Tag Archives: Just
A PUTTING GREEN, A DRIVING RANGE, OR JUST A WELL TRIMMED BACK YARD?
Synthetic grass is making quite an impression across America these days. You only need to Google reports on the number of high schools and colleges that are installing artificial turfs on their football and baseball fields to know that the stuff is pretty popular. Of course, the reason it?s popular is primarily to do with cost. Artificial turf is much more affordable than natural grass, not only when it comes to installation, but, perhaps even more importantly, when it comes to maintenance and use. Imagine, if you will, a team of burly football players out practicing on a chill fall morning. They?re all thundering about on the grass, slipping and sliding about, kicking up the grass as they kick up the ball, tackle, and the like. They have spiked shoes that churn up the grass. Then there are the golfers on the 18-hole course on a Sunday morning. They may be enjoying a friendly game, but they?re still taking swipe after swipe at the ground, hacking up the grass and the sand with their seven irons. Even the green is under attack with a steady onslaught of balls smashing down from 200 yards away. Natural grass needs a lot of work to stay trim and fresh. Particularly on sports fields (football fields, baseball fields, tennis courses, and golf courses to name but a few), it gets pretty bruised up without regular work. It needs watering, mowing, trimming. Someone also needs to treat it with pesticides and then (and they apparently make a tradition of this in polo) someone needs to put the tufts of grass back into place. Our point, though, is that grass has to put up with a lot of wear and tear if it is going to be used for the surface of a sports field. Not only does it not survive the usage very well, it actually requires a lot of time, money, and energy when used as the basis for a sporting activity. If you think about it, the high maintenance required for grass is one of the reasons many people don?t use their backyards all that often. It?s also one of the reasons why most golfing enthusiasts don?t have a mini-putting green in their backyard. It?s at least the reason why the most dedicated golfers don?t find themselves outside on a regular basis, practicing their swing or their putting. Natural grass just doesn?t hold up. Artificial grass, on the other hand, is not only durable, it is easy to maintain and easy to install. As more and more people are discovering, artificial grass works wonders as a surface for sports grounds. Not only does it survive with minimal maintenance for years (sometimes as many as fifteen years, even with heavy use), it has also been shown to reduce injuries and facilitate more regular practice and game play since it can be used in all weathers (it doesn?t get flooded or frozen provided the right drainage system is in place). At National Greens, we specialize in providing our clients with a whole range of turf types for all sorts of types of projects. We specialize in providing turf for golf courses, putting greens, and driving ranges, however, and we?ve also taken to helping golf enthusiasts install miniature putting greens in their homes and back yards at extremely competitive prices. Installation takes less than thirty minutes, in some cases, and you can almost always begin enjoying your artificial turf right away, which is not the case for natural grass. You don?t have to worry about hiring a gardener to maintain your artificial turf and you have no need to worry about how you?re going to manage to store up water to keep your grass hydrated through the summer (with artificial grass, you don?t have to contribute to the summer water shortage in your area since the grass doesn?t need watering at all). You can have your very own putting green installed in your backyard or take the time to work on your golf swing even on a regular lawn. You won?t have to worry about hacking the lawn to bits when you?re swinging your club or even when you?re playing football with your friends. Your kids will be perfectly safe as well, thanks to the soft, durable surface underneath artificial grass textures. They can bound about as much as they like and you won?t have to worry about them falling and hurting themselves. Whatever your project, National Greens offers a whole range of turf types, you?ll see new possibilities opening up for you. For more information about the products and services available for your residential or commercial project, contact us today via our website. Jeremy Still is the owner of NationalGreens, a company that specializes in synthetic golf greens and articial lawn installation serving Little Rock, Arkansas area. Please visit www.nationalgreens.com to see our work.
Going Green Is Not Just For Big Business-You Can Grow Profits, Too!
The world of big business is making daily headlines by “going green” after discovering that what?s good for the planet is also proving good for business. IBM recently announced “Project Big Green,” a $1 billion initiative to reduce energy consumption by offering new lines of energy-efficient IT products. Wal-Mart is adding solar power to more than 20 stores. PepsiCo is buying renewable energy certificates to offset its carbon footprint. Even major banks and energy firms are being asked by shareholders to prove that they, too, are going green. It?s not just the biggest businesses that are attracting new customers and shareholders and reaping huge profits by “going green.” Small businesses also are growing eco-profits by embracing surprisingly inexpensive strategies to add value to their products, services and brand. Consider these innovative examples: – Bob Smith of Mad River Brewing Company in Blue Lake, California, has attracted positive publicity (and new customers) by promoting his efforts to reduce his small firm?s waste output and take other environmentally conscious steps. In turn, he has received welcome positive publicity from the press. “What PR budget? That is our PR budget,” he told the Albuquerque Tribune about “going green” to market his business. – In Florida, Natalie Kelly formed Home Therapy Cleaning Services, which uses only nontoxic, all-natural cleaning products for her home cleaning business. She used to sell aromatherapy candles from her home, she told the St. Petersburg Times, but today uses an aromatherapy baking soda blend to freshen carpets. Here?s what you can do: – Two inexpensive ways any small business or solo entrepreneur can go green are to change light bulbs to energy-efficient bulbs and use biodegradable cleaning products. – With that done, tell your customers and the media about these simple ways to go green. You will have just earned instant credibility as a green business, and also as a media resource for simple, effective ways to “go green.” – Many communities online and offline are forming networks to exchange energy-saving ideas for home and business. Form your own energy network, enlisting neighborhood businesses that will welcome another opportunity to show they?re going green, too. The plus for you is that you will have just positioned yourself and your business as a community environmental leader. – Copy what the New York Times called “Phase 2″ of the corporate response to global warming. Partner with an environmental group. Travelocity invites customers to donate an extra $10 to $40, which goes to the Conservation Fund to plant trees to offset the carbon used by a client to take a trip. Whole Foods invites customers to buy a $5 “wind power card” that goes to Renewable Choice Energy to build wind farms. What local environmental group can you partner with to promote on your Web site (and vice versa), to set aside a day that a percentage of profits will go to that organization or to make their fliers available at your business? – Make use of readily available, free information to hand out with your business literature or to make available in your office. For example, create a one-page flier on your letterhead inviting clients to calculate their own carbon footprint by visiting http://multimedia.wri.org/safeclimate_calculator.cfm. – Go deeper green! Attend a “green” conference in your community or region, and promote your attendance. (Go to Google.com and type in “green” and “conference” and your area to find out when and where they are scheduled.) Write a “green” article on simple ways you are going green and submit it to one of the dozens of “green” Web sites and blogs that invite reader contributions. It?s a great way to market your smart ideas and your business! Tushar Mathur We are all About Green at : Talking About Green and selling green products at : Buy Green
Can You See, The News Just Keeps Getting Better And Better??
Firms Who Hire Illegal Immigrants Sued By PETER PRENGAMAN Associated Press Writer August 22, 2006, 9:11 PM EDT LOS ANGELES — Frustrated by lax enforcement of immigration law, businesses are taking their fight against illegal immigration to court, accusing competitors of hiring illegal workers to achieve an unfair advantage. Businesses and anti-illegal immigration groups said the legal action was an attempt to create an economic deterrent against hiring illegal employees. “We see the legal profession bringing to this issue the kind of effect it’s had on consumer product safety,” said Mike Hethmon of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a Washington D.C.-based group backing the efforts. In the first of a series of lawsuits, a temporary employment agency that supplies farm workers sued a grower and a two competing companies on Monday. Similar cases claiming violations of federal anti-racketeering laws have yielded mixed results. The California lawsuit is believed to be the first based on a state’s unfair-competition laws, legal experts said. Santa Monica-based Global Horizons claimed in the lawsuit that Munger Brothers, a grower, hired illegal immigrant workers from Ayala Agricultural Services and J&A Contractors. All the defendants are based in California’s farm-rich Central Valley. The suit alleges that Munger Brothers had a contract with Global Horizons to provide more than 600 blueberry pickers this spring, but nixed the agreement so it could hire illegal immigrants. “Competitors hiring illegal immigrants is hurting our business badly,” Global Horizons President Mordechai Orian said. “It’s to the point that doing business legally isn’t worth it.” Ayala Agricultural Services manager Javier Rodriguez had not seen the suit but said the company does not hire undocumented immigrants. “If somebody doesn’t have a green card or work documents, we don’t hire them,” he said. Munger Brothers lawyer Theodore Hoppe said the contract with Global Horizons fell apart because the laborers they provided couldn’t pick blueberries at the rate the company had promised. He said Munger Brothers hired workers through temporary agencies, which had the responsibility to hire legal workers. J&A Contractors did not immediately return calls seeking comment. With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, undocumented workers are a large part of the nation’s work force. But immigration law enforcement at work sites is limited. In fiscal year 1999, authorities arrested 2,849 people at work sites compared with 1,145 arrests last year, according to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. To prove competitors hire illegal immigrants, businesses could use public records involving prior violations, testimony from former employees who have worked alongside illegal immigrants, and recovered W-2 tax forms that show people working under fake names and Social Security numbers, said David Klehm, the lead lawyer for cases in Southern California. Companies planning to file additional lawsuits include farms and factories that depend heavily on immigrant labor, Klehm said. Legal experts said the cases could be difficult to win. Under the California statutes, plaintiffs must prove a competitor directly harmed their business. “Unless you’ve got smoking gun evidence, it’s hard to tie economic loss of one business to another’s practices,” said Niels Frenzen, a law professor at the University of Southern California. He believes it is the first time the unfair-competition law has been used to target illegal immigration. The Global Horizons lawsuit came after a settlement was reached in a Washington state class action suit involving employees of Zirkle Fruit Co. who sued their employer for driving down wages by hiring undocumented workers. Based on federal anti-racketeering laws, the case was settled for $1.3 million in January after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision to dismiss it. Howard Foster, the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer in the Washington case, said he expects more such suits as business owners learn their competitors hired illegal immigrants. “So many people talk openly about using false documents to assemble an illegal workforce,” Foster said. “And when you have IDs with upside down numbers and backward pictures, you know they are fake.”
Do You Think That Going Green Is Just A Trend?
I have seen/heard numerous advertisement from HUGE companies boasting about how they’re committed to selling green products and all that jazz. Certain companies are challening us to use more Earth-friendly material, to use less than what we use now, etc. Do you think it’s just a marketing ploy on their part or do they really care? If you were not Earth-conscious before, has something suddenly inspired you to care? Is this “going green” thing just a trend or do you think people will actually start to care? If you have been Earth-conscious for some time, what do you think about the sudden push for conservation and recycling? As Americans, we’re the biggest consumers and wasters on the planet. We could make a huge impact…..your thoughts? Thanks for your answers!
“green” Products Just A Ploy To Raise Prices?
I’ve noticed some new main stream “green” products stating they are made from recycled materials (some new Scott paper products and Renolds foil). But if you read the fine print on “regular” paper products you will note that many, if not all, state they are made with X% of post consumer product. So is this a way for companies to raise the prices and increase their profits without really having to do much more than they already are? This is my perception anyway. I am an avid recycler but I don’t pay more for these products because I think it’s a gimmick. Thoughts?