EDAB | East Bay Economic Development Alliance | Events | EDAB East Bay Economic Forecast Event, May 12, 2006

East Bay Economic Development Alliance > Events > Event Highlights > EDAB East Bay Membership Event, May 12, 2006

East Bay EDA Sustainability & StopWaste Awards Event, May 12, 2006

East Bay Economic Development Alliance's Fall Membership Meeting: Raising the Bar: Elements of Success in Business Sustainability & Annual StopWaste Partnership Awards Location: San Leandro Library 300 Estudillo Avenue, San Leandro Friday, October 6, 2006 This meeting was recorded by Comcast and will be rebroadcast. A link to the broadcast schedule will be posted here when it becomes available.
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Hosted by: The City of San Leandro
Keith Carson, President, Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Chair of East Bay EDA, welcomed everyone and recognized the elected officials attending.

A large crowd was in attendance to honor Alameda County businesses that are implementing sustainable business practices and learn of new ways to incorporate and encourage sustainability.

Susan Muranishi, Alameda County Administrator, spoke with the audience about the need for poll volunteers on election day.

Honorable Shelia Young, Mayor of the City of San Leandro, welcomed everyone to the City of San Leandro.
StopWaste Partnership Awards
The StopWaste Partnership is the key business and public agency outreach and technical assistance program at StopWaste.org. StopWaste is a free, technical assistance service dedicated to improving the environmental performance and reducing costs of Alameda County businesses and public agencies. The program provides expert support and funding to prevent waste, conserve water and energy, and use all resources more efficiently.
Each of the businesses awarded at the event were selected because of their commitment to continuous improvement. Each shows concern for the environment and the community through their actions. They have also come to realize that by recycling, reducing waste and conserving energy, they save money and gain a competitive edge. These actions also increase the value of the company through the resulting cost savings. These companies are having a positive impact on not only their economic bottom line but also on their employees, their environment and the marketplace overall. A key component to success at each company has been the energy and commitment of an internal champion that makes the program work. Each business has worked to become more efficient through a comprehensive look at what they do and how they work with materials. Through this public private partnership and many small thoughtful steps, these companies have significantly reduced the tons of garbage they send to landfills and have improved their overall environmental performance.

Olden Henson (above, left), Councilmember for the City of Hayward and President of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Claudia McCormick (above, right), Councilmember for the City of Dublin and President of the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board greeted the audience and introduced the businesses being recognized for their contributions.
The Bay Street shopping Center in Emeryville is home to over 60 different stores, restaurants and cinemas. Thousands of employees have joined forces to make this program successful, under the leadership of Anna Pascuzzi (below, left middle) and Fred Diendoerfer (below, right middle). Food scraps are collected for composting from this complex multi-tenant environment resulting in over 10 tons each week diverted from the landfill. Through concerted effort and tenant education many barriers have been overcome. Beverage containers are collected, food is now going to compost and the existing cardboard collection program has been greatly increased. Pictured (above, left to right) are Peter Brett of EPAX Systems, Anna Pascuzzi of Madison Marquette/Bay Street Emeryville, Fred Deindorfer of EPAX Systems and Roksolana Mukha of Madison Marquette/Bay Street Emeryville, who accepted the award for Bay Street Emeryville.
As a leading seller of home furnishings, IKEA makes corporate decisions to use resources wisely. The 500 employees at the Emeryville store have greatly improved their sustainability efforts under the leadership of Joel Velasquez. IKEA Emeryville has an extensive wood, cardboard and metal recycling program. Food Scraps are collected from the restaurant and composted off site. Textiles and glass are diverted from the garbage. A full scale mixed recycling program is being added to the restaurant and bistro. A new product management system matches “orphan” items with products that are missing pieces. IKEA is participating in a pilot project to find new ways to reuse the hard to recycle painted and finished wood and is exploring the use of both reusable shipping containers and particleboard that could be safely composted at end-of-life. Pictured (above, left to right) are Mike Ng, Lisa Finnin-Ciccoli and Joel Velasquez, who accepted the award for IKEA Emeryville.

Metro manufactures high quality office furniture systems and has been a StopWaste partner since 2003. They review all material inputs and waste for prevention and redesign alternatives. Metro is also participating in a scrap wood and particleboard reuse and recycling pilot project. Last year, Metro and their parent company Steelcase adopted a Sustainability Plan. Broken and scrap pallets are sent for recovery in particleboard manufacturing. Metro has become an industry leader in the search to find alternatives to particleboard and polystyrene packaging materials.
Mostafa Pournejat (above, left) accepted the award for Metro from Olden Henson (above, right).

The Sconza Candy Company, located in Oakland, produces jawbreakers, Jordanettes, mints, chocolate candies and candy corn. Sconza Candy employees use bulk containers to during the production process to minimize the use of disposable packaging. Candy that doesn’t meet specifications is recovered and used as animal feed. Recently, some truck trailers, normally difficult to recycle, were recycled, and an innovative internal transport system uses reusable trays instead of disposable, single use trays.
Mike Stern (left) accepted the award for Sconza Candy of Oakland.

Emeryville Public Market/TMG Partners received Honorable Mention for overcoming every imaginable barrier to the recovery of food scraps from twenty restaurants and has reduced their garbage by half. Susan Shirk (left) accepted the award for Emeryville Public Market/TMG Partners. Also receiving honorable mention were the Trans Pacific Centre in downtown Oakland and Scios Inc., of Fremont. The Trans Pacific Centre is a large office building that employs over one thousand and has done an excellent job at educating employees who now recycle several materials and divert food scraps for composting. Scios Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that has 500 employees and has shown persistence and commitment to waste reduction and employee education.

This year, American Licorice was given the first ever award for Leadership and Achievement in Sustainability. This honor reflects a commitment to a high and continuous level of work to reduce and prevent waste by not only recycling but also by finding innovative solutions to prevent the creation of waste. The company has not only recycled all kinds of materials, and received rebates from PG&E for energy savings in their production line, but has also gone on to recover food scraps and institute the use of reusable containers for internal distribution.
Joaquin Almaguer accepted the Sustainability Award for American Licorice.

Panel Raising the Bar: Designing Sustainability Practices Into Your Business
Joel Makower, Founder and President of GreenBiz.com introduced the panel of guest speakers and spoke about designing sustainability practices into business. Click here to view his PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.

The panel of guest speakers, pictured above from left to right, were Mujahid Abdullah, Founder and Co-Partner, Sustainable Capital; Tatyana Kjellberg, Product Recycling Solutions, Hewlett-Packard; Diana Simmons, Sustainability Manager, Clif Bar Inc.

Diana Simmons spoke about the various measures Clif Bar has taken to make their business practices more sustainable, including employee involvement, Click here to view her PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.

Mujahid Abdullah spoke about his company, Sustainable Capital, and the variety and the worldwide popularity of "green" financial services and products. Click here to view his PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.

Tatyana Kjellberg spoke about innovative programs taking place at Hewlett-Packard that have reduced waste and made recycling of their consumer products more convenient. Click here to view her PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.

Mike Brown, Shareholder, Morgan Miller Blair and East Bay EDA Vice Chair, made the closing remarks. In line with the theme of the event, Mr. Brown pointed out to the audience that the plates used for the event were made of sugarcane and were 100% compostable and the eating utensils were made out of potatoes.
Opportunities to network and learn are important activities encouraged before and after the event.
Supervisor Carson pictured with Mary King, Assistant General Manager for AC Transit.

Rory Bakke, Senior Program Manager for StopWaste.org pictured with Joel Makower.

Bruce Kern, East Bay EDA Executive Director (left), pictured with Eric Figueroa, Regional Manager for the League of California Cities.

There were many tables at the event where various organizations provided information on sustainability resources throughout the region.