Curious looking for used desks

Curious is ramping up for a big job and we’re going to have to fit in a lot of new work stations - which means a lot of new desks.  Or maybe not so “new.”  We are investigating used desks instead.  We rock!

LED Lights at Curious

One of the LED light bulbs we were test driving for replacing bulbs at Curious has already burned out.  And it was too dim to begin with.  The search continues!  So far it looks like we are going with this one: http://www.greenelectricalsupply.com/7-watt-r20-flood-cfl-ww.aspx

The light is a little cool even though it is 2700k, but otherwise it’s great.

New Carting Company

Five Star Carting is our new recycling service at Curious.  Our old one went out of business.  Makes me uneasy that recycling doesn’t make money…

RECYCLING?!

By the way, the recycling company Curious uses went out of business.  Eh…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

AICP Green Production Guidelines

Here is a draft of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Green Production Guidelines.   Looking good!

DRAFT

AICP Green Production Guidelines

Environmental care, conservation and corporate responsibility have prompted many to search for solutions that are kinder to the planet, and more “green.”  Many production companies, agencies and clients are promoting green production in an effort to manage consumption and waste.

The guidelines that follow are considerations that may be helpful in fulfilling this quest.  It is important to highlight that there are circumstances in production that do not always allow for individual guidelines to be followed; it is the AICP’s desire to promote and encourage member companies to implement as many as possible, whenever possible.

We are also aware that some of these guidelines, if implemented, come with an additional cost.  Our recommendation is to quantify this amount and clearly articulate the cost of following the guidelines to your client.
Read more »

Curious energy efficient light testing under way

Curious is in the process of trying to swap out our track lighting. There are large bulbs for the ceiling track lights and smaller ones for the wall track lights. Right now we are test driving $15 LED lights for the walls, but they aren’t bright enough.

Next we are going to test out these 19 watt compact fluorescent bulbs for the ceiling for $14.44 each - if we decide to go with them they are $12.43 bulk (and they last about 8000 hours, so we won’t be ordering often).  They are dimmable CFs, which is a fairly new thing, so we’ll see how it goes.  They are replacing a 60 watt halogen version that costs about $9 each.  With rises energy costs, we could potentially end up saving a lot of money with a small initial investment.

These we are trying out for the wall - 30 watts, life of 2000 hours - and only $4.99 each.

Kill A Watt… Confusion

Kill A Watt = good
plastic packing is bad
as are the packing pellets

Surely they know that people buying these things would rather they not come wrapped in unnecessary plastic, right?  Dampens your enthusiasm a little…

We’re getting a Kill A Watt!

There was a post in September about the  Kill A Watt Electricty Load Meter and Monitor, which you can plug in to pretty much anything to see how much electricity it is really using.  Ours should be arriving soon, so we will be able to pinpoint exactly where our power usage is coming from.  And from there we can decide the best strategy for reducing it.

Corporate Social Responsibility Proposal

Today, we drafted a proposal for some of the executives at Curious Pictures regarding putting in place a program that would allow employees to give a little back to their community. New York City is a place, full of injustice, with people all over that need our help. Some of the ideas are as follows:

-    Work together with some of the parks in New York City to have screenings of cartoons or television shows like Little Einsteins or Little Spirit for children that would otherwise be hanging out on the streets
-    Plan a trash pick-up day in which we decide on a stretch of city blocks to walk with trash bags and pick up trash. Perhaps Central Park would be a good place to do this.
-    Developing promotional tools (advertisements, short animations, etc.) for non-profit organizations throughout the city, pro-bono.
-    Forty hours per year of paid volunteer time at the non-profit organization of each employee’s choice.
-    Setup a program where we bring children in and show them the basics of how to use computers.

Obviously, this is just a short list of ideas but with every volunteer opportunity we create, there is an opportunity for us to get the Curious Pictures name out there. If people recognize Curious Pictures as a socially responsible company, employees here will feel good about working here and when employees feel good, it directly translates to better performance.

Materials for the Arts Donation

This morning, two gentlemen from the Materials for the Arts came to pick up equipment from Curious Pictures that could be used by non-profit organizations around the city. There were exactly six televisions, five VCRs, and three DVD players donated. For those of you that have old equipment that is just sitting in storage, consider donating it to Materials for the Arts or to other programs like it. There are plenty of people out there that need this equipment.