http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2008/03/30/germaphobe_0331.html?cxntnid=biz033108e
Check out these great ideas and tips for having a sanitary bathroom experience!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
For the Germaphobes Out There...
http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2008/03/30/germaphobe_0331.html?cxntnid=biz033108e
Check out these great ideas and tips for having a sanitary bathroom experience!
Friday, April 25, 2008
May Events/Dates to Remember
Mark your calendars!
1 - May Day & Mother Goose Day
2 - Greg's baby due
5 - Cinco de Mayo, Guac Off, Josh's Birthday
6 - International No Diet Day (Leave the Lean Cuisines at home!)
8 - No Socks Day
9 - Family Child Care Provider's Day
11-Mother's Day
12-Nurse's Day
13-Peter's Anniversary
14-Dance like a Chicken Day, Rachael's Anniversary
15-Chocolate Chip Day
17-Armed Forces Day
18-Peace Day, Visit Relatives Day, Museum Day, Kristie's Anniversary
19-Circus Day, Jason's Birthday, Tanya's Anniversary
21-Michelle's Anniversary
23-Heidi B's Birthday
25-Missing Children's Day, Tap Dance Day
26-Memorial Day observed - Shea Closed
30-Memorial Day
31-No Tobacco Day
1 - May Day & Mother Goose Day
2 - Greg's baby due
5 - Cinco de Mayo, Guac Off, Josh's Birthday
6 - International No Diet Day (Leave the Lean Cuisines at home!)
8 - No Socks Day
9 - Family Child Care Provider's Day
11-Mother's Day
12-Nurse's Day
13-Peter's Anniversary
14-Dance like a Chicken Day, Rachael's Anniversary
15-Chocolate Chip Day
17-Armed Forces Day
18-Peace Day, Visit Relatives Day, Museum Day, Kristie's Anniversary
19-Circus Day, Jason's Birthday, Tanya's Anniversary
21-Michelle's Anniversary
23-Heidi B's Birthday
25-Missing Children's Day, Tap Dance Day
26-Memorial Day observed - Shea Closed
30-Memorial Day
31-No Tobacco Day
Check out this Eco- Friendly Website!!!
WWW.treehugger.com (fitting for Arbor Day)
Articles include:
13W LED Bulb Replaces 100W Incandescent
Thanks to Cori for this great resource.
Articles include:
13W LED Bulb Replaces 100W Incandescent
Thanks to Cori for this great resource.
Hemp Houses for Australia
One of the people excited about NSW’s newly legal industrial hemp crops is researcher Klara Marosszeky. She has been developing a commercial viable hemp building material, and will now be able to source her raw materials locally rather than trucking them all the way across the country.
A project of Klara’s has been hemp concrete. Mixing hemp hurds (the pithy core of the stem) with a lime-based binder, plus water and a little sand, sets off a chemical reaction akin to petrification. The fibre becomes a mineral and sets like cement and can be moulded into robust building blocks. These are fire-retardant, pest proof and light, while still having the ability to ‘breath’- allowing the passage of moisture vapour.
This is, strictly speaking, not new technology. Three years ago we mentioned that Ireland was revising the process. (They even wrote book on it: Building With Hemp.) The Irish were, in turn, picking up on work that had been done in France, where many stone-like buildings, including century old bridges, have used this remarkable material. And some time ago we noted a British brewer who had used hemcrete, as some call it, to construct their massive distribution centre. And just this month, American Lime Technology (AMT) announced they were now the exclusive North American distributor of Hemcrete construction materials.
But back to Klara Marosszeky, who has been pursuing her Australian variant of the process with the University of New South Wales since 2003. "We've developed the material for blocks, sprayed walls, panels and in-fill.” She said, adding “You can grow enough hemp for a house on one hectare in four months.” Part of her research has been in making the product 'commercially competitive', "because I realised there was no point in having a sustainable product that cost an awful lot to build with."
And at the end of the building’s life she suggests you can fertilse your garden with the refuse or break the material down and reconstitute it into a new wall. Via ::Echo News and ABC
Hemp has been developed for many other construction applications, including insulation, wood oil, and building bales.
A project of Klara’s has been hemp concrete. Mixing hemp hurds (the pithy core of the stem) with a lime-based binder, plus water and a little sand, sets off a chemical reaction akin to petrification. The fibre becomes a mineral and sets like cement and can be moulded into robust building blocks. These are fire-retardant, pest proof and light, while still having the ability to ‘breath’- allowing the passage of moisture vapour.
This is, strictly speaking, not new technology. Three years ago we mentioned that Ireland was revising the process. (They even wrote book on it: Building With Hemp.) The Irish were, in turn, picking up on work that had been done in France, where many stone-like buildings, including century old bridges, have used this remarkable material. And some time ago we noted a British brewer who had used hemcrete, as some call it, to construct their massive distribution centre. And just this month, American Lime Technology (AMT) announced they were now the exclusive North American distributor of Hemcrete construction materials.
But back to Klara Marosszeky, who has been pursuing her Australian variant of the process with the University of New South Wales since 2003. "We've developed the material for blocks, sprayed walls, panels and in-fill.” She said, adding “You can grow enough hemp for a house on one hectare in four months.” Part of her research has been in making the product 'commercially competitive', "because I realised there was no point in having a sustainable product that cost an awful lot to build with."
And at the end of the building’s life she suggests you can fertilse your garden with the refuse or break the material down and reconstitute it into a new wall. Via ::Echo News and ABC
Hemp has been developed for many other construction applications, including insulation, wood oil, and building bales.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Do You Know What Today Is?
Administrative Professionals (Secretary's) Day
When : April 23, 2008, April 22, 2009
Administrative Professional's Week is celebrated from April 21 - 25, 2008.
National Professional Secretaries Week and National Secretary's Day was created in 1952 through the work of Harry F. Klemfuss of Young and Rubicam. Klemfuss recognized the importance and value of the position to a company or business. His goal was to encourage more women to become secretaries. Using his skill and experience in public relations, Klemfuss, promoted the values and importance of the job of secretaries. In doing so, he also created the holiday in recognition of the importance of secretaries.
Today, the title is changing and evolving. But, the recognition is equally important. There are two new terms in use today. They are "Administrative Professionals" and "Executive Admins". The two names sometimes mean different roles and responsibilities to different companies. Both are broader terms, that encompass more positions than the original "Secretary" role.
The name change recognizes and acknowledges that the role has changed significantly since 1952, and for the better at that. And in Harry Klemfuss' day, these postions were the realm of women. Today, you find some males in these positions.
The most common ways of recognizing your Administrative Professional(s) today are:
Flowers
Cards, often with shopping gift certificates
Take them to lunch
Candies
Assorted Gift Baskets
So when you see an "Admin" this week, be sure to show him/her your appreciation.
When : April 23, 2008, April 22, 2009
Administrative Professional's Week is celebrated from April 21 - 25, 2008.
National Professional Secretaries Week and National Secretary's Day was created in 1952 through the work of Harry F. Klemfuss of Young and Rubicam. Klemfuss recognized the importance and value of the position to a company or business. His goal was to encourage more women to become secretaries. Using his skill and experience in public relations, Klemfuss, promoted the values and importance of the job of secretaries. In doing so, he also created the holiday in recognition of the importance of secretaries.
Today, the title is changing and evolving. But, the recognition is equally important. There are two new terms in use today. They are "Administrative Professionals" and "Executive Admins". The two names sometimes mean different roles and responsibilities to different companies. Both are broader terms, that encompass more positions than the original "Secretary" role.
The name change recognizes and acknowledges that the role has changed significantly since 1952, and for the better at that. And in Harry Klemfuss' day, these postions were the realm of women. Today, you find some males in these positions.
The most common ways of recognizing your Administrative Professional(s) today are:
Flowers
Cards, often with shopping gift certificates
Take them to lunch
Candies
Assorted Gift Baskets
So when you see an "Admin" this week, be sure to show him/her your appreciation.
Friday, April 18, 2008
our newest little Shea
Bronwyn was born April 16th and both mommy and baby girl are doing great. Congratulations to Adam and Kari!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Another really good steakhouse? Sigh.
If r.Norman's were the first steakhouse to grace the mean streets of downtown Minneapolis, it would probably be a runaway sensation.
But because it has sprouted in the shadows of six or seven other well-established bovine shrines, it has some tough competition. Not that it doesn't rise to the challenge, because the ambitious operation has a lot going for it, starting with the address, the long-empty building that wraps around the Pantages Theatre. Owners David Koch and Randy Norman (they're the folks behind the nearby Bellanotte) deserve a big collective wet kiss from the city for brilliantly defibrillating a flat-lining Hennepin Avenue corner.
The joint looks good (the design is by Shea Inc. of Minneapolis), and it feels good, too. Step in off the street and you're welcomed by a roomy bar slathered in buttery backlit onyx. Just beyond a two-story wine tower is the airy, angular dining room, all crisp whites and browns, noteworthy for its tall, scene-setting windows (unfortunately, they look out on the city's sorriest streetscape, the throwaway facades of Block E and City Center). And that's just on the first floor.
On a busy weekend night, it's hard not to follow the parades of glamizons as they flock upstairs to Seven Sushi and dive headlong into what has quickly evolved into a bona fide scene. It's a frothy mix of nigiri, sashimi, cocktails and flirting, set in a vast lounge punctuated by upholstered pillars illuminated by a pulsing array of pastel lights. It's the kind of room made for showing off a well-used gym membership or a well-padded bank account.
There's more: A rooftop lounge that appears to be the size of a smallish Target store. Once this weather changes, I imagine the two best words to describe this chunk of open-air real estate will be mob scene.
Like I said, plenty of valuable assets here. So why was it that every time I settled into that handsome dining room and perused the menu, the gently accented voice of "Project Runway" judge Nina Garcia would pop into my brain? It became my own personal YouTube download: Contestant Rami Kashoú is parading his umpteenth draped Grecian getup on the catwalk and yes, it's lovely to look at, it hangs like a dream, it's tailor-made for a Nicole-Kidman-on-the-red-carpet moment, blah, blah, blah. Yet Garcia sighs, brushes a manicured talon across her bangs and says, "Show me what else you can do."
Downtown Minneapolis lacks for many things, but another steakhouse ain't one of them. Koch & Co. have all the goods here: location, cash and an obvious knack at hospitality; couldn't they show us something we haven't seen a thousand times?
They have it in them because when the restaurant follows Garcia's advice and it tiptoes away from the wearisome steakhouse comfort zone, it scores. I love this novel idea: Kobe-style beef, sold in incremental 2-, 4- and 6-ounce portions (and charged accordingly, at $13 per ounce) and prepared with obvious skill. It's so tender that a knife slides rather than saws through it, and the meat's mellow tanginess hangs on your tastebuds like a beautiful pinot noir. Try finding that at Fogo de Chao.
Examine r.Norman's on its own steakhouse terms, and my assessment is that much of its lengthy menu is perfectly pleasant. Premium-quality beef is cut a half-dozen ways and nicely grilled; toss in a few extra bucks and select from 12 complementary sauces and flavored butters.
The most reliable seafood is the simplest, just flavorful slabs of salmon or sea bass seared on the grill, steamed whole lobsters, chilled crab legs. But when the kitchen attempts something more ambitious it can lose its footing, because for every winner (abundant shears of sesame-crusted tuna, jazzed with a punchy wasabi-ginger-soy sauce) there's a disappointing counterpart (overcooked scallops overwhelmed by a clumsy, out-of-season corn relish).
But because it has sprouted in the shadows of six or seven other well-established bovine shrines, it has some tough competition. Not that it doesn't rise to the challenge, because the ambitious operation has a lot going for it, starting with the address, the long-empty building that wraps around the Pantages Theatre. Owners David Koch and Randy Norman (they're the folks behind the nearby Bellanotte) deserve a big collective wet kiss from the city for brilliantly defibrillating a flat-lining Hennepin Avenue corner.
The joint looks good (the design is by Shea Inc. of Minneapolis), and it feels good, too. Step in off the street and you're welcomed by a roomy bar slathered in buttery backlit onyx. Just beyond a two-story wine tower is the airy, angular dining room, all crisp whites and browns, noteworthy for its tall, scene-setting windows (unfortunately, they look out on the city's sorriest streetscape, the throwaway facades of Block E and City Center). And that's just on the first floor.
On a busy weekend night, it's hard not to follow the parades of glamizons as they flock upstairs to Seven Sushi and dive headlong into what has quickly evolved into a bona fide scene. It's a frothy mix of nigiri, sashimi, cocktails and flirting, set in a vast lounge punctuated by upholstered pillars illuminated by a pulsing array of pastel lights. It's the kind of room made for showing off a well-used gym membership or a well-padded bank account.
There's more: A rooftop lounge that appears to be the size of a smallish Target store. Once this weather changes, I imagine the two best words to describe this chunk of open-air real estate will be mob scene.
Like I said, plenty of valuable assets here. So why was it that every time I settled into that handsome dining room and perused the menu, the gently accented voice of "Project Runway" judge Nina Garcia would pop into my brain? It became my own personal YouTube download: Contestant Rami Kashoú is parading his umpteenth draped Grecian getup on the catwalk and yes, it's lovely to look at, it hangs like a dream, it's tailor-made for a Nicole-Kidman-on-the-red-carpet moment, blah, blah, blah. Yet Garcia sighs, brushes a manicured talon across her bangs and says, "Show me what else you can do."
Downtown Minneapolis lacks for many things, but another steakhouse ain't one of them. Koch & Co. have all the goods here: location, cash and an obvious knack at hospitality; couldn't they show us something we haven't seen a thousand times?
They have it in them because when the restaurant follows Garcia's advice and it tiptoes away from the wearisome steakhouse comfort zone, it scores. I love this novel idea: Kobe-style beef, sold in incremental 2-, 4- and 6-ounce portions (and charged accordingly, at $13 per ounce) and prepared with obvious skill. It's so tender that a knife slides rather than saws through it, and the meat's mellow tanginess hangs on your tastebuds like a beautiful pinot noir. Try finding that at Fogo de Chao.
Examine r.Norman's on its own steakhouse terms, and my assessment is that much of its lengthy menu is perfectly pleasant. Premium-quality beef is cut a half-dozen ways and nicely grilled; toss in a few extra bucks and select from 12 complementary sauces and flavored butters.
The most reliable seafood is the simplest, just flavorful slabs of salmon or sea bass seared on the grill, steamed whole lobsters, chilled crab legs. But when the kitchen attempts something more ambitious it can lose its footing, because for every winner (abundant shears of sesame-crusted tuna, jazzed with a punchy wasabi-ginger-soy sauce) there's a disappointing counterpart (overcooked scallops overwhelmed by a clumsy, out-of-season corn relish).
Starters include all the usual steakhouse suspects. Best are a prodigiously lumpy crab cake, wonderfully crispy onion rings, fresh $3-a-pop oysters and a trio of two-bite burgers made with that divine Kobe-style ground beef. I wasn't wildly impressed by the lifeless soups, the mushy crab-lobster ceviche, the flavorless shrimp cocktail. Salads are hit-and-miss. Love the lively riff on the Cobb and the decent steak-onion-blue cheese toss, but an iceberg wedge felt indifferent at best and the Caesar was a flat-out yawner.
In true steakhouse tradition, there are sides for days, and some show real imagination and finesse. Don't miss the tall cone of sweet potato fries (the thick mashed sweet spuds are also a treat), the haystacked hash browns, the marvelous coleslaw. Others are merely dutiful. But an $8 baked potato? Come on. Wait, I almost forgot: Charging a lot for a little is a time-honored steakhouse tradition.
Desserts are largely forgettable, with one exception: a showy if bland bananas Foster, prepared tableside with a vaudevillian flourish. I suggest you order one of the bar's well-composed after-dinner drinks instead. Lunch shrinks the dinner menu by half but adds a long list of sports bar-like sandwiches and burgers.
Upstairs at Seven Sushi, the drill is pretty much the same. The genial staff slicing and wrapping away behind the sushi bar is perfectly competent, turning out perfectly competent fare at slightly higher-than-competitive prices. No surprises, no disappointments. You go for the on-the-prowl room (and the great late-night hours), and, oh, while you're there, you order a few dynamite rolls and you sample a sake or two.
Sure, OK. Nothing wrong with that. It's fine. I just wish my Minnesota nasal twang would evaporate, and Ms. Garcia's pearly purr would take its place, when I say this to the r.Norman's gang: Guys, we know you're talented. Now would you please show us something else?
Rick Nelson • 612-673-4757
In true steakhouse tradition, there are sides for days, and some show real imagination and finesse. Don't miss the tall cone of sweet potato fries (the thick mashed sweet spuds are also a treat), the haystacked hash browns, the marvelous coleslaw. Others are merely dutiful. But an $8 baked potato? Come on. Wait, I almost forgot: Charging a lot for a little is a time-honored steakhouse tradition.
Desserts are largely forgettable, with one exception: a showy if bland bananas Foster, prepared tableside with a vaudevillian flourish. I suggest you order one of the bar's well-composed after-dinner drinks instead. Lunch shrinks the dinner menu by half but adds a long list of sports bar-like sandwiches and burgers.
Upstairs at Seven Sushi, the drill is pretty much the same. The genial staff slicing and wrapping away behind the sushi bar is perfectly competent, turning out perfectly competent fare at slightly higher-than-competitive prices. No surprises, no disappointments. You go for the on-the-prowl room (and the great late-night hours), and, oh, while you're there, you order a few dynamite rolls and you sample a sake or two.
Sure, OK. Nothing wrong with that. It's fine. I just wish my Minnesota nasal twang would evaporate, and Ms. Garcia's pearly purr would take its place, when I say this to the r.Norman's gang: Guys, we know you're talented. Now would you please show us something else?
Rick Nelson • 612-673-4757
AAHID Response to WSJ Op Ed by Clark Neily on April 1, 2008
Watch Out for That Pillow
By CLARK NEILY
April 1, 2008; Page A17 - The Wall Street Journal Article
Imagine you were a state legislator and some folks asked you to pass a law making it a crime to give advice about paint colors and throw pillows without a license. And imagine they told you that the only people qualified to place large pieces of furniture in a room are those who have gotten a college degree in interior design, completed a two-year apprenticeship, and
passed a national licensing exam. And by the way, it is criminally misleading for people who practice interior design to use that term without government permission.
You might stare at them incredulously for a moment, then look down at your calendar and say, "Oh, I get it -- April Fool!" Right? Wrong.
These folks represent the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), an industry group whose members have waged a 30-year, multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to legislate their competitors out of business. And those absurd restrictions on advice about paint selection, throw pillows and furniture placement represent the actual fruits of lobbying in places like Alabama, Nevada and Illinois, where ASID and its local affiliates have peddled their snake-oil mantra that "Every decision an interior designer makes affects life safety and quality of life."
Legislative analysis by a half-dozen states that rebuffed ASID's attempts to cartelize interior design -- including Colorado, Washington and South Carolina -- has failed to support ASID's claim that the location of your couch or the color of your bedroom walls is literally a matter of life and death. As the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies put it, there is "no evidence of physical or financial harm being caused to . . . consumers by the unregulated practice of interior designers."
Lacking any factual support for its sweeping public welfare claims, ASID and its supporters often resort to fear-mongering. For example, licensing proponents frequently say the tragic fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas that killed 87 people in 1980 was the result of inappropriate fixtures and furnishings.
The fire was actually caused by an electrical fault and allowed to spread by a grossly inadequate sprinkler system. Investigators later identified 83 different building code violations. Another favorite is the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, in which 100 people perished. Again, that tragedy had nothing to with substandard interior design services. It was caused by an illegal indoor fireworks display and the absence of a code-mandated sprinkler system.
If there were any credible evidence that unregulated interior design presents a genuine risk to consumers, ASID would certainly have found it by now. They have had plenty of time (more than three decades), resources (dues for ASID's 40,000 members average several hundred dollars per year), and incentive.
Furthermore, despite ASID's best efforts, only three states regulate the practice of interior design. That leaves 47 (including California and New York) where the ravages of unlicensed interior design could be easily documented -- if there were any.
So what is really behind ASID's relentless push for more regulation? Simple: naked economic
protectionism.
It is no accident that the credentials required for licensure in ASID-backed occupational licensing bills are the same credentials required for membership in ASID itself. This includes a four-year degree from an accredited interior design college, a two-year apprenticeship, and a two-day, thousand-dollar licensing exam so irrelevant to the actual practice of interior design that many ASID members have never bothered to pass it themselves and simply get a waiver instead.
In vetoing interior design legislation last May, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels explained that the "principal effect" of the law would have been "to restrain competition and limit new entrants into the occupation."
Mr. Daniels noted that interior designers were "hardly the only profession" seeking government
protection from potential competitors.
The numbers certainly bear him out. Fifty years ago, only 5% of the American workforce was licensed; today it is nearly 30%. We're not talking about brain surgeons or airline pilots, either. Louisiana requires florists to be licensed (yes, florists), and in several states -- including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia -- only licensed funeral directors may sell caskets, a state-sanctioned monopoly they use to jack up prices anywhere from 400% to 600%, a fact established in litigation by the Institute for Justice in Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Until it was struck down by the state supreme court last year, Alabama's interior design law made it a crime to offer advice about throw pillows and paint colors without a license. To anyone who thinks that law -- or others like it currently being pushed by interest groups like ASID in state capitols around the nation -- was motivated by a genuine concern for public health and welfare, I can only say this: It's going to be a rough day.
Mr. Neily is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice.
Responses:
To the Editors:
Imagine you wake up one morning and find yourself a patient in an Intensive Care
Unit. Tethered to your bed, you notice liquids dripping slowly into long thin plastic
tubes that feed needles affixed to your wrists while machines monitor your vital
signs. You are an attorney and realize the seriousness of your confinement. You
know you are in the single most dangerous environment in the United States.
Why is the ICU so dangerous? Consider that according to the Centers for Disease
Control, more people die of hospital‐acquired infection and medical errors in a
hospital than from airplane and automobile accidents combined. Each year about 2
million people are affected by hospital acquired infections.
As you lay on your back, with time to carefully consider your environment, you may
wonder, where do the dangers lurk? The ICU room seems pleasant, but you look at
the ceiling...is bacteria hiding in the fissures of the ceiling tile? What about the floor?
The borders seem attractive, but look at the edges. Brown yucky stuff coats the
juncture at the wall base. Maybe Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
skulks in that yuck. Or maybe MRSA lives in the floor‐tiles joints. Some tiles are
cracked; the bacteria could be in the crevices.
Near your head, some strange monitor starts buzzing. The nurse comes in and looks
at the machine. The beeping grows louder and louder. What is happening to me?
Can't they do something with that noise? Properly gloved, the nurse whisks open the
cubical drapery, exposing your battered and vulnerable body to anyone who walks
past. With the same gloved hands, the nurse attends to your wounds and then closes
the drapery. Wait, you want to ask, did you just open those curtains with the same
gloves you used on me? Did you leave bacteria on the drapery? Did you put bacteria
on me?
Although this story is fictitious, the scenario is real. Factors highlighted in this story
lead to the staggering statistics regarding hospital deaths. How do we mitigate the
dangers and make the environment safer? Is it a matter of better maintenance,
stronger cleaning agents, or changes in hospital procedures? To those most affected,
the answer is most obvious, interior design.
I am President of The American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID).
We certify healthcare interior designers through baseline certification from the
National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ), ongoing healthcare
education, healthcare experience and an additional healthcare examination. This is
not a membership society; it is a credentialing organization. It aims to protect the
health and safety of the public in healthcare environment environments.
(www.AAHID.org.)
AAHID‐certified interior designers specify medical environments, such as ICU’s, with
attention to infection protection and safety. They use furnishings and finishes that
resist bacterial growth. Their design details facilitate cleaning. They create an
environment that allows for acoustical and visual privacy. The lighting they specify
allows doctors and nurses to see patients clearly, while not impeding the patient's
comfort. If the route between the door and the hand‐washing sink is direct, you can
thank an AAHID designer. If positive distractions reduce stress and make patients and
their families feel more comfortable, thank an AAHID designer. If as a patient you
appreciate careful sound design and attention to the details that ensure your privacy,
then thank an AAHID designer.
Interior design isn't about throw pillows or carpet patterns. After all, throw pillows
are hard to clean and harbor bacteria. And some carpet patterns can induce
dizziness, nausea and seizures in certain patients. AAHID certified interior designers
improve health and safety in all types of healthcare environments, from senior‐living
facilities, medical offices, acute‐care hospitals and specialty medical and research
facilities. For these design professionals, design is serious business based on sound
evidence. (www.healthdesign.org.)
With the looming possibilities of pandemic influenza, drug‐resistant tuberculosis, and
MRSA, hospitals and health‐care facilities aren't the only places that benefit from
licensed and certified designers. For instance, according to ABC news, design flaws
caused mold growth in a Greenwich, Connecticut school. The school was closed and a
massive student‐relocation program is being considered
(http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1098/33/). Further, schools in
Connecticut, Ohio, Washington, and Virginia have been closed due to MRSA deaths
or infections. Those infections aren't due to design flaws, but how easy is it to clean
those schools? A licensed, certified interior designer would know.
In short, Mr. Neily, if you were to find yourself in the scenario described, would you
want to be tethered to an environment decorated by an unlicensed decorator, or a
certified AAHID interior designer? Why deny our citizens anything that can be done
to avoid infection, exposure to harmful bacteria and help recuperate in the cleanest
most efficient environment possible?
Certification and licensing of the Interior Design profession does not guarantee you
will survive the ICU experience, but it does ensure that the interior design
professional based their decisions on sound evidence to ensure the safest possible
setting and the best possible outcome.
Sincerely,
Barbara J. Huelat, AAHID, FASID, IIDA
President
To the Editors:
"Watch Out for That Pillow" published by The Wall Street Journal on April 8, 2008 served as
an alarm bell for interior designers and parents who spend significant money educating their
children at Universities in preparation of becoming professional Interior Designers. That
article magnified how little most Americans know about the profession and exposed the lack
of research the Wall Street Journal prepared before publishing the article.
In response, my comments are focused on how much we need educated, certified and licensed
professional interior designers in our healthcare industry. There are other market sectors that
rely on professional interior designers not interior decorators. Decorators may have a place on
home remodel makeover television shows but they have no place in the commercial, health,
and public sector of our society.
Over the past four years I have been given the opportunity to serve as National President of
the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID). I represented these skilled
design specialists who are educated and certified professionals, whose vision and
understanding of hospital environments help improve patient recovery outcomes. These
passionate designers team up with allied professionals such as Architects, Engineers,
Contractors, Building Code Officials, Health and Safety Officials, and Hospital
Administrators to create smart design solutions that are far more intricate than decorative
design trends. Instead, their solutions address a complex healthcare industry dealing with
serious problems such as infection control, mass casualty probabilities and the largest aging
population in world history that is requiring medical and supportive living facilities. As
AAHID President, I encountered numerous healthcare executives desperately needing the
services of healthcare interior designers, not decorators picking pretty pillows.
Healthcare Interior Designers genuinely want to improve our healthcare system and are armed
with years of scientific research that supports the need for holistic medical solutions, better
and more efficient planning and design models that integrate caregivers, family and other
support systems including friends and community services. Their design language includes
terms for healing environments and positive patient journeys. These same interior designers
are concerned about a myriad of Life, Safety, and Welfare concerns for the public at large and
the personal experience we all have when hospitalized or moved to nursing homes.
Healthcare Interior Designers are trained specialists. They are able to distinguish which light
source to specify for a neonatal department as much as an Alzheimer nursing unit. Where the
built environment could be challenged, healthcare interior designers are required to know the
regulations imposed on the healthcare industry and help navigate the healthcare management
team through numerous hurdles while designing acceptable healthcare interior spaces.
Healthcare Interior Designers are called upon to advise and assist their clients in meeting
national accessibility standards, notification and compliance with state agency oversight, local
fire departments plan reviews and plant inspections, and promote many other consulting
services to insure compliance mandated by insurance companies and governmental programs
funding of patient care. For example, the size of a patient room, including the furnishings,
finishes and amenities are critical to passing the tests of such governing groups and it is the
interior designer that enables the facility to plan for compliance as a minimum standard.
Four year college accredited interior design programs prepare the future interior designer to
find career employment where they may mentor under senior interior design talent for years in
preparation of passing the National Council of Interior Design Qualifications (NCIDQ).
NCIDQ is a benchmark for minimum interior design competency and required in addition to
five more years of specialization in healthcare design before the designer can be considered to
be peer reviewed and certified by additional testing through AAHID to specialize in healthcare
interior design.
The societal contributions these designers bring to America are so far beyond “pillow and
color picking" it would be like comparing a spa message therapist to an orthopedic surgeon.
And by the way, in most states both of these professionals require licenses to practice! How
can we expect any less regulation for professional work that could avoid the harm of persons
and institutions expected to save and improve the quality of life?
Sincerely,
Dan Lee
Past President, AAHID
To the Editors:
I am deeply disappointed in the article your newspaper published on April 1, 2008 titled What 'Out for That Pillow' by Clark Neily. Your editors clearþ did no reseatch whatsoever as to the
accuracy of the statements made by Mr. Neily. I thought the integdty of journalists was based on their ability to discem facts ftom the ranting of an individual who has a point to make. As your own "DowJones Code of Conduct" states, "it is an essential prerequisite for success in the news and infiormation business that our customers believe us to be telling them the truth. If we are not telling them the truth -- or even if they for any valid reason, believe that we are not -- then DowJones cannot prosper." Your code goes on to say that "the Company will suffer, for
example, if our customers cannot assume that...our opinions represent only our own editorial philosophies or there are no hidden agendas in any of our journalistic undertaking." It appears to me, that the Wall Street Journal does have a hidden agenda on this topic. So what is it and why don't you clearly state that agenda?
You may be interested to know, because you obviously didn't bother to check, that the Institute for Justice, where Mr. Neily is an attomey, is receiving $750,000 of support in 2008 alone from the National Kitchen and Bath Association to fight interior design legislation. This is a disagreement within a profession. Many such disagreements happen all the time, but they are generally reported on by contacting all parties and writing a balanced aticle that does not expressly promote one opinion as fact. (Please see the attached press release from the NKBA).
Mr. Neily grossly mischatacterizes the requirements for licensure for interior desþers in the US and Canada.
He states that they are "...a four-year degree from an accredited interior design college, a two-year apptenticeship, and a two-day thousand-dollar licensing exam so irrelevant to the actual practice of interior design..." My organization, the National Council for Intetior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) produces that exam. It is not produced or influenced by the American Society of Interior Designers. NCIDQ exists to protect the public's intetest in the built environment - not to promote the wants of the interior design profession. Our only members are the US state governments and Canadian regulatory bodies that regulate the
profession. A simple check of out Web site (www.ncidq.org) would have told you that applicants for our Examination pay a one-time application review fee of $150 (and in some cases this is waived) and then they pay for which ever of the three test sections they wish to take at each six-month test administration. Curently the fee to take all three sections is $720. $150 + $720 = $870. Not $1,000. We also clearly state on our Web site what the requirements for eligibility are. They include, but are not limited to, a four-year accredited degree. This is a case where Mr. Neily clearly misrepresented the facts to make a point and the Wall Street Joumal didn't bother to check his "facts." The same can be said for his entire article.
Mr. Neily refuses to accept a widely held definition of "interior design" and how that differs from "interior decoration." All design professionals pick colors - architects, landscape atchitects and interior designers - but it is not the reason these professions are regulated. The selection of colors and having "bad taste" may be a part of the attributes that makes a designer a "good' designer, but it's not a pert of what makes him or her qualified to design spaces that will not harm the users of that space. The NCIDQ Web site contains a definition of the profession of interior designer that is widely used by educators and legislators - it is not Mr. Neily's definition -and a quick check of the facts would have borne this out.
Professions are only regulated by the states when there is evidence that the practice of the profession by unqualified individuals has the potential for harm to the public's health, safety and welfare. To carry Mr. Neily's examples to their extreme, thefe's no need to license attorneys because there's no clear connection between the practice of law and public safety. The Institute for Justice is a libertatian law firm. As libetarians, they oppose govemment regulation. It would have been helpful to point that out in your description of his qualifications to write for the Journal. It would have provided the necessary context to his personal agenda, which is apparently that of theJoumal as well.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey F. KenneS AIA
Executive Director
By CLARK NEILY
April 1, 2008; Page A17 - The Wall Street Journal Article
Imagine you were a state legislator and some folks asked you to pass a law making it a crime to give advice about paint colors and throw pillows without a license. And imagine they told you that the only people qualified to place large pieces of furniture in a room are those who have gotten a college degree in interior design, completed a two-year apprenticeship, and
passed a national licensing exam. And by the way, it is criminally misleading for people who practice interior design to use that term without government permission.
You might stare at them incredulously for a moment, then look down at your calendar and say, "Oh, I get it -- April Fool!" Right? Wrong.
These folks represent the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), an industry group whose members have waged a 30-year, multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to legislate their competitors out of business. And those absurd restrictions on advice about paint selection, throw pillows and furniture placement represent the actual fruits of lobbying in places like Alabama, Nevada and Illinois, where ASID and its local affiliates have peddled their snake-oil mantra that "Every decision an interior designer makes affects life safety and quality of life."
Legislative analysis by a half-dozen states that rebuffed ASID's attempts to cartelize interior design -- including Colorado, Washington and South Carolina -- has failed to support ASID's claim that the location of your couch or the color of your bedroom walls is literally a matter of life and death. As the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies put it, there is "no evidence of physical or financial harm being caused to . . . consumers by the unregulated practice of interior designers."
Lacking any factual support for its sweeping public welfare claims, ASID and its supporters often resort to fear-mongering. For example, licensing proponents frequently say the tragic fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas that killed 87 people in 1980 was the result of inappropriate fixtures and furnishings.
The fire was actually caused by an electrical fault and allowed to spread by a grossly inadequate sprinkler system. Investigators later identified 83 different building code violations. Another favorite is the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, in which 100 people perished. Again, that tragedy had nothing to with substandard interior design services. It was caused by an illegal indoor fireworks display and the absence of a code-mandated sprinkler system.
If there were any credible evidence that unregulated interior design presents a genuine risk to consumers, ASID would certainly have found it by now. They have had plenty of time (more than three decades), resources (dues for ASID's 40,000 members average several hundred dollars per year), and incentive.
Furthermore, despite ASID's best efforts, only three states regulate the practice of interior design. That leaves 47 (including California and New York) where the ravages of unlicensed interior design could be easily documented -- if there were any.
So what is really behind ASID's relentless push for more regulation? Simple: naked economic
protectionism.
It is no accident that the credentials required for licensure in ASID-backed occupational licensing bills are the same credentials required for membership in ASID itself. This includes a four-year degree from an accredited interior design college, a two-year apprenticeship, and a two-day, thousand-dollar licensing exam so irrelevant to the actual practice of interior design that many ASID members have never bothered to pass it themselves and simply get a waiver instead.
In vetoing interior design legislation last May, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels explained that the "principal effect" of the law would have been "to restrain competition and limit new entrants into the occupation."
Mr. Daniels noted that interior designers were "hardly the only profession" seeking government
protection from potential competitors.
The numbers certainly bear him out. Fifty years ago, only 5% of the American workforce was licensed; today it is nearly 30%. We're not talking about brain surgeons or airline pilots, either. Louisiana requires florists to be licensed (yes, florists), and in several states -- including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia -- only licensed funeral directors may sell caskets, a state-sanctioned monopoly they use to jack up prices anywhere from 400% to 600%, a fact established in litigation by the Institute for Justice in Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Until it was struck down by the state supreme court last year, Alabama's interior design law made it a crime to offer advice about throw pillows and paint colors without a license. To anyone who thinks that law -- or others like it currently being pushed by interest groups like ASID in state capitols around the nation -- was motivated by a genuine concern for public health and welfare, I can only say this: It's going to be a rough day.
Mr. Neily is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice.
Responses:
To the Editors:
Imagine you wake up one morning and find yourself a patient in an Intensive Care
Unit. Tethered to your bed, you notice liquids dripping slowly into long thin plastic
tubes that feed needles affixed to your wrists while machines monitor your vital
signs. You are an attorney and realize the seriousness of your confinement. You
know you are in the single most dangerous environment in the United States.
Why is the ICU so dangerous? Consider that according to the Centers for Disease
Control, more people die of hospital‐acquired infection and medical errors in a
hospital than from airplane and automobile accidents combined. Each year about 2
million people are affected by hospital acquired infections.
As you lay on your back, with time to carefully consider your environment, you may
wonder, where do the dangers lurk? The ICU room seems pleasant, but you look at
the ceiling...is bacteria hiding in the fissures of the ceiling tile? What about the floor?
The borders seem attractive, but look at the edges. Brown yucky stuff coats the
juncture at the wall base. Maybe Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
skulks in that yuck. Or maybe MRSA lives in the floor‐tiles joints. Some tiles are
cracked; the bacteria could be in the crevices.
Near your head, some strange monitor starts buzzing. The nurse comes in and looks
at the machine. The beeping grows louder and louder. What is happening to me?
Can't they do something with that noise? Properly gloved, the nurse whisks open the
cubical drapery, exposing your battered and vulnerable body to anyone who walks
past. With the same gloved hands, the nurse attends to your wounds and then closes
the drapery. Wait, you want to ask, did you just open those curtains with the same
gloves you used on me? Did you leave bacteria on the drapery? Did you put bacteria
on me?
Although this story is fictitious, the scenario is real. Factors highlighted in this story
lead to the staggering statistics regarding hospital deaths. How do we mitigate the
dangers and make the environment safer? Is it a matter of better maintenance,
stronger cleaning agents, or changes in hospital procedures? To those most affected,
the answer is most obvious, interior design.
I am President of The American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID).
We certify healthcare interior designers through baseline certification from the
National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ), ongoing healthcare
education, healthcare experience and an additional healthcare examination. This is
not a membership society; it is a credentialing organization. It aims to protect the
health and safety of the public in healthcare environment environments.
(www.AAHID.org.)
AAHID‐certified interior designers specify medical environments, such as ICU’s, with
attention to infection protection and safety. They use furnishings and finishes that
resist bacterial growth. Their design details facilitate cleaning. They create an
environment that allows for acoustical and visual privacy. The lighting they specify
allows doctors and nurses to see patients clearly, while not impeding the patient's
comfort. If the route between the door and the hand‐washing sink is direct, you can
thank an AAHID designer. If positive distractions reduce stress and make patients and
their families feel more comfortable, thank an AAHID designer. If as a patient you
appreciate careful sound design and attention to the details that ensure your privacy,
then thank an AAHID designer.
Interior design isn't about throw pillows or carpet patterns. After all, throw pillows
are hard to clean and harbor bacteria. And some carpet patterns can induce
dizziness, nausea and seizures in certain patients. AAHID certified interior designers
improve health and safety in all types of healthcare environments, from senior‐living
facilities, medical offices, acute‐care hospitals and specialty medical and research
facilities. For these design professionals, design is serious business based on sound
evidence. (www.healthdesign.org.)
With the looming possibilities of pandemic influenza, drug‐resistant tuberculosis, and
MRSA, hospitals and health‐care facilities aren't the only places that benefit from
licensed and certified designers. For instance, according to ABC news, design flaws
caused mold growth in a Greenwich, Connecticut school. The school was closed and a
massive student‐relocation program is being considered
(http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1098/33/). Further, schools in
Connecticut, Ohio, Washington, and Virginia have been closed due to MRSA deaths
or infections. Those infections aren't due to design flaws, but how easy is it to clean
those schools? A licensed, certified interior designer would know.
In short, Mr. Neily, if you were to find yourself in the scenario described, would you
want to be tethered to an environment decorated by an unlicensed decorator, or a
certified AAHID interior designer? Why deny our citizens anything that can be done
to avoid infection, exposure to harmful bacteria and help recuperate in the cleanest
most efficient environment possible?
Certification and licensing of the Interior Design profession does not guarantee you
will survive the ICU experience, but it does ensure that the interior design
professional based their decisions on sound evidence to ensure the safest possible
setting and the best possible outcome.
Sincerely,
Barbara J. Huelat, AAHID, FASID, IIDA
President
To the Editors:
"Watch Out for That Pillow" published by The Wall Street Journal on April 8, 2008 served as
an alarm bell for interior designers and parents who spend significant money educating their
children at Universities in preparation of becoming professional Interior Designers. That
article magnified how little most Americans know about the profession and exposed the lack
of research the Wall Street Journal prepared before publishing the article.
In response, my comments are focused on how much we need educated, certified and licensed
professional interior designers in our healthcare industry. There are other market sectors that
rely on professional interior designers not interior decorators. Decorators may have a place on
home remodel makeover television shows but they have no place in the commercial, health,
and public sector of our society.
Over the past four years I have been given the opportunity to serve as National President of
the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID). I represented these skilled
design specialists who are educated and certified professionals, whose vision and
understanding of hospital environments help improve patient recovery outcomes. These
passionate designers team up with allied professionals such as Architects, Engineers,
Contractors, Building Code Officials, Health and Safety Officials, and Hospital
Administrators to create smart design solutions that are far more intricate than decorative
design trends. Instead, their solutions address a complex healthcare industry dealing with
serious problems such as infection control, mass casualty probabilities and the largest aging
population in world history that is requiring medical and supportive living facilities. As
AAHID President, I encountered numerous healthcare executives desperately needing the
services of healthcare interior designers, not decorators picking pretty pillows.
Healthcare Interior Designers genuinely want to improve our healthcare system and are armed
with years of scientific research that supports the need for holistic medical solutions, better
and more efficient planning and design models that integrate caregivers, family and other
support systems including friends and community services. Their design language includes
terms for healing environments and positive patient journeys. These same interior designers
are concerned about a myriad of Life, Safety, and Welfare concerns for the public at large and
the personal experience we all have when hospitalized or moved to nursing homes.
Healthcare Interior Designers are trained specialists. They are able to distinguish which light
source to specify for a neonatal department as much as an Alzheimer nursing unit. Where the
built environment could be challenged, healthcare interior designers are required to know the
regulations imposed on the healthcare industry and help navigate the healthcare management
team through numerous hurdles while designing acceptable healthcare interior spaces.
Healthcare Interior Designers are called upon to advise and assist their clients in meeting
national accessibility standards, notification and compliance with state agency oversight, local
fire departments plan reviews and plant inspections, and promote many other consulting
services to insure compliance mandated by insurance companies and governmental programs
funding of patient care. For example, the size of a patient room, including the furnishings,
finishes and amenities are critical to passing the tests of such governing groups and it is the
interior designer that enables the facility to plan for compliance as a minimum standard.
Four year college accredited interior design programs prepare the future interior designer to
find career employment where they may mentor under senior interior design talent for years in
preparation of passing the National Council of Interior Design Qualifications (NCIDQ).
NCIDQ is a benchmark for minimum interior design competency and required in addition to
five more years of specialization in healthcare design before the designer can be considered to
be peer reviewed and certified by additional testing through AAHID to specialize in healthcare
interior design.
The societal contributions these designers bring to America are so far beyond “pillow and
color picking" it would be like comparing a spa message therapist to an orthopedic surgeon.
And by the way, in most states both of these professionals require licenses to practice! How
can we expect any less regulation for professional work that could avoid the harm of persons
and institutions expected to save and improve the quality of life?
Sincerely,
Dan Lee
Past President, AAHID
To the Editors:
I am deeply disappointed in the article your newspaper published on April 1, 2008 titled What 'Out for That Pillow' by Clark Neily. Your editors clearþ did no reseatch whatsoever as to the
accuracy of the statements made by Mr. Neily. I thought the integdty of journalists was based on their ability to discem facts ftom the ranting of an individual who has a point to make. As your own "DowJones Code of Conduct" states, "it is an essential prerequisite for success in the news and infiormation business that our customers believe us to be telling them the truth. If we are not telling them the truth -- or even if they for any valid reason, believe that we are not -- then DowJones cannot prosper." Your code goes on to say that "the Company will suffer, for
example, if our customers cannot assume that...our opinions represent only our own editorial philosophies or there are no hidden agendas in any of our journalistic undertaking." It appears to me, that the Wall Street Journal does have a hidden agenda on this topic. So what is it and why don't you clearly state that agenda?
You may be interested to know, because you obviously didn't bother to check, that the Institute for Justice, where Mr. Neily is an attomey, is receiving $750,000 of support in 2008 alone from the National Kitchen and Bath Association to fight interior design legislation. This is a disagreement within a profession. Many such disagreements happen all the time, but they are generally reported on by contacting all parties and writing a balanced aticle that does not expressly promote one opinion as fact. (Please see the attached press release from the NKBA).
Mr. Neily grossly mischatacterizes the requirements for licensure for interior desþers in the US and Canada.
He states that they are "...a four-year degree from an accredited interior design college, a two-year apptenticeship, and a two-day thousand-dollar licensing exam so irrelevant to the actual practice of interior design..." My organization, the National Council for Intetior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) produces that exam. It is not produced or influenced by the American Society of Interior Designers. NCIDQ exists to protect the public's intetest in the built environment - not to promote the wants of the interior design profession. Our only members are the US state governments and Canadian regulatory bodies that regulate the
profession. A simple check of out Web site (www.ncidq.org) would have told you that applicants for our Examination pay a one-time application review fee of $150 (and in some cases this is waived) and then they pay for which ever of the three test sections they wish to take at each six-month test administration. Curently the fee to take all three sections is $720. $150 + $720 = $870. Not $1,000. We also clearly state on our Web site what the requirements for eligibility are. They include, but are not limited to, a four-year accredited degree. This is a case where Mr. Neily clearly misrepresented the facts to make a point and the Wall Street Joumal didn't bother to check his "facts." The same can be said for his entire article.
Mr. Neily refuses to accept a widely held definition of "interior design" and how that differs from "interior decoration." All design professionals pick colors - architects, landscape atchitects and interior designers - but it is not the reason these professions are regulated. The selection of colors and having "bad taste" may be a part of the attributes that makes a designer a "good' designer, but it's not a pert of what makes him or her qualified to design spaces that will not harm the users of that space. The NCIDQ Web site contains a definition of the profession of interior designer that is widely used by educators and legislators - it is not Mr. Neily's definition -and a quick check of the facts would have borne this out.
Professions are only regulated by the states when there is evidence that the practice of the profession by unqualified individuals has the potential for harm to the public's health, safety and welfare. To carry Mr. Neily's examples to their extreme, thefe's no need to license attorneys because there's no clear connection between the practice of law and public safety. The Institute for Justice is a libertatian law firm. As libetarians, they oppose govemment regulation. It would have been helpful to point that out in your description of his qualifications to write for the Journal. It would have provided the necessary context to his personal agenda, which is apparently that of theJoumal as well.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey F. KenneS AIA
Executive Director
April Birthdays/Anniversaries
Someone asked why I haven't posted birthdays and anniversaries lately. I do apologize. I thought no one was paying attention.
I will continue to do so from now on. Here are April dates:
4 - Justin's Birthday
7 - Jeff's Birthday
16 - Kim B's Birthday
21 - Kim A's Anniversary
24 - Jason's Anniversary
26 - David's & Steve's Anniversary
I will continue to do so from now on. Here are April dates:
4 - Justin's Birthday
7 - Jeff's Birthday
16 - Kim B's Birthday
21 - Kim A's Anniversary
24 - Jason's Anniversary
26 - David's & Steve's Anniversary
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Macy's go Eco-Friendly
Some people only talk about what they're going to do to help the environment (Paris Hilton, you know who you are), while others prefer to actually do something about it.
In celebration of Earth Week and National Park Week, Macy's announced plans to kick off its "Turn Over a New Leaf" campaign, slated to run April 20-27. Make no mistake; this is not a campaign featuring sales associates covered in buttons or a parade of huge rah-rah banners. Oh no, Macy's is walking the talk, and is actively engaged in making the world a better place. Can you feel the warm fuzzies?!
According to Macy's, the week-long campaign will (hopefully) inspire consumers to add eco-friendly practices into their daily lives. Check out the festivities:
April 20:-Customers can purchase $5 tickets for One Good Turn, a charity-shopping event taking place April 26-27, with proceeds going to the National Park Foundation. Tickets give customers a 2-day in-store and online shopping pass to receive 20 percent off most apparel merchandise and 10 percent off home decor.
-Macy's vendors, such as Origins, Hush Puppies, DKNY and Macy's private brands Style & Co. Sport and Haven by Hotel Collection will feature environmentally friendly merchandise.
April 22:-To celebrate Earth Day, the first 100 customers in each store will receive a free sapling to plant. (A-dor-able!)
-The first 100 children will receive a National Park Foundation eco-friendly Kid Power coloring book.
-The Frango mint line will release its organic mint chocolates at 70 Macy's stores, primarily in the Midwest and online. The candies use ingredients such as organic milk chocolate, organic cane sugar and organic vanilla; and will be packaged in recycled paperboard boxes printed with vegetable-based ink.
April 26:-The first 150 customers will receive a 100 percent natural cotton reusable tote bag. Afterwards, the bag will sell for $3.95, with $1 going directly to the National Parks Foundation. -
For customers that can't make it to the store, Macy's has a national online sweepstakes (win a new Ford Escape hybrid or a trip to a national park, complete with airfare and car rentals).
What didn't Macy's think of for Earth Week? I'm blown away!
They went above and beyond to make sure they reach as many people as possible, children included. Wouldn't it be cool if all major retailers had fabulous Earth Day or week or month celebrations so that consumers were helping the environment and learning about creating a sustainable future everywhere they went? A girl can dream...
Do you know a retailer who is making a positive impact on the environment? Or do you have an environmental charity you're passionate about? If so, share the details here.
--Heather Strang
In celebration of Earth Week and National Park Week, Macy's announced plans to kick off its "Turn Over a New Leaf" campaign, slated to run April 20-27. Make no mistake; this is not a campaign featuring sales associates covered in buttons or a parade of huge rah-rah banners. Oh no, Macy's is walking the talk, and is actively engaged in making the world a better place. Can you feel the warm fuzzies?!
According to Macy's, the week-long campaign will (hopefully) inspire consumers to add eco-friendly practices into their daily lives. Check out the festivities:
April 20:-Customers can purchase $5 tickets for One Good Turn, a charity-shopping event taking place April 26-27, with proceeds going to the National Park Foundation. Tickets give customers a 2-day in-store and online shopping pass to receive 20 percent off most apparel merchandise and 10 percent off home decor.
-Macy's vendors, such as Origins, Hush Puppies, DKNY and Macy's private brands Style & Co. Sport and Haven by Hotel Collection will feature environmentally friendly merchandise.
April 22:-To celebrate Earth Day, the first 100 customers in each store will receive a free sapling to plant. (A-dor-able!)
-The first 100 children will receive a National Park Foundation eco-friendly Kid Power coloring book.
-The Frango mint line will release its organic mint chocolates at 70 Macy's stores, primarily in the Midwest and online. The candies use ingredients such as organic milk chocolate, organic cane sugar and organic vanilla; and will be packaged in recycled paperboard boxes printed with vegetable-based ink.
April 26:-The first 150 customers will receive a 100 percent natural cotton reusable tote bag. Afterwards, the bag will sell for $3.95, with $1 going directly to the National Parks Foundation. -
For customers that can't make it to the store, Macy's has a national online sweepstakes (win a new Ford Escape hybrid or a trip to a national park, complete with airfare and car rentals).
What didn't Macy's think of for Earth Week? I'm blown away!
They went above and beyond to make sure they reach as many people as possible, children included. Wouldn't it be cool if all major retailers had fabulous Earth Day or week or month celebrations so that consumers were helping the environment and learning about creating a sustainable future everywhere they went? A girl can dream...
Do you know a retailer who is making a positive impact on the environment? Or do you have an environmental charity you're passionate about? If so, share the details here.
--Heather Strang
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