Hello HeadsUp Readers!
It’s November already and time to begin thinking about wrapping up the year. Only one more month to go. But first, thank you to all our customers, friends in the consulting, engineering, and contracting fields, and reps who stopped by to visit us at WEFTEC last month in New Orleans. Despite Wednesday’s rain, it was an extremely well-attended exhibition and conference. And I especially appreciated those of you who stopped by to merely say you were HeadsUp readers and enjoy the newsletter. Those kind words were so gratifying. Thank you!
After WEFTEC, I traveled to a couple of our foreign offices, first to India and then to Dubai. India continues to have challenges, of course, but it is step by step moving forward towards becoming a world class economy. We’ve been working there for 10 years now and I continue to be impressed with their energy, entrepreneurship, positive hope for the future, and their utter graciousness when it comes to taking care of guests in their country. This month’s case study celebrates the 5-year anniversary of one of Headworks Bio’s many successful MBBR installations in India. Our customer is one of the largest manufacturers of dyed yarn there. These processes create extremely challenging wastewater due to the strength of the chemicals used and the constant changing of the colors, each of which is made up of a different combination of chemicals. Although conventional treatment cannot handle such shocks, the system we designed for them has been working perfectly for the last 5 years. In fact, the customer has asked us to return to handle their next phase expansion, a perfect endorsement of our quality!
My travels, no surprise, were all about water. We are honored to work in many countries to clean their municipal and industrial wastewaters, with many of our customers requesting that we take their challenging waters all the way to reusable water for irrigation, toilets, cooling towers and the like. Corporate policies surrounding sustainability are absolutely on the increase throughout the world. Novotel Hotel, for instance, where I stayed a night during my sojourn, has committed to supplying Eco Friendly products in all of their bathrooms. I noticed their novel product right away as it was so very curious: Fair Trade Can Sugar Soaps, Shampoos and Conditioners. When I saw it, I had several questions – Is this soap edible? After all, it looks like a small bar of dark chocolate in its wrapper. No. Why is there sugar in the soap? Is sugar a normal soap ingredient? I was surprised to find out that the answer is yes. It makes it lather more by adding effervescence. Who knew? And good to know that the sugar in their products is Fair Trade sugar from Paraguay. Maybe it’s just me, but people are hungry in many parts of the world and it seems somehow unsustainable to add such a fundamental foodstuff into an inedible product for hotels. Here’s a photo of one of the soaps I brought with me just to show all of you. Looks like a chocolate treat, right?
Moving on, I met with several customers, all of whom are committed to bettering the water they use. Water has been centrally important to Indian culture for thousands of years. Think Holy Mother Ganges River. In 1896, two giant jars made entirely out of silver were created by the Maharaja’s silver artisans. In 1902, Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II traveled with them to England to attend the coronation ceremony of Edward VIIth. Each jar had the capacity to hold 900 gallons (4091 liters) and were filled with water from the Ganges. Why? Well, if your curious, you can read some of the research we’ve done in our article on the Gangajali, Silver Jars.
Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are approaching in some of our homes. In India and among the Indian diaspora the Festival of Lights or Diwali will be celebrated this year on the 7th of November. Although I had to leave in time to vote in the USA on the 6th, the season was in full swing while I was there. I’ve resurrected an article from 2013 we did on Diwali and added a few things which I learned about how the holiday is celebrated from my friends there. It’s such a lovely holiday and I hope you enjoy learning about its complexities.
And don’t forget to vote If you live in the USA and are registered! Remember, Americans over the years have given their lives for us to have this precious right, so we owe it to them to exercise it.
Until December, namaste and Happy Diwali to all of our readers, colleagues and friends around the world who celebrate the Festival of Lights.
Michele LaNoue, CEO Headworks International Inc.
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