Now is a great time to consider your business and personal intentions for the upcoming year.

I believe “intention” is a more deliberate form of internal planning and has more staying power than resolutions, which we all know can be easily broken or ignored.

Here are some of my favorite intentions:

1. Be strategically creative - set aside time each week to clear your mind and brainstorm “crazy” ideas.

2. Hire smart - employ people who have different skill sets and new perspectives. Then delegate, delegate, delegate. Be sure to give them meaningful work.

3. Embrace technology - don’t ‘make do’ with aging equipment, buy a new one. And for goodness sake, back up your business data on a regular basis!

4. Learn and grow - information is power. Read more. Learn to use those little orange RSS icons to get news on the Internet. Subscribe to industry magazines, blogs and podcasts. Read a bestseller.

5. Be grateful - where would your business be without your employees, your customers, your vendors and suppliers? Gratitude is free - thank them!

6. Do pro bono work - make the place you live a better place. Find a cause you believe in and give what you can - time, money knowledge.

7. Be green - replace those light bulbs, take a walk, carpool, recycle paper, wear a sweater. You’ll feel better and your grandchildren will appreciate it someday.

8. Schedule time for you - make dates with yourself to recharge and refresh, and put them in your calendar. If you don’t invest in yourself, who will?

9. Envision your future - where do you want to be, both personally and professionally, the Friday before Christmas next year? If you can’t see it, you can’t make it happen.

10. Move on - stop investing precious time on ideas, practices, beliefs and goals that just aren’t working. Don’t worry, something better will turn up.

Walton Investors, LLC has appointed Dan Frisbee of St. Louis as chief operation officer of Walton Construction Company, LLC. As CEO, Frisbee will provide overall direction and vision for the company, whose corporate offices are in Kansas City, Missouri. He also will continue to oversee and support the operations of Walton’s five divisions nationwide.

Frisbee told me “The past year was a very active and positive year for our company. In addition to our leadership transition, we’ve built the largest backlog of work ever in our history, thanks to the hard work of our division and corporate staff.”

Frisbee has more than 35 years experience in the construction industry and previously was chief operating office of Walton Construction. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of the Walton St. Louis Division, which he opened in 2002. In its first year, the Walton St. Louis Division had seven employees and revenues of $30 million. That division has grown to more than 100 employees with revenues of $175 million in 2007.

Frisbee became an owner when he joined Walton Investors in September 2006. He was the first executive outside of Kansas City to join the company’s ownership group.

Steve Biederman has succeeded Frisbee as president of the Walton St. Louis office.

In April, we reported that a total worldwide ban on incandescent light bulbs could save 470 million tons of CO2, more than half the reductions called for by the Kyoto Treaty.

Today, the U.S. takes action on that concept through an 822-page energy bill that Congress passed and delivered to the White House in a hybrid Toyota Prius, for President Bush’s signature.

The bill bans the famously inefficient incandescent light bulb by 2012 and puts tougher miles-per-gallon rules on new cars.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has projected that the bill will reduce energy use by 7 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 9 percent in 2030. The think tank also estimates that the bill will save consumers and businesses more than $400 billion between now and 2030, “accounting for both energy cost savings and the moderately higher price of energy-efficient products.”

Source: Building Design+Construction

After two consecutive months of decline, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) has rebounded and is up just over two points compared to its previous mark, according to the American Institute of Architects, which sees the report as an encouraging sign for the construction industry.

The index is a leading economic indicator of construction activity, providing a glimpse into the future of nonresidential construction activity. The typical lag time between architecture billings and construction spending is nine to twelve months.

Regionally, billings growth continued to slow at firms in the Northeast and South. Business conditions fell for two consecutive months in the West for the first time in nearly three years, but billings growth has picked up slightly in the Midwest, continuing to rebound from a late summer slowdown.”

Source:  Building Design+Construction