| News & Know How | news
< guard Changes, Again, at Gold’s Gym
territory. “Jim brings an extensive track record
of sales, retail, marketing, and management
| Green Scene |
experience in a multi-unit, service environment,”
points out Caldwell. “He is one of the most
Green climbing
respected executives in the Omni organization.”
Snow’s appointment makes him GGI’s third new
takes a firm hold
leader in just over a year. Prior to Weaver’s arrival
By Jennifer H. McInerney
last November, David Schnabel had relinquished
the CEO post. —| Nate Postma, the founder and president of Nicros, Inc., a climbing wall
manufacturer, recently discovered the amazing power of green. A few
months ago, when his St. Paul, Minnesota-based company announced
that it had introduced an environmentally friendly handhold that’s made
of a corn/soy-based resin, Postma’s phone started ringing, and the
An Ace of an ideA
orders began rolling in.
“We’ve been getting all sorts of interest from the press, as well as
Consolidating strengths and customers, who’ve told us they’re buying our new corn/soy-based hand-
expanding offerings holds specifically because they’re derived from renewable, eco-friendly
materials,” he notes.
> The American Council on Exercise (ACE) and The resin, which is
the IDEA Health and Fitness Association have made from corn, soy,
joined forces to provide expanded resources to or a combination of the
fitness professionals worldwide. By combining two naturally occurring
ACE’s scientific and fitness-certification expertise ingredients, replaces
with IDEA’s comprehensive membership services, petroleum in the hand-
the two organizations hope to increase the holds. But, because of
industry’s options for education, training, and Nicros’ proprietary formulation,
professional growth. the climbing wall components are just
“This joint venture as strong and tough—if not stronger and tougher—than their petroleum-
demonstrates our based counterparts.
ongoing commit- The best part? Nicros has eliminated its dependence on petroleum, gal-
ment to enriching lon for gallon, from this product line. “For every gallon of petroleum-based
quality of life through resin we were using before, we’re now using a gallon of corn/soy-based resin.
safe and effective We go through hundreds of 55-gallon drums of resin a year. For us, it’s a lot.”
exercise and physi- And this amount will grow exponentially, as Nicros extends this corn/
cal activity, and is soy-based resin to all of its other applicable products, such as those
just the first of many containing fiberglass, a polyester resin.
exciting things to Postma, a former 3M chemical engineer/technologist, had wanted
come” observes to incorporate green materials into his company’s products—including
Scott Goudeseune, wall panels and boulders—for some time, but they just weren’t readily
the president and available. Now, though, he sees a turn in the supply tide, as scientists
CEO of ACE. explore the green promise of algae and switch grass.
One of the first new products to emerge from “Algae and switch grass have 10-20 times the output that corn does,
the partnership is a series of co-branded continuing and are grown readily without herbicides and pesticides. Scientists
education courses that will be delivered in a new are working furiously to find economical ways to process them into
video-on-demand format. Sessions will be available polymer-based materials.”
as individual online courses or in an online video When that time comes, Nicros will be ready! In the meantime, the
package. Other ACE/IDEA initiatives will be company: recycles the waste in its waste stream; recycles paper; uses
announced in the coming months. only corn-based packing peanuts and recycled cardboard boxes; builds
“This is an exciting first step in what we’re climbing-structure components out of recycled steel; and has switched
confident will be an extremely beneficial relationship all of the lights in its 4,000-square-foot offices and 20,000-square-foot
for the fitness industry,” adds Peter Davis, the warehouse to energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting (CFL).
cofounder and CEO of IDEA. —| Postma is also looking into powering the plant via solar energy. —|
Please contact
j.mcinerney@fit-etc.com with your ‘green’ initiatives.
18
Club Business International | DECEMBER 2009 |
www.ihrsa.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106