Too Busy to Talk to You Now!!

Remember the old cartoon about the machine gun salesman trying to sell Custer a machine gun, as the Indians circled his troops at Little Bighorn. Custer says – “I’m too busy to talk you now”.

We all know how that ended up.

Sometimes we just get in ruts and keep doing the same things without looking for a better solution. A case in point – the shipping, use, handling, storing and disposing of liquid water treatment chemical drums.

Are you the Custer who’s too busy?

Or are you the Custer who can look at new ways to solve old problems?

Yep, each case of these solid water treatment chemicals contains the same amount of proven, active chemicals as a 55 gallon drum! Plus,when you’ve used up the solid product, the case is recyclable, as are the containers.

Isn’t it time to look at better solutions?

Give us a call at 1-866-489-9831; or drop us a line and we’ll answer your questions and help you – so you can avoid being a 21^st century Custer!

Posted on behalf Fred Lattin

Let The Summer Begin

As we head into Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start to summer, it looks like we are going to see some hot weather here in the Cincinnati area. And I'm sure that weather will spread around many parts of the country. I would venture to guess that many kids will be quite happy as their local swimming pools will be opening and this year the still cold water will feel really good to get into. I know everyone remembers those opening weekends at the pool when you forced yourself into that cold water just because you were so excited to swim.

While people are enjoying the pools and swimming during this hot spell, many cooling towers will also see an increase in load due to the hot weather. The summer historically represents a very busy time for us as these increased load demands also mean increased chemical consumption to properly treat a cooling tower. With the increase in chemical consumption on the horizon and as someone in charge of an HVAC system, it becomes critical to properly manage and maintain the proper chemical inventories to ensure that your HVAC system runs properly and as expected all season long. The EnduroSOLV solid water treatment products offer an easy and convenient method for holding and managing your cooling tower chemical inventory. These products are packaged in easy to manage cases containing four one gallon bottles. The EnduroSOLV line contains both the inhibitors and biocides that you will need all summer long.

So, as you are enjoying the swimming pool this weekend and enjoying the water, make sure to remember the water treatment needs of your HVAC system ... Happy Memorial Day!!

Sustainability. How much is enough?

Have I taken my employment at APTech Group and Sustainability too far?   I know Mother’s Day was last Sunday but all week I thought about this question.  I guess a blog is a great place to have a reality check.  

My daughters and I celebrated a Green Mother’s Day, Sustainable Mothers Day, Eco Friendly Mother’s Day whatever you would like to call it.  We wrapped up 20 LED light bulbs in recycled newspaper and gave them to my wife first thing in the morning on Sunday.  Of course I am kidding.  But kids -- if you are reading this that would be a great Father’s Day gift.

Here is what we actually did for Mother’s Day:

• We gave Mom a live plant from a local nursery that she could plant.
• The girls made a memo pad from leftover birthday wrapping paper that had a thought on each piece of paper that made them smile about their Mom.
• We took some pictures but did not print them out. We just sent them to her work computer as screen savers.
• The girls made several homemade gift cards: 20 minute massage; Help plant new flowers; Free car wash -- and my least favorite gift that was slipped in without my approval:  Will make Dad clean the bathroom for a month.
• My daughter who researched the “Green” event said we could not travel anywhere or turn on an electronic device for the day.
• The traditional Mother’s Day gift -- breakfast in bed.  No paper products were used except for a homemade card. 

Although, the lack of computer and other electronics was very hard on my wife and I, we both agreed it was a very rewarding Mother’s Day 2012.  In fact, both kids have become “Greener” through this process. They turn off lights and are aware that Dad saying he does not want to air condition the neighborhood really means something now.

Again, I will ask: Do I take sustainability too far?   A worse condition would be to suffer from a “Green Fatigue" – which would result in tuning out the Green messages due to their ubiquity. The truth is that every single thing we do every day has an impact on the planet -- good or bad. The good news is that as an individual you have the power to control most of your choices and, therefore, the impact you create: from where you live to what you buy, eat, and use to light your home to where and how you celebrate Mother’s Day, to how you shop and how you run your business, you can have global impact.

The good news is: I do not suffer from Green Fatigue. In fact, I want to spread the word to the water treatment world that APTech Group has the technology and products to help companies and organizations reach Sustainability goals that will only get tougher. If you are using Solids water treatment products now, go to the carbon footprint reduction calculator on our EnduroSolv website and enter the required information then go tell someone! Post it on your company website, tell your sustainability office or Environmental person. 

For example, a 1000 ton system can generate this kind of Carbon Dioxide savings:

Transport fuel savings:  826 lbs of CO2 per year

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) savings: 1,776 lbs of CO2 per year

Plastic used reduced: 1,084 lbs of CO2 per year

Total Savings: 3,686 lbs of CO2 per year

These savings are comparable to leaving your car in the garage for 173 days and walking or taking public transportation. 

Too much sustainability? Too much is never enough!

Posted on behalf of Marc Beller

     

Water Treatment Products from APTech Group – Good for Government Facilities, Too

I’m heading to San Antonio next week with an APTech Group colleague to attend the 2012 GSA Conference and Expo. Many of our distributors work with and provide APTech Group solid water treatment products and services to government facilities served by the GSA.

As the manufacturer of these proven, sustainable solid chemical products, we are looking forward to meeting folks from the GSA as well facility management firms who could benefit from our wide line of products for cooling towers, boilers and closed loop systems.

The GSA is committed to having a zero environment footprint. Fortunately, this commitment aligns with many of the benefits of our solid water treatment products:

• Significantly lighter than liquids, so reduced amount of fuel is required to ship
• Products manufactured with eco-friendly ingredients
• No triple rinsing of container required
• Product containers are fully recyclable
• APTech Group products address potential LEED points
• Containers enable plastic reduction, when compared to liquid chemical containers
• Solid form process allows for significant reduction in the use of dangerous caustic chemicals (NaOH)

If you would like to learn more about APTech Group’s solid water treatment products, visit our website for much more information and to be connected to a distributor in near you.

Sustainability in Higher Education

Are you familiar with AASHE? It stands for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This group is helping to further sustainability at their institutions by engaging students, staff, faculty and interested businesses in knowledge sharing and discussions about sustainability. Because of this type of forum, sustainability initiatives are being agreed upon and implemented at universities and colleges across the country.

As in many other arenas, colleges and universities play a vital role in advancing understanding of the ecological challenges our world faces. By bringing together passionate students, facilitators and sustainable businesses, AASHE is leading the fight to preserve our natural resources and beauty of our world.

APTech Group, along with our EnduroSolv^® line of solid water treatment products, is proud to be a member of AASHE and we support their vision.

Is your school a member of AASHE? To find out and learn more about AASHE endeavors, go to www.aashe.org.  And learn more about our EnduroSolv^® solid water treatment product for boilers and cooling towers at www.endurosolv.com.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Earth Day

Sunday was Earth Day. Earth Day is an annual day in which events are held all over the world to help increase awareness and appreciate the environment. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and is held on April 22 of each year. These days it is not hard to find people trying to make the Earth a better place.

In fact, my 2nd Grade daughter came home from school last week with many things she wanted us to do at home to help the Earth. She started off by running and checking all our faucets for leaks/drips. She told us we had to turn off the lights in rooms we were not in and she even wanted us to unplug all the appliances in each room when we left it.

My favorite though, was when she asked if I could start using old cooking oil in my car instead of gas! It was hard for her to understand that I couldn’t just start filling my car up with the old cooking oil. (They had read an article about a car that was able to run on this type of oil and thought that every car had that capability!)

What she did understand though after a little explaining, was how the EnduroSolv® line of Solid Water Treatment Chemicals was making a difference in the environment. I explained to her that not only do our chemicals help re-use water, but they also reduce the carbon footprint. (As you might imagine, the concept of carbon footprint also took a little explaining).

But when I told her that if every facility in the United States switch to EnduroSolv® products, it would be like taking 52,000 cars of the roads (from a carbon footprint standpoint), she was able to understand that! And as was the case her desire for me to switch from gasoline to old cooking oil, she instantly wanted to know why everyone wasn’t using our products so that all those “cars” could be removed from the roads! I wish everyone could think this simplistically and just make the switch!

Besides helping the environment, EnduroSolv® Solid Water Treatment has many benefits that could help your facilities water treatment needs. If you would like additional information please let us know and we can get you in contact with an EnduroSolv® dealer near you.

Happy Belated Earth Day!

Image source: www.outlook.noaa.gov

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

World Water Day

On Thursday, March 22nd we recognized World Water Day 2012.

So how did you celebrate or otherwise recognize this important event? Why do we even have to recognize water? Simply put, water is a limited resource. While over 75% of the earth is water, only 1% of that water is in a useable form. While not a diminishing resource, it is limited.


Water has unique properties: it can be used to heat or cool; it can be made into a gas (steam), or a solid form (ice). It can provide life, or in the event of pollution – death. We rely on it in many ways that we may never recognize.
At APTech Group, we deal with ways to conserve and reuse this valuable resource every day. Our products are designed to not only conserve water, but to do so in a safe, economical, and environmentally friendly manner.

We provide our dealer partners with many tools to assist them in finding the best solution for their customers. Here’s a tool that anyone can use to learn more about what they can do to help conserve this valuable resource.

Over 12% of the 7,000,000,000 earth population goes without safe drinking water on any given day. We are an active supporter of charity: water – an organization devoted exclusively to finding safe drinking water for those people that have none. Please join us to make a difference in this effort.

And have a great World Water Day!

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin