If Metric builds mansions and cathedrals, but makes no peace with its neighbors, then it is just tying together dead trees and stacking rocks. On the other hand, if Metric cleans gutters and plunges toilets, and exists as a peacemaker, then it is truly a master builder.

Metric is committed to building peace relationally, financially, and environmentally. Here’s how:

Relational Peace

Two parties can only be at peace if one party first gives peace to the other. Peace cannot be enforced. It can only be given. Enforcement is, by definition, the absence of peace.

In construction practice, this works itself out in Metric’s contract design. Every contract contains provisions for the buyer to exit cleanly at any time. If a buyer decides to exit for convenience, meaning without any fault on Metric’s part, the buyer may do so with payment of 50% of the remaining contract balance. In cost + fee contracts, this only pertains to the fee portion of the contract. Additionally, if the buyer enters a qualifying unexpected hardship, the buyer may exit the contract without any payments beyond those already made, and any pre-payment for work not yet performed will be returned to the customer at a rate of 50%.

Still, those provisions are only within the confines of a written document. Metric is committed to going beyond the contract, which is why every contract includes a Waiver of Right To Enforce Contract clause. In this clause, Metric legally waives all rights to enforce the contract as a plaintiff by either arbitration or litigation. This is how Metric offers relational peace to our customers. We refuse to employ any legal coercion so that both parties may remain on equal relational footing.

Financial Peace

In order to have the freedom to offer relational peace for all our contracts, Metric must operate according to strict financial principles, chief of them all being to operate as a debt-free business. Not only would a creditor require us to enforce our contracts through coercion out of their own self-interest, carrying debt would place Metric out of an equal (that is, peaceful) standing with our community partners.

An old proverb says, “The borrower is the slave of the lender.” That doesn’t sound like peaceful living to us.

We are extremely happy to say that Metric is a 100% debt-free business and has been from the very start. We encourage other business members of our community to work toward the same goal.

Environmental Peace

Damaging the environment for gain is never an option for Metric. In all our projects, care is taken to consider the effects of our actions on our neighbors. Construction by definition must improve the environment or it is actually just destruction. Each project must be individually evaluated to look for opportunities to improve our environmental impact, and the work must be carried through to the end in a responsible manner.

Questions? Feel free to write to contact@metriccontracting.com.