Zero Waste by 2019 @ Work

Comment

Comment by MikeD on September 1, 2009 at 8:40am

Jeff, your continued success gives new meaning to an old (and slightly reworked) phrase... Shift Happens. One small meaningful action at a time. Thanks for sharing!

Comment by Diane Kurtzman on September 1, 2009 at 7:59am

Jeff
Just think if everyone made a little change like you did!
Diane

Comment by Jeffrey J Baldassari on August 31, 2009 at 4:22pm

I've learned through E4S that it's important to celebrate small successes. Well I have small success that we are celebrating. While we do recycle all cardboard at our factory (last year we reecycled approximately 3 tons of cardboard at our Bedford, Ohio facility) we are now making the initiative to reduce the amount of cardboard that comes into our factory from suppliers. We recently worked with our main leather supplier to engineer a smaller box for orders containing 1-2 hides. Our supplier was able to do this and it reduced the amount of cardboard used to package these small orders by 25%. We place nearly 200 orders per year for 1-2 hides so this change will make a measurable reduction in the amount of inbound cardboard packaging that we receive. As an added bonus this smaller box will eliminated the shipping surcharge we were absorbing on the old, larger box from UPS. Again, this will translate into a measurable savings; approximately $6,000 annually.

Comment by Diane Kurtzman on August 31, 2009 at 2:26pm

Initiatives currently in place for employee awareness include separating all paper, plastic, cardboard recyclables. We've brought in flatware, mugs and dinnerware for our kitchen and we're using vermicomposting as a method of disposing our foodwaste. Overall as a company, we've been gearing up and are very close to accepting food waste once again in NEO (we did food composting in the '80's). We currently have a food composting program in place in our Columbus offices.

Comment by Bud Perry on August 31, 2009 at 2:24pm

At our present location, Great Lakes Design Collaborative has already begun a comprehensive recycling program. Our office & personal waste has been reduced to a small bag of garbage every three weeks. With the addition of composting this has been stretched to four - five weeks. We try to reduce our travel, walk and use bicycles, and conserve water and electricity as much as possible.

In our upcoming new location we will be implementing many more waste elimination programs. We will be installing over 1,000 square feet of solar panels which is 3x the average amount of our estimated use (the overage will be sent back to the grid). The stormwater runoff from the property will be managed on site through innovative landscaping, and the runoff from the roofs will be diverted to a very large water storage system which will be used for flushing toilets and for any irrigation needed. Stormwater management is necessary for this location as it is near one of the largest and most taxed combined sewer/stormwater routes in the city. If, by 2019, Cleveland has not begun curbside recycling for the area, we will continue to take all our recycling across the street to the Zone Recreation Center's recycling bins.

I do not see many barriers preventing us from becoming a zero waste facility and I sincerely hope we can actually be a negative-waste facility by 2019, by producing electricity & clean water. There is a lot of very inventive and innovative thinking here in Northeast Ohio; who knows what wonderful things may be created to reduce or eliminate waste by 2019?

Comment by Brooke Cowdin on August 31, 2009 at 1:19pm

I'm signing up for ServiceMaster Clean by Ameristeam. We are a disaster restoration company that will recycle as much as possible in the event of a disaster at a home or commercial building.When possible we re-use building materials. Also, we are reclaiming carpet for recycling. We take used, clean, dry carpet in at our Brook Park facility.

Comment by Jeffrey J Baldassari on May 2, 2009 at 4:16pm

The concept is challenging but attainable. By networking and learning more we can help each other get there. In 2005, our Company (Taylor) lead the effort to remediate a 50 acre brownfield that had been abandoned for 18 years (right across the street from the Metroparks/Bedford Reservation). It would be hypocritical of us to clean up 50 acres of "dead"land to build our new headquarters and factoory and then spend the next decade sending tons of waste from our upholstered seating and wood casegoods factory to a landfill. We are already well on our way to the zero waste goal. We presently composte, upcycle and recycle approximately 90% of the waste generated at this facility. It's brought our employees together and it has raised morale. We have worked together for a common cause that is good for the environment and good for our bottom line.

Comment by Saul Kliorys on April 7, 2009 at 1:21pm

I'm singing up on behalf of Great Lakes Brewing Company. We already divert a significant portion of our waste from landfill, but we are looking to put no waste into landfill, and to find higher and better uses for all of our byproducts.

Comment by Jeff Millis on March 6, 2009 at 2:40pm

I'm signing up to represent Talan Products, Inc. Our company has set a 2019 Zero Waste to Landfill goal. In the past year we were able to reduce our waste to landfill by 50%. We look forward to tackling the last 50% now.

Comment by Annabel Khouri on March 5, 2009 at 12:30pm

I'm signing up on behalf of E4S. We have set a Zero Waste by 2019 BHAG. Some of the ways we are trying to get there is to utilize the recycling program now offered by our building (formerly we took our recycling off site to the city drop off), food waste/organic waste is composted either outside in our compost or inside in our worm bin (vermicomposting system). Most of our remaining waste is from food packaging.