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Inside, Outside and All Around The Box - Packaging Workshop at Nichols May 10
On Thursday, May 10, 2012, Nichols Paper & Supply will host “Inside, Outside and All Around the Box” at its Grand Rapids location.
This workshop will focus on changing factors and important considerations involved with shipping your packages now and into the future. Presenters at this event will include Nick Goad and Andy Ahonen of Sealed Air Corporation, as well as Tiana Baker, 3M Industrial Tapes Division. These and other experts will explain how dim weights, void fills, load containment, product standardization and sustainability play a role in selecting product packaging.
This educational packaging workshop will improve your company profitability with new and innovative ways to package your product, save you time & money and make you a more profitable company with less of an environmental footprint.
Register for the event at enichols.com:
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Nichols Paper and Supply - Grand Rapids
4767 Broadmoor, Suite 1
Grand Rapids, MI
8:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Along with offering packaging equipment professional training educational programs like “Inside, Outside and All Around the Box”, Nichols offers a full line of packaging equipment including 3M packaging equipment, 3M packaging supplies, Sealed Air packaging equipment and Sealed Air packaging supplies. Nichols also offers equipment sales and service and stocks a full line of parts. We provide on-site packaging equipment repair or can pick up your equipment and service it at a Nichols facility.
Nichols is the leading packaging supply and equipment distributor in Michigan and the great lakes region. Nichols carry the leading brands you trust, such as 3M, Diversey, Rubbermaid, Spartan, GOJO, Kimberly-Clark, SCA, Sealed Air, Heritage Bag and many more. We have offices in Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon, Wixom, Traverse City and Muskegon to serve you. We provide local distribution across Michigan and the midwest, including southeast Michigan, Detroit, and West Michigan.
Chris Bedford Arts Festival & Sustainability Awards
Chris Bedford Arts Festival & Sustainability Awards Program
The 2012 Chris Bedford Arts Festival & Sustainability Awards Program came to fruition from the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition. The committee was seeking a way to honor those persons, companies and schools who were setting their best green foot forward. It did not take long to discover them as they were already making an impact in many of the ways that we live in Muskegon. The executive committee considered many nominations and have divided the Sustainability Champions into categories of Individual, Corporate, Non-Profit, Government, Educational and Special Recognition.
Sustainability Champion – Individual
When considering a person for this award they were noted for their impact to the community as an individual. These persons are using innovation and unique was to reach members of the community to make them think outside the box and work towards being more sustainable in the community.
Joel Darling, Darling Cetaceans
Joel Darling is the President and Co-Founder of DARLING CETACEANS – We would not be sitting here if it was not for the dedication and determination of Joel. In addition to his work with the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition, he oversees the work of DARLING CETACEANS in their education about marine mammals and environmental stewardship. Whale Guy makes the world of marine mammals and environmental stewardship come alive with hands on education.
Renae Hesselink, Nichols
Renae Hesselink is the Vice President of Sustainability at Nichols Paper & Supply – she oversees the sustainability efforts of Nichols, LEED-EB O & M Certification, and assists customers to implement their sustainability efforts; green cleaning and sustainable packaging programs. In addition she is a LEED Accredited Professional and works with the US Breen Building Council and TEDx Muskegon.
Lea Markowski, Catholic Charities of West Michigan
Lea Markowski is the administrative assistant at Catholic Charities of West Michigan – her willingness and passion has kept the Muskegon Area sustainability Coalition Recycling going throughout the years.
Leslee Rohs, County Of Muskegon
Leslee is the Sustainability Coordinator for Muskegon County – she has worked diligently to resource recovery and landfill diversion efforts, public outreach and education, grant writing and Department – wide project facilitation. She joined the Sustainability effort in Muskegon in Jan of 2011 and is currently the only Sustainability Coordinator at a county level in the state of Michigan.
Sustainability Champion – Corporate
When considering a corporation for this award, it was noted how the company was working to become a Sustainable Corporation for other members in the community to look up to. They are seen as leaders in innovation, fresh ideas, and other sustainable ideas.
Nichols
Nichols Paper and Supply Company began their journey more than five years ago when they took notice of the green cleaning movement within their industry. They have implemented changes not just for their vendors but have changed their own business practices. They implement recycling in their building, reducing energy usage, outdoor light pollution, motion sensor light activation, Energy Star Electronics purchasing, speed limit cap on fleet vehicles and no idle policy to reduce fuel consumption.
Sustainability Champion – Non-Profit
When considering a non-profit for this award, they were looking for someone that was allowing the community to benefit as well as working to sustain the community in jobs, education or health.
Goodwill Industries of West Michigan
Goodwill Industries of West Michigan – Goodwill has been going green for over 100 years. They have been reusing, repurposing, and recycling the things people no longer want. They have successful diverted 13 million pounds of waste from landfills, de-manufacture or refurbished 1 million pounds of computer equipment; reused or recycled over 76% of our donated goods, generating over $11.3 million in revenue or 74% of their annual budget. Clothing and hard goods not suitable for resale are sorted and sold to various recyclers or salvage brokers to for the greatest value. In addition, they are providing jobs, job training and working to promote the benefits of understand its not just junk.
Sustainability Champion – Governmental
When considering a government agency for this award, the committee was seeking an agency that was going beyond the confines of the red tape of a government. They found ways to turn the red tape to green tape to benefit the community in sustainable practices. These agencies are seeking to inspire other governmental groups to take notice of their practices and work to implement them.
County Of Muskegon – Sustainable Practices
Muskegon County has been working diligently to implement sustainable practices throughout their many locations around the county. They have taken the leadership initiative and hired a Sustainability Coordinator and are pursing the hiring of a Mobility Coordinator for Transportation to work on eliminating the barriers of movement around the county. Muskegon County uses compressed natural gas buses in their public transit program, recycling programs implemented in the County Courthouse, Festival Recycling, wind technology at the Waste water treatment plant, as well as a direct burn of methane gas at the landfill.
Sullivan Township/Muskegon Community College – Energy Star Program
Sustainability Champion – Education
When considering an educational institution for this award, the committee looked to the programs at a school and the leaders behind it. These innovations were designed to make students, faculty and staff look beyond the normal confines of a school building and seek out ways to education the future so that they can carry on the legacy of sustainability for future generations. They were looking for inspiration to nurture and support.
Muskegon Public Schools – Bunker Middle School
As you just recently watched in the movie, this garden is not just about the plants, but the students and the bonds that they will form. This garden was created thanks to the Big Red Education Fund and Principal Paul Kurdziel. The garden serves as a green space enhancing the courtyard’s appearance behind the Middle School. The garden serves as a chance for students to plant, observe and grow as a leader. In addition Bunker Middle School students will be part of the a five year monitoring program for the Grand Trunk site along Muskegon Lake Shoreline for restoration purposes.
Whitehall Public Schools – Whitehall Middle School
Under the leadership of Susan Tate, the Whitehall Middle School Environmental Club is working to make an impact on the future one classroom at a time. The club recently was presented with the White Pine Award from Sen. Goeff Hansen giving annually to a group that has contributed to helping Michigan’s environment and placed first in the nation Lexus Eco Challege. The club has implemented paper recycling in their school, a shoe drive to recycle shoes rather than through them away, reduced energy consumption in classrooms, increase recycling at Whitehall football games, encouraging the use of reusable, refillable water bottles, and plated trees around the school.
Sustainability Projects – Special Recognition
This award is to recognize a unique program in the area that would benefit the entire community of Muskegon.
County Of Muskegon Event Recycling
The Count of Muskegon Event Recycling has provided recycling bins to many festivals and events starting in the spring of 2011. The bins could be seen at festival including, Mayfest, Taste of Muskegon, Summer Celebration, Muskegon County Youth Fair,, Unity Christian Music Festival, United Way Day of Caring, and Sportsman for Youth. These bins prevented an estimated 235 cubic yards of cardboard, plastic bottles, cups and aluminum cans from entering the landfill and have allowed Muskegon County Festivals the opportunity to work towards being a greener festival. This program was not just a one year trial, this will continue on for this year and many more to come.
Professionals are Unclear about Proper Cleaning and Disinfecting Procedures
NEW SURVEY FROM P&G PROFESSIONAL™ REVEALS PROFESSIONALS ARE UNCLEAR ABOUT PROPER CLEANING AND DISINFECTING PROCEDURES
Survey Shows that Most Cleaning Professionals Believe Cleaning and Disinfecting are two Separate Tasks and Twice the Amount of Work
CINCINNATI (Mar. 20, 2012) – Sixty-eight percent of respondents to P&G Professional’s™ recent “Cleaning and Disinfecting Clarity” survey indicated that they believe that if you want to clean and disinfect a surface, you have twice as much work on your hands. In other words, cleaning and disinfecting are two separate tasks. This finding confirms what P&G Professional experts have observed and which they believe to be a common misconception. In fact, it was the perceived lack of consistency and observed misconceptions in the field over time, which led P&G Professional to commission this survey, which specifically targeted cleaning professionals, in an effort to help bring greater clarity to the industry and better educate staff and managers on the proper processes for surface cleaning and disinfecting.
The reality is that buying individual, single-purpose products to clean then disinfect surfaces is unnecessary.For example, Procter & Gamble Professional’s Spic and Span® Disinfecting All-Purpose Spray and Glass Cleaner cleans and disinfects mirrors, counters, and other dry surfaces in a single step, when used as directed. Similarly, Comet® Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner cleans and disinfects wet surfaces in one step, when used as directed, without extra products to buy or use. This can save businesses the operational expense of labor time associated with multiple cleaning processes, as well as product costs associated with multiple purchases. A potential secondary benefit to using one multipurpose product to both clean and disinfect surfaces is a simplified training process.
“We work hard to engineer complexity out of our products and provide the greatest value possible to our customers,” said Tom Bell, registered sanitarian, Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs, P&G Professional. “Multipurpose products that can clean and disinfect in a single step are arguably one of the best ways we can help our customers create their most efficient and effective cleaning programs possible.”
Confusion Across the Industry
Respondents even contradicted themselves across survey questions, highlighting the confusion that exists within the industry. For example, in contrast to the more than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents who believe cleaning and disinfecting are two separate processes, less than one third (30 percent) indicated that they actually use two separate products – one to clean and one to disinfect.
“It’s important for professional cleaners to remember that they must both clean and disinfect. Cleaning well allows disinfecting agents to work effectively. Ultimately, multipurpose products provide the best value because, when used as directed, they can do both in a single step,” said Bell.
Our survey also highlighted the lack of process and procedure consistency as an issue for disinfecting and cleaning products. According to Bell, “it is imperative that cleaning professionals follow the instructions on the product label – regardless of the brand of product being used. Different products have different ‘dwell’ times and dwell times also vary by the type of bacteria or virus being targeted. The manufacturer knows how to best use the product for optimal cleaning and/or disinfecting results. A simple spray and wipe will typically kill some germs, but we want everyone, whether they are our customer or not, to be as effective as possible at creating clean environments for their guests. We believe that following label instructions is one of the best ways to do that.”
“Without question, P&G Professional is known for offering well-known brands and total cleaning solutions, but an additional value that we provide to our customers is a rich history of research and knowledge about proper and effective cleaning processes and procedures,” said Renee Buchanan, P&G Professional. “We commissioned this survey to help us quantify any gaps in understanding and bring clarity to the industry for the betterment of all.”
About Procter & Gamble Professional
Procter & Gamble Professional® is the away-from-home division of Procter & Gamble, serving the foodservice, building cleaning and maintenance, hospitality and convenience stores industries. P&G Professional offers complete solutions utilizing its parent company's scale, trusted brands and strengths in market and consumer understanding. P&G Professional features such brands as Tide®, Dawn®, Mr. Clean®, Febreze®,Swiffer®, and its own brand, P&GPro Line®. Please visit www.pgpro.com for the latest information about P&G Professional's solutions.
About Procter & Gamble
P&G touches and improves the lives of about 4.4 billion people around the world with its portfolio of trusted, quality brands. The Company's leadership brands include Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Fairy®, Gain®, Pringles®,
Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun®, Fusion®, Ace®, Febreze®, and Ambi Pur®. With operations in about 80 countries, P&G brands are available in more than 180 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
P&G Professional Media Contacts:
Chris Vuturo, P&G Professional External Relations, +513-983-3713 vuturo.cm@pg.com
Sara Sloan, Citizen Paine, +949-809-6856 sara.sloan@citizenrelations.com
Manufacturing Workers Want to Ban Shop Towels that Retain Toxic Heavy Metals
Most Manufacturing Workers Want to Ban Shop Towels that Retain Toxic Heavy Metals after Laundering
Survey Finds Gap between Awareness of Shop Towel Risks and Safety Actions, Reflecting Worker Confusion, Need for Continued Education
Roswell, Ga.—February 22, 2012—In a survey released today by Kimberly-Clark Professional, nearly four in five manufacturing workers agreed that shop towels should be banned if they are not 100 percent-free of hazardous materials after laundering. The survey exclusively targets production floor employees, and is representative of the millions of U.S. manufacturing workers who use shop towels every day, in industries such as automotive, aviation, printing, food and beverage processing, as well as metals and equipment manufacturing. Harris Interactive conducted the survey online on Kimberly-Clark Professional’s behalf from November 8 to 22, 2011, and it reflects responses from 263 U.S. manufacturing workers who spend at least 50 percent of their time on the production floor.
The results show that once the potential contamination risks of laundered shop towels are known, workers have near-universal agreement on the need to seriously address the issue. However, worker knowledge is limited, with only 44 percent of workers citing awareness of an exposure risk after shop towels are laundered.
“This survey demonstrates an urgent need to further educate manufacturing workers about shop towel safety issues,” said Kim MacDougall, research scientist at Kimberly-Clark Professional. “Workers care deeply about their safety, and overwhelmingly express that shop towels delivered as clean should be free of any residual contaminants. Once fully informed of the safety issues surrounding shop towel contamination, workers will demand that these unnecessary risks be addressed in their workplace.”
In a 2011 study conducted by Gradient, an environmental and risk science consulting firm, which was sponsored by Kimberly-Clark Professional, toxic heavy metal residues were found on 100 percent of the laundered shop towels that were tested. Shop towels are routinely used in manufacturing to wipe machines, parts and equipment, then washed by industrial launderers for re-use at multiple facilities. Residues retained on shop towels after laundering could pose a long-term health risk to workers who handle the towels daily.
In the Harris Interactive survey, if metals retained on laundered shop towels could result in workplace exposures exceeding toxicity exposure guidelines, workers would take the following actions:
93 percent would take greater safety precautions.
87 percent would ask for a safer alternative.
86 percent would raise the issue with a safety manager, employer or union.
Current Awareness of Shop Towel Risks Drives Inconsistent Behavior Changes
Even when workers indicate awareness of laundered shop towel risks, there is a gap between that knowledge and their behavior. This reflects confusion among workers, and the need for employers and safety managers to continue deepening their staff’s understanding of laundered shop towel safety risks. For example, awareness that shop towels can retain heavy metals post-laundering does not lead to less skin contact or more hand-washing. In fact, 69 percent of workers do not clean their hands after every shop towel use.
Other unsafe practices indicating potential worker confusion include:
Bringing Shop Towels Home: Forty-five percent of workers are aware that shop towels brought home from a facility could lead to other family members being exposed to heavy metals, but this group does not take shop towels home less frequently. Among all workers, over a third (36 percent) acknowledge bringing home at least one shop towel per week, and more than half (54 percent) say their typical coworker does so too.
Direct Skin Contact with Shop Towels: Although nearly half (49 percent) say they are very or extremely careful after using a shop towel, only 17 percent of workers say they never wipe shop towels on exposed skin, while 26 percent of workers say they do so six or more times daily.
Shop Towels Used for Personal Hygiene and First Aid: Eighteen percent of manufacturing workers report shop towel use for personal hygiene and first aid, with the most alarming examples including use as toilet paper or to stop bleeding/wipe up blood.
Workers do not indicate a clear understanding of how to address the problem, so they are looking to their organization’s leadership for effective solutions.
Primary Onus on Employers to Ensure Workplace Safety; Important Role for Unions
According to the survey, half of shop towel users cite working with them simply because they are what is provided on the facility’s shop floor. As a result, 71 percent see the primary responsibility for keeping them informed on shop towel safety issues as the duty of their employers. Additionally, more than four in five workers feel unions should do more to keep them informed.
About the Survey
Harris Interactive, on behalf of Kimberly-Clark Professional, conducted the survey online within the United States between November 8-22, 2011, among 263 self-identified manufacturing workers. Respondents who participated in the survey were screened to meet the following criteria:
Worked in manufacturing or transportation Spent at least 50 percent of their day on the production floor of their work facility Used shop towels at least “sometimes”
Data was then weighted to reflect the population of U.S. manufacturing and transportation workers, according to 2010 CPS Census Bureau data, by gender, education, race, region and income. This survey represents the workers’ own perceptions.
For more information on the survey and safety issues associated with laundered shop towels, please visit www.TheDirtOnShopTowels.com.
About Kimberly-Clark Professional
Kimberly-Clark Professional is dedicated to providing essential solutions for a healthier, safer and more productive workplace. These include a unique portfolio of innovative, cost-effective and sustainable offerings for office buildings and lodging properties, healthcare facilities, manufacturing environments, laboratories and cleanrooms, educational facilities, food preparation and processing operations, and home professionals. Kimberly-Clark Professional offers a comprehensive array of hand hygiene and contamination control solutions to break the germ transmission chain and help create a healthier workplace as well as wiping and safety solutions that minimize risk and drive productivity. Its trusted global brands include Kleenex, Scott, Jackson Safety, Wypall, KleenGuard and Kimtech. Located in Roswell, Ga., Kimberly-Clark Professional is one of Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s four business sectors. For more information, visit www.kcprofessional.com.
About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people— nearly a quarter of the world’s population—trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in more than 80 countries.
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Media Contacts
Laura Kempke/Andrew Law Schwartz MSL Boston 781-684-0770 lkempke@schwartzmsl.com or alaw@schwartzmsl.com
RCP Named Top Brand for the Sixth Time!
RCP Named Top Brand for the Sixth Time!
By Jenn Schneider
For the sixth year running, Rubbermaid Commercial Products (RCP) has won Today’s Facility Manager (TFM) Magazine Readers’ Choice Award as the number one brand in Maintenance/Cleaning Products category.
The annual national competition, conducted by TFM and distributed to 10,000 of their 50,000 subscribers, surveys its readers on various “aided” and “unaided” components. Readers in turn cast their votes for the product brand and service providers they preferred most during 2011.
Check out our press release at http://www.rubbermaidcommercial.com/rcp/company/newsarticle.jsp?article=ee672307-9122-4837-98f4-8f24da9485f2 and the complete list of winners at http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/features/2012-tfm-readers-choice-awards.php. (Hint: just look for our Rubbermaid HYGEN™ Clean Water System!)
A special thanks to all TFM readers for voting for us!
