Firstly, officially there is no such thing as Presidents Day.  It is a common “unofficial” moniker for George Washington’s Birthday, the feds view.  Some states apply add-ons and link another and often different president’s name to it as well and the most popular name that crops up is Abraham Lincoln.  Generally and once again unofficially it is used as a day to honor and celebrate the lives and achievements of all of the U.S. presidents so I thought I needed to know more on that subject and some of the lesser known historical facts are really interesting. 

Only five U.S. presidents came into office sporting facial hair and the last one was in 1889, Benjamin Harrison.  (For those who don’t know me, I am a fan of a good mooey.)  We often accuse the government of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing but in reality there have only ever been seven left hand presidents including three of the last four.  The odd one out was George W. Bush and did you know that he married Laura only three months after he met her?

The first president to smoke a cigar (me ~ fan of a good smoke too) whilst in office was James Madison and he regularly smoked until his death in 1836 at the age of 85.  He was also the shortest president at only 5 feet 4 inches. 

How many people know what the “S” stands for in Harry S. Truman?  Well it doesn’t stand for anything.  His middle name was simply S to honor two of his grandfathers whose names both had an S in them.  (I am thinking of Richard C. “H” Manning in honor of my Harley, what do you think?)  On the subject of relations it is interesting that Franklin D. Roosevelt was related by either blood or marriage to 11 former presidents. 

Oh, and some of the presidents certainly suffered during their lifetime.  For example, Calvin Coolidge the 30th president suffered from chronic stomach pain and needed 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night as well as a regular afternoon nap.  William Taft the 27th president weighed more than 300 pounds and had to have a special, oversized bath tub installed in the White House.  Ulysses S. Grant died of throat cancer which is not surprising as for most of his life he smoked 20 cigars every day and Grover Cleveland the 22nd and 24th president underwent surgery on board a yacht in 1893 to remove his cancerous upper jaw.  Even worse was James Polk the 11th president who, sedated only with brandy, survived gall bladder surgery when he was only 17. 

On a more cheerful note, John Tyler the 10th president fathered 15 children, more than any other president, 8 by his first wife and 7 by his second.  At the other end was the 15th president James Buchanan who was the only unmarried guy ever to be elected.

Weather is always a popular subject at this time of year so what about the 9th president, William Henry Harrison who was inaugurated on a bitterly cold day and proceeded to give the longest inauguration speech ever, in the history of ever.  He died exactly one month later of pneumonia which was the shortest term of office ever, ITHOE.  In warm weather the 6th president made a habit of skinny dipping in the Potomac River before dawn whenever he could.

So Monday, it is the history of these great men who have held office in the U.S. that we should be honoring.  Their lives, their accomplishments, their leadership and their position that ensures safety and freedom for us all.  Or will we all revert to type and see it as a traditional day when the car dealerships have their biggest sales and the retails stores all announce the biggest discounts ever, not ITHOE?!?!

Tick in the box!  Job done.  We met our objective and here it is:

Building on the past.  Restoring the balance.  Creating the future.

Brilliant, perfect, not created by me, but developed through a thought process and series of exercises from a cross divisional, cross functional and cross geographical group of my North American team, who are passionate about our world, our company and the people around them.  “Odd” you may say when you read it.  What’s that got to do with sustainability?  Well, think about it.

Building on the past, the first point:  Prior to the industrial revolution in the 19^th century there was no need to consider many aspects of sustainability.  No emissions, no VOC’s, no plastics, no steel and glass skyscrapers.  Our infrastructure was put together using naturally created materials and products that were strong, durable, long lasting and practical – Sustainable.  Anyone doubt that statement?  OK – take a trip to Egypt and look at the pyramids, built 4,500 years ago.  On the way back call in to Rome and look at the 2,000-year-old buildings still standing today.  Some of the earliest brick structures as still standing.  The Ishtar Gate, entrance to the city of Babylon, was constructed from brick 2,500 years ago and is still standing.  Looking to much more modern times, one of the most beautiful brick buildings in the world is Hampton Court Palace near London, England and completed by King Henry VIII in 1514 is still revered as one of the finest examples of brick architecture ever created.  So that’s why we refer to the past in our sustainability vision.  Put bluntly, our forefathers got it right, we got it wrong.

Restoring the balance, the second point:  OK, if we accept the comments on the past then we need to look at what’s gone wrong in more recent times.  We’ve messed up our world in the name of progress, greed and generally being too clever for our own good in the last 150 years or so, that’s all.  Progress for the sake of progress.  Architects designing with unsustainable materials.  You don’t agree?  Well you obviously weren’t around in the 1960s!  Ask someone who was and get them to describe some of the buildings we were erecting then.  It’s in our nature to progress but we need to balance that momentum with the sustainability experience that we have learned from the past.  From as long ago as 4,000 years before the “clever” innovators created the need for sustainability by systematically destroying our world over the relatively short 150 years to date.  So it’s that balance that needs to be restored.

Creating the future, the last point:  This is very simple, by assessing past practices, designs, materials, products and concepts and balancing that with our ever increasing knowledge we can build a better, more durable and above all more sustainable infrastructure for our future generations.  

I am proud to be the President of a company with such vision and conviction regarding sustainability.  I’m even more proud of the fact that the statement was not derived from on high.  It wasn’t made up by some third party or passed down from the head office.  The statement was born out of the hearts and minds of our team, who regard themselves as part of our company and who believe in themselves, their company and their past, present and future world and generations – enough to come up with a statement, a vision, a mantra that demonstrates a passion for the true, down to earth, real concept of sustainability.

Building on the past.  Restoring the balance.  Creating the Future.

However, always open to comment and suggestions, I thought that I would take heed and mention the most used man-made material in the world … drum roll … guitar strum … Concrete. In fact, more than one cubic meter of concrete is produced each year for every person on earth. Well, not directly for each person but statistically it is a fact. Its affect on our lives is massive and in the U.S. alone it powers a $35 billion industry which employs on average more than two million people.

Using a few different ingredients, it was pretty much invented by the Romans who termed it a “concrete revolution” which enabled them to build bigger, stronger, more lasting structures that even after 2,000 years are still standing today. Some examples are the Roman Baths at Caracalla in Rome, many Roman Aqueducts across the Empire as well as the famous Pantheon which boasts the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built more than 2,000 years ago. Due to the design architecture and the strength of concrete it still stands perfectly today.

We talk a lot in this 21st century about sustainability but if we think about the Pantheon, the Romans beat us on that subject by two millennia. Outside of the Romans the rest of the world was playing catch up and not doing so very quickly. The industrialized world didn’t really pick up and refine concrete technology until mid 18th century when hydraulic lime was first used.

Concrete’s popularity grew from that point in leaps and bounds; probably for two different reasons. Firstly, its strength, and secondly its beauty. These two attributes can be combined to create a sustainable, durable structure, i.e. the Sydney Opera House. Probably the best example of the strength choice would be the Hoover Dam which was completed in the 1930s and constructed entirely of concrete. In its day, it was acclaimed as the world’s largest concrete structure and due to its thickness it is still curing today. In other words it is still getting stronger. From an aesthetic point of view, we only have to look around us to see the decorative affects that can be achieved with concrete. From colorful, block paved patios and pool decks to the downtown architectural beauty created with concrete patterns and sculptures in the commercial landscape.

Concrete is a lasting, durable, sustainable choice as a construction material. Not a view, not an opinion, but a fact, brought about by the Roman buildings still in existence today. Brought about by the use of concrete in structures like the Hoover Dam. If society requires sustainability in its infrastructure then concrete is the obvious and only choice.

Hanson Building Products manufactures concrete pipe and other precast products for this very reason. Concrete pipe should be the only choice if strength and durability are a requirement, particularly if we as a nation are serious about our sustainability aspirations.

Ask the Romans. Take a trip out to the Hoover Dam. Both serve as living proof.

Concrete is unbeatable.

Incidentally, I’ve just drafted this blog with pen and paper. The pen is plastic. You know, plastic is a great material for making pens.