California Closets: Giving Back to a Local School & Helping the Environment

Back in the spring, West Palm Beach GM Anette Jordan was invited to a fundraiser for a new school in their county of Port Saint Lucie that would be dedicated to children with Autism and related disabilities. Now, the Exceptional Academy for Differently-Abled Learners Inc is a private, non-profit learning center offering a full-time academic educational program for grades 1-6, as well as part-time homeschool enrichment classes for grades K-6.

The school is different than others because of its focus on children’s abilities, instead disabilities. With input from each student’s family, the school’s team of experts tailor a curriculum based on what a child is interested in and the things that he/she is currently successful at. With confidence, grows skills; the teachers work with the children, and their families, to help build their current skills and attain new ones.

This summer, the West Palm Beach team closed one of their older showrooms and opened a brand new one with all new displays. Knowing the school’s needs, Anette rallied her team. They reconfigured several of the displays from their old showroom and installed them at the school – a wonderful and equally “green” effort that also spared the team from discarding all the displays in landfills!

FS Energy: Expertise Highlighted in Recent New York Times Article

In a recent New York Times article highlighting the impact of Local Law 33, which gives midsize and large buildings letter grades based on energy efficiency, Kelly Dougherty, director of energy management for FS Energy, the energy management and advisory subsidiary of FirstService Residential, shared her expertise on this important legislation. Kelly and her team have been preparing clients for this development for several years, providing energy audits and benchmarking reports to client properties to help them understand what improvements should be considered to maximize energy efficiency. 

Earlier this summer, Kelly provided a thoughtful piece on the importance of benchmarking in our Spotlight newsletter.

READ MORE

Planned Companies: Helping Beautify Local Parks and Beaches as Part of #CleanUpWeek

Planned Companies demonstrated its commitment to Our Environment during a recent series of events in support of #CleanUpWeek. Company volunteers cleaned up parks and beaches to support this important initiative, and experienced a fun team building event at the same time.

Read More

Pillar To Post: Working Together to Clean Up Trash

American Pool Enterprises: Beautifying Maryland Roadways through Adopt-A-Highway Program

On a steamy summer afternoon, a team of seven volunteers from American Pool’s corporate office took to the streets as part of a shared commitment to #FirstServeOthers.

Together, the team collected 13 bags of trash consisting largely of plastic bottles, fast food waste and cigarette butts. The effort was hampered by Mother Nature, thanks to a heat index of more than 100 degrees and unseasonably high humidity making working conditions difficult. By the time the team was finished cleaning two miles of roadway, each was soaked to the skin but energized by a successful day of giving back.

American Pool Enterprises chose Adopt-A-Highway because the team cares deeply about the environment around them and the program is scalable, allowing numerous volunteers to come together at one time. In addition to the community service aspect, there are also teambuilding benefits as well. American Pool has committed to four highway clean up days a year — doing its part to keep roadways clean and free of waste.

   

FirstService Residential: Teambuilding and Community Service Go Hand-in-Hand

Seeking a teambuilding activity that also contributed to the greater good, the Chicago office at FirstService Residential joined together on August 3rd for its second annual beach clean up. A team of 50 company volunteers donned their gloves and set out to clean up trash and other debris along Oak Street Beach.

The effort supported the mission of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Participating in the event is more than just picking up trash – volunteers get to become conservation biologists for the day, and are tasked with recording data of what and how much is collected. This data is entered data into a publicly-accessible online Adopt-A-Beach system database and shared with local beach health and city officials who use the information to make lake and beach improvements. More than 52 pounds of trash was collected.

According to FirstService Residential Illinois President Asa Sherwood, this is an event associates look forward to every year. Getting to enjoy a gorgeous summer day while doing something positive for the community and environment is a win for all involved.