However, this year’s Earth Day is geared at a very touchy subject…Climate change. Often a hot topic, the subject of climate change can be heard from coffee shops to Capitol Hill. But whatever your stance on the subject may be, there is no denying the importance global temperature plays on our environment. In a study conducted by 350.org, in 2012, 3,215 “record high temperatures” were set in just the month of June alone. Furthermore, the entire year of 2012 saw a 17% increase in recorded record highs from the previous year and a 38% increase from the end of the 50′s. In fact, a report made for the World Bank states that by the end of this century, our planet’s average temperature will rise by a total of 4 degrees Celsius.

Soure: 350.org

But what’s 4 degrees right? A 4 degree rise is no big deal, I mean, what damage could possibly be done by 4 insignificant degrees? Well, for starters, corals in our ocean could become completely extinct by 2100. Sea levels could see a rise of 15 to 20% in certain areas of the tropics. Droughts would increase in tropical and developing countries and large sections of Rainforests could transform into low biomass woodlands. These diverse ecosystems around our globe are extremely delicate, and even the slightest change in temperatures can be devastating to the environment, let alone a 4 degree increase.

These rises in temperature affect every living thing on this planet, from the tiniest ant to members of your own community. Rises in temperatures affect our atmosphere and weather as well. Since 2012, 13 extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves and hurricanes have been linked to an increase in global temperatures.

So we think it’s pretty apparent…

We humans are stinkin’ up the joint.

Soure: Sustainlive.org

So this year, Earth Day has created a social campaign, “The Face of Climate Change,” where EarthDay.org will collect and display images of people, animals and locations that were directly affected or threatened by climate changes. But they need your help. They need you, the citizens of our planet, to be climate reporters. So head on over to Earthday.org to post your pictures and share your stories that show the true face of climate change.

So you’re probably asking yourself, “What does a luxury bathing manufacturer have anything to do with Earth Day?” Well, our wonderful, wasteful friends, we at Speakman share the same goals as Earth Day, and that is to create a sustainable world that all of us can enjoy. And one of the largest problems that face our planet is the wasting of our planet’s greatest natural resource…water.

The numbers speak for themselves, and those numbers are horrifying. Over 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe water supplies, and even more striking, over 3.1 million children die each year from water related diseases. And not to mention, in America we waste water more than any country on this planet. After digging around for some facts, we created this little infographic below to display how much water we are actually wasting:

19.3 minutes in the shower Los Angeles? What are you guys even doing in there?

Anyway, we at Speakman work with various organizations, like WaterSense, to create incredible shower heads that disperse less gallons of water per minute but are still expertly engineered to maintain that same optimal performance. By switching to a Low Flow Shower Head, the average family could save up to 2,900 gallons of water per year, which equals to roughly 40 gallons per day. Not to mention, a low flow shower head could save about 2.2 billion dollars annually in American utility bills. To check out some of our specialized low flow shower heads that will save both water, and money, please visit here.

Other measures you could also consider taking would be to turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth, which could save as much as 3,000 gallons per year. Or even taking shorter showers can save countless gallons of precious water. Our suggestion is to take the “One Song Shower Challenge,” in which you play your favorite song while taking a shower and try to finish up before the song ends…(rock ballads don’t count).

Alright everybody, Earth Day is upon you. It’s up to you to make a difference. But the point is to not just celebrate Earth Day today, but to make everyday Earth Day. That may sound cheesy to some of you, but if we don’t start taking measures to project our planet, we won’t have an Earth Day to celebrate.

So do something nice for Mother Nature, take a photo of her, hashtag that baby with #FaceOfClimate and send it on over to EarthDay.org so they can share your contributions to the world.

Are you doing outrageously awesome things for Earth Day? Let us know! Tweet us @SpeakmanCompany and tell us your story, we’d love to hear all about it.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

So, as you can imagine, it’s kind of a big deal, and we are absolutely delighted to have been invited back for our 6th straight appearance. And since we think of ourselves as sort of veterans at the HD Expo, we’ve started to notice something after all our years in attendance. We’ve noticed that the folks at Hospitality Design tend to go a little bigger each and every time they roll back into Sin City. And this year is no exception. With over 900 exhibitors and a record-breaking 7000 confirmed attendees filling the floors of the enormous Mandalay Bay convention center, it’s a distinct possibility that the 2013 HD Expo may shut Las Vegas down.

Source: http://www.vegasbrb.com

Therefore, we at Speakman needed to go bigger as well. We needed to challenge ourselves further than we ever have before. You see, we at Speakman have a rich history of consistently dedicating our practices to constant innovation. Our Anystream 360 technology introduced the actual concept of showering nearly 100 years ago. Our extensive line of emergency equipment, like the SEF-1850, continues to redefine safety by creating products that persistently strive to explore new boundaries in the laboratory. And most recently, our gorgeous Hospitality Collections continue to bring new meaning to the standard of elegance in the luxury bathroom.

So to no surprise, we’ve put more effort into this year’s HD Expo than to any event we’ve ever attended in our company’s history. We brought our top engineers, designers and creatives together to brainstorm a plan of attack on how we could make some noise at this year’s Expo. We compiled countless customer reviews, customer emails and customer comments that address problems, and also excellence, in our industry. Lastly, we took a long, hard look in the mirror and addressed what we ourselves did right, what we did wrong and what we could do better.

We started with our booth at HD Expo. How could we do better than our previous years? Well, thanks to the insanely talented minds at DesignShop in Orlando Florida, we’ve completely revitalized our booth at HD Expo. In fact, to call this creation we’re constructing a “booth” would be an injustice to the mammoth structure being featured at this event. Measuring out to an impressive 20′ by 40′ foot construction, our latest showpiece will double the size of any structure we’ve built in the past. The booth will feature crisp high definition screens, beautiful LED display boards, model luxury bathroom showpieces and a lounge seating area for our guests to hang out in when they stop by our booth.

But of course, in the spirit of Vegas, the “City of Sin,” we figured what’s a party without a few drinks? So we installed a fully stocked bar that will be serving signature cocktails for all our guests that stop on by. Oh, did we mention it’s also an open bar? Yeah, that’s right, so let’s get wild, because in the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” we’re here to have fun, and you should be to!

So let’s see: we have drinks, we have comfortable seats, we have gorgeous, eye-popping displays. But now we need to impress you. We need to blow you away from both a performance standpoint and from an elegance standpoint. We need to create products that grab your attention even more than our breathtaking booth. So we decided to test some uncharted fashion waters that our company has never traveled before. Our end result is three exciting new collections that embody elegance for any style bathroom you wish to have.

To adhere to the demands of popularized trends in modernized bathrooms, we created The Edge Collection to provide that head turning factor in your bathroom’s decor. Featuring a distinct, square frame with sharp, crisp edges, The Edge Collection is a unique alternative to traditional bathroom fixtures.

Of course, not everyone wants to be bold in the bathroom. So we took the same square design of The Edge Collection and added soft, subtle curves around the frame to provide a more delicate look for the transitional bathroom. The result is the artfully elegant renderings of the Tiber Collection. The Tiber Collection was designed to fit both modern and traditional bathroom decor, providing just enough pop to make a statement but also the perfect amount of conventional touch to blend with your traditional bathroom’s existing decor.

Tiber Shower Head

Chelsea Shower Head

Last, but by no means least, we will introduce the Chelsea Collection at this year’s HD Expo. Inspired by the timeless elegance of the fashion-savvy Manhattan neighborhood that shares its name, the Chelsea Collection features smooth, circular designs that exemplifies luxury in the traditional bathroom.

But we feel we’re still missing something. That one overwhelming “x-factor” that has the potential to blow the roof clear off the walls of the Mandalay Bay convention center. So we went back to the drawing board. We took all of our expert engineers and locked them away in complete isolation. We told them they could leave the confines of our Speakman campus if, and only when they produced something that would change the showering world forever. After a few public disputes with human rights organizations and a couple of pending lawsuits, it was finally worth it….Because at this year’s HD Expo we will be unveiling something so huge, so amazing, so incredible, that we can’t wait to see your Reaction. In fact, we think your Reaction will be one to remember. We think your Reaction will last a lifetime.

At HD Expo 2013, the Speakman Company is proud to announce the release of…

Now wait just a minute, you didn’t think we’d spoil the surprise did you? You’ll just have to come over to our booth to find out, because this announcement is far to gigantic for one blog post to give it justice. So on May 15th when the doors open to the Mandalay Bay convention center, make sure you rush on over to booth 1801 for a Reaction you’ll never forget.

Are you as excited as us over the HD Expo? Curious as to what our surprise will be? Wanna just Tweet at us for no reason at all? Then get in on the conversation with us! Follow us on Twitter @SpeakmanCompany and use the hashtag #WhatsYourReaction and let us know what you think the big surprise at HD Expo might be.

Raise your hand if you are, or have ever been a member of the work force…go ahead, don’t be shy, raise them hands.

Of those who raised their hand, have you ever been injured on the job?…Hm, quite a few hands went up, now we are getting somewhere.

And lastly, out of those injured, did your injuries occur due to a lack of following proper safety guidelines?

Yeah, we were afraid that was going to be the case. It’s okay, we aren’t here to judge, we are here to help! We at Speakman take safety seriously. Which is why we are constantly trying to create innovative ways to enhance safety in the work place. By complying to safety recommendations and standards, our engineers are consistently inventing products that revolutionize the safety industry.

Take for example our latest eyewash station, the Speakman SEF-1850. After taking a look at several laboratories across our country, we began seeing an underlying problem. We at Speakman could build the best, most efficient eyewash station ever to be constructed with soothing, relieving sprays of aerated water…but it falls short when we found that many eyewash stations are not well located, difficult to find and often go untested due to the mess they create.

So we sat down, addressed the issues at hand and created a product that aimed to solve the dilemmas we found in the lab. We built the SEF-1850 eyewash station to possess the capability of being installed into standard laboratory sinks…which let’s be honest, it’s the first place we instinctively go when faced with an eye injury. We built it to allow both the faucet and the eyewash to work independently from each other. We installed two separate water supplies into the body of the SEF-1850 to ensure that scalding water can never flush into the eyes of the victim. And lastly, the fact that it is installed into a sink makes testing the eyewash system an effortlessly clean process.

But sometimes safety can be strenuous. Most accidents around the workplace occur because employees had no idea they were about to be involved in an unsafe situation. And no matter how many safety products we produce, we don’t want you to use them. That may sound odd to you, but we want you to be accident free at all times.

And we’re not the only ones…

In 1970 congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA) to assure safe and healthful working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. Since OSHA’s inception, workplace fatalities have been reduced by 65 percent, and workplace deaths went from 38 a day in 1970 to 13 a day in 2011.

Yet today OSHA remains relatively small. In fact, they have approximately 2,200 inspectors responsible for the safety of 130 million workers, translating to just 1 officer for every 59,000 workers.

So we want to help, and provide simple tips that could help make your workplace not only OSHA compliant, but safe for your own benefit.

Source: Injuryfree.com

1. Train Your Employees:

Simple right? You’d think so, but most accidents occur due to improper training. Make sure your employees know proper emergency procedures, know where safety equipment is located and know how to use safety equipment. Make sure any hazardous materials are labeled correctly, make sure your employees know what they are and what they do and how to handle them. Train. Train. Train. Knowledge is key. Your employees should have Ph.D’s in Safety from the College of Knowledge when working for your company or organization.

2. Protective Gear:

Make sure your employees wear hard hats when overhead hazards exist. And no, not the cool ones with your favorite sport team’s logo plastered on the side, only certified hard hats are allowed. And although you think wearing your hard hat backwards looks cool, it doesn’t, and it’s extremely unsafe…so just don’t do it. Wear eye protection at all times you are around potential hazard materials that can cause injuries to your eye. In 2008, 27,450 non-fatal workplace eye injuries resulting in days out of work were reported. So please wear proper eye protection!

3. OSHA:

Are you up to date on proper regulations? Do you have any idea what the regulations are or mean? Is this blog the first time you’ve ever even heard of OSHA? Well, then head over to their website this instant where you’ll be able to get oustanding information for safety in the workplace.

Alright, the rest is up to you. although OSHA has drastically improved deaths from 38 to 13 a day, it is still 13 to many. Simple steps can literally be the difference between life and death.

For more information on OSHA, visit their website here for amazing information on regulations, statistics, training and other great infomation.

To learn more about the Speakman SEF-1850, click here.

Do you have any more tips for being safe in the workplace? Let us know…Tweet it to us @SpeakmanCompany or tell us on Facebook.

Chances are you don’t. Chances are you’ve never been inspired by your bathroom or better yet, you didn’t even know that your bathroom had the capability to be inspiring. Sure, you’ve probably searched online and seen all those gorgeous modernized bathrooms that are seductive to the eye and alluring to the senses. But never have you actually thought of creating that bathing utopia in your own home bathroom or expect it in your hotel’s bathroom. I mean, a bathroom is just a bathroom, right?

Well we think it’s time for a change. We at Speakman think it’s time to break free from the shackles of mundane bathroom decor. We think it’s time to rupture the routine, redefine elegance and shatter the mold of accepted convention.

We at Speakman think it’s time to live on The Edge.

Speakman is proud to introduce The Edge shower head, one of many exciting new collections releasing from Speakman in 2013.

When we began the conception for our new 2013 collections, we wanted to create a shower head that would make an impact in the bathroom. We wanted a shower head that would not only distinguish itself from its peers, but also stand out in your bathroom’s decor. This shower head needed to blend to existing trends in modern fashion to allow effortless acclimation.

The Edge modern shower head was expertly engineered to artfully embody all of these traits. The distinct, square contours featured on The Edge shower head demands immediate attention as it is a unique alternative to conventional bathroom fixtures. Available in 3 stunning finishes: Polished Chrome, Brushed Nickel and Polished Nickel, The Edge shower head will blend seamlessly to existing bathroom decor.

The Edge shower head is equipped with Speakman’s patented Anystream 360 spray technology. So in addition to revamping the bathroom with modernized flair, The Edge square shower head delivers an unlimited array of invigorating spray patterns that sooth whatever the bather’s preference may be. A simple rotation of The Edge shower head in either direction provides versatile, high performance jet streams. From intense, full forced waves to pulsating massage jets, the 62 customizable spouts combine to create a euphoric bathing experience, regardless what the preference may be.

So we ask…Are you ready to live on The Edge? If not, we totally get it. You can go back to the dull, the tired, the drained. You can continue to look at your bathroom as “just a bathroom.”

Or…you can be exciting. You can be extravagant. You can be daring and walk the tightrope of modern fixture fashion. You can throw caution to the wind and skydive into the world of surrealistic bathroom decor.

This is your one chance to make a statement.

This is your chance to live on The Edge.

Are you living on The Edge? Tweet us @SpeakmanCompany and tell us about your venture into the world of The Edge, we’d love to hear about it.

For more information on The Edge shower head, please click here.

If you’re anything like us, you’ve reached the point of no return. You’ve considered driving down to the manufacturer’s headquarters, finding the machine that’s responsible for creating that miserable computer-generated voice and going all “Office Space” on that baby. But instead you settle on writing a negative review on Yelp and you move on with your life.

But the damage has been done, all the positive energy you once possessed is completely thrown out the window. Your relationship with that company is forever destroyed. Lose, lose, no win situation for all those involved.

Of course, these instances can never be 100% prevented as offices are only open for a certain amount of time. But we found that at Speakman, these missed customer service inquiries were occurring due to us not compensating for our West Coast peeps’ time difference.

Well, Speakman has heard your complaints. We took our top executives and locked them in a room for days on end. We deprived them of basic survival needs until a reasonable solution for this dilemma was brought to fruition. After a few days spent in isolation, a couple of minor panic attacks and one rare case of Typhus (we’re still not sure how that happened), we think we’ve developed a resolution.

Are you ready?

Are you sure because it’s a pretty big deal?

Okay, cause here it is…

We will be extending the hours of our Customer Care Department to compensate for all our customers on the West Coast.

Now, now…please hold off all applause until the blog has reached its conclusion. But we know…we are pretty spectacular right? To our frustrated customers, you can now say goodbye to the days of automated machines and attempting to compensate for your differences in time zones. For the first time in your lives you can bid farewell to taking pictures of your lunches and posting them to Instagram…(it was worth a shot right?)

We’ve also created specialized teams specific to your region that will provide project quoting, order processing and all other sales and customer support inquiries.

Below you can check out in more detail the specifics of our announcement:

We hope that this helps out in all of your future endeavors with Speakman. In all seriousness, we take your opinions very seriously, and we constantly attempt to achieve the highest quality of customer service possible to all of our consumers. Thank you so much for being a Speakman customer, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call 800.537.2107 or email us anytime at customerservice@speakmancompany.com.

Even more striking, the EPA states that children six years or younger are at a greater risk when being exposed to lead…potentially leading to negative brain development, resulting in learning disabilities and behavior problems.

On January 4th, 2014 the “Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act,” otherwise known as the “Lead Free Law,” will officially go into effect. Under this act, any plumbing fixture that is anticipated for dispensing potable drinking water for human consumption must be lead free.

So what does this mean to you?

Well, it means that when you place your glass to your faucet…you can be rest assured that the water being dispersed is safer and cleaner to drink. But what you didn’t know is that Speakman already offers a plethora of products that are lead free, including most, or all of our commercial, sink, and hospitality collection faucets.

Below is our list of Speakman’s lead free products:

When looking at Speakman products, be sure to look for the “-CA” option to properly indicate what products we offer as lead free.

For more information on the Lead Free Law, please click here.

Discontinued Product

So you’re probably wondering what on earth we are talking about. We thought we’d add a little pizzaz to an otherwise standard announcement. So, without further wasting your time, as of February 28th, 2013, we are no longer able to sell our popular S-2222-HS-CP dual shower head, other dual shower heads, or the manifold components that allow for dual streams of water from being dispersed.

Why you ask? Because it is illegal. The Department of Energy (DOE) has defined that any shower head releasing greater than 2.5 gallons of water per minute is illegal. Thus, our Dual Shower Heads will now be retiring to that golden bathtub in the sky.

Discontinued Product

Now, now…before you start rioting in the streets, flipping over cars and protesting to your local congressmen, let’s think of the environmental ramifications we are making. To begin, over 1.5 billion people do not have access to clean, safe water. And almost 4 million people die each year from water related diseases. So while we are letting the water run while brushing our teeth, and standing in the shower daydreaming about what we are going to wear this weekend, a child is dying from a water born diseases once every 15 seconds.

Okay, so we aren’t trying to guilt trip you into the ground. The truth is, reducing our water intake is not just a good thing, it’s an amazing thing. By switching to shower heads that disperse less than 2 gallons of water per minute, the average family could save up to 2,900 gallons of water per year! Just by shutting your faucet off during tooth brushing saves 200 gallons of water from being wasted a month alone.

So reducing your shower head units to a standard 2.5 gallons of water per minute really isn’t a bad thing at all. We are preserving our earths greatest natural resource one shower at a time.

So what can you do to help remedy this dilemma?

Simple. Run into your bathroom this instant, rip your illegal shower head off the wall and set it on fire so that no evidence what-so-ever remains.

We’re kidding, please don’t do that. Just pick up a replacement diverter like our VS-114, which will allow you to switch between multiple shower heads without having both running simultaneously.

Okay, so we hope you haven’t had a massive panic attack with the release of this statement. We promise, everything is okay.

To check out our line of luxury shower heads that are compliant to the mandatory 2.5 gpm flow rate, click here.

And to see our line of Low Flow shower heads that will conserve priceless gallons of water without reducing force, click here.

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that many of these stations tend to do more harm than good in the case of an emergency. Eyewash stations are poorly located and often untested. Introductions of faucet-mount devices that attach to existing faucets attempted to amend the victim’s natural reaction to scramble to the sink, but in the midst of confusion, victims can inadvertently flush scolding-hot water into their eyes.

Our newest eyewash faucet model, the Speakman SEF-1850, is a revolutionary product that combines a lab faucet with an independently operated eyewash. With a simple pull of the lever, water will instantly flush into the eyes of the burn victim. Two separate water supplies ensure that cold to tepid water will bring immediate relief to the victim, regardless if hot water is running from the sink simultaneously.

The Speakman SEF-1850 solves other safety issues in the lab. Studies have shown that laboratory’s rarely test their eyewash systems due to the mess it makes during simulation. However, all the water dispersed from the SEF-1850 will be collected in the sink it is installed to. So recommended weekly testing is easier to come by.

The Speakman SEF-1850 meets all ANSI Z358.1 national standards and requires no additional space to be installed. The SEF-1850 will save valuable laboratory counter space, solve most eyewash station problems and most importantly, save potential long-lasting eye injuries in a precise, efficient manner.

For more information on the Speakman SEF-1850, and other tips for safety in the lab, click here.

Photosource: W.W. Grainger, Inc. Facebook

As you are reading this we are deeply absorbed in the incredulous surroundings of the 2013 Grainger Show. It seems to us that each year this event gets bigger and better than ever. With over 96 hours of blood, sweat and tears of preparation, the folks at Grainger created one of the most breathtaking exhibits we’ve ever seen thus far.

Okay, so maybe the blood and tears part didn’t actually happen, but seriously, this place is incredible. Each and every turn is an eye-popping, exhilarating experience, and we are so honored to have been invited.

So what’s going on here? Well for starters, if you were lucky enough to be an attendee at this year’s Grainger Show then you have probably already stopped on by “Grainger Town,” a small metropolis within the confines of the Orange County Convention Center dedicated to all things Grainger.

We made a few stops to Grainger Town ourselves. We took a campus tour of ”Grainger University,” where we took a crash course lessons on everything we need to know Grainger. And of course, no stop to ”Grainger Town” is complete without a stop at the “Grainger General Store,” where we were able to choose from tons of products that can help us get any job done.

Photosource: W.W. Grainger, Inc Facebook

Photosource: W.W. Grainger, Inc Facebook

We are honored to have our very own booth at the Grainger Show, and if you haven’t stopped by yet we suggest you get on that this very instant! In fact, stop reading this blog, head over to booth no. 922 and say hello.

For starters, our hosts are awesome…and they’d be glad to inform you on any or all things Speakman, or we could talk about this new Pope election, the crazy winning streak the Miami Heat are on or just about anything at all…We just love getting to meet new people!

But the main rock star of our booth is our new Speakman SEF-1850:

This bad boy will completely revolutionize the eye wash industry and change the way we think of safety equipment. Apart from being capable of being installed into most standard laboratory faucets (a place we instinctively go in the event of emergencies), this baby has two separate water supplies built within its body. So say in the midst of confusion you turn the hot water on and pull on the lever for the eye wash to activate, cold to tepid water will consistently flush from the eye wash portion of the unit, ensuring safe, soothing aerated water every single time.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you, perhaps the Grainger Bear will. This little guy absolutely LOVED the SEF-1850

Sadly, all good things must end. Tomorrow is our last day in the beautifully sunny Orlando, Florida. But there is still some time to come on over to booth 922 and check out our awesome line of innovative Speakman products. So come on over and make some friends before we leave!

For Grainger, we thank you for having us again this year at your tremendous show, and we are already counting down the days till’ next year!

New Castle, Del. — WaterSense® awareness has become a prevalent issue over the years and is now in effect and is helping to transform the plumbing industry. As a part of the global community, Speakman Company has been working to convert their commercial faucet line to meet the low flow standard of 1.5 gpm.

In response to WaterSense® awareness, Speakman, a quality leader in the commercial plumbing industry for 144 years, has now converted a majority of its faucet families to meet Watesense certified requirement of 1.5 gpm, while still maintaining the high quality expected from Speakman Products.

From many industry demands for low flow faucets from the market, Speakman will be certifying most of our commercial faucets to WaterSense®.  Speakman’s –LF option will now become 1.5 GPM.

Speakman will still carry some repair parts for 2.2 gpm aerators in the event customers have a demand for 2.2 gpm faucets.

For reference, please click to see Commercial Faucets Product Numbers.