Learn How EPA Lead Regulations Impacts New York Insurance Industry

New York DKI Member Companies Host Seminars On How the New EPA Lead Regulations Will Impact the Insurance Industry on Long Island and New York City.

In April 2010, new rules on lead contamination developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) went into effect for contractors that disturb painted surfaces in buildings constructed prior to 1978. These Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RPR) regulations require all contractors to:

• Become an EPA certified firm
• Have certified lead renovators on staff
• Check painted surfaces to determine if they contain lead
• Utilize specific types of engineering controls, containments and work practices
• Perform specific cleaning tasks, verification and test their work area

Unfortunately, these new EPA Lead Regulations will have a major impact on the Insurance Industry on Long Island and New York City.  Insurance Companies, Insurance Agents, Insurance Brokers, and Insurance Adjusters will all have to adjust to the new regulations that are now required of restoration contractors on property damage claims in structures built before 1978.

Please visit New York DKI Member Company Website for the Lead Seminars

Register In Advance.  Registration is Mandatory.

On the Web:    www.DKI.LI

                                                By Phone:       1-800-734-9947

                                                By Email:        emartin@advancedrestoration.com

Dates: Thursday June 17^th, 2010 @ Westchester Hills Golf Club

             Friday June 18^th, 2010 @ Brookville Country Club

Time:  Registration @ 8:30am

            Seminar @ 9am – 1pm

            Lunch @ 1pm – 2pm

Continental Breakfast and Snacks Served 

New York DKI Member Companies are fully trained and certified to handle ALL lead issues that may arise on property damage claims.

About New York DKI Member Companies – The DKI Member Companies sponsoring the seminars on the new EPA Lead Regulations service Long Island and New York City.

Advanced Restoration Corporation

                                    All Pro Cleaning and Restoration

                            

                                    Branch Restoration

                               

                                    Milro Restoration

                            

Disaster Kleenup International (DKI) is a network of the leading, independent property damage restoration contractors across North America. DKI member companies provide full service to their customers: Emergency response, water damage mitigation, mold remediation, complete reconstruction and much more 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, returning damaged property to pre-loss condition fast and efficiently, delivering complete satisfaction to their consumer, insurance, and corporate customers.

About Dr. Michael Pinto: CSP CMP CEO Wonder Makers Environmental, Inc. - Wonder Makers Environmental, Inc., a manufacturing and environmental consulting firm that specializes in identification and control of asbestos, lead, IAQ, mold, industrial hygiene, and chemical problems. Mr. Pinto is the author of over 150 published articles and several books including, Fungal Contamination: A Comprehensive Guide for Remediation. He completed doctoral course work in environmental engineering and holds numerous certifications in the environmental and safety areas including Certified Safety Professional and Certified Mold Professional.

Dr. Michael Pinto Wins Restoration Industry Association’s (RIA) Martin L. King Award - Given annually, the Martin L. King Award recognizes an individual's exceptional service and dedication to the restoration industry. Pinto was honored for his efforts as an industry instructor on a variety of environmental and restoration topics, his monthly column in Cleaning & Restoration magazine as well as articles in other industry publications, his innate ability to take complex issues and distill them down to their essential points, his unwavering efforts to consistently advocate for "doing things right," and for supporting the industry and practices that truly do "make it better" for everyone.

Martin King, CR, ASA, RIA's technical advisor and creator of the Certified Restorer^SM program said, "In this instance, instead of honoring the recipient with this award, the award is honored by its recipient."

The ReUse People (TRP), Long Island Building Deconstruction, and Advanced Restoration Corporation

Advanced Restoration Corporation is proud to partner with The Reuse People (TRP) on all our Building Deconstruction projects to make the Long Island Community the Leader in Building Deconstruction and Building Material Reuse in New York and throughout the country.

By partnering with us, The ReUse People are able to expand into the Long Island market to promote Building Deconstruction and the salvage and sale of reusable building materials while diverting construction and demolition (C&D) waste from our overburdened landfills.
These services are among the first steps in the green building process. Furthermore, tax-deductible donations of reusable materials to TRP, a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation, provide a faster payback and better return-on-investment than any other product or service offered by the green building industry on Long Island.

How The ReUse People (TRP) Started

The ReUse People (TRP) started in April, 1993, with a drive for building materials to help the flood victims in Tijuana, Mexico. The drive, Project Valle Verde, was planned and coordinated with the mayors of Tijuana and San Diego, the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the County Board of Supervisors, San Diego Gas and Electric Company, Waste Management, and the Building Industry Association.

On April 23 and 24, contractors, other private companies, public agencies and the citizens of San Diego donated over 400 tons of building materials valued at $1.2 million. Twenty-seven tractor trailers crossed the border carrying this material in an unprecedented demonstration of bi-national cooperation and assistance.

The success of Project Valle Verde demonstrated the need for used building materials and the impact of this need on our already overused and over committed landfills.

The ReUse People started as Building Materials Distributors in San Diego in 1993 and, due to a name conflict with an existing corporation, the name was soon changed to The ReUse People.

Who Benefits from Our Partnership On Long Island?

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  All of us through a better environment on Long Island
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  Low income families who cannot afford to buy new building materials
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  Building deconstruction can also lead to the creation of new jobs and businesses
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  Building owners by virtue of tax donations
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  Architects, builders and contractors through better service to their clients
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  Reduced unemployment strengthens the Long Island economy directly as well as indirectly in areas such as retail sales and housing

While we obtain reusable building materials from a variety of sources, our own deconstruction efforts and those of over 30 TRP-Certified Deconstruction Contractors throughout the country contribute over 90 percent of them.
Whether you are an architect, general building contractor, building owner, or government agency on Long Island we stand ready to provide you with a package of benefits including:

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  Environmentally sound demolition (We like the words building deconstruction)
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  Building materials salvage
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  Advanced Restoration Corporation's skilled building deconstruction technicians
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  Tax donations for all the materials donated to The ReUse People (TRP)
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  Lower overall project costs
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  The assurance that someone, somewhere reuses the salvageable building materials generated from your project(s) on Long Island

The ReUse People (TRP) President - Ted Reiff

 

Prior to founding The ReUse People (TRP) in 1995, Ted Reiff was managing partner with an investment banking firm that provided financial services to young technology companies. Now, in addition to guiding TRP's national expansion program, he consults with private companies and government bodies on a variety of demolition and waste diversion projects. A graduate of Ohio State University and a licensed demolition contractor, Ted served three terms as board president of I Love a Clean San Diego and is an advisor to Urban Habitat Chicago.

The ReUse People (TRP) Long Island Regional Manager - Mike Yurish

Mike holds a B.S. degree in environmental science from SUNY Purchase, New York, and has been an amateur deconstructionist for some 20 years. He serves on the board of directors of the ReCONNstruction Center in New Britain, Connecticut, and is a licensed realtor and appraisal trainee in New Jersey. A resident of Connecticut, Mike currently works as a senior print technician for a major printing company.  

Advanced Restoration Corporation - Eric Martin

 

Eric Martin has been in the family business for over 16 years.  He is certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification (IICRC) in Water Damage Mitigation and Advanced Structural Drying as well as holding his certification by the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) in Mold Remediation.  Eric has worked in New York City for 8 months after 9/11 cleaning up the building surrounding Ground Zero.  He also worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.    A Green Risk Professional from Vale Training Institute he is also a member of the Communications Committee from the U.S. Green Building Council's Long Island (USGBC-LI) chapter in charge of handling USGBC-LI's social media accounts.

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Advanced Restoration Corporation is proud to partner with The Reuse People (TRP) on all our Building Deconstruction projects to make the Long Island Community the Leader in Building Deconstruction and Building Material Reuse in New York and throughout the country.

Green Drinks Babylon Next Event

Participate. Educate. Connect.

The next Green Drinks Babylon Event will be held on November 17th, 2009 at Horace and Sylvia's Publick House from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. There will be a $5 donation at the door.


Green Drinks Babylon is a monthly gathering of like-minded individuals committed to shaping our future and making Long Island a greener community. Come out and charge your eco-spirit and make some new connections.

We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business from all over Long Island. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just ask, "Are you green?" and we will introduce you to whoever is there. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network. These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity.

Solargle

How is Solargle helping to clean up our world?

A recent Global Warming forecast released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states the following:

"As early as 2020, 75 million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages. Residents of Asia's large cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding... Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water... If unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts, and could drive up to 70 percent of plant and animal species to extincti..." The full report can be seen at National Geographic News

The above report was deliberated on by 140 national delegations before being adopted, and its message is clear: In the words of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie... But they are even more terrifying because they are real... Only urgent, global action will do..."

Solargle aims to be a symbol of that global action. It is not enough for our policyholders to take action, and we must each do our part, every single day, to reduce the carbon emissions polluting and destroying our earth.

Solargle's hosting is 130% wind powered. This means that we are not only neutralizing our environmental impact, but reversing it! Our host's contribution to saving the planet is approximately equal to preventing the emission of 3117 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or, in other words:

Removing 444 cars from the road for a year, or

Powering 321 homes with clean energy for a year, or

Saving 5,654 barrels of oil, or

Protecting 551 acres of forest for a year

Click here to see our host's Green Tag purchase certificate!

Solargle's searches are powered by Google's Custom Search.

How can you help make a difference?

This planet needs all the help it can get. The more people we have concerned for the planet's future, the more chance we have of healing the planet. Please, set Blackle as your home page. By doing so, you will be able to browse the internet in a manner that doesn't damage our planet. Encouraging your friends to do so as well, giving us a hand by mentioning us on your social networking status or spreading the word about us means you are doing your part, every single day, to prevent a little bit of pollution entering our atmosphere. It's that simple.

Tips for Building That Elusive Business Currency Called Rapport

by Jeffery Gitomer

Published: September 21, 2009

Long Island Business News

Jeffrey, In your presentation you said if you can’t build rapport, don’t start. I deal with attorneys. What is your recommendation if a prospect just won’t build rapport?

Kevin, if an attorney prospect “just won’t build rapport,” it’s because you haven’t asked him the right rapport building questions.  Ask about the toughest case he’s ever had or the reason he chose to get into law, or the most rewarding part about his career. Ask something significant about him.  I’ve never met anyone that won’t spend a minute or two talking about themselves.

Many salespeople make fatal mistakes trying to establish rapport around “things” – the weather, the ball game, the economy or the news.  That’s not rapport; that’s idle chatter. Real rapport has an emotional base to it.  And it comes from the prospect’s personal experience, personal opinion, and personal wisdom.  The key to earning rapport is keeping it light and keeping it positive.  There’s a secret of rapport, and the secret is “the link” – finding things in common that you both know about and like.  The easiest example is children who are the same age or who have gone to the same college.  These are things you can talk about with a smile and then move on to business.

Professional people tend to be self-indulgent people.  When you walk into their offices, their statues, trophies and educational achievements are always in plain view, as are pictures of their family.  Whenever I go into an office, I take a moment to walk around, not just look around. I look at educational achievements, other awards and family photos.  Sometimes the first question I ask is, “How old are your children?” because oftentimes the photograph will be several years old.  Whatever it is that I’m looking at, I try to ask a question that will elicit personal information, personal history or some type of positive emotional response.

That was Kevin’s issue.  How’s your rapport building going?  Do you understand that rapport is the gateway to an agreement?  Do you understand that rapport is NOT small talk or chit-chat?  Do you understand that rapport is the insight you gain about the person you’re trying to build a relationship with and entails giving them a little insight about you in return?  Do you understand that rapport is NOT qualifying the customer, it’s engaging her personally and intellectually?  Do you understand that rapport is a time when the customer is qualifying you?

Here is some additional insight into the rapport-building process:

• Rapport is delicate and must be professionally understood before you can be personally engaging.

• Rapport is exchanging information of personal value.

• Rapport is gaining insight into the person and their personality.

• Rapport is gaining an understanding of the other person.

• Rapport is the ability to begin the engagement process.

• Rapport is a learning time about them, not a bragging time about you.

• Rapport is asking – then creating dialog around the answer.

• Rapport is permission to smile, even laugh, without doing so at someone’s expense.

• Rapport is your opportunity to establish yourself as someone they would like to get to know better and maybe even do business with.

Is there a secret formula for building rapport?  No – but the key actions from you are friendly and approachable.  The key to success is “ask.”

And during the brief time you ask questions and exchange dialog, you may find the LINK.  Something you both like and know about.  The moment the link is realized, rapport deepens.

Maybe it’s a sports team, or a college or a child.  Maybe it’s a vacation spot or a piece of art.  Whatever it is, it’s personal and business gold.  Story exchange, smiles, mutual good feelings and emotional thoughts and memories.

Once you have built some personal rapport, it’s time to segue to business rapport.  Start with a career question – maybe something about length of service, the best accomplishment, goals for future success – and then say something about your business career.

When I finally segue to the business at hand I get right to the point. I tell my prospective customer, “The reason I asked for this meeting was to find out … .”

NOTE WELL: I DO NOT SAY, “The reason I asked for this meeting was to tell you about … .” Subtle, but powerful. Telling is selling.  I want my prospective customer to BUY. So do you.

Some people tell me that trying to build rapport is awkward.  Awkward is not a problem; it’s a symptom. The problem is a total lack of preparation on the part of the salesperson – that would be you.

Maybe if you spent less time boning up on the economy, and did some personal research on your prospective customer, YOUR economy would be better.

For a few more rapport insights go to http://www.gitomer.com/ and enter RAPPORT in the GitBit box.

Long Island Inaugurates Hydrogen Refueling Station

Source: Newsday
Class: SYNDICATED NEWS

SYNOPSIS: $2.2-million station will be used to refuel retrofit vehicles including shuttle bus.

Long Island's newest refueling spot is an exclusive club: It's open only to drivers of hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

The $2.2-million hydrogen fuel station, financed by a combination of local and state funding with partners such as LIPA and National Grid, sits in a parking lot next to the Town of Hempstead's Department of Conservation and Waterways in Point Lookout.

Long Island Needs Plan for Sustainable Future

Great article.  Just wanted to pass it along

by

John D. Cameron Jr. is the chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

Michael E. White is the council’s executive director.

from

Long Island Business News

The news, opinion pages and blogs of LIBN have been filled with the challenges Long Island is facing, and it seems that the very best of what “Our Island” has to offer is at risk. While we share many of the problems faced by other communities, we have regional challenges that make our plight unique and in some ways more desperate. The Long Island Regional Planning Council is tackling these challenges and will ascertain how Long Island may achieve a sustainable future. If we are to be successful in solving these challenges, Long Islanders must be ready to embrace a future that preserves appealing aspects of our suburban life, recognizes our remarkable assets and creates a community based upon the principles of stewardship and sustainability.

Our distinction as the most highly taxed populace, with the highest energy costs in the continental United States and a lack of housing options to meet the needs of our changing population has resulted in an accelerated loss of our talented and educated work force, particularly our young people. The affordability problems of our young work force are shared by our seniors, a growing segment of Long Islanders. You have heard this before.

“Our Island” also faces an aging and inadequate infrastructure. We cannot build or revitalize our downtowns without adequate sewer capacity and treatment to protect our drinking water. We cannot alleviate our traffic congestion without better transportation and transit choices. The natural resources that attract us to the Island are stressed or even disappearing. Failure to address global climate change and reduce greenhouse gases could bring more unhealthy air and permanent flooding. Our ability to attract and retain quality businesses which employ highly skilled, highly paid workers must be strengthened. These challenges threaten our quality of life and our economic viability.

Acknowledging these challenges and problems as daunting, there is hope that we can still right the ship. The council, with core support from our counties and in collaboration with our towns, villages, cities and an array of stakeholders, is embarking upon a sustainability planning initiative to ensure that not only does Long Island remain an economic engine, but that our quality of life will be preserved and enhanced. Our “LI-2035 Regional Comprehensive Sustainability Plan” initiative will produce an integrated sustainability action plan. It will NOT merely be another study of existing deficient conditions or a vision devoid of a charted course of how and what to change.

Assisting the council is a team of talented planners, engineers, scientists, economists and sociologists headed by Arup, an internationally respected firm, supported by local firms and community-based organizations in conjunction with federal, state and local government. The work product will draw upon sustainability successes from around the world with specific application to Long Island.

First, we will identify and assess the challenges we face in economy, infrastructure, resources and land use. We then will establish goals; develop a series of sustainable strategies with metrics to assess their impact on meeting our challenges; and identify the necessary governmental actions and funding mechanisms required to implement the strategies to reach the goals. Second will be the integrated action plan providing the “how to” and “who needs to do what” to reach a condition of sustainability by the year 2035.

The council is supported in the development of this plan by a Leadership Advisory Cabinet comprised of Long Island leaders in business and industry, institutions, regional government, the community, the environment and nonprofits. The cabinet is co-chaired by Bob Catell and Pat Foye. Supporting the cabinet will be stakeholder resource groups acting as technical advisors in specific thematic areas. The experience and expertise of our cabinet and stakeholder resource groups as well as broad public outreach will ensure that the critical issues affecting Long Island will be addressed, practical solutions proposed, information generated widely disseminated and that the action plan will be implementable.

The critical challenges and associated problems we face are real and significant. It is up to all of us to seize the opportunity to create a sustainable future for “Our Island.”