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Helping your school go green
Brian Stack EducationLast month for an Education Week blog, Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Program participant Michael Cruse, a special educator from Arlington, Virginia, talked about his travels to Israel to study different models for green schools. Cruse's biggest takeaway from his Middle East experience that he would apply to American schools was this, "Since coming back to work at my school and reflecting on how my experiences in Israel translate into my teaching, I realized that the best lessons about sustainability are actually about people. That can be in their classroom, on the playground, at home, or in the community."
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An ill wind blows: Hurricanes and supply chains don’t mix
Delany Martinez Distribution & WarehousingNatural disasters are a huge headache for man-made systems — in addition to disrupting services like water and power on a residential level, they can also bring supply chains to a screeching halt. From flash flooding to outright facility damage, hurricane-proofing your supply chain is a challenge, but one well worth tackling. While you can't predict when and where a hurricane will completely shut down 3PL availability and reach, you can commit to frequent monitoring and communication throughout the storm.
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Simple changes we can expect to see in workplace environments
Scott E. Rupp Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesThe death of the cubicle may have been long-predicted, but it seems its demise is getting closer. The workspace continues to change, and rather than cubing employees, efforts are being made to make work environments more open, livelier and more technologically savvy. Traditional workspaces, if not dying, are evolving dramatically, driven by the wants and desires of younger employees — millennials and Generation Z — who are dramatically influencing office design. What else are we going to see in the near term in regard to office design?
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Advertising and the city: Are billboards a threat to public space?
Lucy Wallwork Facilities & GroundsPlaces like Times Square in New York and the Shibuya in Tokyo are home to some of the most iconic scenes of urban space on the planet. We cannot imagine them without their iconic billboards and digital displays, which have become part of their visual identity. But the spilling out of corporate advertising into increasing areas of our public space is being resisted. Advertisers argue that billboards can bring a number of benefits to a city, but some activists and reformers are pushing their local governments to make their neighborhoods ad-free.
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Interior design activity regains momentum
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesAdhering to a familiar seasonal pattern, demand for interior design services softened somewhat in late summer, then picked up in the last two months. Designers are reporting an increase in projects and new inquiries, with an average project backlog of around five weeks. Growth is expected to taper off slightly, but remain positive, toward the end of the year.
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Negotiating commercial leases: Subletting your commercial space
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield RetailFor many commercial tenants, negotiating a good lease or lease renewal against an experienced agent or landlord can be a challenge. While an entrepreneur focuses on marketing and managing, savvy real estate agents and brokers are specialized salespeople. Their job is to sell tenants on leasing their location at the highest possible rental rate. Whether you are leasing a new location for the first time or negotiating a lease renewal for your business, here are two money-saving tips.
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Trump to visit Hurricane Michael’s war zone aftermath
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalLast Wednesday is a day that will be marked in history books. Like Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, Maria and Florence before it, another historic social and environmental disaster is upon us: Hurricane Michael. It’s the largest U.S. hurricane since 1969, touching down on the Florida panhandle and the southeastern U.S. on Oct. 10. Florida’s panhandle, including Mexico Beach and Panama City, was hit so hard by Hurricane Michael’s almost category 5 winds, with storm surges reaching 14 feet, that the media routinely compares the region to a “war zone.”
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Death rates rise, environmental challenges grow at large US pig farms
Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & EnvironmentalDeath rates for female pigs (sows) in the U.S. are rising fast and alerts are up throughout the farming industry. The mortality rate rose from 5.8 percent to 10.2 percent on farms owning more than 125 sows between 2013 and 2016, according to The Guardian. The numbers have been linked to a rise in prolapse, which can be fatal. In response, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians has created a sow prolapse working group to investigate.
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Homeowners adding bedrooms, remodeling baths
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsIn the previous two years, U.S. homeowners completed more than 43.7 million home improvement projects. That and other data related to recent home remodeling and renovation activity are part of the responses to the 2017 American Home Survey (AHS), released last month by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The findings include information on the most common types of projects, amount spent, use of professional services, and activity by age and income groups.
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UN climate report warns of catastrophe by 2040
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalAs climate change goes, we have heard it all. Tales of rapidly melting sea ice form the backdrop of a world spinning out of control towards more catastrophes: water and food shortages, massive wildfires, flooding, and skyrocketing temperatures. All of this will affect poor and frontline communities more, of course. The plot of a new science fiction film? No. Just the latest from the freshly convened U.N. Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week in Incheon, South Korea.
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