Ever heard of a Terrapass? I hadn't either until I immersed myself in the world of sustainable living. Although we humans cannot completely undo the damage we create on this beautiful home we call Earth, we can help to fund cleaner technologies and projects that contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emmissions. Go to
http://www.terrapass.com/ to see the variety of ways the purchase of a Terrapass can work towards supporting these projects.
I don't know if it was a coincidence, but I had just completed reading a section of Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. This particular section of the book eloquently and non-judgmentally focused on the difficulty children have finding spaces in which to play and be creative. Then, BAM!...there it was the very next day in the New York Times... an article entitled, "Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come." This article illustrates the perfect case and point about how we, as adults, don't understand why children no longer play outside like we did, yet we continue to place boundries and parameters on them that did not exist for us as children. One of the very last paragraphs in the article is reason enough for every parent, teacher and teenager to read Richard Louv's book: The regular players, mostly high school boys but including Tara Currivan, 15 (who swings a mean bat and brings lemonade to the field), and Scott Atkinson, 13, seem a little befuddled by the whole thing. “They think we’re a cult,” said Jeff Currivan, 17. “People think we should be home playing ‘Grand Theft Auto.’ ”
Are We a Contractor or Educator?
The answer is....both! As Director of Education for Breaking Ground Education Services, a division of Breaking Ground Contracting, people often remark about how unconventional it is that a construction company also promotes education. Each time I hear these remarks, it becomes even MORE clear to me just how much sense it makes that a successful construction company like Breaking Ground Contracting blaze the trail of education in green, sustainable and LEED* building and workplace safety. After all, buildings use the greatest amount of energy...WAY more than our vehicles. So, it stands to reason that we do our part to enlighten the industry to environmentally sound ways of doing business. We don't just believe it, we live it! The foresight of President, Mary Tappouni, began many years ago with her passion for building, nature and the environment. Her vision drives her company, and those of us who have the privilege of working for Breaking Ground Contracting have been infected by her passion for green building and the desire to couple sound building practices with environmental responsibility. It is our mission to educate other contractors, architects, engineers, subcontractors, developers and anyone else who wants to listen and learn, about the ways we can all do our part in building green for the future...the future of our industry, our children and our world.
I don't know if it was a coincidence, but I had just completed reading a section of Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. This particular section of the book eloquently and non-judgmentally focused on the difficulty children have finding spaces in which to play and be creative. Then, BAM!...there it was the very next day in the New York Times... an article entitled, "Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come." This article illustrates the perfect case and point about how we, as adults, don't understand why children no longer play outside like we did, yet we continue to place boundries and parameters on them that did not exist for us as children. One of the very last paragraphs in the article is reason enough for every parent, teacher and teenager to read Richard Louv's book: The regular players, mostly high school boys but including Tara Currivan, 15 (who swings a mean bat and brings lemonade to the field), and Scott Atkinson, 13, seem a little befuddled by the whole thing. “They think we’re a cult,” said Jeff Currivan, 17. “People think we should be home playing ‘Grand Theft Auto.’ ”
