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Atlanta -- The Home Depot said Friday it has named Mark Vadon, co-founder of online jeweler Blue Nile, to its board of directors.

Vadon will serve on the audit and finance committees. His appointment gives the company 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent.

Utility expenses are Shari’s Restaurants’ third biggest operating expense, behind food and labor. In 2008, the 24-hour, family-dining chain began to take a closer look at how to minimize its utility costs. 


“We knew we couldn’t control the price of our utilities, but we could control the usage,” said Jodenne Scott, energy efficiency manager, Shari’s Restaurants, Beaverton, Ore., which operates 104 locations, primarily in the Pacific Northwest (all are corporate-owned). 


Parking lots have typically not been associated with green and energy-efficient design and building practices. But according to some experts, that’s beginning to change. 


“Extensive changes are being made to reduce the carbon footprint of surface parking lots,” said Matt Jobin, AIA, project manager, Rich and Associates, Southfield, Mich., the oldest firm in North America dedicated solely to parking design and planning. 


Washington, D.C. -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 8% in January over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by NRF and Hackett Associates.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be up 9% in December over the same month last year, and 2010 should end with a 17% increase over last year.

In Keyser, W.Va., population 5,500, there isn’t much to do. And with the exception of the requisite Walmart and CVS drug store, the retail offerings are scarce.

So when locally based Greyhound Properties LLC decided to invest $7 million to erect a strip center on the outskirts of town, residents were understandably excited.