Our waste reduction consultants have been successfully supporting clients’ efforts to reduce their waste-related environmental impact. However, they needed a way to clearly and efficiently illustrate to clients the amount of waste their organizations were generating, and the environmental impacts of that waste. They also needed to track this data for multiple locations, over time. With all of these variables, Excel spreadsheets become a bit unwieldy.

The iReuse Tracking & Reporting Tool was born. Our consultants have been using it for months now to document landfill, recycling and composting rates at client locations. This tool is now available to the public as a stand-alone, web-based service.

It easily calculates, for example, trees saved and GHG’s prevented as a result of recycling x-amount of office paper and cardboard. It also compares across multiple locations, and generates clean, clear reports that are easily downloadable as PDFs.

Current clients using the tool include property managers of commercial office space, and large corporations that occupy the majority of their office building.

The next iteration of the tool will include tracking and reporting of energy and water, and procurement will be added as well. We look forward to hearing back from our clients about how this tool has helped them to reduce their environmental impact, increase savings, as well as suggestions for improvements.

Check it out at www.iReuse.com/tr. You can also sign up to track as many locations as you want free for 15 days.

We’re pleased to share this news from Delta Dental’s Rancho Cordova facility. Delta Dental has been a sustainability consulting client of iReuse for some time now and we are proud of the tremendous success Delta Dental has had to date in achieving their sustainability goals.  We have been working with Delta Dental to improve the efficiency of their facilities, reduce waste, implement a comprehensive green purchasing program, develop employee engagement programs, and much more.  For all the work done by Delta Dental thus far in Sacramento, Delta Dental has earned a sustainable business certification from the Sacramento Sustainable Business program. The original press release can be viewed as a PDF here.

At long last, iReuse has started calculating the elimination of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) which has resulted from our services.  As you know, CO2e is an internationally accepted measure that encapsulates all GHGs that contribute to global warming.  In collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency,  iReuse has developed a system for calculating the reduction of GHG as a result of the reuse and recycling efforts provided for our clients.

iReuse in the news —-

A few months ago a TV crew saw iReuse at the Green Festival and wanted to do a segment on us and at long last it came to fruition with our Birkenstock project we are doing right now. The segment aired twice on Friday on channel 13 and will air another two times today but you can also catch it online at http://www.yourtv20.com/greenreport/ . Just click on the link lower on the page now under Localgreen and it is also on their blog and My Space.

It’s only 90 seconds which is too bad because Scott from Birkenstock said some amazing things about iReuse that didn’t make the cut. On top of the TV show we also received the Joe Garbarino Environmental Leadership Award on Friday so it was another big week for iReuse.  ŠŠ

Š

Here is a nice segment done on the Green Business Forum of Marin where I was one of the presenters.  For those that saw the Blog a few months ago on this event, the focus was on providing resources and solutions for businesses which save them time, money, and energy by doing the right thing. 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid376530176Â

We received a wonderful call from the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce today letting us know that we had been selected for the Joe Garbarino Environmental Leadership Award.  It’s an honor to be recognized for our work and I can’t wait for an exciting year ahead as we continue to expand and reuse even more material for many local Corporations.  The awards cermony is January 26th so we will be sure to post some pictures after the event.

This past weekend, iReuse received the wonderful honor of being selected by Assemblyman Joe Nation for the Green Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  The awards reception was up near Santa Rosa with Awardees being selected by different Assemblyman and Senators from all around Northern California all the way from the Northern Border down to the Central Valley.  The event was a lot of fun and we had 14 people there to support iReuse so we had the biggest group by far.  Now we just need to keep the good times rolling. 

What an amazing month it has been at iReuse.
- We have two new staff people in our San Rafael office and in the process of hiring another.
- We have now facilitated the reuse of over 170 tons of material and helped over 200 nonprofits get the in-kind donations they need to better serve the community. (Estimated donation value now exceeds $600,000.00)
- We finished the iReuse game: http://www.ireuse.com/game/indexb.html which we are going to start promoting in the community to educate people about reuse, and more importantly make it fun!
- We were just selected by Assemblyman Joe Nation for the Green Entrepreneur of the Year award which is exciting
- The website is being completely redone and should be up in less than a month we hope
- We have lots of big projects and partnerships currently in process which are going to help reuse even more material and keep even more material out of the dump.
Things are starting to get exciting!!  Thank you to everyone who has helped us thus far accomplish our goals.  I think it is safe to say that we are farther along than I expected at this point but it is wonderful to see the impact we have already made.
Best Wishes,
Ken

iReuse.com is the most exciting and helpful website I have seen in a long, long time.  It’s the new way to sell, buy or donate unwanted items.  It’s like Craig’s List just for Marin (right now).  There are also two services:  CleanSweep which helps my clients and me sort through possessions before sale of the home; and iReuse Green Hauling which trucks items to charities (that have submitted their wish lists), recycles the rest and takes the bare minimum to the dump.  This is saving my clients hundreds of dollars, giving them a tax donation receipt and solving the problem of what to do with so much unwanted stuff!

Carolyn Lenert, Your REALTOR© for Life!
Coldwell Banker
415/256-2371, FAX/457-0838
http://www.CarolynLenert.com

Thanks Carolyn for the kind words and the wonderful support.  We are so pleased to work with you and the great team at Coldwell Banker.

I was invited to be on a panel last week with other local green business leaders to speak with 50+ high school students and teachers about green business practices and how our business models support sustainable efforts.  It was a lot of fun to talk to the kids about how to Reduce, Reuse, and then Recycle in their own community and what they can do to be a little more environmentally friendly.  They of course loved getting some free stuff from one of my corporate client projects where the stuff would have gone to the dump but instead was going to be put to good use by each of them.  My favorite part of these presentations is to see the kids first get upset about what they see being wasted in their community and then coming up with ideas of how they can make a difference.  Reuse is certainly something that everyone can contribute to.  It is nice to empower people, no matter how young or old, and allow them to make a difference.

Here is a link to another great MarnIJ article this past weekend.

http://www.ireuse.com/ken_images/ireusenews/MarinIJ%20article%204-22-06.pdf

It’s been such a busy week that I have had to post some other blogs due to timing but now  I thought I would share another fun story.  Last week I was invited as a guest speaker to a San Francisco State class of about 50 students.  The class was focused primarily on how to apply environmentally friendly solutions so it was a lot of fun to speak with students that I hope will be leading the next generation of innovators.  When I started iReuse, one of my goals was to speak with college, high school, and elementary schools students about waste reduction and how they can make a difference.  I’ve started doing some of these presentations to different schools and have another one later this week to a group of high school students and it is so rewarding to see students begin to rethink the way they consume material and waste and what a huge impact they can have.   

Back to last weeks presentation.  The presentation was about and hour and the topics included Waste reduction, very interesting business models, iReuse being just one that I like to highlight, which are leveraging the environmental and social benefits of their field to build successful companies without harming the environment.  I’ll blog about some of these business models soon.  One of the key take aways I try to leave with students is to just be aware of their every day actions and what the environmental impact of those decisions are.
I will share quickly with you my final slide which was

“ Top ten things you can each do starting today”.
 1.Reduce, Reuse, then Recycle
2.Protest test taking because it requires too much paper
3.Be aware of the impact you have on your environment and your community
4.If you want to skip school, tell your teachers you are trying to reduce GHG emissions and your global footprint
5.Don’t build widgets just to make money unless that is really what you care about
6.If you forget to buy someone a gift, tell them it is part of your new philosophy of        minimalism
7. Set an example for others through your actions
8.Tell your parents to recycle and compost or you’ll start throwing your
    recyclables and compostables on the front lawn
9.Get involved on campus and in your community to make this a greener
   place for everyone
10.DON’T BE A SELL OUT.  MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Civic Center cafe going green with containers 

Keri Brenner
Marin Independent Journal, April 21st, 2006
Link to online version: http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3734835

Marin’s “new frontier” of recycling is on its way - at least for diners at the county’s Civic Center cafe.
Starting Tuesday, all take-out containers and disposable plates and cups will be made of biodegradable materials as part of a new agreement between the county and Ray’s Catering, which runs the second-floor dining spot.  “With the current petroleum-based packaging, when that goes into a landfill, it stays for years and years,” said Jim Farley, director of the county Department of Cultural and Visitor Services. “When these new products go into a landfill, they’re gone in 45 days.”
The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a contract Tuesday with Ray’s Catering for a transition to biodegradable food containers at an extra cost of $600 per month - on top of the $4,000 monthly subsidy the county pays to have the firm operate the dining spot. The take-out packages and cups are made from corn-based products, while the disposable plates are made out of sugar cane, Farley said.  “We care about the environment, and it’s good business, too,” Farley said, adding that prices on the biodegradable products are coming down rapidly as more people use them. “A subsidy for this program may not be needed by January 2007.”  The program is being promoted by Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who led more than 300 Marin residents in a public forum Tuesday at the Civic Center on the concept of “zero waste.”  McGlashan said the Civic Center cafe idea came from his office intern, high school student Julie Goldrosen. Goldrosen researched costs and products and presented a report that led to the plan. Ray’s Catering principals Dan and Luke Offenbach contacted suppliers and were able to work out a plan, he said.
 “We want to see how a county like Marin, which has done an incredibly good job of diverting waste at curbside, can do an even better job with the next frontier,” McGlashan told the crowd during the three-hour event Tuesday. “Our goal is zero waste by 2020.”
Reuse pioneer Ken Kurtzig of Sausalito says zero waste involves reusing items and products rather than recycling. Reuse is a more cost-efficient idea than recycling because the item does not have to be broken down into raw materials and disposed of, he said.Kurtzig is president and founder of San Rafael-based IReuse, a business that connects Marin residents who have something to get rid of with other residents, businesses or nonprofits that can reuse the product. A small fee is charged.

“I can get your desk that you want to throw out used by somebody down the street - and it will cost you $5 instead of the $50 it would cost in hauling and dumping fees,” he said. “Plus, you’ll be helping the environment by not dumping in landfills and potentially helping a nonprofit by getting them something they need.” Kurtzig said although the Marin Civic Center cafe biodegradable containers need to be disposed of and thus fall short of the reuse concept, they are much better than plastic. “Every unit of plastic that has been produced since the beginning of time is still here,” Kurtzig said. “Compostable materials are much better.”Patty Garbarino, president of Marin Sanitary Service in San Rafael, said she and her father, Marin garbage guru Joe Garbarino, say manufacturers should be required to design and produce items that can be either reused or recycled.“You shouldn’t be able to make money on manufacturing a product that can’t be recycled,” she said.
State lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban Styrofoam at all state buildings by January 2008, Garbarino added.
 “It’s all hallelujah here,” she said of efforts to recycle or reuse.
The new food containers at the Marin Civic Center cafe may not have an immediate impact on reducing the amount of trash in the county, but it’s a step in the right direction, Farley said.  “I think it’s great that the county is playing a leadership role,” he added. “When you think of the amount of takeout in the world nowadays, if there’s a major shift in these kinds of products, it could affect landfills.”
— MORE INFORMATION
For details on getting rid of household products to reduce waste, see www.ireuse.com. IReuse president Ken Kurtzig will speak at a free public forum from 7 to 9 p.m. May 12 at San Rafael Corporate Center at 750 Lindaro St. in San Rafael.
Contact Keri Brenner via e-mail at kbrenner@marinij.com
 

Yesterday was an inspiring event held at the Civic Center, sponsored by County Supervisor Charles McGlashan with several guest speakers on the topic of zero waste.  I’ll give you a recap in a second but first, what is Zero Waste.  Zero Waste is an initiative adopted by many cities, counties, regions, and even countries around the world to curb the horrific amount of waste produced in our society.  The theory is that we need to build better products which require much less raw material and waste to get to the end consumer and then have those products completely reused either in its existing form or a new form so that no waste is produced.  I will not go into how realistic or unrealistic this initiative is but the concept is absolutely correct.  I have heard many different statistics but last night it was stated that for every ton of waste we throw away, 70 tons of waste were created in the process of producing that 1 ton.  I could go on for ever but the moral of the story is this.