On the surface Platinum Pro-Claim Restoration is exactly what the name suggests, a restoration company. Think fire and flood restoration, environmental remediation, rebuilds and repairs. But when you pull back the curtains on this three-decade old powerhouse there is so much more to it than restoration. As Founder and CEO Tony Scott likes to put it, PPCR is restoration reinvented. Tony started his company back in 1991 when restoration was not much more than a construction job – buildings burned down and got rebuilt. “I’ve watched the industry change in an incredible number of ways,” says Tony. “I can tell stories all about how it used to be and what we used to do but let’s just say when I started there were no fans or dehumidifiers.”
Today PPCR provides most of its services in-house including cabinetry and flooring, and this is just one of the many ways it sets itself apart from the rest. Another is the speedy service for which the company has become known. “We specialize in dealing with unit owners who are in a building that’s been flooded and getting them back in faster than anybody else.” PPCR even refers to some jobs as Monday to Friday jobs, which is far from commonplace in an industry that is so often leaden with delays. “We go in and move somebody’s stuff, replace the floor, do the drywall, paint everything, put the baseboard back on, move their furniture back, and that’s a Monday to Friday job for us.” Understanding the importance of minimizing disruption to people’s lives and getting them back into buildings fast, PPCR provides this duty of speed and efficiency to jobs big and small. “We just completed a $16 million fire repair on an apartment building in 1 year and 11 months during the worst possible conditions; it was COVID, we had major climate events including a atmospheric river, polar vortex and a heat dome. It was so unbelievably hot that we had to put in extra safety precautions to avoid dehydration.
During this time BC even had a whole town burn down in a forest fire. Then we had the worst flooding we’ve ever had. This was all in that first year of the project.” Even in such conditions, with site closures and extreme heat and bursting pipes galore, PPCR managed to complete the job in under two years. “We take it seriously when we say we’re going to get people back in faster than anybody else,” says Tony, “and that was us proving it.”
In the modern context of environmental change and sustainable thinking, the sustainably-driven customer needs to be able to differentiate between company’s who are talking the talk and walking the walk. As well as helping people through fast and efficient restoration services, PPCR is an active steward of its local environment and its processes have long been sustainably minded. Not only is this company walking the walk – it is leading the charge. “The things that people are talking about now, we were doing years ago,” says Tony. PPCR’s commitment to sustainability stemmed not from external obligation but rather from Tony’s personal belief that we need to do better for our planet.
In what he refers to as his hilltop moment, Tony recalls the event that brought the reality of the climate crisis to the forefront of his mind. “I was camping on Black Mountain which overlooks Vancouver city but also towards Howe Sound and Squamish. There are islands and there’s ocean and it’s just beautiful. I was watching the sun go down and there was this beautiful cloud over downtown Vancouver. I’m sitting there looking at it and then I think wait, there are no clouds today.” Tony realized that the grey cloud covering his beloved hometown was actually a layer of pollution in the form of smog. “And I just thought, well, I can’t leave that for my kids.”
At the time PPCR was selling repurposed lumber that was then used for flooring and had also become involved with companies in California who were selling solar powered manufactured carpet. Tony recalls an ad from that time saying, ‘making the world a better place, one floor at a time.’ Even then the company was on the cusp of sustainable technology that would later become mainstream, but it was really that hilltop moment that set-in motion PPCR’s lifelong commitment to a sustainable future. “In 2012, we grew and moved into a larger facility, it was then decided to make it as sustainable as possible. We converted our lights over to LEDs, did audits on what we were burning and all the different ways we could reduce our greenhouse emissions. Right now, we’re recycling somewhere between 70 and 80% of our debris. For many years we were the only ones talking about recycling. We were doing our own thing for our own reasons. Then at one point we said we better start talking about this, and we did. Our goal then became to elevate the industry. How do we get more restoration companies across Canada to think about what they are doing with the debris that comes out of these houses?”
A big part of PPCR’s green journey is its electric vehicle fleet. In 2016 the company identified transportation as its greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and in turn, as the area through which it could make the most meaningful change. “If it doesn’t plug in, it doesn’t count!” Tony says. “33% of our fleet is now electric and we’ve got 18 charging stations in our parking lot. The unique thing about that is that we open it up to the public; anyone can come in and charge their electric vehicle for free.” Because of offsetting through the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Initiative which produces Carbon Credits, this initiative has become profitable for PPCR, and though that was never in the plan, Tony says it is certainly not a bad outcome. “We’re in an industrial area where a lot of people come and go and there wasn’t a lot of charging available to them. We wanted to promote that in our business and our local community. Now, a lot of people plug in at the end of the workday, charge up for an hour and then drive home.”
Trevor, PPCR’s Senior Marketing & IT Manager, is as enthusiastic as Tony when he adds his insight into the company’s commitment to sustainability. “What makes us the greenest company is that we’ve created a culture of sustainability that is self-perpetuating. It allows our employees to come up with ideas that implement change at an organizational level, but because of the involvement that Tony and our company has across the industry, those ideas actually change our entire industry. We’re starting to see individual employees creating these rippling earthquake effects across the entire Canadian restoration industry. It’s been fascinating to watch. We have this one gentleman, Rod, who came up with the idea to transition our cabinet shop from solvent-based systems to water-based. This creates a safer environment by producing less volatile organic compounds on the stains that we spray. It’s safer for not only the employees who are breathing in those chemicals, but also the customer, because we install those cabinets in their homes. Everybody is working towards a common goal; to make the world a better place. We are all environmental advocates and we’re teaching these other restoration contractors all our trade secrets. We’re not holding any of these things tight to us. That’s how we are making the world a better place and truly elevating our industry.”
“Everybody is working towards a common goal; to make the world a better place.”
For Tony and PPCR, this commitment to sustainability comes down to a duty of care not only to the planet, but to the people that inhabit it. “We get to help people every day and that’s why I love it. When somebody is having a hard time, we get to go in and help them, to try and take that anxiety away from them and get them back to where they were before.” Emphasis on the we get to. Understanding the sensitivities involved in restoration work, Tony sees it as a privilege to be trusted with this type of work. He gives the example of a recent job the company did for a lady with dementia. “It was confusing for her to have people in the house, but we also couldn’t have her living out of the house as it would be too disturbing for her. We arranged for her to spend the whole day having tea with a lady she knew from down the hall. We did the entire job in one day and had everything back in place so that when she got back in, she didn’t even notice. Those are the things that really make us who we are, and it’s great for the staff and the team to be able to help somebody in that way. It makes a good story, but more to the point is that it inspires our team. If it doesn’t, we’d have to look at that person and think maybe this isn’t the right fit.”
Looking into the future, PPCR plan to be at the forefront of innovative technology and Artificial Intelligence in the same way it was at the forefront of sustainability all those years ago. On this, Trevor talks about a new building program called the Pro-Care Building program. “We work with developers and new builders before the building is released to the tenant homeowners, then we get all the building information and that way we’re able to mitigate it as fast as possible. We’re constantly innovating on ways that we can help reduce the cycle times for the restoration process and help insurance companies save as much money as possible.”
Tony adds, “We’re really focusing on the latest technology to help us drive faster without removing the things that are key to our purpose, like taking care of the planet, getting the homeowner back into the building, and saving the insurance company money. We’ve had some really big wins. We just saved money on one job by drying all the floors in a brand-new apartment building. There were eight floors that were damaged by water that the builder wanted to have ripped out, and we got in there and said no, we can dry all this. It made what would have been an eight-month job, a forty-five-day job, and everybody was super happy at the end of it. So that made a big splash. People are all talking about it.”
When all is said and done, Tony reflects on that hilltop moment and can now say without question that PPCR has truly made a difference. “Eight years later and guess what? We did change the industry. We’re elevating it. We’ve taught over 70 of our competitors about recycling. We’re even doing podcasts about it.” The team, led by the ever-passionate Tony, continues to play its part in reducing that grey cloud over Vancouver and beyond in the best way they know how; together. “What really made the difference was our own staff jumping in and having people there that were passionate about it for their own reasons. They were the ones that made all these things happen the way they did. It’s great to see it happen within the company and it’s a credit to them. Because it’s about personal passion, right? Some people’s passion is money, mine is people and the environment.
That’s reflected in everything we do and it’s important as the world is becoming more purpose-driven. We don’t say and then do, we do and then say. I think that speaks volumes to our sustainability journey and our initiatives. We are authentic and we are not trying to be anything else.”
