Reduced Packaging:
Providing the highest-strength pool chemicals, and products with less packaging. So you have less to dispose.
Recycling:
When JDS delivers to your house, we recycle the cardboard and the large plastic furniture bags. We donate your large empty chemical buckets to the Boy Scouts. In fact, about 70% of our waste stream is recycled.
Local Suppliers:
Reducing the carbon footprint of incoming products three ways.
- Buy American. Almost all Chinese products come across the Pacific, land in California, and come to the east coast by truck. Any American product travels less.
- Buy Direct. Almost everything comes here directly from the factory – not through a distributor.
- All of our largest volume suppliers are very close. Telescope patio furniture, Sharkline pools and Swimline liners are made in New York. Olhausen pool tables are made in Tennessee. Pentair filters, heaters, pumps and cleaners are made in North Carolina. Trica bar stools and Palason games are made in Montreal.
Protecting the Turtles:
In 1998, we worked with local environmental groups to create a plan to protect the spotted turtles, blandings turtles, and hog-nosed snakes that live in the wetlands between us and Boston Post Road. Our neighbors signed onto it when they were built; to create a “turtle fence” from 12 inches below ground to 18 inches above ground that runs for a half mile behind our property, Lowes, and a habitat on Truell Road. Land on the other side of that is set aside for the animals. We even built a nesting area for them.
Energy-Efficient Building:
We were state-of-the-art when we built this store in 1999. Still, we went through an extensive energy audit by the Jordan Institute in 2010, and upgraded all of our lighting in 2011. We are saving over 45 tons of carbon dioxide over the next ten years. Our lighting system reduces light levels in winter, is almost entirely fluorescent, and much of it is on motion detectors. Ceiling fans keep the air mixed properly and Economizers reduce air conditioning. In winter, we wear sweaters and huddle around space heaters. You’re wearing a coat, anyway. There’s no air conditioning in the warehouse, and it’s only heated to 55° in winter. The warehouse guys wear jackets and gloves!
Quality Products:
Telescope Gardenella has been our least expensive patio furniture set for years. Friends who bought it from us more than twenty-five years ago are amazed that it looks as good as new. And, if the slings are too dirty or out of style, we can replace them. We can repair parts on thirty-year old Sharkline pools. Quality lasts, and that puts less trash into the landfill. You could have bought and thrown away seven Chinese patio sets in twenty-five years.
Peabody Mill Environmental Center:
We are strong supporters of local environmental groups such as the Amherst Conservation Commission, Joe English Reservation, and the Peabody Mill Environmental Center. Dennis has served on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the PMEC, and on its Executive Committee as its Recording Secretary.
Ugly Grass:
Yes, it’s grass, not a lawn. Why? Because we planted native grass, not a turf. We never use pesticides, we never use fertilizers and we never water it. We also don’t use rock salt on the parking lot. That’s all to protect the local environment from run off.
