Committees
Gold Shovel Standard has empowered a series of independent committees to create recommendations that drive public and workforce safety.
GSS could not continue to work for a safer North America without the generous and inspired help of the individuals who make up our many committees and pilot teams.
Excavation Damage Prevention Metrics Committee
The Excavation Metrics Committee is tasked with developing, testing and working towards the broad adoption of metrics which can be used by excavators.
Fairly measuring damage prevention performance is difficult, given the complexity of the damage prevention process. To create baseline metrics for excavation, a committee of excavators volunteered to tackle this challenging task. The committee has made some recommendations which were adopted by the Gold Shovel Standard Board of Directors. Gold Shovel Standard hopes that their work is the first step in obtaining nationwide acceptance of the need to define reliable, standardized ways to calculate and present excavation safety performance for all stakeholders.
For more information on this committee, its progress or work, or how to get involved, please contact
- Mike Robirds, Co-Chair (Chief Executive Officer, Accu-bore Directional Drilling; Email Mike Robirds)
- Stu Buhrendorf, Co-Chair (Vice President, EHS & Risk Management, Hallen Construction; Email Stu Buhrendorf)
- Greg Lovett, Program Liaison (COO, Gold Shovel Standard; Email Greg Lovett)
Pre-Excavation Damage Prevention Metrics Committee
Gold Shovel Standard believes that no significant reduction in damages will be achieved unless all responsible parties (owner / operators, excavators, locators) continually improve, and measurements underpin improvement.
Metrics for all stakeholders have been part of the GSS vision from the onset. The Pre-Excavation Damage Prevention Metrics Committee is tasked with establishing measurements for owner / operators and the locators that they employ.
Consistent measurements for Pre-Excavation are difficult and must be representative of the quality of services provided by in-house staff or contracted damage prevention services, and are representative of the timeliness of the services provided. Pre-Excavation metrics must also be scalable for locate companies both large and small to help them better manage their businesses.
Committee Members include:
- Randy Bern – Vannguard Utility Partners
- Andrew Brooks – Dominion Energy
- Scott Brown – Washington Gas
- Jim Collins – Duke Energy
- Brian Dreesen – USIC
- Troy Dow – Mastec
- Rick Elkin – ELM Utility
- Buzz Fant – Kinder Morgan
- David Haverstick – PECO
- Anthony Headley – West Valley Construction
- Matthew Hippert – PECO
- Erich Metzger – Charge/Accu-Bore
- Ryan Morgan – Southwest Gas
- Alexander Murray – Southwest Gas
- Sean Nicholson – Michels
- Dwayne Olivieri – Delmarva
- John Phillips – ELM Utility
- Thurman Smith – UtiliQuest
- Kirk Steinberger – Kinder Morgan
- Eric Swartley – UGI
Gold Shovel Liaisons:
- Mel Christopher
- Greg Lovett, Email Greg Lovett
- Dave Mauerman
