Say G’Day to 88 Energy

Living Up to Its Name

wim. Bike. Run.

Those three words encapsulate the Ironman triathlon, considered one of the most grueling single-day sports events in the world. The “epic race” tests the endurance of competitors, who attempt to complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon, usually within a 17-hour time limit.

On August 7, the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) is hosting hundreds of competitors in Alaska’s first-ever full-distance Ironman triathlon.

“I think this is going to be a huge, positive impact on the community,” says Kara Tetley, destination marketing manager for Travel Juneau. “I think that being able to showcase Alaska is very, very cool for our community.”

oncrete is the foundation of modern civilization. This ancient construction material is as much a part of the modern urban landscape as wood, brick, steel, and asphalt. Its ingredients are simple: water, cement, aggregate (sand and gravel), and air. However, strength and durability depend on the mix-design as much as proper application and curing. Done correctly, concrete structures can last a lifetime or, in the case of the Roman Pantheon and Colosseum, outlast the culture that built them. Despite its staying power, manufacturers and mix-designers are always looking for ways to improve concrete for enhanced performance and environmental sustainability.

ndustrial Support Services is a big topic, and it’s exciting to take a different approach to the special section each year. One opportunity that such a broad topic presents is to feature companies and services that don’t fit neatly into one region or industry. “Sector Crossover” looks at several organizations that defy industry classification and instead provide a suite of services to suit their clients. Similarly, “Work Away from Work” explores the plethora of uses for modular buildings across every sector—they are especially well suited to solve many challenges that projects encounter in Alaska.

Guest author Steve Edwards is a senior public relations specialist for Stantec, a global company that exemplifies the idea of support services. In “Forwarding Sustainability” he provides a broad overview of how any company, in any industry, can initiate sustainable practices.

hen designing on a grand scale, there are a lot of factors to consider, ranging from the amount of work required to the “canvas” itself and the reactions of the many people who are going to see the mural, project, or installation.

“The beautiful thing about public art is that it is shared with everyone,” explains Crystal Worl, who co-owns indigenous design firm Trickster Company along with her brother, Rico. “You’re not creating one painting that will be sold to one individual for just that person to see but something that everyone can enjoy.”

any projects and processes have a naturally high potential for injury or damage, but that doesn’t mean an accident is unavoidable. On the contrary, companies around Alaska demonstrate daily that, with the right attitude toward safety, risky jobs can be carried out with a positive outcome for all involved.

arhartts and HiVis are fine for construction workers and equipment operators on land, but when the work site is underwater, it’s time for neoprene and air tanks. Just another day at the office for Global Diving & Salvage, the Anchorage-based provider of marine construction, support services, and casualty response worldwide (as well as all of the images found in the following pages). Saltwater is a harsh environment, so everything it touches needs constant maintenance. Global Diving & Salvage is that handyman, seen to the right repairing the steel jacketing on wharf piles at the Port of Alaska. The work can be cold and dangerous, even bobbing at the surface, so Global Diving & Salvage puts safety first.

arbon neutral. Net zero. Sustainability. Greenwashing. When it comes to climate change, sometimes it seems like there are a lot of buzzwords out there. What do they all mean? Let’s look at some of the key definitions below:

• Carbon neutral means that the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and carbon dioxide reductions equal each other, leading to net neutral emissions.
• Net zero means completely negating the amount of greenhouse gasses produced by human activity.
• Sustainability is a word that can be used to vaguely signify eco-consciousness. However, sustainability is technically the idea that a process or practice can meet present needs without jeopardizing future generations.
• Greenwashing essentially refers to marketing strategies designed to make a company and/or its products appear eco-friendly or sustainable despite such claims being exaggerated or even fraudulent.

any companies excel at providing services that are easily defined by a single industry: a retailer, a financial institution, a transportation company. For others, it’s not so straightforward. They may have started in one service area and expanded over time, or perhaps they identified a specific need that requires a range of experts to get the job done, ultimately creating a business model that defies industry classification.

Take, for example, Alaska Executive Search, which used to be all about, well, searching. When businesses needed help finding the right person to hire, they let the experts handle the task. Alaska Executive Search is gone now, and in its place is a firm with a broader mission and a bigger name.

estern Australia, the home of 88 Energy, is in some ways the antipodean Alaska. The state shares the distinction of being its country’s largest by area. Although not as thinly populated as Australia’s Northern Territory, most of its people are concentrated in a single city, Perth. It also has a Barrow Island, named after the same Sir John Barrow for whom Alaska’s northernmost point was named in 1826. And the state economy is dominated by oil and gas production, responsible for 61 percent of Australia’s total petroleum output.

Far from the oil fields at home, 88 Energy looks across the globe, describing itself as an “Alaskan-focused oil exploration and appraisal company.” Even for the North Slope, though, 88 Energy is oriented Down Under, working on units far to the south of most other operators. Its portfolio spans 440,000 net acres of the central North Slope region and into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), on land leased both from the state and federal governments.

orkers’ compensation has existed in Alaska since 1915, but it was not until 1946 that it became compulsory in the state. Workers’ compensation insurance generally gives employers immunity from lawsuits in exchange for covering their employees’ medical costs, missed work, and other expenses related to on-the-job injuries. The employee is not required to prove fault to collect. These no-fault social contracts made the employer liable for work-related injuries and disease regardless of fault.

Part of determining how much premium an insurance carrier will require for a workers’ comp policy is the Experience Rating Modification Factor, or Ex-Mod. Insurance carriers use Ex-Mod to describe both past injuries and future risk, which allows carriers to calculate premiums based not only on industry average experience but on each business’ unique operations. This mathematical equation is complicated and often misunderstood but can be best described using this formula: experience modification equals actual losses divided by expected losses.

dvancing from delivery driver to CEO might seem like a stretch, but then again, stretchy is Alaska Rubber Group’s middle name. Mike Mortensen started working for the Anchorage-based industrial supplier in 1994 during a break from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln—a break that became permanent when he decided to stay in Alaska for love.

From pulling hoses and building orders to flying out to the Bush to splice conveyor belts, Mortensen worked his way up to COO when the company expanded to Washington and Oregon in 2013, through the acquisition of Arctic Wire Rope & Supply in 2020. He became chief executive when longtime president and CEO Janeece Higgins retired in 2021.