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The leading herbal tea brand is removing the plastic overwrap from its iconic tea boxes to bolster efforts to reduce its environmental impact  
HOBOKEN, N.J., April 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Celestial Seasonings is proud to announce a significant step forward in its commitment to improving the sustainability of its packaging. The global specialty tea brand will no longer include plastic overwrap on the boxes of more than 130 teas, a move estimated to eliminate up to 165,000 pounds of plastic waste from landfills in 2024 alone¹. The removal of the overwrap is the equivalent of approximately 16,000 miles of plastic, or the distance it would take Sleepytime Bear, Celestial Seasonings’ beloved mascot, to travel from Boulder, Colorado to Australia and back.

“We are thrilled to announce this exciting step towards reducing our environmental footprint,” said Emily Rosen, Marketing Director. “While we are removing the plastic overwrap from our boxes, we’re still delivering the same great taste that people expect when they enjoy our teas. It’s just one more way we’re providing magic in your mug.”
The impact of this crucial initiative extends beyond the reduction of plastic waste. Celestial Seasonings Tea’s unique stringless and tagless pillow tea bags, paired with recyclable boxes, already save 3.5 million pounds of waste from landfills every year.²
Hain Celestial’s history is deeply rooted in nature. Founded in 1969 by young hikers who handpicked wild botanicals in the Rocky Mountains, Celestial Seasonings quickly became a pioneer in the natural and organic movement. Today, the brand continues to blend its teas using the highest quality ingredients that are non-GMO project verified and have no artificial flavors or preservatives. With more than 90 varieties, Celestial Seasonings serves 1.6 billion cups of tea annually and is sold on six of seven continents.
Celestial Seasonings is part of Hain Celestial Group’s family of brands, whose commitment to sustainability is focused on progress in three key areas: Healthier Planet, Healthier Products, and Healthier People. By removing the plastic overwrap from Celestial Seasonings tea boxes, the brand is contributing to Hain Celestial’s progress towards its sustainable packaging goals, including eliminating excess packaging materials and increasing the recyclability of its packaging globally. To learn more, visit www.celestialseasonings.com/flavorunwrapped.
About Celestial Seasonings
For more than 50 years, Celestial Seasonings, part of the Hain Celestial Group family of brands, has created delicious specialty teas that inspire magical moments of delight. The brand currently offers more than 90 flavorful varieties of herbal, green, black, wellness, rooibos and chai teas. Each blend is expertly crafted by our Blendmaster from the finest herbs, teas, spices and botanicals and is presented in packaging adorned with beautiful artwork and inspiring quotes. From calming and relaxing to refreshing and rejuvenating to everyday wellness support, there’s a Celestial Seasonings^® product for all the moods and moments of your day. For more information, visit celestialseasonings.com or follow Celestial Seasonings on  Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
About Hain Celestial Group
Hain Celestial Group is a leading health and wellness company whose purpose is to inspire healthier living for people, communities, and the planet through better-for-you brands. For more than 30 years, our portfolio of beloved brands has intentionally focused on delivering nutrition and well-being that positively impacts today and tomorrow. Headquartered in Hoboken, N.J., Hain Celestial’s products across snacks, baby/kids, beverages, meal preparation, and personal care, are marketed and sold in over 75 countries around the world. Our leading brands include Garden Veggie™ Snacks, Terra® chips, Garden of Eatin’® snacks, Earth’s Best® and Ella’s Kitchen® baby and toddler foods, Celestial Seasonings® teas, Joya® and Natumi® plant-based beverages, Greek Gods® yogurt, Cully & Sully®, Imagine® and New Covent Garden® soups, Yves® and Linda McCartney’s® (under license) meat-free, and Alba Botanica® natural sun care, among others. For more information, visit hain.com and LinkedIn.
¹ Based on Celestial Seasonings worldwide shipment volume in calendar year 2023.
² source: Based on Celestial Seasonings worldwide shipment volume in calendar year 2023
SOURCE Celestial Seasonings

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By Ron Currie
Mr. Currie is a novelist and screenwriter. He wrote from Portland, Maine.
From spring until late fall, when winter weather drives me indoors to the treadmill, I spend 20 minutes each morning after my run around the Back Cove in Portland, Maine, walking the shoreline, picking up garbage. Every day is “Groundhog Day”: I gather plastic cups, syringes, food containers and cigarette butts, the same as the morning before and the same as the morning before that.
I should almost certainly feel despair battling the daily fallout as late capitalism enters hospice care. But instead I get a base, primal satisfaction from actually just doing something, no matter how insignificant. We’ve forgotten, maybe, as the virtual world has slowly co-opted our lives, that we are meant by nature to move through and manipulate, to lift and carry and sort and transfer. Simple acts, I’ve found, have an outsize effect on the worrying over abstractions that otherwise takes up so much of my time.
My education in this regard started one morning a few years ago, when, getting ready for a run, I looked up and saw a sea gull with what looked like a small fish clutched in one of her feet. It wasn’t a fish but a fishing lure, and its barbed hook had stabbed the gull’s foot and lodged there. She flew wide, despairing circles above me, trying to shake the hook loose while other birds, seemingly making the same mistake I’d made in thinking the lure was an actual fish, gave chase.
That day, instead of doing a more conventional walk and stretch after running, I finally acted on an impulse I’d had many times and started moving slowly along the perimeter of the cove, picking up garbage. My grief over the gull’s suffering receded ever so slightly as I went.
The satisfaction I get from this habit is not uncomplicated. Sometimes I take paradoxical pleasure in getting dirty with other people’s trash, and other times the surprise dollop of last night’s honey mustard sauce on my shoe is enough to send me directly over the edge.
But the daily practice has taught me to be on guard against my vanity — to notice and discard the smug feeling that sometimes arises when I see others enjoying the cove but doing nothing about how blighted it is. Instead I am confronted each day with my fallibility, tininess and hypocrisy. (As just one more trash ape among billions, I contribute to the problem simply by existing.) And instead of puffing myself up, I check myself and reach for more garbage.
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Oceans are hitting record heat levels. Could ‘super corals’ cope?  NPR
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Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality trans. William Weaver (San Diego, New York, and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986), 307 pages.
CONCERNED WITH REINCARNATIONS, SECOND GUESSES, unreasonable facsimiles, aftereffects, and mimicries, Umberto Eco is appropriately named. This professional distinguisher of signs from their signifieds readily admits that he practices semiotics, but the practice shouldn’t frighten anyone and he would still do it “if it were called something else” In this collection of essays he originally wrote for an Italian newspaper and magazine public, Eco gets involved with the “something elses” of this world, particularly the American ones. As a tourist in our land, he everywhere picks up on a passion for the “absolute fake,” and for “authentic duplicates” that reach the point of “reconstructive neurosis” Viewing such extravagance, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or growl—and Eco does a great deal of both. In his writing, the two kinds of response inform each other. Here is an erudite, possessed by an intellectual gaiety which acts as the instrument of a critical consciousness.

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In the title piece, American culture is seen as a factory of replications of things originally created elsewhere, of styles, ideas, structures, references never naturally a part of our landscape. Eco sees our longing for historic European architecture and biblical homilies as a genuine iconic strain of American pop culture, which he neither condescends to nor applauds. He writes of the symbolism of it all as a moral and even philosophical problem before it turns into a political one. If he had stated only that we’re swamped in a hemorrhage of kitsch, and that we have our plutocratic as well as our populistic versions of it, he wouldn’t have gone beyond what has already been observed. He goes farther, though, to say that our yen for reproductions is so extreme that it decisively replaces the originals and dissipates any need for them. Like anyone else, he can enjoy the sophisticated or naive spectacle of counterfeit for its own sake, but he prefers to analyze what happens to consciousness, and what are the stakes, when objects are substituted for other objects, and certain words for other words. By examining the concentrated states of these replacements at Hearst Castle or Disney World, he implies their diffusion through the American mindscape. Living to the hilt a myth of self-sufficiency sustained by an endless inventory of ersatz objects—a delirium of transplants—will obviously do something injurious to the general sense of reality. And Eco hasn’t even touched on the media yet! He shows how our accumulated facsimiles don’t intend to emulate the models so much as to triumph over them, improving the “raw” material by technique, so as to make icons more inspiring. A national scene emerges in which reality seems inferior to our mediation of it, but Eco doesn’t deny that we need to mediate. His writings examine both the pleasures and the penalties of that act, as it communicates and deforms behavior.
Words will not suffice, Eco says (wrongly, since they never fail him), to describe the Madonna Inn at San Luis Obispo, California. “Let’s say that Albert Speer, while leafing through a book on Gaudi, swallowed an overgenerous dose of LSD and began to build a nuptial catacomb for Liza Minnelli.” Or how about, “Calvino’s Invisible Cities described by Judith Krantz and executed by Leonor Fini for the plush-doll industry” Eco attains real eloquence when he describes the rest rooms, which are cavernous, with a bit of Altamira in them, and where the water comes down the carved rock urinal “in a flushing cascade something like the Caves of the Planet Mongo” One might go on having fun with the Madonna Inn, but for the serious point that though it bristles with historical references and goofy, macaronic fantasies, they do not conceal the fact that it has no history of its own. Monster of allusions that cancel each other, the motel has no heritage and functions only as a public spectacle, emptied of all meaning but the spectacular. As I write this, Americans are refurbishing a better-known and more serious spectacle for media consumption, the Statue of Liberty, which is forced to operate as a pious symbol for ideals of liberty that the present government and most of the electorate have renounced. Whether it works as entertainment or ideology (often, now, the same thing), the spectacle is contradicted pretty sharply by history, and Eco’s remarks convey how deeply impressed he is by our routine perversion of our icons.
It shouldn’t surprise us that the author of the novel The Name of the Rose considers historical understanding vital to any intellectual critique of our moment. For historical awareness is the enemy of all closed and therefore authoritarian systems (such as, well, academic semiology), and Eco is a libertarian. History is that continuum of human circumstance through which cultural signs are unpredictably given, as well as lose, meaning. When, in his novel, the teachers of established 14th-century Catholic doctrine feel threatened by communitarian and populist dissenters, the ignition word “heretic” is bandied about to describe such dissenters and people are burned. The ferocity of repression, however, is equaled by the hysteria of the outcasts, roving mobs of megapoor terrorists. The topicality of such a historical narrative in the era of Italy’s Red Brigades has been well noticed; in this current book, Eco talks directly and contemporaneously about them, as well as about other fundamentalists, such as those at Jonestown. He certainly acknowledges aggression as a biological motif throughout history and he has a lively regard for the spirit of awe. But when demonology takes over group behavior, members can become so deluded as to think they are striking at “the heart of the state On the contrary, there are no “hearts’: no “heads’: no “centers’ Eco views the rise of millenarian violence and cult pathologies, with long traditions behind them, not as a threat to the multinational systems, but as a counterweight those systems rely on to rationalize their influence. In our era the thinking of the “Left” (which, of course, is a word that signifies “something else”) has also been invaded by such spooky religiosity. One might say, indeed, that for all cults and dogmas there is only one sign system, one fixed set of meanings and one class of reception. As for the media, “while they seem to act as thermometer, reporting a rise in temperature, they are actually part of the fuel that keeps the furnace going” It is only fair to notice that this has been their role for ages. Eco’s The Name of the Rose analyzes at great, fascinating length how the medieval church played such a media role, and examines the human costs of that media domination. These essays probe the same questions in our era.
Even if our media were owned by representatives of the communities, rather than of various systems, they would still be alienating (for there are built-in constraints and conditioning, regardless of the interests that are transmitted) That’s why Eco has a tendency to study case by hard case, and why he stresses that analysis must start at the point where the messages are received, not where they originated. What makes the messages hard to track is that the idea of the media has to be expanded enormously to include unintentional transmissions and reverberations that generate themselves once signals are initiated. One brand of polo shirts is sold with little alligators sewn on them. The people who wear them do the same thing, less consciously, as the advertisers. TV programs eventually notice such wearers. “Where,” asks Eco, “is the mass medium?” Perhaps this is to talk about inevitable modern complicities of unlike functions. But for him, it’s an example of how social phenomena take up each other’s theme. Individuals act as random carriers of images which they exchange with others in a cycle that now fades, now strengthens, as they weave the pattern of their cultural fantasies. Eco sees the fantasies as conflicting organizations of signs. To explain those conflicts, he has to enter within the media themselves. He affirms that long tradition of European intellectuals who consider it their political duty to do exactly that. This medievalist with a fast mind writes accessibly . . . and with a certain irony about himself. “Cultural anthropologists accept cultures in which people eat dogs . . . and even cultures where adults chew gum, so it should be all right for countries to exist where university professors contribute to newspapers.”

Max Kozloff is a photographer and a writer on photography who lives in New York.
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Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
March 30, 2024, 9:19 PM
This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
Lawmakers, Moore administration officials and environmentalists have reached a compromise on a data center bill that is enabling a leading green group in the state to drop its opposition to the measure.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) has made legislation to help attract the data center industry to Maryland a top priority for this legislative session.
A major data center campus is in the early stages of development at the site of an old Alcoa aluminum plant in Frederick County. The governor was dismayed last year when one of the companies that had planned to be part of the development pulled out of the project after the Public Service Commission refused to agree to an expedited review of the company’s plans to use 168 diesel generators for backup power at the site.
In response, the Moore administration has introduced a bill that would ease certain required environmental procedures to help lure data centers to the state.
Frederick in particular, given its proximity to data center hubs in Northern Virginia, is poised to benefit. Other parts of the state are also seen as possible candidates for data center campuses, including property near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear energy plant in Lusby. The Prince George’s County Planning Board earlier this month approved construction of a data center on the 87-acre site of the old Landover Mall.
But data centers drain a substantial amount of energy and rely on massive diesel-powered generators for backup power. As a result, several environmental groups, including the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, a major ally of the governor’s, have opposed the measure. LCV said earlier this month it would use votes on the bill as part of its annual legislative scorecard.
It was a noteworthy break, given the alliance between LCV and Moore. Even with the potential threat that the environmental group would be using the vote to evaluate lawmakers, Senate Bill 474 sailed through the Senate on a 43-3 vote in mid-March, with only Sens. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel), Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), and Karen Lewis Young (D-Frederick), voting against it.
In the weeks since, some environmental leaders, key lawmakers, and Eric Luedtke, Moore’s legislative liaison who used to be the House majority leader, have hammered out a compromise. The bill now directs that 15% of all tax revenues that the state would collect from data center operators would be earmarked for the state’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund, which the Maryland Energy Administration uses to fund clean energy and climate programs.
The House Economic Matters Committee voted on the amended bill Friday afternoon, and it will be on the House floor early next weeks. As a result, Maryland LCV is dropping its opposition to the legislation —  its official stance is now neutral — and is telling lawmakers that their votes on this measure will no longer be tallied for the group’s annual report card.
In a letter to lawmakers Friday, Kristen Harbeson, Maryland LCV’s political director, acknowledged the “difficult and complicated situation,” but said the group sees the amended version of the bill as a reasonable compromise.
“We believe that the funding that will be raised to the fulfillment of our climate goals through the… amendment addresses the climate impact without impeding the development of the new industry,” she wrote.
But other environmental groups remain vehemently opposed.
On Friday, the Maryland Legislative Coalition Climate Justice Wing wrote to members of the House Economic Matters Committee reiterating its opposition to the bill and saying it remains “alarmed and concerned with the approach taken in SB474.”
The coalition argues that the legislation sets a bad precedent, undermines the state’s climate mandates, limits the authority of the Public Service Commission to consider climate change when granting certain permits, and gives the data centers carte blanche for using diesel generators.
The group also told lawmakers it hopes to see more comprehensive legislation offering guidelines for data centers in the 2025 General Assembly session.
Assuming the amended bill passes the House it must go back to the Senate for concurrence.
Meanwhile, SB 861, a bill from Young that would require the state to study ways to make data center companies that do business in Maryland commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions over a period of time, is bottled up in the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment, where it is likely to remain.
The story has been updated to include reference to a letter that the Maryland Legislative Coalition Climate Justice Wing wrote to lawmakers on Friday.
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Major cities are not alone in feeling the effects of climate change. Small vacation towns are starting to get the brunt of sea-level rise—as evidenced by one home listing in Nantucket, Massachusetts. 
In September 2023, a three-bedroom, two-bath waterfront home in Nantucket—a “beautiful seaside retreat” as described by the sellers—was listed at $2.3 million. Looking at the comparable homes in the area, it was somewhat of a steal. Some listings in the area are as high as $8.2 million, according to Zillow. But after a few months on the market, the price plummeted a whopping 74% to just $600,000—well below Nantucket’s median home sales price of $3.2 million. 
During the past two years, we’ve heard nothing but news of home prices increasing, so how could such a seemingly desirable property lose so much value so quickly?
Climate change is to blame. The shoreline surrounding the home lost 70 feet due to erosion in just a few weeks, according to a Boston Globe report. While the 2,625-square-foot property was located at what’s long been considered a prime location in Nantucket, its value was completely washed—literally. While Florida, California, and Texas are primarily the focal points of how climate change is impacting housing, other coastal areas and islands like Nantucket are in danger.
“As sea levels continue to rise, we’re also seeing land areas sink, both due to the increased temperatures from human caused climate change,” Kathleen Biggins, founder and president of non-partisan climate change education organization C-Change Conversations, tells Fortune. “This heavily impacts coastal areas, especially as they become either uninsurable or extremely expensive to insure, because the risk of damage is just too high for market tolerance.”
Despite the risk of future damage, longtime Nantucket visitor Brendan Maddigan, who lives in New York, submitted an all-cash offer in February for the property when he saw the incredible price drop, according to the Globe. 
“The home is amazing. The location is amazing,” he said. “And the price mitigates the risk to a good degree. I’d like to think that it’ll be there for a while, but I was definitely aware of the risk of any particular storm causing a problem in the future.”
Vacation homes are meant to be an oasis, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune from the effects of climate change. Indeed, vacation destinations like Nantucket are typically located in “environmentally sensitive areas” and are likely to be the first communities significantly affected by climate change, Biggins says.
That “will definitely lead to fluctuating property values as the risks and impacts become more evident,” Biggins says. “Millions and millions of people live and work in coastal counties, and will be severely impacted by the effects of climate change over time.”
Not only is there inherent risk in purchasing coastal properties that could lose value, but many of these climate-change ridden communities are uninsurable. Indeed, a recent ValuePenguin survey showed more than one in four American homeowners with insurance worry their homes will become uninsurable in 2024—and 72% of home-insurance policyholders reported rate hikes in 2023.
“Climate change goes well beyond the weather in choosing a home,” Tracy Ramsay, a RE/MAX Results real-estate agent, tells Fortune. “In addition to thinking about comfort, climate change can drastically affect your housing stability—as well as your wallet.”
For the wealthy, it can be nearly irresistible to purchase vacation homes—ones with “an ocean backdrop or rolling hills with vineyards,” Ramsay says. “You can’t help dreaming of living an idyllic life in such a setting.” 
But the harsh reality is that many of these homes are too “unstable” or even dangerous to live in, Ramsay says. Those who have extra cash to burn may not be too concerned with rebuilding or refurbishing their homes if something were to happen, but without insurance the cost can become insurmountable. 
“Even the wealthy will have their tipping point and will flee if the inconvenience and danger become too much,” she says.
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Bill Clinton had Socks the cat and Barack Obama had Bo the dog. Mayor Tessa Rudnick has Willow the rabbit. The “first bun” of El Cerrito, a small town near San Francisco, has learned how to “high five” with her nose and likes to flop down with the family to be petted.
Willow is an anomaly — and not just because of her personality. If you have a pet in the United States, chances are it meows or barks. Of the 129 million households with pets in the country, roughly 3 in 4 have a cat or dog, according to 2021 Census data.
This dominant pet duo furnishes love and affection for millions of people, but there is an entire animal kingdom out there, largely overlooked but no less lovable, whose members tread lighter on the planet.
Cats and dogs have an outsize carbon footprint, mostly because of their carnivorous diet. If the pet food industry, which mainly feeds dogs and cats, were a country, it would rank as the 60th-highest greenhouse gas emitter, equivalent to the Philippines.
Rabbits, by contrast, leave a minimal pawprint. They eat small amounts of hay and otherwise discarded vegetables. Their waste can be used as fertilizer in gardens.
“It’s like having a vegan cat,” says Anna Reynoso, the manager at a shelter run by the House Rabbit Society in Richmond, Calif.
I ventured to the bunny rescue to see what’s it like to adopt one of the most environmentally friendly pets out there. As Americans embrace pet ownership like never before — the number of households with pets has more than tripled since the 1970s — I discovered there may be more “rabbit people” than you might expect.
When I walk into the House Rabbit Society’s shelter, more than a dozen quivering noses rise to sniff the air. Then their placid owners return to the business of nibbling at hay or napping under tiny cardboard castles. It’s an ocean of calm.
I approach one rabbit, a one-eyed male named Times New Roman, with my hand outstretched. After submitting to a brief rub on his forehead, he amicably hops away toward his neighbor, a Holland Lop mix named Student Section with crazed fluffy fur and a wonky back leg. (Both were named during the shelter’s font- and sports-themed phase.)
On any given day, the House Rabbit Society shelter, one of 15 chapters around the world, is the temporary home for more than three dozen stray or abandoned rabbits, from ruby-eyed rescues to black-and-white bunnies resembling Dalmatians.
The idea of pet rabbits is relatively new. For millennia, humanity’s primary interaction with rabbits was as hunters and farmers. That hasn’t given rabbits a warm reputation. They are often portrayed as aloof, skittish and devoid of unique personalities. Because rabbits are prey to bigger animals in the wild, they’re nervous when lifted and held (although many do love touch on the ground).
They are the third most surrendered animal to shelters, PETA reports, but that’s not because of bunnies’ inability to be loving companions, argues Beth Woolbright, executive director of House Rabbit Society, who has lived with 30 rabbits (along with cohabitating cats) since co-founding the organization in 1988. People just need to be better prepared for their needs and personalities.
“Rabbits are a nature show that plays with you,” she says.
Rabbits are a group of curious, social animals called lagomorphs, not rodents as many assume. Domestic rabbits can live eight to 12 years, but rarely survive on their own outdoors where they lack the survival skills of their wild cousins. Like dogs or cats, rabbits can be easily trained to use litter boxes, answer by name and may affectionately “nose-bump” your ankles. Many also live cage-free indoors with a “home base” supplied with a litter box, hiding areas, blankets and toys.
And, they’re ideal for busy families, says Woolbright, since they’re crepuscular: They’re most active in the early morning and twilight, when families are home, and nap during the day and evening.
But it’s their diet that gives them an environmental edge over cats or dogs. They eat mostly hay, which makes up about 80 percent of their diet, alongside a few vegetables and leafy greens. And the parts of vegetables humans don’t eat from carrot tops to cilantro stems? Bunny favorites.
In contrast, most cat and dog kibble is roughly 50 percent animal protein, accounting for around 1.5 percent of global agricultural emissions, according to a 2020 study in Global Environmental Change.
That’s expected to rise. More middle-class families are bringing dogs and cats into their homes, as well as buying “premium” pet foods using human-grade meat instead of by-products, with two to three times the emissions of market-leading pet foods.
“All else equal, livestock drives a large part of the environmental impact of the food system,” says Stephanie Cap, a researcher from Leiden University in the Netherlands who analyzed pet emissions for the E.U.’s 1.5° Lifestyles project, “and minimizing livestock production will reduce environmental impact.”
Having a vegan pet may even improve your diet. Rudnick, the mayor, says her family is eating healthier since adopting Willow. “It forces us to always have fresh food in the house,” she laughs. “We’re definitely eating a lot more kale.”
Woolbright say rabbits can be an ideal pet — for the right family. Bunnies need a few basic things: safe housing (a corner of a room or apartment will do); social interaction (with you or other bunnies); healthy food and regular veterinary care, including spaying or neutering.
Patience and gentleness, as well as a casual attitude toward the state of your furniture, also help. If your rabbit chews on furniture or cables, “bunny-proofing” your house can avoid this. While children as young as 6 can make excellent caretakers, it’s important to have responsible adults. And bear in mind that a baby rabbit is an 8-to-12-year commitment.
Budgeting about $50 per month for a pet bunny is typical, although much of the rabbits’ greens can be free at grocery stores or farmers markets. Rabbits also tend to need less expensive regular care than dogs and cats, but some veterinarians consider them “exotic” pets and don’t see them. Check the availability and cost of local veterinarians since emergency care can be more expensive.
And know that rabbit dispositions span a broad range. Some are snuggly and may even doze on your chest. Others may hop away from you. Many people describe the average rabbit’s temperament as somewhere between that of a cat and a dog: affectionate, yet needing plenty of alone time. Each one is an individual, so it helps to foster a rabbit before adopting one.
For Rudnick, Willow’s entrance into her family’s life has gone smoothly. “Having this low-impact pet with which Shira can have that bond has been huge,” she says of Willow’s relationship with her 8-year-old daughter. The rabbit acrobatics called “binkies” — leaps, kicks and twists in midair — are a joyful diversion.
For anyone considering bringing a rabbit into their life, Shira has some advice. “Bunnies can come in different shapes and sizes, and they can have different needs,” Shira tells me. “But no matter what, they can always be a good part of the family.”

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Making a choice: Imagine you’ve built an environmentally friendly business. Obviously, you’d want a shipping partner that shares your values and offers services that meet your needs. For eco-paint company Kalklitir, UPS carbon neutral shipping was the natural choice.
“We always make decisions primarily from an environmental standpoint. It’s who we are,” said Viktor Hjartarson at Kalklitir.

Shared values: Kalklitir, a Belgian business with Icelandic roots, produces paint products in powder form that are low emissions, low waste and low toxicity. The company aims to be carbon neutral by 2025, and a shipping option that works toward that goal is critical. With UPS carbon neutral shipping, transport emissions from Kalklitir’s products are offset by supporting projects like reforestation, landfill gas destruction and methane destruction.
At UPS, sustainability isn’t just a promise; it’s an action plan. Our carbon neutral shipping option helps us achieve a lower carbon footprint. We have a responsibility to put sustainability at the core of our operations, and that’s why we’ve committed to 100% carbon neutrality by 2050.
Global success: With the help of UPS’s reliable worldwide shipping, the eco-paint brand has seen its customer base expand beyond Europe to locations around the globe. Our easy cross-border shipping options give Kalklitir’s customers a choice of delivery speeds, anywhere in the world.
“We began shipping with UPS and we’ve never looked back. We had a positive feeling from day one,” said Fanný Hjartardóttir, director of sales at Kalklitir.
And thanks to our global network of 55,000 UPS Access Points, Kalklitir’s customers have even more delivery choices, with products reaching the U.S. from Belgium in as few as two days.
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In 2024, the construction industry will play a pivotal role in ushering California into a more sustainable and diverse future. But that is not without its challenges. While financial uncertainty in the new year urges building owners to be prudent on capital project spending, recent environmental legislation requires buildings to adhere to decarbonization goals to reduce emissions. Simultaneously, equity and diversity continue to be critical areas of focus.
As California continues to trailblaze on these issues, the construction industry is emerging as a strategic partner in championing sustainability, delivering projects on time and within budget through the use of technology, and driving diversity initiatives.
Around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from the built environment. To address this, California enacted several legislative measures in 2023 aimed at decarbonizing buildings. These measures include new codes for large commercial buildings and schools to curb embodied carbon emissions and enhanced monitoring and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions by large corporations.
To comply with these mandates, clients may find it beneficial to partner with general contractors on innovative solutions including:
Cutting-edge technology is redefining construction projects. Drones, aerial imaging and robotics streamline the decision-making process, improve safety and promise timely and cost-effective project delivery. On the Sutter Health Ambulatory Care Center and Surgery Center in San Jose, we utilized a Dusty Robotics field printer for improved layout design accuracy and efficiency. This project also leveraged the use of Takt Planning for enhanced construction efficiency. The impressive results speak for themselves — completion was achieved nearly three months ahead of schedule and $3 million under budget.
The use of technology and innovative strategies will continue to transform the construction industry in ways we have not seen before, benefiting clients as their projects are delivered on time and within budget.
Supplier diversity holds significant importance in California’s construction industry, given the state’s equity and diversity goals. However, it’s not just about filling quotas or meeting legal requirements; it’s about leveraging the full potential of the state’s diverse businesses for economic growth and social progress.
California’s diversity and equity goals require construction companies to be equally invested in supplier diversity — extending partnership opportunities to minority and women-owned business enterprises. Skanska continues to seek partnerships with minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) throughout our projects, which have significant implications for local economic development. Across the industry, construction companies are increasingly recognizing the value that minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) bring to their projects. These partnerships can lead to novel ideas, fresh perspectives and innovative problem-solving approaches that enhance project outcomes. Additionally, they create an inclusive business environment that reflects the state’s demographic makeup.
By partnering with MWBEs, large construction firms like ours can contribute significantly to local economies. These partnerships help stimulate economic development by providing MWBEs with new business opportunities, allowing them to expand their operations, hire more employees and contribute more extensively to local economies. In this sense, supplier diversity is also a powerful tool for socio-economic empowerment.
Skanska’s Construction Management Building Blocks Program exemplifies our commitment to supplier diversity. Through this program, we provide resources and support to minority and MWBEs, helping them overcome common barriers that may limit their ability to secure large contracts. The program equips these businesses with the necessary skills and knowledge to compete effectively in the marketplace, giving them a pathway to work with large construction companies like ours.
By offering a pathway for MWBEs to collaborate with larger firms on significant projects, we’re not only creating tangible opportunities but also sending a powerful message about the importance of inclusivity in our industry.
California’s dynamic landscape is driving innovation, marked by a transformative shift in sustainability practices and industry strategies that will eventually be modelled nationwide. Decision-makers across the region and beyond would benefit from further collaboration with construction companies to achieve ambitious sustainability goals and leverage technology for on-time, on-budget projects. This is also an opportunity to pioneer equity in partnerships with diverse subcontractors and suppliers, effectively shaping the future of construction in California and beyond. We look forward to the groundbreaking evolutions that will continue to take shape in the years to come.
Skanska Group uses knowledge & foresight to shape the way people live, work, and connect. Over 135 years in the making, we’re one of the world’s largest development and construction companies, with 2023 revenue totaling $14.8 billion. We operate across select markets in the Nordics, Europe and the United States.
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