Re-centering: Why We’re Focusing on Doing Three Things Exceptionally Well

The first half of 2026 has been a season of deliberate reflection for us, especially as we celebrate our 8th birthday this month. The AEC industry is moving faster than it ever has before: building performance standards are tightening, energy codes are evolving, owner and occupancy expectations are shifting. All the while, AI and technology advancements are fundamentally changing design and construction workflows.

For an industry that has historically been slow to change, these trends are particularly meaningful to how we approach our work at CopelandBEC. We have always aimed to capture the benefits of innovation, and we saw this time of evolution in the industry as an opportunity to rethink how we ourselves operate.

Since the firm’s inception in 2018 we’ve taken a broad approach to building envelope consulting. We’ve worked on all kinds of buildings for all kinds of clients. That’s been intellectually interesting, but it’s a challenging business to operate well.

So we decided to pivot. We looked hard at the data, our strengths, our clients’ biggest frustrations, and the gaps no one is filling well. What came back pointed clearly in one direction—or actually, three:

1. roof consulting
2. building envelope commissioning (BECx)
3. litigation/expert consulting

Before diving into the specifics of why we chose these areas, a little more background on how we got here.

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What is building envelope consulting?

Even as professionals in this field, many of us have always struggled to describe or define what we actually do. Most building envelope consultancies, ours included, evolve into a complex, multi-faceted business that tackles a variety of problems in a variety of ways.

Most firms in our industry “focus” their work on all aspects of the building envelope. That is to say, they don’t focus much at all. The building envelope may be a niche thing in the context of all the things in the world, but a business that tries to address all aspects of the building envelope quickly becomes very complicated.

There are innumerable specialties within building envelope consulting. Here are just a few:

• roofing
• exterior walls
• below grade waterproofing
• plaza waterproofing
• fenestration (windows and doors)
• contemporary walls
• historic preservation
• masonry
• sheet metal
• building envelope commissioning (BECx)
• compliance testing
• litigation/expert consulting
• forensic investigation
• repair design
• construction administration
• new design consulting/peer review

…we could go on. Large firms have people or groups dedicated to some subset of these specialties. Trying to cover all of them as a small firm is a real challenge.

Even within a large firm, though, trying to run a bunch of what are essentially individual businesses within one larger enterprise is difficult. It makes creating systems and capturing efficiencies challenging, if not impossible.

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Why firms try to do it all

If it’s so difficult, why do so many firms try to do it all? A lot comes down to what these firms are really selling.

Most firms are not selling the following:

• fast solutions to your problems
• innovative solutions to your problems
• any actual solutions to your problems

They’re selling time.

That’s it, just time. Ask them… if they’re billing you by the hour, ask them if they’ll promise to deliver X for $Y by Z date… or if they’ll just promise to work on it for a while and bill you for the time, regardless of what they actually produce (hint, it’s the latter).

With most building envelope consulting firms still billing by the hour, there is no incentive for them to get really good at anything other than generating billable hours.

The actual incentives lead to saying “yes” to all work because any work = billable hours. In fact, work you’re not good at = more billable hours.

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Why we are refocusing

At CopelandBEC, we have been shifting away from hourly billing for years. Now most new engagements are on a value-priced fixed fee basis, but we were still stuck in the legacy “do it all” mentality.

At the same time, we want to deliver an exceptional client experience. That’s what we want to optimize for. We want to actually solve real problems, not fake problems.

Here’s an example of a fake problem: “I need a set of roof replacement drawings”.

In reality, you probably don’t need drawings. The real problem you have is that your roof is leaking water, which is damaging your building and its contents, and that is costing you money.

So the real solution is not drawings, it’s resolving the leak and the resulting money burn. Drawings may or may not help get there.

Our “do it all” mentality was becoming increasingly out of step with our goals, and actually getting in the way.

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How we operate

As a rule, we prefer to engineer a system that produces repeatable results over time, rather than reinventing the wheel every time. That requires a starting point.

Creating starting points and systems for unique processes that address all aspects of all kinds of building envelope challenges is untenable. That’s why most firms don’t do that—they have just one system: generate billable hours.

That’s simple and understandable, but as we discussed above it’s not good for outcomes, which is what we’re after here at CopelandBEC.

So instead, we want to build a machine that generates not billable hours, but value for our clients. Repeatedly, and dependably. $1 in should result in more than $1 out, every time.

That kind of consistency requires precision engineering, not just of each individual project, but of the systems that deliver the projects. Every turn at bat is an opportunity to learn and feed those lessons back into the mill, where they are taken up and applied next time. The flywheel spins faster and faster, recursively improving with results compounding over time.

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Why these three areas of focus

OK, back to the three areas we’ve decided to focus on:

1. roof consulting
2. building envelope commissioning (BECx)
3. litigation/expert consulting

Why did we choose these three?

Each of these are areas where we think we are prepared to deliver outsized value. They’re already major parts of our business and we’ve built operational, impactful systems to deliver these services well.

We find these services are highly impactful on functional outcomes. We’ve seen our work (and that of others) in these areas result in meaningful change in the material world, leading to progress over time toward better results.

Finally, and not least important, we like this work and find it fun to do. We are intrinsically motivated to do it at a high level.

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What success looks like

If we do this right, these things will be true:

1. None of our services are a commodity.
2. Roof consulting/BECx/litigation consulting by CopelandBEC is incomparable to what any other firm is providing; it’s an entirely different experience.
3. Hiring our firm reliably generates money for our clients; for every $1 in fees our work results in >$1 in benefit.

We’d love to hear what you think. Drop us a line and say hello.

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