Business Glance
APS: Keep Mylar balloons away from power lines
as this year’s graduates get ready to receive their diplomas and celebrate, APS reminds families to keep their festive balloons close while attending ceremonies and parties. Shiny, metallic balloons, also known as mylar balloons, can cause major power outages and be dangerous when they come in contact with energized power lines.
So far this year, balloons caused 11 power outages in APS service territory, disrupting service to more than 6,100 APS customers. most balloon-related outages occur between Valentine’s day and graduation season.
While they bring an extra shimmer to the celebration, the metallic coating on mylar balloons conducts electricity and can cause a short circuit or power surge – often causing the power to go out, melting electrical wires, sparking fires, damaging property and even injuring people, pets and wildlife.
To keep everyone safe during graduation season, APS recommends the following safety tips:
•Use balloons indoors and keep them away from overhead power lines. Even non-metallic balloons can become entangled in lines and cause an outage.
•Always attach a weight to metallic balloons or keep them tethered at all times.
•Never play with balloons, kites or drones around overhead power lines.
•Always deflate balloons and dispose of them properly when no longer in use.
•Always assume power lines are energized. Keep yourself and your personal items at least 100 feet away from power lines.
•Visit the safety page on aps. com to learn more tips for indoor and outdoor safety around electricity.
Yuma realtors develop universal fragrance dispenser
Yuma realtors Korri Wright and Karen Spencer recently developed and launched unlimiscent, a oneof-a-kind home plug-in dispenser for all brands of fragrances on the market.
Wright, also a busy mom of four, enjoys a home with ever-changing fragrances but hated the hassle of trying to remember what brand of fragrances she could buy to match the fragrance emitters she previously purchased and had at home. She and Spencer realized there was a substantial market for this idea and worked together to develop this “efficient, hassle-free” product.
Unlimiscent eliminates the need to buy various brands of plug-ins, so reducing plastic waste is an added benefit. Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments according to the Ocean Conservancy.
The universal fragrance emitter is designed to work with most major brand fragrance bottles such as Glade, Febreze, Renuzit, Walmart Generic Brand, Pura, airwick, Bath, and Body Works Wallflowers, Yankee Candle, and Better Homes and Gardens. Just plug unlimiscent into a 120V outlet, adjust the emitter dial to control the level of fragrance being dispensed, and keep your house smelling fresh and clean with your favorite scents from any company.
For more information, go to unlimiscent.com.
Amazon announces solar farm in Yuma County
Amazon announced 37 new renewable energy projects around the world, including a solar and storage project in Yuma County. The mcFarland solar farm west of Wellton will produce 300 megawatts by 2023.
These projects mark progress on amazon’s path to power 100% of its operations with renewable energy by 2025–five years ahead of the original target of 2030.
“Our commitment to protecting the planet and limiting amazon’s impact on the environment has led us to become the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world in both 2020 and 2021. Given the growth of our business, and our mission to run 100% of amazon’s operations on renewable energy, we aren’t slowing our renewable investments down,” said andy Jassy, CEO of amazon.
“We now have 310 wind and solar projects across 19 countries, and are working hard to reach our goal of powering 100% of our business on renewable energy by 2025–five years ahead of our original target of 2030,” Jassy added.
Amazon continues to invest in renewable energy projects paired with energy storage. The energy storage systems allow amazon to store clean energy produced by its solar projects and deploy it when solar energy is not available, such as in the evening hours, or during periods of high demand.
Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, committing to reach net-zero carbon by 2040–10 years ahead of the Paris agreement. The Pledge now has more than
300 signatories, including Best Buy, IBm, microsoft, PepsiCo, Siemens, unilever, Verizon, and Visa.
For more information, visit https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/.
Third symposium in ‘Growing Our Own’ series set for May 24
The third symposium in the desert Southwest Region “Growing Our Own” series, titled “Ecosystems of Innovation – The Brainstorm,” will take place may 24, from 1-5 p.m., at Four Points Sheraton Yuma, 2030 S. avenue 3E.
The overall goal of the “Growing Our Own” initiative is to establish a world-class platform in the desert Southwest to support STEm workforce development and increase opportunities for entrepreneurial innovation and economic growth.
To register, go to https://tinyurl.com/2p9xdasy.
‘CyberSafe Workshops for Small Businesses’ continues Wednesday
The arizona Small Business development Center, in collaboration with the Yuma Chamber of Commerce and the Yuma County Library district, are presenting “CyberSafe Workshops for Small Businesses” at the main Library, at 2951 S. 21st drive.
This series of workshops, presented by alan Watkins, is designed to teach business owners proper cybersecurity measures that can be implemented at no or low cost to stay safe. There is no charge to attend.
Here are the upcoming workshops:
– Wednesday, may 18, at 5:30 p.m.: Setting up an Employee Cyber Training Program
– Wednesday, June 1, at 5:30 p.m.: Protecting Business data in the Cloud
For more information, call 928373-6514.
Small Business Boot Camp:
Explore your gaps
The arizona Commerce authority regularly hosts Small Business Boot Camp webinars, with speakers sharing strategies on navigating these unprecedented times and making important mentorship connections. The webinars are usually held from 9-10 a.m. Tuesdays but will sometimes hold workshops on other days.
Here is the next webinar:
– may 17: Where You are and Where You Want To Be: There is no such thing as perfection for entrepreneurs, especially when balancing personal growth and a business. Everyone experiences gaps between where you are and where you want to be personally and professionally. Luckily, closing these gaps is not impossible. In this session, you will have the opportunity to self-reflect as you explore your gaps and discover an open-minded approach to making the necessary changes.
To register and/or see upcoming or archived webinars, go to www.azcommerce.com/small-businessboot-camp.
Call for speakers during Military Appreciation Month
During military appreciation month, celebrated in may to honor and recognize those who have and continue to sacrifice for america’s freedom, Better Business Bureau Serving the Pacific Southwest, is seeking speakers to share their expertise at BBB’s third annual Veterans and military Summit, in partnership with Godaddy.
The one-day event on nov. 3 will feature interactive discussions on professional growth to empower military, spouses and veteran-owned business owners and employees. Resources and assistance will also be provided to those looking to start a business. Interested speakers can apply to speak by emailing innovation@bbbcommunity.org.
BBB additionally supports military and Veteran consumers by offering free educational workshops, resources on financial literacy, identity theft awareness and marketplace ethics. Services are offered to military personnel and their families to protect against marketplace fraud, and the Saluting Trust newsletter provides financial readiness tips and scam alerts.
Guardian Flight hiring 100 flight nurses and paramedics
Guardian Flight, a leading air medical transport organization headquartered in South Jordan, utah, is expanding its flexible working schedules for flight nurses and flight paramedics.
Overall, the company will begin hiring another 100 flight nurses and flight paramedics to implement the new workforce initiative.
Beginning June 5, Guardian Flight bases, including the one in Yuma, will begin transitioning to one of the following scheduling blocks for their clinical staff: 10 days on, 20 days off; five days on, 10 days off; or three days on, six days off.
“This new industry leading plan, which requires staffing up our flight nurses and flight paramedics, is designed to result in more job satisfaction for our medical professionals,” said Jared Sherman, Guardian Flight vice president of operations. “and it will lead to even better patient outcomes as it will reduce turnover and provide a better working environment for our clinical staff.”
Skilled medical clinicians wishing to apply for one of the openings may go to https://careers.gmr.net/guardianflight.
CVS Pharmacy now using time delay safe technology
As part of an ongoing commitment to support law enforcement and help build safer communities, CVS Health announced the completed installation of time delay safe technology in all 198 arizona CVS Pharmacy locations, including those in Target stores.
The safes are anticipated to help prevent pharmacy robberies and the potential for associated diversion of controlled substance medications – including opioid medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone – by electronically delaying the time it takes for pharmacy employees to open the safe.
In addition, the safes are anticipated to benefit the safety and well-being of CVS Pharmacy customers and employees.
The company’s rollout of time delay safes is in support of the state’s Organized Retail Crime
Task Force, which was established by arizona attorney General mark Brnovich with support from the state Legislature and the arizona Retailers association.
“Our office is proud to take such an aggressive stand against organized retail theft,” said arizona attorney General mark Brnovich. “We applaud CVS for taking these proactive measures to help deter criminal behavior and reduce the chances of opioid and other controlled substance medications from unlawfully entering and endangering our communities.”
CVS Health first implemented time delay safe technology in 2015 in CVS Pharmacy locations across Indianapolis, a city experiencing a high volume of pharmacy robberies at the time. The company saw a 70% decline in pharmacy robberies among the Indianapolis stores where time delay safes had been installed. Since then, the company has introduced time delay safes in 21 states, including arizona, and the district of Columbia, resulting in a 50% decline in robberies at CVS pharmacies in those local communities.
“Criminal activities that organized retail crime rings fund are a clear danger to our communities, so it is important that retailers, law enforcement and political leaders work together to solve this problem. Time delay safes can help reduce the theft and diversion of prescription medications and bring added security to our stores, which creates a safe environment for our patients and colleagues,” said Thomas m. moriarty, chief policy officer and general counsel, CVS Health.
The time delay function cannot be overridden and is designed to serve as a deterrent to would-be pharmacy robbers whose goal is to enter and exit their robbery targets as quickly as possible. all CVS Pharmacy locations in arizona display visible signage warning that time delay safes are in use to prevent on-demand access to controlled substance narcotics.
CVS Health’s time delay safe program is one of many company initiatives to help address and prevent prescription medication misuse and diversion. Through its Safe medication disposal Program in arizona, for example, the company has installed 51 drug disposal units in select CVS Pharmacy locations and donated three units to local police departments in the state. To date, more than 60,000 pounds of unwanted and expired medication have been collected in arizona.
Presently, the company supports over 4,000 safe medication disposal units in CVS Pharmacy locations and through local law enforcement organizations nationwide. Together, these existing medication disposal units have collected nearly 4 million pounds of unwanted medications that might otherwise have been diverted, misused or ended up in the water supply.