The Year 2011 in Review - From the EHS Point of View

As the end of the year was fast approaching, I was thinking about year 2011 and the wonderful things it had held for Muir Omni Graphics: Partnerships, teamwork, a bright outlook for 2012 and so much more. Yes, it was a good year.

Part One: Partnerships

I had the opportunity to meet with Rebecca Cottrell, The Peoria County Recycling and Resource Conservation Educator, in February to chat about their plans for the year and determine how Muir Omni Graphics might be able to partner up with the Recycling and Resource Conservation department in 2011. This provided me the chance to play Environmental Jeopardy with area sixth graders at the Clean Water Celebration in April and Environmental Bingo with third graders during the Earth Day is Every Day event in October.  In my book, any day spent working with children in the subject Good Earthly Stewardship is a worthy investment. 

Here at MUIR, we have a handy man named Cal who comes in now and then to do some “general maintenance-fix it-build it- kind of work” around the company. One day he noticed a pile of reflective scrap material in a heap headed for the dumpster. “Can I have that?” he asked. “I think I know someone who could use it.” He left with it that day and now we have a plan in place to collect and store scrap material until he finds himself back at MUIR. He has connections seemingly everywhere in the school systems and libraries, especially in his nearby home town. In November, I loaded him up with cardboard cores, adhesive dots and scrap material left over from producing safety decals and polycarbonate control panels. I was so pleased to receive a thank you email from Parlin-Ingersoll Public Librarian, Debbie Sorrill –complete with a picture slideshow showing how they had put our materials to use. Her note included an uplifting message. “We share all items donated with area schools, churches, and daycare organizations to use with children.” 

Before coming to Muir Omni Graphics in 1997, I had worked for almost ten years in the child care industry where funds had to be meticulously tended to in order to make salaries and purchase basic supplies. Today in my manufacturing environment, I see endless possibilities in industrial graphics production scrap for teachers and children – scrap that I would have been thrilled to have access to in my teaching days.

One more connection, one more partnership to be founded before 2011 came to an end. I was introduced to Kay McKeen at SCARCE, Inc. (Schools and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), by one my LinkedIn connections in early November. Kay and her team gather donations of textbooks, school and office supplies to provide as free resources to teachers. I was happy to prepare a box of our scrap vinyl and adhesive dots to send to their facility, located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and was later informed that teachers had taken all that we had sent. Shortly after that, Kay invited me to visit their facility to learn more about the SCARCE mission - that’s another story, another day.

MUIR celebrates these partnerships as we strive to live and work by our
Environmental Policy: REACH

R – Reduce our waste. Our hope for 2012 is to continue to contribute to the educational environment of young minds while reducing our load to the landfill through these partnerships.

Muir Omni Graphics Environmental Policy can be read in full at http://www.muirgraphics.com/isos