 Million additional housing units by 2030 to return to the equilibrium of affordability. Since 2018, Melloul-Blamey has dedicated 5 projects strictly to affordable housing. Their efforts will be dramatically noticed by the communities they reside in, as many Canadians are being pushed into homelessness. We need more companies like Melloul-Blamey to help all Canadians fight the battle of homelessness.

Many businesses are just looking to make a quick buck. Through this project, we have learned that we need to evaluate the values that a company has to offer. For Melloul-Blamey their values are Honesty, Integrity, and Pride of Workmanship, all of which we believe play a critical role in Melloul-Blameys success (Blamey, 2018). Melloul-Blamey’s core values distinguish itself from businesses that prioritize quick and easy profits over long-term economic growth and social responsibility. These values align with the principles of sustainability and the triple bottom line (social economic, and environmental). Honesty and integrity promote accountability and transparency which encourages ethical decision making. Pride of workmanship reflects their commitment to quality, which supports sustainability by reducing waste and addressing the environmental component of the triple bottom line. Melloul-Blamey’s approach reinforces the idea that for-profit businesses can succeed long-term while benefiting society, challenging the assumption that financial success and ethical responsibility can’t go hand in hand. This also prompts questions about measuring the impact of values on business outcomes and how companies balance these values with market pressures. Melloul-Blamey’s focus on integrity and sustainability offers a powerful example of how businesses can thrive while embodying accountability, aligning with sustainable development principles, and encouraging trust and loyalty among clients.

When starting the project, we established the potential companies internationally and democratically came to a consensus, after careful consideration, we voted for Landyn’s company of choice. Sadly, due to deadline restraints, we decided to pursue Brody’s company due to his availability to secure a quick interview. Due to our efficient critical thinking and list of other potential companies, our first roadblock was surpassed quickly.

Overall, the communication has been great. In spite of our group retaining different daily routines, schedules, and time zones, we remained consistent with communication throughout the assignment. The differing time zones were an issue at first, however, we found an established hour and day of meetings. The majority of the group members demonstrated commitment to the team by attending each meeting, even when each group member presented different commitments.

Each group member was in unison concerning the assignment being a great experience and a great way to meet people. We each appreciated working towards the goal of enlightening others on a company making a positive impact on communities. One of the biggest challenges we faced was deciding which company from our potential list to choose, as each company displayed different strengths. We enjoyed the aspect of the poster to finalize this exciting journey. This gave us a space to fully express our creativity and speak our minds through illustrations, short text, and a short oral presentation.

We were all in consensus over what this assignment had taught us. This assignment made us question our current buying patterns and forced us to do more research on different companies’ impact on the environment as well as their community. We learned some companies make environmental differences, some make differences within their community, and few do both, while the majority do neither. We believe it could have a large effect on consumer preferences if everyone did their research before buying a product or service. We all concur over Melloul-Blamey being one of the few companies to do both.

After editing – Additionally, we learned how powerful collaboration could be with a meaningful topic, no matter the external barriers presented. This project also highlighted the importance of time management and reliability. Each member presented their own external discrepancies yet was reminded of the importance of being reliable towards your teams. Due to the size of the assignment, evenly distributing work was a necessity.

In conclusion, we are all pleased with the experience and hope that future students can derive as much utility as we did.

Individual Reflections

Brody 

This experience was my first time working as part of a cross-cultural team, and it presented both exciting opportunities and challenges that we all navigated together. Managing time zone differences was perhaps the most significant hurdle for me. Scheduling meetings that suited everyone required flexibility and understanding, but ultimately, we succeeded in coordinating effectively. Communication was the cornerstone of our success, as we adapted to this shared challenge with mutual support. Delays in response time sometimes happened because some team members were asleep while others were active. We resolved these minor issues with patience and communication strategies. I was honored that my father’s company was selected for this initiative. It was incredible to share insights from Waterloo, Ontario Canada, while also learning about the different approaches to business from other countries. Working within such a diverse team allowed me to meet some fantastic new people, almost all dedicated to moving the project forward. This experience highlighted that even though we are from different parts of the world we can effectively communicate and work on a project. With lots of people working from home, it is an important skill to be able to properly communicate with your team online. We weren’t perfect, but, I am proud of what we were able to accomplish. I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration and the relationships that have been built through this project, and I would gladly participate in another cross-cultural team in the future.

Lester

First, when this project was first introduced I believed it would possibly mess with my tight scheduling and thanks to my very comprehensive team members we were all able to find a time and day that suited every group member. This being not my first cross-cultural group project, it was easy to adapt in terms of everybody’s different cultures especially since our group mostly consisted of students from the USA and I had been raised in Philadelphia. This was also a nice experience since I felt that I could be more comfortable knowing that there were so many different cultures and I would be able to learn so much.  Overall, the communication had been great although there were some problems on the road when being unable to get proper communication from some members, but other than that it was unexpectedly well since we all had different time zones and schedules, I was expecting it to be a bit more chaotic. When delegating work it was honestly very easy as everyone was all hands on board and beyond, we always tried to delegate the amounts of work fairly and evenly. Overall, this has been a great experience, got to meet great people and enjoyed the makings of the project.

Tycree Watson 

Initially when working with a group of people who live in different sectors of the world my main concern was if our schedules would align in order for us to become productive as a team, but fortunately and unexpectedly from the very first meeting we were able to set a time that works well for the majority. From past experiences, I didn’t have high expectations for our ability to collaborate and work efficiently with each other as I was under the assumption that there would be a lack of effort from my peers whether it was participation in meetings or equal allocation of work and though we ran into trouble overall as a whole we were able to provide each other with support when some didn’t understand and we were able to pick up the slack left behind by others. The cultural difference within the group didn’t seem to be an issue in my perspective as someone who came from Chicago I have had experiences with a multitude of cultures and I was able to integrate those experiences in this team. Overall I would say the experience was productive and concise we were able to identify each assignment with ease and coordinate ways to accomplish the desired outcome and for that, I am grateful to my team members.

Tyler Vrska 

I consider the COIL project one of my favorite school projects in recent years. I loved the cross-cultural dynamic, meeting new people, and learning about different cultures. I will say at times it was challenging to find a time to meet with everyone’s schedule. As a student athlete, I was worried that I would be dragging the team down with my busy schedule, but everyone was very understanding and would accommodate me. I felt like I did a decent job helping out the group with the work. I took more a passive role and let Brody lead the team because Melloul-Blamey was his company. We used Instagram as our form of communication and for video chats which was new to me. Normally I use zoom, snapchat, or some other type of messenger, but Instagram was very simple to use and we were highly efficient using this social media medium. Honestly, I didn’t expect this project to run as smoothly as it did. I wish we had more time doing this project because I felt I was getting close with my group members and it felt like I knew these guys for yours. Overall, this was a very eye opening experience and I am very happy I got to learn about other cultures and how to collaborate across the world.

Landyn Urslak

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. It was a very contemporary way of integrating the use of technology with international business. The fact that someone from Guelph Ontario was able to complete an assignment with students from the University of Dominican and South Wales is extremely impressive. When I informed my parents of the assignment, they were appalled. They could have never imagined collaborating with students internationally when they attended university 30 years prior. Additionally, learning about ‘Melloul Blamey’, and their substantial impact on the community was also very interesting as I had no previous knowledge of them before the assignment. One of our most advanced buildings on campus would be the Albert Thornborough building. After doing some research on ‘Melloul Blamey’ I discovered that they actually built our engineering building and did a remodel on the Richardson Building, 2 of my favorite places to study. When first hearing of the assignment, I was concerned over the communication discrepancies that may arise, and the time change presented. The time change was a challenge, but we managed to find that mid day Eastern Standard Time was the best fit for everyone. Due to the exponential growth of social media platforms over the last decade, we decided to use Instagram as our chosen application for communication. We wanted to choose a platform everyone used often, as missed texts should occur less frequently. However, we did endure certain communication errors with certain group mates, so maybe we’d choose something different in the future. Meeting people from different cultures and regions was fascinating, and encouraged me to continue expanding my cultural horizons. Collaborating on a project with students internationally is something I had never done. However, after completing the project, I would most certainly do it again.

References

Blamey, M. (2018). Melloul Blamey. Melloul Blamey Construction. https://www.melloul.com/

CMHC.ca CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION Housing shortages in Canada. (n.d.). https://assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sites/cmhc/professional/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-research/research-reports/2023/housing-shortages-canada-updating-how-much-we-need-by-2030-en.pdf?rev=3b66f87d-0bec-44d6-aa54-f8af71f9b2c4&_gl=1