by kevin, on April 5th, 2010
On July 27, 1976 members of the American Legion gathered at the Bellevue Strattford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA to celebrate the American Bicentennial. Within two days, veterans were falling ill with an unidentified ailment with symptoms similar to pneumonia. By the end of the event, more than 220 attendees had been treated and 34 eventually died. A six month investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally uncovered the culprit – a bacteria breeding in a hotel cooling tower.
I grew up in New Jersey less than 60 miles from Philadelphia. I vividly recall my excitement for the 1976 American Freedom Train and the Bicentennial summer, along with my fear over what would later be named Legionnaires Disease. There was great debate at my school about whether a scheduled field trip to a Philadelphia museum would be canceled. My mother tried to reassure me that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but I knew something was wrong. This incident also had a profound effect on Carol Baumgartel, founder of American Clay. During a recent interview conducted in the LEED Platinum certified home of a good friend she told me how it forever altered her thinking and initiated a heightened sensitivity to the presence of toxic substances commonly found in the average indoor environment.
In 1999, Carol’s oldest son Croft developed skin reactions, headaches, and respiratory conditions from prolonged exposure to caustic chemicals he used with his fine interior finishing business. Around the same time, a colleague introduced him to a European clay plaster product that was free of the potential toxins affecting his health. Although it was an improvement, he thought he could make it better. He enlisted Carol, an interior designer with a fine arts degree in ceramics, to research the product and determine its composition. With her understanding of clays and aggregates and his engineering background they were able to reverse engineer a comparable product.
We should not underestimate the potency of mixing maternal instinct and entrepreneurial spirit. In my interviews with product manufacturers, I’m often told how underlying considerations for future generations influence business decisions. When I raise this issue with Carol it brings her to tears. It’s easy to see how deep her passion runs for merging her business strengths with efforts that contribute positively. Regard for others, even people you don’t know or will never meet, is an essential ingredient of sustainability.
