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Environments, Inc. was created in the late 1960’s to outfit early childhood education classrooms with appropriate equipment and materials. Since then, Environments has grown to become a major designer, manufacturer, and distributor of children’s furniture, educational equipment, discovery toys, and curriculum materials for early education and child care.
Now, after more than forty years of service, Environments, Inc. remains steadfastly committed to its original goal of providing excellent and appropriate environments for young children.
 Our Focus
Our Definition of Value
The Value of the Right Stuff
The Value of Research & Development
The Value of Super Service
The Value of Professional Support
The Environments Mission Statement
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| Environments, Inc. takes seriously its shared responsibility for setting the stage for quality child care and early education. We also understand the importance of providing needed services and support to early childhood professionals, the people who not only directly touch children’s lives today, but who also help mold children’s tomorrows.
No matter how long Environments serves the early childhood market, we never see ourselves as “old” or our job as done. Growing up again and anew with generation after generation of young children is an odyssey of challenge and discovery – an unending demand for commitment, innovation, and excellence. It is also a satisfying labor of love that keeps beliefs alive and our vision vibrant.
After all, we know that the real Environments customer is the child: everything Environments does must be focused on serving children. That is our true reason for being, the purpose of our work. It is the mission we share with parents, caregivers, educators, and the many other child care professionals who nurture the childhood experience.
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| Environments, Inc. doesn’t just try to offer you the cheapest possible product. It is our job and our mission to provide you the best and most consistent value for your investment of time and money as well as to support the best use of your resources for the children you serve.
Environments has been serving the early childhood institutional market for over thirty years. We know about competition. And we know that we are up-front competitive, with no hidden costs or surprise invoices. We confidently invite and encourage actual price comparison. We realize that to earn and retain your business, we must reliably deliver the best overall value for your dollar – all year long, year after year.
However, we all need to remember that the only value that really counts is what’s truly valuable to the children. Substandard quality is overpriced at any price. There is simply no place for it in any serious effort to meet the needs of children and education.
No doubt about it, Environments, Inc. is going to ask you to invest in the children you serve – to invest time and money, to provide appropriate facilities, to give of yourself, to make a commitment to these children, to make a difference in their lives! And Environments will be there to support you all the way, in every way that we can.
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| Getting the best and most appropriate equipment and materials for your early childhood facility takes dynamic advantage of the strong connection that exists between a young child and his environment. The right products create a positive, supportive environment that empowers children and encourages safe and successful experiences. The right products make the environment itself work both for you and for the children.
Environments, Inc. likes unstructured items that can be used in different ways at different times, that can “grow” with the child. We like products that function smoothly and promote safe, non-frustrating, successful experiences. We like the quality and standards of design, materials, and construction that reflect positive messages to both children and caregivers:
You are worthy of beauty.
You can be trusted to touch and use the good stuff.
You are capable of taking responsibility for your environment.
Your spaces are special places where important things happen!
In other words, we want the quality and design of Environments products to help create an environmental mirror that reflects to each child the value of his individual existence and the wonder of his emerging capabilities.
In addition, Environments’ ongoing, company-wide Quality Control Program provides you the assurance that we also pay close attention to this critical issue. Environments realizes that it must exert maximum muscle to keep quality problems at a minimum.
We consider it absolutely imperative that products consistently meet high standards because we know that even though we have many thousands of items in our warehouse, what really matters is how well each individual one of these products does the job for the customer who receives it and for the children who use it.
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| The Environments Research & Development function gives you a major “insurance” factor. Rigorous criteria for the product development, design, and selection process – as well as age-appropriateness guidance – help to protect you from wrong choices that waste money, time, and children’s precious opportunities for positive growth of skills and self-esteem.
The Environments Research & Development Staff embodies an ongoing commitment to improvement of the materials and equipment available to early childhood professionals. Environments products are the best of many thousands reviewed and tested. They have been played with, manipulated, stepped on, dropped, thrown, thoroughly cleaned, and otherwise tested and abused. Books have been read and read again. CD’s have been listened to. Everything is expected to function as designed and to perform well.
It is interesting to note that the vast majority (well over 90%) of items tested and considered by Environments, Inc. – products that are commonly available to you elsewhere in the market – never appear in the Environments product line. They just don’t measure up to our standards.
Environments also designs and produces many of its own products: banners, carpets, storage cabinets, tables and chairs, SoftStages® Playstructures, RoleOvers®, Earthchild® Dolls and Puppets, and NIFTYsystem®, for example. But whether we are designing and developing “from scratch” or choosing the best of products already in existence, the Environments Research & Development Staff stresses the same criteria: safety, appropriateness, playability, good quality, aesthetic appeal, durability, ease of maintenance, and overall value for your dollar.
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Consider how critical service is to the overall value you receive for your investment. You want quick, competent response to your needs, and Environments wants to provide it to you: quick response to your information needs, to your special requests, to your product needs, to any problems you might have. You need to be able to depend on capable, reliable, timely, and pleasant service at all times – both before and after a purchase. To achieve this goal, we focus considerable attention on the following issues:
 product guarantees – your proof that we stand behind our products
quick shipment from our warehouse where we stock over 95% of all items – equipment as well as materials
managed freight costs – both inbound and outbound – to minimize and control the impact of this necessary aspect of distribution.
institutional pricing which gives you “everyday low prices” on quality products. Environments maintains a lean pricing structure, but never by cutting quality, lowering performance standards, or otherwise compromising value in any way. And frankly, we take particular pride in that achievement.
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| Environments, Inc. has two priorities: advocacy of the child and the customer’s agenda. We achieve the first largely by addressing the second – by supporting the needs and efforts of child care and early education professionals.
Environments feels that the most important elements in child care and early education are the caregivers and educators themselves, the people who interact directly with the children. We know the vital importance of their commitment, their attitudes, their actions, their competence, their knowledge, and their understanding.
When all is said and done, perhaps the most critical and defining measure of real value is the calibre of support provided to these front-line troops, support that helps early childhood professionals do a great job.
Much of this support is provided through the delivery of excellent products and superb customer service. Environments never underestimates the importance of these two essential functions! However, Environments also believes that the following factors add significantly to overall value:
awareness of needs and issues that are important to our customers: Environments wants to know what’s on your mind and what would help you do your job.
planning assistance that includes model room arrangements and lists of recommended early childhood equipment and materials for your facilities
Environments-produced publications that support product performance, program evaluation, and professional development (catalogs, product guides, activity guides, guides to facilitate program assessment and quality enhancement, etc.)
convention attendance and other support of professional organizations that address the needs of children and their caregivers and educators
training and activity workshops and seminars that give early childhood professionals opportunities to plan and assess their facilities, improve their skills, share problems, seek solutions, and hear new ideas
The Environments Staff that brings together talent, training, credentials, experience, commitment, leadership, and vision to create a high-calibre team of professionals dedicated to the needs of child care and early childhood education
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We will create and provide environments uniquely designed to empower children and to enable caregivers, educators, and parents to nurture the childhood experience. These environments will surround children with...
...appropriate products that meet high standards of quality
and playability.
...uncompromised safety that promotes successful experiences
and consequently builds confidence.
...aesthetic appeal that stimulates the senses, reflects positive
self-image, and brings warmth and joy to children’s everydays.
We will earn the opportunity to fulfill our mission and to forge lasting partnerships by offering exceptional value through our products, services, and professional support. The Environments philosophy demands and fosters an unending quest for the best from each of us as we work together to exceed expectations. We will strive to merit the highest respect for the way we do our job, and we will seek to form coalitions that achieve results beyond the scope of individual accomplishments.
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