In the more than two years since Scott Story started Drake Environmental in College Station, TX, his company has grown dramatically. Regulations are a driving factor, as are the various climate patterns from drought to intense flooding the area has experienced in recent years. That has called for Drake Environmental to offer a comprehensive range of environmental compliance and construction services, with a focus on stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) management, and on erosion and sediment control for the design, development, and construction phases.
“Our weather is as vast as our state,” points out Story. “We have every type of climate in Texas, from desert, to evergreen forest, to Gulf coast, to swamp bottom. There’s a saying around here that if you don’t like the weather, stick around for a minute and it will change.”
The landscape is constantly changing as well, with no shortage of projects coming from residential and commercial general contractors, developers, utilities, municipalities, and heavy highway and civil constructors. Topography and the proximity of the project to water are the two determining factors Story considers in choosing the optimal approach.
“I consider how much erosion we’re looking at,” he says. “The more slope, the more problems there are. What areas are going to be receiving discharge from the job site? Are they on the 303(d) list of impaired water bodies throughout the state that may have endangered species or higher than normal bacteria levels? If it’s one of those, other steps have to be taken.”
What He Does Day to Day
“Since we’re still a small company and I’m the owner, I wear a lot of hats,” notes Story. He dedicates most of his time supervising nine employees in the company’s College Station and Houston offices, checking on jobs in the Houston and central Texas area, making sales calls, running crews and setting up their routes, communicating with customers, supervising the estimator, and ensuring bids are submitted.
What Led Him to This Line of Work
Story earned a B.A. in communications and economics from Texas A&M University, where, as the Ducks Unlimited university chairman, he was honored at the organization’s state convention for record-setting fundraising achievements.
Noting that he’s not a “desk guy” and has to keep moving, Story says that led to an interest in the construction business, which took root before college when he worked as a general laborer for contractors and construction companies.
After graduation, he was a superintendent for the Pulte Group and then spent seven years as a general manager at KBS Electrical Distributors. Seeking a career change, he started his own company in the environmental sector of the construction industry in 2014 to fill a void he’d noticed. As an avid supporter of Ducks Unlimited, he named it Drake Environmental as “drake” is a male duck.
What He Likes Best About his Work
Story likes that he is providing for his family through being his own boss. He says he also likes “the feeling we’re helping to control pollution and prevent the discharge of anything that might hurt the environment.”
His Greatest Challenge
Albeit a welcome one, rapid growth has become Story’s greatest challenge as he tries to keep up with the workload. “We’ve exploded on the scene and been really blessed with the amount of work we’ve done,” he says. “I’m driving a new truck right now I just picked up in Austin. We’re increasing our equipment and number of employees to keep up with the demand. It’s an issue that’s not going away.” With regulations on the increase and climate changes, “the demand is only going to be greater,” he says.
He also faces the usual labor challenges of finding and retaining good employees. “Good help is hard to find, and when we find it, we try to pay them well, make them bosses, make it a happy place to be and be a competitive employer,” he says.
Story seeks tempered growth. “We don’t want to grow too fast and lose the level of customer service our customers have come to expect,” he says. “As you grow, you have to spend more money and figure out ways to do that and balance it all. It’s a big juggling act.”