Eco Friendly Construction | St. Cloud General Contractor

Eco Friendly Construction?

With environmental problems like pollution, climate change and thinning of the ozone layer looming, the need to address these challenges has been addressed by many sectors in our society. The building industry in particular responded with eco friendly construction which is a part of their going green building initiative.

The construction industry advocates these going green trends to homeowners and business owners for many reasons. One of the main reasons is to achieve a high level of efficiency in resource consumption for a new home or office, or for a remodeling project such as a kitchen remodel or bathroom remodel.

Furthermore, eco friendly construction improves the environment, and it helps build a strong and healthy indoor atmosphere. Using materials such as paints that do not emit harmful pollutants in the environment (otherwise known as green paints) is one example of a green building product.

Consider this: Chemical pollutants released by some paints can, for example, cause health problems especially among children. Moreover, the presence of plastics, solvents, compound woods and timbers, which cause the development of molds and dust mites, may also cause complications to one?s health.

Going green helps reduce or totally eliminate indoor air-quality problems. Additionally, creating good ventilation so that a home or office building can ?breathe? greatly lessens any harmful effects on the quality of air inside the structure. To go green in businesses is excellent also for workers and clients as eco friendly construction practices reduce the danger of inhaling harmful fumes and chemicals.

More About Eco Friendly Construction

With eco friendly construction there are companies today that promote products and services that support green living lifestyles for their customers. In practicing eco-friendly solutions, many of these green businesses discovered that going green can be applied to their operations as well.? By doing so many businesses have found that they incur less operational cost due to reduced waste and to successful efforts to reuse materials (rather than buying new ones). Going green requires a small investment on the part of the business and may be further enhanced by using recycled office supplies and avoiding plastics in general. Little things really do make a big difference!

Today going green is not only a trend or fashion, rather it is more of a requirement for all of us. Local and international laws are now being adopted that require the construction industry to comply with the construction of green buildings. Adopting measures to reduce waste and encourage the use of eco-friendly materials is needed before irreparable damage is done to the environment

Eco friendly construction is a wise decision for anybody who plans to build a house or a new business office or to remodel their home, kitchen or bathroom. It not only ensures that we avoid harmful effects on our health, but it also benefits the planet and future generations as well.

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Looking to build your dream house or remodel your existing one in Central Minnesota? A quality Saint Cloud General Contractor is always willing to help you construct the project of your dreams at a price that works for you and for your family. Craig at Schoenberg Construction is one of the best remodelers and builders in Central MN.? Give him a call today at 320-252-0911 for your no-obligation consultation.

Related posts:

1. Green Builder Tips and Suggestions
2. Choosing a Construction Company in Central MN

Source: http://www.stcloudgeneralcontractor.com/green-building/eco-friendly-construction-a-wise-solution-to-planet-earth/

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Making Team Building a Part of a Normal Work Day

Team building, personal development, and corporate growth and responsibility has grown and become important parts of corporate plans and schedules. Recent years have seen companies and corporations and organizations spending and investing more in the personal, mental, emotional growth and well-being of their employees as individuals and as a whole.

The Past Life Of Team Building

Well, to be frank, there was close to none. Team building wasn?t really a part of old corporate practices. Before, companies and corporations and organizations focused on the results their people were able to give out. They were more interested that their people were able to meet their deadlines, that they were able to give results, that they were able to make all their quotas. If they did that, the management and the corporation as a whole, was happy. If they weren?t able to, it spelled trouble for these employees.

The well-being of these employees played second fiddle. Don?t get me wrong. I?m not saying that companies and corporations and organizations before didn?t have compassion and care for their people. However, the prevailing business mindset of yesteryear looked to results more rather than the growth of their employees.

It is a good thing however that these recent years have seen a change.

The Present Life Of Corporate Team Building

Recent years have seen a shift in the way companies and corporations and organizations look at their employees. They aren?t robots and machines anymore, they?re a team. They?re investments. And it?s this shift in perspective that led companies to spend more and invest more in the well-being and growth of employees as individuals, and more importantly, as a team.

That?s why team building exercises and team building events have become all the rage in business planning and organization. Companies are getting more team building consultants to ensure that their whole team becomes a well-oiled, satisfactorily functioning machine.

There are a lot of team building books, activities, and seminars that companies can invest in to make their teams and departments better. They are good investments. But team building doesn?t always need to be expensive. Team building exercises can be simple enough for your team to do within the workplace every day.

The following are simple things that you and your team can do to promote interaction and cooperation within your people:

? Grabbing dinner together. Being workmates doesn?t mean all your interaction should be limited to your work hours and within your workplace. Your team mates are your friends, your family in the office. This means that you should invest some time in getting to know who they are outside the company. Doing this, you?ll know more about them. They become more three dimensional and whole people you can actually care about.

? Taking your breaks together. Nobody wants to be the loner of the team. And the team doesn?t really want anyone casted out. Taking your breaks together, be it a cigarette or a lunch break, can get your team mates interacting and building rapport within the office setting.

If you would like to find out how you can become a better manager through team building or as the Danes say Bliv en bedre leder gennem teambuilding teambuilding, visit this incredible Danish website. To read a very interesting article about team building, go here.

Tags: team building exercises, quotas, investments, corporations

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4. The 4 Best Places To Get Backlinks Link Building Tips
5. Opulentus Complaints handled by a team of experts

Source: http://www.goforus.com/2011/08/making-team-building-a-part-of-a-normal-work-day/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-team-building-a-part-of-a-normal-work-day

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Fox Nation shocker: Obama invited black guys to his birthday party

Photo illustration courtesy the morons of Fox Nation

SWAG

So, it's a little weird that Fox has its own right-wing news site, right? Anyway, this is the "Fox Nation" top story, right now: Charles Barkley ate ribs at the White House. Black people! Hip-hop!

The blatantly race-baiting story is just a very intellectual property-disrespecting "summary" of a Politico story (it's also weird that Fox's right-wing news site steals all its content) about the president's birthday party, which some celebrities attended. Here is an actual Fox Nation comment: "What no watermelon?"

How much hip-hop did the president listen to at his hip-hop barbecue? This much hip-hop:

An hour later, the party started?

--? with dinner in the Rose Garden, accompanied by ?The President?s Own? United States Marine Band. Then the First Lady and his daughters presented POTUS with a cake, and everyone moved into the East Room for performances that included R&B singer Ledisi, and Herbie Hancock. Stevie Wonder came up at the end and sang a medley ending in ?Signed, Sealed, Delivered I?m Yours.?

The Marine Band is my favorite hip-hop group.

The best thing about this front page is that those are all black guys that even old white dudes love. Charles Barkley and Chris Rock and Jay-Z are rich and successful in part because of their "crossover" appeal, stupid Fox racists.

Dave Weigel notes that Tom Hanks was there, just to increase the "beloved by all Americans" quotient. (Though it's not a true hip-hop barbecue unless Hanks brings his son Chet Haze.)

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/08/05/fox_nation_bbq/index.html

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Even The Civil War Had Tourists [History]

If it was 1861 and you knew there was a big land battle in the neighboring town of Manassas, VA, what would you do? You would grab your telescope, pack up the family carriage, and check it out, of course. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/He0EMwr6yk0/even-the-civil-war-had-tourists

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Initiative Aims to End Homelessness for Veterans ? Fatherhood Channel

August 4, 2011

?To America?s veterans, our country must speak with one voice: we honor your service, and we enter into a sacred trust with you from the moment you put on that uniform. That trust is simple: America will be there for you just as you have been there for America.?

President Barack Obama

by ROBERT HENTHORN
FATHERHOODCHANNEL.COM

Four of South Florida?s leading nonprofits with a long track record of service to Veterans were awarded $1 million by the Veterans Administration last week to implement ?Operation Sacred Trust.? The initiative aims to provide a model of community collaboration, innovative services, and access to affordable housing to end homelessness among Veteran families.

The group lead by Carrfour Supportive Housing, PAIRS Foundation, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, and Citrus Health Network will serve 1,000 homeless and low-income Veterans in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, an area that has been hit hard by the economic downturn. Veterans have been particularly affected, with over 1,000 homeless Veterans and over 20,000 low-income Veterans living in the area. Carrfour is Florida?s largest nonprofit provider of supportive housing.

VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki

?This program expands our capacity to act before a Veteran becomes homeless and to target the problem of family homelessness,? said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki in announcing nearly $60 million in homeless prevention grants that will serve approximately 22,000 homeless and at-risk Veteran families as part of the new Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program.

As part of the local initiative, at-risk Veteran families will be offered innovative PAIRS Resiliency training. The nine-hour training is designed to help families strengthen cohesion to overcome current and future challenges to housing stability.

Since 2006, PAIRS Foundation has provided similar training to thousands of singles, couples and high school teenagers in many of South Florida?s most distressed neighborhoods through a $5.5 million Healthy Marriage demonstration grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

A multi-year evaluation of the program found statistically significant improvements in relationship consensus, satisfaction, affectional expression, and cohesion for both ?distressed? and non-distressed participants. Improvements either increased or were sustained six and 12 months later, reported Paul R. Peluso, Ph.D., a clinician, professor, and author of three books, 11 book chapters and over 25 articles related to individual, couples and family counseling.

In addition to Operation Sacred Trust, beginning next week in San Diego, PAIRS will train nearly 200 VA Chaplains and behavioral health specialists from key sites throughout the nation to help active-duty and Veteran couples learn skills to strengthen their marriages and families. In 2009, PAIRS collaboration with the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia was recognized by the VA as a National Best Practice in Marriage Enrichment.

Stephanie Berman, Carrfour?s President/CEO, said Operation Sacred Trust will help place many homeless Veterans in appropriate permanent housing and develop the resources to maintain housing stability. For low-income Veteran families facing threats to housing stability, she said the community-centered initiative will help them improve social role functioning, interpersonal relationships, decrease symptom distress, and access a range of supportive services to help them enter affordable housing or stay in their current homes.

Seth Eisenberg, President of PAIRS Foundation, said the organization?s work with Veteran families nationwide has shown evidence-based marriage and relationship education that strengthens family resiliency is key to housing stability.

?Family and marital breakdown is a leading cause of poverty and homelessness,? Eisenberg said. ?Helping low-income Veteran families improve communication, emotional understanding, and healthy conflict resolution skills gives them vital resources to interrupt events that often lead to homelessness. Combining these services with access to affordable housing is the foundation to ending homelessness for America?s Veteran families,? he added.

Entry filed under: Education, Health, Military Families, News. Tags: carrfour supportive housing, Eric Shinseki, marriage education, operation sacred trust, PAIRS Foundation, preventing homelessness, Supportive Services for Veteran Families.

Source: http://fatherhoodchannel.com/2011/08/04/initiative-aims-to-end-homelessness-for-veteran-families-804/

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E Pluribus Lunum: Did Earth Once Have Two Moons?

News | Space

A primordial collision between two natural satellites of Earth could explain the stark differences between the moon's near and far hemispheres today

By John Matson ?| August 3, 2011?|

MOON STRUCK: A simulation of Earth's moon absorbing an impact by a smaller companion moon billions of years ago offers an explanation of puzzling features on the lunar surface. Image: Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug

For tens of millions of years?a mere sliver of astronomical time?the night sky above Earth may have been a bit more populous than it is today. For that brief period, our planet may have had not one but two moons, which soon collided and merged into our familiar lunar companion. No one would have been around to see the second moon?the lunar merger would have occurred nearly 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after Earth had formed.

The two-moon hypothesis, put forth in a study in the August 4 issue of Nature, would help explain why the moon's two hemispheres are so different today. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The familiar hemisphere facing Earth is covered by low, lava-filled plains (seen as the darker gray areas on the moon's "face"), whereas the far side, which is never visible from Earth, is a collection of rugged, mountainous highlands. Those highlands, according to the new hypothesis, would be the remains of the smaller, short-lived satellite following its collision with the moon that now hangs overhead. The key is that the moonlet's impact would be slow enough to pancake its material across one face of the moon rather than excavating a large crater.

"Usually when you think of two objects colliding, one of them leaves a big hole," says Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who co-authored the new study with Martin Jutzi of the University of Bern in Switzerland. "At a low enough impact speed, you actually deposit material." The effect of two moons coalescing at subsonic speeds is an almost fluid merger, "like you literally threw a cow pie on the ground and there it is," Asphaug says. "The physics are basically the same."

The leading hypothesis for the moon's creation itself involves an impact, this one a higher-speed crash of a Mars-size body into the nascent Earth. That collision, as the story goes, packed enough punch to kick up a ring of debris around Earth that coalesced into the moon. If an accompanying moonlet formed in the aftermath of that collision, simulations have shown, the system would be unstable, pushing the moonlet into a sudden demise in a collision with the dominant moon or with Earth. But certain orbital safe havens known as Trojan points, leading or trailing the moon in its orbit around Earth, would allow a moonlet to hang around for tens of millions of years before meeting its end.

By that time, the two objects would be at very different stages of evolution: a moonlet roughly one third the diameter of the moon would have cooled and solidified, whereas an ocean of magma would persist on the larger moon. In Jutzi and Asphaug's computer simulations, the pancaking of a solid moonlet against a partly molten moon would provide enough material to create the elevated highlands on one hemisphere and would displace huge amounts of magma to the opposite hemisphere.

One attractive feature of the new hypothesis is that it tidily explains why the near and far sides of the moon are not only topographically but compositionally different. Several sites on the near side sampled by Apollo astronauts had rocks enriched with KREEP?for potassium (K), rare earth elements (REE) and phosphorus (P)?which resists crystallization from magma and hence remains in a molten state until the entire magma ocean has solidified. But KREEP is scarce on the lunar far side. The hypothesized moonlet pushing a cooling magma ocean and its KREEP to the lunar near side would explain the dichotomy. "The momentum of that impact squashes the KREEP onto the other hemisphere," Asphaug says. "There's this compositional puzzle that we did not set out to explain but our model does help to explain."

The planetary scientist who, along with Asphaug, helped vault the giant-impact mechanism for the moon's formation into wide acceptance, sees value in the new hypothesis. "It's an old problem of trying to understand why there's this elevation dichotomy on the far side of the moon," says Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., whose 2001 study with Asphaug identified a Mars-size impactor as the likely moon-yielding culprit. "A nice new explanation that seems plausible for an old problem in planetary science is always a great thing."

A NASA lunar mission scheduled to launch in September, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), may help settle the question of whether the moon once had a smaller companion. GRAIL, which will map the moon's gravitational field to expose variations in its near-surface density, may be able to detect the residual effects of a long-lost moonlet pancaked across the lunar far side. "I think it may be testable with time," Canup says. "The type of alteration that they're predicting, you might be able to see some evidence for or against that in something like future GRAIL data."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=cfa7f69d20e85238c937d8ca88ebdb1a

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