LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Los Angeles Chapter of the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA-LA) will honor top local Latino communicators and award scholarships on Friday, Oct. 27th in Pasadena at the 33^rd Annual PRemio Awards and Scholarship Dinner. For tickets to the event visit http://www.hpra-usa.org/laR/2017-premio-awards-tickets/.

“The night’s theme of `Remembering our Roots’ reminds us to pay homage to our past and cultural experiences,” said Reyna Hernandez, President of HPRA-LA and owner of Creative Branding Co. “The HPRA-LA PRemio Awards and Scholarship Dinner is a celebration of the best in our public relations industry and awards scholarships to help deserving college students pursue their degree in communications.”

Winning this year’s “Communications Group of the Year” is UNITED COLLECTIVE (www.unitedcollective.com), founded to be the most culturally attuned creative collective in the U.S. The communications group includes specialty agencies located in California and New York: GALLEGOS United, ROX United, CANVAS United, POLY United and LUNA United.

The “Journalist of the Year” Award will go to Stephanie Himonidis, better known as Chiquibaby, host of Acceso Total, Telemundo 52’s popular weekday morning entertainment news and lifestyle show which rebroadcasts across 15 U.S. Hispanic markets. With nearly two decades of a successful career in media, Chiquibaby is a 4X Emmy Award-winning Television and Radio personality and recognized as an influential communicator in the U.S. Hispanic market with nearly 900,000 followers on social media. She is very involved in the community and currently serves as an ambassador for PADRES Contra el Cancer, non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for children with cancer and their families.

Being honored as “Influencer of the Year” Award will go to Patty Rodriguez, a nationally recognized entrepreneur, senior producer, founder and author of the bilingual children’s books Lil’ Libros, and founder of Patty Rodriguez Jewelry. Rodriguez demonstrated her influence when she asked makeup giant MAC Cosmetics to create a line to honor the late Selena Quintanilla. MAC Cosmetics listened. Patty and her work have been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, NPR, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, People Magazine and Buzzfeed, to name a few.

This year’s college scholarship recipients include:

• Sonia Ramirez-Muñoz, University of Southern California
• Sasha M. Chavez, University of La Verne
• Emily Lechuga, CSU Dominguez Hills

Supporting the dinner this year are: Telemundo 52, Imprenta Communications Group, UNITED COLLECTIVE, Panda Express, FSB Core Strategies and VPE Tradigital Communications. The cocktail hour sponsor is San Antonio Winery.  A special shopping spree has been donated by Lamps Plus.

HPRA-Los Angeles would like to thank its Executive Board for their commitment and hard work. Members of the 2017 HPRA-LA Board are President, Reyna Hernandez owner of Creative Branding Co.; Vice President, Norma Leon-Moncada of NLM Consulting; Secretary, Elizabeth Adams, PR Consultant and Treasurer, Norma Rodriguez of Imprenta Communications Group.

About the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA)
Founded in 1984, the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) is the foremost organization of Hispanic public relations practitioners in the U.S. HPRA is a resource for communications professionals and for individuals seeking Hispanic market expertise. It is dedicated to the recognition and advancement of Hispanics in public relations through year-round programs, professional development, seminars and networking.

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SOURCE HPRA

ATLANTA, Oct. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Home Depot^® is increasing its protection of High Conservation Value Forests and tropical Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) by not accepting any wood products from The Amazon (South America) and Congo (Africa) Basins, unless Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

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Although less than one percent of the company’s existing wood products come from the Amazon and Congo Basins, The Home Depot announced today that it will require that any wood products coming from these areas be FSC certified.  The company has given preference to FSC certified wood products since 1999.

The company announced the updated policy in its 2017 Responsibility Report. The full report is located online at: https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/infographic-2017-responsibility-report.

The report also unveils newly strengthened chemical oversight practices in five product categories, including paint, carpet, vinyl and laminate flooring, and insulation.

The chemical strategy includes commitments to increase the assortment of products that have transparency of product ingredients and third party certification of chemical ingredients. Additionally, the company is committed to working with suppliers to improve chemicals in categories with the greatest potential impact to indoor air quality, and will conduct annual reviews of product categories to track progress and drive innovation.  

The company partners with the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council, Healthy Building Network and Cradle to Cradle for guidance on priority chemicals and innovations.

“We recognize the role we play in the value chain for home improvement products, especially lumber and manufactured goods,” said Ron Jarvis, vice president of environmental innovation. “We believe that better transparency is the key to retailers and consumers making better purchasing decisions that will improve our industry’s long-term environmental impact.”

The Home Depot is also expanding its Eco Options program that identifies products that have less of an impact on the environment than standard products, established in 2007, to include the third party certification programs Cradle to Cradle Certified™ and GREENGUARD^® Gold.

Additional highlights from 2016 include:

• The company estimates its customers saved more than 76 billion gallons of water in fiscal 2016 from the sales of WaterSense^® certified products
• The company estimates its customers saved more than $903 million in utility costs from sales of Energy Star^® certified products, reducing consumers greenhouse gas emissions by 4.9 million metric tons in fiscal 2016
• The Home Depot Foundation has impacted  more than 34,500 veterans’ homes and facilities since 2011, with a financial commitment to veterans related causes of a quarter of a billion dollars by 2020

The Home Depot applies Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Guidelines, which are included in the 2017 Responsibility Report, as a cross-reference tool for its sustainability reporting to make meaningful data available to stakeholders.

About The Home Depot
The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,283 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2016, The Home Depot had sales of $94.6 billion and earnings of $8.0 billion. The Company employs more than 400,000 associates. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

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SOURCE The Home Depot

TAMPA, Florida, Oct. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — CoAdvantage Corporation (“CoAdvantage”), a leading national provider of strategic human resource solutions for small to mid-sized companies, announced today that it has acquired California-based Total HR Management (“Total HR”). The acquisition expands CoAdvantage’s national footprint and represents the Company’s first office in California. The acquisition follows the Florida-based PEMCO transaction (Oct-2017) and creates a combined platform serving more than 4,500 clients and approximately 90,000 work site employees with a range of HR outsourced solutions to small and medium sized businesses.

Total HR is a comprehensive human resources administration firm located in Los Angeles, CA that provides outsourced HR services, benefits and payroll to a white-collar client base. Total HR has demonstrated attractive growth while providing high-touch service to their clients, allowing the business to build scale through a reputation of service excellence. The business will become the core of CoAdvantage’s California operations and will service the broader work site employee base, which is now approximately 4,000.

“The acquisition of Total HR provides CoAdvantage with a strategic entry-point to the California market through a strong regional provider with a history of success and service excellence,” said Mike Maseda, President and CEO of CoAdvantage.  “We look forward to coupling our scale with Total HR’s relationship-based service model to further expand our presence in providing high-quality HR support to California’s thriving small business community.”

“CoAdvantage’s scale and resources bring added value to our customers and the California market,” said James Harwood, Founder and CEO of Total HR.  “I am excited to join the CoAdvantage family and look forward to working with the broader CoAdvantage team as we grow our presence in California.” Total HR will form part of CoAdvantage’s West Region and James Harwood will continue with the combined Company as Vice President of California.

CoAdvantage’s acquisition of Total HR follows the Company’s merger with PEMCO in October 2017. Both transactions dramatically increase the Company’s scale while adding strong management talent with similar client-focused operating strategies. These transactions follow the Company’s acquisition of Discovery Outsourcing and Compensation Solutions in 2014.  CoAdvantage now serves approximately 90,000 work site employees in all 50 states, offering the resources of a national provider with a local focus to business owners around the country.

About CoAdvantage
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CoAdvantage, Inc. is a leader in human resource solutions, providing Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services to small and medium-sized businesses nationwide. A portfolio company of Morgan Stanley Private Equity, the company has offices throughout Florida and Texas, as well as Colorado, California, New York and New Jersey, serving approximately 90,000 work site employees nationwide. For more information, visit www.coadvantage.com.

About Total HR: Total HR is a California-based Professional Employer Organization (PEO) with over 12 years of experience in providing payroll administration, workers’ compensation, employee benefits and human resource solutions to small-to-medium size businesses in the California region.  Founded in 2004, Total HR has built a strong book of business through service excellence and delivering high quality products to its clients. The business operates out of three client servicing operations: Los Angeles, CA, Orange County, CA and Malone, NY. For more information, visit www.totalhrmanagement.com.

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SOURCE CoAdvantage Corporation