When the newly-elected Vice-President Cheney refused to disclose who he’d met with to set the national energy policy for the first Bush administration, my immediate response was to find a 2000 model Honda Insight (a very stingy hybrid) on a lot in Austin with only 11,000 miles on it, pay for it, have it put on a truck and transported to Dallas. I’ve been driving it ever since and it’s now been over 110,000 miles. And it really does get 65 mpg in the right conditions if you’re careful.

The point is, we all have a dual relationship with “green”. First, since I bought my Insight in 2001, gas in Dallas has gone from about $1.85 a gallon to over $3.50 a gallon, so driving the Insight’s saved me a lot of money. But more important, it’s transported me and my Usual Passenger to and from work, around town and on pretty long trips without polluting the atmosphere. It’s a ULEV (ultra-low-emission-vehicle) and, compared with my fairly thrifty and small-engined toyota pickup, driving the hybrid reduces my emissions and fuel consumption by over 92%. I haven’t calculated, and i don’t really want to know how much cleaner it is than almost any of the standard sized vehicles taken as “normal” on the soccer-mom circuit. So small engines and carefully designed hybrids are good in two ways. First, you save money because you use less gasoline. Second, compared to a full-sized American SUV, you’re not polluting the atmosphere — at all — in almost any hybrid.

Yet I fly small airplanes for business and pleasure. Those aren’t small engines and they sure aren’t hybrids. Don’t they pollute? The answer is “Yes, they do”. But as always, the rejoinder is “relative to what?”. The airplane I travel in on business burns between 11 and 13 gallons of aviation gas an hour. Depending on a lot of things, in cruise mode, it’ll cover between 190 and 220 (statute) miles in that time. So my extravagent airplane gets between 15 and 20 mpg. Not too different than, say, a new Chevy Suburban on cruise control. But in all probability, my airplane will go in a pretty straight line between my origen and my destination, while roads (on the ground) are anything but a straight line between “here” and “there”. If we assume I’ll fly 25% fewer miles on a given trip, well, there’s your number. My airplane burns about 25% less fuel for that trip than the Chevy.

I realize there’s some discussion among Americans about global warming. Remember when the issue was WHETHER there was global warming, even though the whole world was telling us there was? Well, I guess the good news is that now the argument seems to be not WHETHER there’s global warming, but whether MAN’S either had an effect on it or whether any of his efforts can reduce it at all. I call this the “why bother — we are so small etc.” excuse. Fortunately, there’s an example that suggests man can influence the atmosphere when the whole world joins together to deal with the (global) problem.

Remember air conditioning units that used a chloroflorocarbon (?) called R12? By international agreement, use of this refrigerant was banned when it was discovered that it was related to (literally) a “hole” in the ozone layer, particularly above the North Pole. It’s been more than 20 years since that agreement went into effect and the “hole” has largely disappeared. This proves that if the international community can get together to take a unified position on a global environmental condition, good things can happen.

I, along with the almost 200 countries assembled in Kyoto in 1999 (and led by the United States at the time), thought that a)global warming was both a real and present danger to our atmosphere and b)man’s activities were either largely responsible for the crisis, or modification of man’s activities could reduce the crisis. Unfortunately, when he took office in 2001, one of the first items on Mr. Bush’s agenda was to reject the Kyoto agreement in its entirety. Obviously, not having the enthusiastic support of the United States caused the Kyoto agreements to be weaker than they would’ve been had the United States continued to support them. So, although the United States was central to it’s design, the Kyoto agreements, perceived by the world as a partial solution to the problem of global warming, is still weaker than it should be.

But that’s not all. Seeing the reversal of an official US policy on global warming initiatives as a failure of the federal government, individual states began to take independent actions designed to reduce (particularly) atomospheric carbon dioxide emissions. Inexplicably, the federal justice department has taken legal steps designed to keep these efforts by state governments from going into effect. It’s obvious to me that some explanation, both to the country and the world is in order, although none seems forthcoming.

Art Dallas supports energy conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gasses (by whatever means) in the same way it supports the preservation of all of our environment. Art Dallas thinks that collaboration between nations is critical to solving global problems. Art Dallas also thinks that the scientific evidence on the subject of global warming is sufficiently conclusive to warrant an international effort to curb the production of the gasses thought to be responsible. Art Dallas thinks it is past time for America once again to take the lead in this discussion rather than continuing to be the fly in the international ointment.

A very smart executive once said to me “I bet 85% of business travel is unnecessary”. Maybe, maybe not. But for the past 10 months, Art Dallas has been developing a new way to make our services more accessible to more customers without the need for either local or long-distance travel. In effect, in “Horton”, we’ve developed a way for several people in several different areas of the world to collaborate in real time on the selection of art and framing for projects at Art Dallas — without leaving their offices. Furthermore, we’ve made a similar system available to our customer-care staff at their desks, so things like moulding substitutions can be accomplished in minutes anywhere in the world with no travel required. Sometimes, it’s necessary to meet “face to face”. The rest of the time, we now have the means to settle important matters quickly without getting in a car or airplane and actually going there, wherever “there” is. Developing this system wasn’t at all inexpensive. However, we believe it will make our services so much more available to so many more customers worldwide that it will pay for itself fairly quickly. In addition, it will help our customers be more efficient by keeping them in their offices and out of their cars as much as possible. We think of Horton the same way I think of my hybrid car. First, it saves both us and our customers money by reducing travel while helping all of us be more efficient. Second, to the extent the amount of travel is reduced, production of greenhouse gasses associated with that travel is reduced. Once again, it’s Win, Win.

We’re doing our best to recycle materials that can be recycled. We’ve come up with ways to substantially extend our reach while reducing the need to burn dead dinausaurs to put a successful art program in place. Are we ahead of the curve? Maybe. But if we are, we think it would be great if everyone else began to try and catch up.

When I was a kid, my mother told me “If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t true”. It kind of sounds like a Lutheran, doesn’t it? Anyway, there is some truth to that old saying, particularly in the contract framing industry.

How many times have you done the model room for a project, generated an accurate specification sheet for the art in the room so the owner can put the job out to bid, only to find someone underbidding you by “a bunch”. If you’re like me, you go back to the supplier(s) specified to a)see if the winning bidder has actually contacted them and b)to see if you can do a little better on price.

Normally, I find that there may or may not be a little room in the price, but not enough to account for the difference in the bids. In these cases, I generally find that the winning bidder hasn’t contacted one or more of the manufacturers listed on the specification sheet at all. What that means is the winning bidder plans on using a different material than originally specified. Welcome to SUBSTITUTION. The winning bidder plans on using a component other than specified and which is probably significantly cheaper than the material specified. If you’re looking for a reason the winning bid was “a bunch” lower than yours, substitution is a good place to start. When substitution has occurred, the products being bid can be as different as apples and pears. Or, they can be pretty much alike. It all depends on how similar the substituted material is to the original.

I sure don’t envy the purchasing agents having to dig through all the bid materials comparing company A’s bid to company B’s, particularly when there’s no real way to know that the two bids would produce essentially the same product. Even when the bid materials indicate “no substitution”, we all know of examples where that rule has been violated. Now that there’s China, many will be tempted. For this reason, substitution of materials is now a lot more common than it was 10 years ago. Should it be allowed? If not, can it be controlled? If yes, can it be controlled?

The answer is complex, depending on both the desires/demands of the purchaser and the integrity/skill of the vendor. The problem is, if there’s a reason not to substitute and the winning bidder plans on it, unless the substitution is detected prior to manufacture, everybody’s lost out and the industry’s suffered yet another blow to it’s already suspect reputation. But if a vendor says he isn’t going to substitute, but secretly intends to, how is a purchasing agent supposed to know?

There are some solutions. First, if a particular vendor’s product (say moulding) is specified for a job, the purchasing agent could ask the vendor to provide a listing of all inquiries regarding a bid for moulding of the same style and sufficient quanitity to do the job. Since the moulding is the item most often substituted, this practice alone might have an effect on the bidding process. Second, the winning bidder might be required to order the materials within a certain time a PO is issued. A receipted copy of all orders for all materials could be required by the purchasing agent to verify that the specified materials will be used to manufacture the (art) product. If the winning bidder hasn’t ordered the materials by the “order by” date, the purchasing agent might ferrett out the problem in time to fix it.

And on and on. The point is, there are many in our industry who view the specifications listed for the project as “suggestions”. Since they are the only materials and components approved by the various committess tasked to approve or disapprove product it’s encumbant on the bidder to view the specifications listed as “required”. How that gets accomplished is anybody’s guess.

Any suggestions?

Several years ago, the story circulated that some people were “driven” from Taos, New Mexico by a low-pitched thrumming that not everyone could hear. Putting that right up there with the “floating inverted pyramids over the mesa” as a reason not to fly airplanes over the small town, I return to my place in Taos every year to rest, recover, read. Taos has always been hard to get to, making it a perfect place for mid-late 19th century outlaws to “winter over”. I like it because it’s kept it small and relatively quiet. It’s a place I can paint.

Last year, I was out here for a total of 3 days. This year, I got here during the first week of August, went back to take care of some things for a week, but generally, have had nearly three weeks in this wonderful, quiet place. It’s nearly labor day, though, so it’s nearly time to go to our show in Miami. I’ll probably catch a ride back with John in the Mooney a week from this coming monday. So in a week or so, I’ll be back “home” with my little company, my children, my friends in the art business and all the wonderful people who make Art Dallas possible.

When I reflect on the past year, I’m just very grateful. Michael’s doing really well after a long fight with serious illness. Sloan’s holding down the fort on a daily basis and doing a great job. The entire customer-care staff has entered into “the spirit of the thing” keeping our jobs coming and our customers happy. Jeff has delivered an incredible (you could almost say magic) solution to the question of showing art to out-of-town customers and Mr. Duncan keeps good track of our bottom line. And John — well, who knows what John does?

I’m looking forward to being back in Dallas before the show in Miami. It will give me a chance to go through and think about what we want to do with the new building, catch up on what’s happening and see who needs a little help. Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to catching up with what’s up at Art Dallas; grateful for the opportunity to be away for a few weeks and equally grateful for the opportunity to come home.