Archive for December, 2008
Interview with Ken Kurtzig, Founder and CEO of iReuse
December 27th, 2008 by Judy Lawrence
Imagine you work for a large company and it’s your job to dispose of unwanted equipment or materials - often tons of it. And you want to dispose of the materials in a environmentally friendly way, while saving money and possibly helping a nonprofit organization get needed materials? This is not an easy task. Fortunately, there’s iReuse to the rescue.
In this interview, iReuse founder and CEO Ken Kurtzig reveals how a insightful discovery at a taco stand led to the creation of a thriving business that helps companies reduce their environmental impact, through its sustainbility consulting and waste removal services.
In just over 3 years of operations, iReuse has won numerous awards for its environmental leadership.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- iReuse helped Birkenstock save $170,000 and get positive publicity by donating unwanted shoe material to help horses instead of throwing them away
- How the iReuse “matchmaking system” connects company’s surplus materials to wishlists for non-profits
- How companies can actually save money while diverting waste from landfills
- The success of iReuse’s innovative reuse program created the opportunity to provide additional “green” consulting services to companies
- How transparency and documentation gives iReuse an edge in backing up its environmental claims
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
JUDY LAWRENCE, GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Hello, this is Judy Lawrence from Green Business Innovators.com, and I’m very pleased today to be speaking with Ken Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of iReuse based in Sausalito, California, and the website is www.iReuse.com.
iReuse is a leading sustainability consulting firm in the field of corporate reuse and waste reduction providing comprehensive services to help companies go green and save green. iReuse provides services for businesses, individuals and non-profits. This innovative 3 year old consulting firm works with many leading bay area companies like Charles Schwab, Autodesk, Adobe Systems, PG&E, Birkenstock and many others to help manage the internal redistribution, sales, donations, recycling and disposal of their surplus materials thus saving these companies time, money and energy, while at the same time they’re helping the community and the environment.
In a way, iReuse is like a matchmaker between corporations wanting to get rid of surplus goods in a socially conscious way and the non-profits needing to acquire material supplies in a fiscally reasonable way. In fact I understand, in 2007 alone, iReuse redirected over 230 tons of materials from the landfill and much of that went to over 200 non-profits such as The American Cancer Society, Mission YMCA, Trip for Kids and numerous other great non-profits throughout the Bay Area.
So Ken welcome and please feel free to highlight more of your variety of services and recent accomplishments and awards. I know you’ve certainly received awards. So thank you.
KEN KURTZIG: Thank you so much for having me. It’s wonderful to be here and it’s been a fun 4 years, a little over 4 years developing our program and starting to work with some of these large corporations and helping them do the right thing and in many cases saving not only money but also the environment.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: And how about — well, let me just backup a little bit with how you got started. I kind of love hearing as Paul Harvey used to say, “The rest of the story.” Tell me more about what inspired you to start the company, when and where your passion for reducing, reusing and recycling was ignited. Was there something even in your childhood experience that related to this passion?
Interview with Elizabeth Royte, Author of Garbage Land and Bottlemania
December 16th, 2008 by Patrick DominguezIn this interview, Elizabeth Royte (a freelance writer reporting on science and the environment) shares highlights from two of her books I really enjoyed - Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash and Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. I highly recommend these books to people who enjoy books such as “Fast Food Nation” or “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” that combine nuanced and thoughtful investigation into our lifestyles with wonderful storytelling.
Elizabeth Royte’s books show that great storytelling can engage people in wanting to know more about industries that you might not think are interesting - like garbage and bottled water, which are fascinating, by the way.
Everyone enjoys a great story. Are you using great storytelling in your business?
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- The adventures of tracking the truth about our trash - sneaking over fences & paddling away from police
- The “business model” of being an environmental journalist and writer
- How tansparent business practices often lead to healthier business practices for people and planet
- The social, environmental, and political implications of the bottled water that you buy
- The real issue with landfills, and where most waste actually comes from
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
PATRICK DOMINGUEZ, GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: This is Patrick from Green Business Innovators, and today I’m going to be talking with Elizabeth Royte about two terrific books that she’s written. One is about the business of bottled water and the other is about the business about garbage.
One thing I liked about the books is that they use what I would call investigative storytelling. Because they combine deep investigation into the environmental impacts of business and consumer behavior. And they also have captivating personal stories. I’ve seen great reviews of these books in the media, on sites such as the New York Times website, the LA Times, Salon, Treehugger and so forth. Fortunately the news media are giving attention to these books so that more people can get exposed to that fascinating information that these books have. I found both books to be inspirational and really a tremendous personal call to action in terms of my own life. Welcome Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH ROYTE: Thank you.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Elizabeth, what was your motive for writing these kinds of books? There’s a lot of things you could be writing about. Why these topics?
ELIZABETH ROYTE: I think I write about the environment because I care deeply about the environment, and I’m interested in all kinds of science topics, learning about how the world works and I used to write a lot about conservation and people doing work with animals and plants and things.
Actually, my first book was about rain forest scientists, but my interests have sort of shifted with the garbage book to the human part of the equation and what people are doing to the environment. And the garbage book followed where garbage went, all kinds of all different types of garbage, after they left us. And research on that book led into the bottled water book because I started to see all these plastic bottles lying around and I saw them as disposable single use packaging and I wondered how we had gotten to this point. I’m now in this niche of writing about what we as consumers are doing to the world around us.