Hollaway Day, Year Three: The One Day We Close

Two years ago this week, the City of Houston did something we still haven’t fully gotten used to. It read our name into the record, thanked a small, woman-owned firm for thirty years of “excellence, professionalism, and heart,” and declared September 24 Hollaway Day.

We could have framed the proclamation and gone back to work. Instead, we made a decision that turned out to say more about us than the proclamation itself: we closed. Every year since, September 24 has been a paid company holiday. No client meetings, no field crews, no deadlines. Phones go to voicemail. The whole firm takes the day to reflect on what it means to work at Hollaway in their own way.

This is the third one, and it’s worth explaining why we keep it up.

A day off is a values statement

Our mission has two halves. The first is the part you’d expect from an environmental and communications consultancy: expert problem-solving that improves and protects our environment and our communities. The second half is the one we’re prouder of, because it’s harder: a workplace where we grow professionally, live fully, and do meaningful work.

“Live fully” is easy to put on a wall. It is very hard to put on a calendar. Consulting runs on billable hours, and the industry’s default answer to a milestone is a longer day, not a shorter one. Hollaway Day is our standing argument with that default. It’s the one day a year when the correct thing to do for the firm is to rest, go to the kids’ game, sit on the porch, or drive to the coast and rest the soul.

We believe we can build a successful company without losing sight of the people who make it successful. That idea is woven into our vision, and Hollaway Day is one simple way we choose to live it.

Everything changed. Nothing changed.

If you’ve visited hollawayenv.com or opened one of our proposals lately, you’ve noticed we look a bit different. This year we launched Hollaway 2.0: a refreshed brand, a new website, and a new way of saying our values out loud: IDEAS Squared — Ingenuity + Integrity, Dependability + Dynamic, Empathy + Empowerment, Adaptability + Ambition, Strategy + Swagger.

It was a big year of change for a firm that has spent thirty-two years being consistent. So, it’s a fair question: did the rebrand change what Hollaway is?

Hollaway Day is a good place to answer it. The proclamation in 2024 didn’t recognize a logo. It recognized people — scientists who walk an alignment before the equipment shows up, public involvement staff who explain a project to a neighborhood in two languages, designers who make a project make sense on a single page. Those are the same people. Many of them have been here for a decade or more. The colors on the business card changed. Who answers the phone did not.

New look. Same firm. That’s the version of change we’re comfortable with.

What We’re Grateful for This Year:

Our team, first and always. Thirty-some people who take a hard job seriously and each other lightly, and who bring the fun without being asked.

Our clients and partners, who trust us with work that outlives all of us: coastal plans, water lines, bridges, public conversations that decide what a place becomes.

And Houston. The city where we’ve built this company, raised our families, weathered a few storms, and done work we’re proud of. To have our hometown recognize Hollaway with a day of our own still means more than we can say.

See you Friday!

On September 24, you’ll get our voicemail. We’ll return the call the next morning, rested, and probably with a story about where we went. If you’re a client, a partner, a neighbor, or someone who has ever sat through one of our public meetings: thank you for being part of thirty-two years.

Happy Hollaway Day. Go live fully.

— The Owners and team at Hollaway Environmental + Communications Services