One of the March issue’s feature articles focused on running an environmentally friendly massage practice. “How Green is Your Massage Practice? How Sowing Small Seeds of Change Now Will Lead to a Healthier Environment” mentioned carbon offsetting as one means of making up for the carbon dioxide emissions your travel and consumption create.

The reason I bring this up is according to a brand-new report, Americans contribute, per capita, more than twice as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as those living in the rest of the world. “Even the people with the lowest usage of energy are still producing, on average, more than double the global per-capita average,” stated a release from the Michigan Institute of Technology that I received today. And those emissions rise steeply from that minimum as people’s income increases.

“In general, spending money on travel or on goods that have substantial energy costs in their manufacture and delivery adds to a person’s carbon footprint, while expenditures on locally based labor-intensive services-whether it’s going to a therapist, taking an art class, or getting a massage-leads to a smaller footprint,” said David Chandler, in MIT’s News Office. “But the biggest factors in most people’s lives were the well-known obvious energy users: housing, transportation and food.”

Carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct of the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon offsetting means making up for your carbon dioxide emissions by contributing to organizations that run renewable-energy, energy-efficiency and reforestation projects for just that purpose. The Web site I just visited to offset my car is www.carbonfund.org, which I chose because it’s a nonprofit.

I’ve been receiving feedback on MASSAGE Magazine’s coverage of massage franchises, so I thought I would provide you with some background on why we’ve published what we have on this topic.
Basically, some readers feel that we have provided franchises with too much positive coverage recently.
We have run several articles in the past few issues that look at franchises—but that view is, cumulatively, of a variety of angles.
“The Truth About Massage Franchises,” which ran in our February issue, was a Guest Editorial written by someone in management at the largest massage franchise. It was, as you may have surmised, pro-franchise.
“Corporate Massage Therapists, Speak Out! was also a Guest Editorial, this time in our March issue. That editorial advocated for the formation of unions, among other things, to counteract the effects corporations are having on massage-therapy employment. As you might have guessed, that editorial was not franchise-friendly.
“Massage Franchises: Low Prices and Convenience Bring Consumers to Massage,” a feature article written by yours truly for our April issue, provided a comparison of the leading national franchises, and to indicate that for some therapists, franchise work might provide a viable way to work part time or get started in massage. I think that by clearly stating the wages offered to massage therapists, readers will have more information with which to make a decision.
Finally, our May issue’s Expert Advice column will answer this question: “Three massage-therapy franchises just moved into my area. How can I compete with their lower prices and longer hours?”
For many therapists, the wages paid by franchises aren’t acceptable—but the reality is that franchises provide millions of massages every year. Clients really are visiting massage franchises, and for some therapists franchises might be a good place to start a massage career or augment an existing practice.
Franchises are here to stay, so we will continue to report on them, good and bad. We have to assume that readers are astute enough to assimilate the information we present, and then make an educated decision.

Until next time!