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Emmer Development Bags Honor for Butterfly Program
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Phil Emmer and his wife, Barbara, display the eco-friendly grocery bags they produced to benefit the Florida Museum of Natural History butterfly rainforest and collection. | There may not be one grand, all-encompassing solution to reducing America’s dependency on oil, with the answer coming from countless small initiatives, each chipping away at the issue.
Philip Emmer and his wife, Barbara, began one of those initiatives in Gainesville, Fla. when they started a program to replace the ubiquitous plastic grocery bags given away at supermarkets with reusable canvas bags.
For its canvas bag initiative and several other charitable acts, Emmer’s Gainesville, Fla.-based Emmer Development Corp., a builder of single-family homes, apartments and condominiums throughout Florida, received honorable mention in the 2007 Builder Achievement Award for Outstanding Community Service from the National Housing Endowment, which was presented at the International Builder’s Show in Orlando in February.
Emmer noted that plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene, an oil by-product. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 12 million barrels of oil are used to manufacture the 30 billion plastic bags Americans use each year.
Emmer acknowledged that 12 million barrels of oil is but a drop in the bucket in terms of overall oil consumption, but somebody has to start somewhere ― and trimming the use of plastic shopping bags also has the salutary effect of reducing pollution.
Plastic grocery bags litter streets, clog streams and, when they make it to a landfill, take 500 years to degrade, Emmer said. “These plastic bags, they never deteriorate and less than 5% are recycled,” he said.
“We’ve got to get away from the paper and the plastic,” said Barbara Emmer, who originally brought the problem to her husband’s attention. “We’ve got to do something meaningful, not this silly stuff.”
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The museum's butterfly rainforest. |
A Charitable Plan Takes Wing
The couple also wanted to help raise funds for the Florida Museum of Natural History’s extensive butterfly collection. The museum features 39,000 square feet of exhibit space, butterfly archives and research areas and a predator-free butterfly rainforest.
Producing and selling environmentally friendly canvas bag alternatives to raise money for the museum would be a perfect way to “help meet two goals with one bag,” Emmer said.
The couple initially decided on producing 100 bags for the project, but then upped it to 5,000. Without any publicity, 3,200 already have been sold. Once the remainder have been sold, the project will have raised $40,000 for the museum, Emmer said.
Emmer said he’s currently working on a deal to have 100,000 canvas bags available at Publix, a large supermarket chain based in the Southeast, though the deal is far from complete.
Helping At-Risk Students and Other Charitable Acts
The environment isn’t the only thing Emmer wants to turn around. He’s a prominent supporter of Gainesville’s Reichert House, a military-style after-school program for at-risk teenagers. The program offers vocational, etiquette and academic training, along with other services.
Emmer donated to the program, encouraged others to donate and marshaled volunteer labor and materials to see that the $600,000 project was built with $317,000 in cash.
He’s particularly impressed by the efforts of Reichert co-founder Tony Jones, a retired Gainesville police department captain. “It’s the most amazing thing, how this guy has dedicated his life to seeing that these kids get to be the way they are,” Emmer said.
Emmer Development also encourages its employees to participate in charitable activities through its “Building Hope with The Emmer Group” program.
Last year, employees collected and donated school supplies for the Alachua County Education Foundation's “Tools for Schools” initiative, participated in North Central Florida United Way’s “Day of Caring” by sprucing up a local boys and girls club and helped with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s “Passionately Pink for the Cure” fundraiser.
 Charity a Rewarding Retirement
Helping is all in a day’s work for Emmer.
“It’s part of who I am,” he said. “My religion is based on a very simple statement, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ It’s about doing things and showing some humility about it.”
“I’m not Donald Trump. It isn’t all about me,” Emmer continued. “It’s what I am and who I am. My wife is right there with me.”
Emmer said that he finds his charitable passions a much more rewarding endeavor than hitting the links or cruising the Caribbean now that he is “getting on in years.”
“I don’t have time for cruising because I’m spending all my time selling canvas bags,” Emmer joked.
As part of its award, Emmer Development received a $1,000 donation from the endowment, which it gave to the charity of its choice, The Barbara and Phil Emmer Family Foundation.
Seven other builders were honored with 2007 Builder Achievement Awards for Outstanding Community Service during a presentation at the Builders' Show.
The awards were established through a grant to the endowment by Isaac Heimbinder, chairman of Rockville, Md.-based BuildTopia, a provider of Web-based construction management software for home builders, and his wife, Sheila.
For more information about the awards, e-mail Gwyn Donohue at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.
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