“It would be a win, win situation for both entities.” His goal is to get in front of larger wastewater treatment company officials, but he said an ideal situation would be for politicians to introduce Cosmos to companies under the assumption that the technology helps save money, is good for the environment and business.
Explaining the method, Douglas said the Cosmos process uses a catalytic oxidation step, followed by a single precipitation step to achieve greater than 90 percent heavy metals removal and oils and organics removal via the mechanism of oxidation.
“A significant advantage of the Cosmos process is that it needs fewer operational steps to achieve required treated water quality compared to classical precipitation technologies. In comparison to a widely used competitive technology—electrocoagulation, the Cosmos process requires a lower capital and operating cost and is more robust in accepting wide variation in incoming wastewater quality,” Douglas explained.
Founded in 1998, Douglas describes Cosmos as a civil engineering, construction management and inspection, environmental, energy management and surveying company. “Our expertise encompasses site infrastructure design, grading design and storm water management with a heavy emphasis on Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure Design, building systems engineering including building automation, wastewater treatment engineering, environmental management, and innovative wastewater treatment research and process development.”
Douglas said Cosmos philosophy is that they are committed to providing top quality services to the total satisfaction of its clients. Throughout its 17 years he proclaims that he and the staff has strived to provide a clear definition of the project objectives, a clear outline and explanation of the project and processing steps to achieve the objectives and on time delivery of services of high technical quality. He said that in order for small businesses to grow and gain confidence in their field that strong measures have to be put in place to encourage larger companies to do business with or to form partnerships.
“I have worked hard to build and maintain relationships which developed into respect,” he said. As a result his clients are located in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Louisville, KY, Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, Baltimore and Huntington, WV. Clients have included Allegheny County, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, HDR Engineering Inc., the Pittsburgh Sports and Exhibition Authority, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, the Department of Energy, the City of Cleveland, the Ohio EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
To handle contracts Cosmos recently received in the neighboring state of Ohio, Douglas says he now operates satellite offices in Cleveland and Akron. In Cleveland the project consist of working on a tunnel construction project and on a waterline extension project in Akron.
Locally, one of their major jobs is the 28-acre Lower Hill Redevelopment Project, the former Civic Arena site. Cosmos performed the design of the storm sewer separation along Centre Avenue between Crawford Street and Washington Place. The work is considered an important segment of a new separate storm sewer system that will be ultimately constructed to extend upstream and downstream of the site to mitigate flows within currently existing combination sewers. The segment along Centre Avenue is designed to accommodate future planned flows as modeled in the City’s balanced water model as provided by the PWSA.
With the company motto, Innovation for the Future, Douglas said he is always looking ahead. He and his staff are working to develop a technique to treat wastewater and portable water using nano-technology.
“It’s a new and evolving science for manufacturing new materials and heating wastewater,” he explained. “At Cosmos we want to grow the business to develop new technologies.”
Currently at a staff of 10 full time people and five on-call employees, Douglas said he is looking to hire civil, mechanical and chemical engineers, field inspection workers, a marketing and business development person as well as an office administrator.
Douglas, a Caribbean native received his Bachelor degree from the University of Virgin Islands and his Master’s degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. He relocated to Pittsburgh to work for US Steel. Before starting Cosmos Technologies in 1998 he worked in various capacities of the engineering field gaining experience in all areas of the industry.
Cosmos, an award winning African American engineering firm, providing services in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Construction Management, Construction Inspection and Energy Management is certified in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Pennsylvania certifications include the Small Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Unified Certification Program, the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council, the PennDOT Engineering and Construction Management System, the Department of General Services and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Ohio certifications include the Disadvantage Business Enterprise, the Chemical Safety Board, the Northern Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Throughout Cosmos history the business and Douglas has been recognized for their high performance and business savvy by numerous organizations. Some recognition include the Pittsburgh Circle of Courage Award for entrepreneurism and business leadership, the Men of Excellence Award from the New Pittsburgh Courier, the entrepreneur of the year award from the National Black Minority Business Association and the Impact Award from Bridgeway Capital for business leadership.
He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National and Pittsburgh Chapter of the Water Environmental Federation, Corporate Membership; Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, Corporate Membership; Society of American Military Engineers and the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania.
With the core belief that the real true value of any business is to make a positive impact on the rest of society, he is a strong believer in education and demonstrates his conviction by promoting a greater quality of education for area youth. He and his staff have served as tutors and mentors to students at Westinghouse High School, Imani Christian Academy and North Side Urban Pathways. He currently is a Board member of the Homewood-Brushton YMCA and the Board of Chairman of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Sub Committee for the City of Pittsburgh.
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