Patrick Boshell

This post is sponsored by Deb It’s Back-to-School Season – for Students, Faculty and Germs By Patrick Boshell, Marketing Director, Deb Canada, part of SC Johnson Professional Back-to-school season means a return to cold and flu season. With students, teachers and staff spending several hours each day within close proximity of one another, germs spread easily, leading to school outbreaks and frequent absenteeism that can harm student performance and a school’s reputation.

Have you ever heard the one about the rock band Van Halen and the brown M&Ms? Sure these guys are classic rock icons now, but that infamous reputation didn’t just happen by accident. Most people who have heard about the brown M&Ms think it’s just another story of rock excess, when in fact it’s a great example of using counter intuitive thinking to solve a problem. The story goes like this. Back in Van Halen’s early days, they had a lot of competition from other popular bands of the time.

Did you know that 1.5 million bars of soap are discarded every day from hotel rooms across the United States? Unfortunately, the same problem exists for those small bottles of half empty shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotions. The majority of hotels in North America have no recycling program in place for these amenities, which means that potentially millions of plastic bottles end up in  landfills each year.