And now we're going to have our
featured speaker Ms Holly Elmore I

met Holly over ten years ago
at the Atlanta Food Bank and

we were there for
a meeting about composting and

Holly's very very passionate about what
she does she's the founder and C.E.O.

of elemental impact which is a national
nonprofit committed to bringing

sustainable operating practices
to the corporate environment and

you're in for a great time with Holly.

See if I can do my technology
right I think you can hear me.

Thank you Cindy it is such
an honor to be here and

one of the things that I hope you'll hear
throughout my presentation is Georgia Tech

rocks you all are absolutely amazing and
the things that you've done and

I love hearing what Chuck said
because it is a journey and

you're going to hear me talk a lot about
recycling here because that's where Mike.

But you're also going to hear about so
many other facets of sustainability and

again thank you for having me be
a Dispy featured speaker it's an honor.

OK.

One thing you'll hear
throughout the presentation

is I'm really good at Tag Lines OK And

the tagline for sustainability
in action and if you get to know

me well I don't mess around you know I'm
not getting things done let's not you know

we've done too much talking let's let's
get things done so that's the tagline.

A little known fact well
it's a little known but

I started my career out in accounting
Arthur Andersen an audit and

what that does is that gives me
the business perspective and

one of the themes you're going to
hear throughout my presentation is

let's make sustainability sustainable and
a good part of that

is bringing the economics to play Chuck
mentioned about well it saves money

all of it should save money and if it
doesn't you need to have a concept called

total materials management concept that
you take the things that are easy wins and

make that good money and they fund the
more challenging things OK you don't just

put it down to the bottom line and another
common thing I believe it's the name of

my presentation is collaboration
is key to success we must work

together we must get out of the box not
just look at our individual organizations

our individual communities but the impact
that we have it's whole graphic and.

Globe is getting smaller.

And one of the things also is best
practices as standard practices OK we're

about the long term we're about doings
creating new systems new way of doing

things that make good solid business in
operation sense so they become standard.

And this is this is my filter of
if I'm going to do something it

came out beaking in two thousand and
eleven or the Global Brain conference and

elemental impact were creator were
incubator we look at what could be done

isn't being done we get it
done we identify pioneers and

we create heroes and we bring
the possible out of impossible and

a lot of the things that we've worked with
Cindy over the years that's exactly what

we've done now my next slide I understand
is missing it was taken out and

it's my favorite slide OK And
I'll tell you why it's important

it has the name of it is a beautiful
picture of Cindy Jackson two thousand

sixteen Austin national
zero waste conference and

it was taken by an icon in sustainability
we called the Zero Waste warrior and

she's pointing like this and
it says Georgia Tech home of the.

Cindy jacks OK now on the surface that
would look like it's all about City right.

Now it's a great picture I love it I spent
two hours editing my friend's picture but

it's about unsung heroes
it's about Georgia Tech

it's about the fact that you
all walk the talk here but

not that many folks know that OK there's
another university here in town I

like to say they talk the talk but
Georgia Tech walks it and

that's why the slide was so
important to me is I wanted to show

that you all rock and that's going
to be a theme throughout here.

And just like with.

Tommy getting awards city and
your recycling you know when

I say Cindy Jackson I love Cindy
she's a good personal friend but

I mean the whole department OK I mean
Maria I mean heart I mean Tom who brought

me over here thank you and the whole
department it takes collaboration and

team effort and what I'd like to spend
a minute here on is talking about single

string recycling because look down
at the bottom here the Georgia Tech

never succumbed to single stream recycling
and I want to explain the magnitude

of that back when we were forming
the zero waste zones in two thousand and

seven two thousand and eight and
launched in two thousand and

nine the big boys Waste Management
Republic came up with what they deemed was

the new recycling era called single stream
where you put everything in together

you know you throw it together and we sort
it well in December of two thousand and

nine the container recycling
Institute issued a paper and

in that paper it documented with
zero research that yes it increased

diversion rates but
it actually decreased recycling rates

why contamination some
materials are not meant

to mix together OK And this goes back
to one of my things to integrity and

this is what Georgia Tech in my
perspective is all about integrity

looking at the big picture and
these are two awards that

door to tax recycling Department
received this was at the time frame

when single string was being
implemented OK so you go way back.

All right does either way so

it's just a quickie on those we
were the four Runner in the nation

on the commercial collection of food food
waste for composting here in Atlanta joy.

And I look at Atlanta also as an unsung
hero and sustainability and I hope to

show that throughout some of these slides
just like Georgia Tech Atlanta rocks and

their sustainability nobody knows
it we got global we run C.N.N.

home page for the zero waste we were
on the front page of The New York Times

did we ever get an ha see article in
a little business called the no nothing

OK so that's part of what I'd
like to see changing here and

know Georgia Tech was an early
zero way some participant and

down here the powers that be are at
in that's with Waste Management

they were very you know waste management
can rock when they choose to.

And I know how to put that caveat in.

It but that's our two year anniversary.

Press conference for this year away
sounds and then in two thousand and

twelve we sold the program to
the National Restaurant Association but

remember we're four runners were catalysts
we look at what could be done isn't being

done so what with his ear away sounds
in hindsight what was their purpose for

me it was developing back of the house
food waste collection practices so

you could collect a clean stream that's
another scene you're going to hear

clean streams it's critical
to the economics and

this quote from the higher Regency
came unsolicited I get this in and

it's not in the back then it wasn't
an e-mail it was a hard copy letter and

not zero waste but
this is easy why wouldn't

everyone do it why wouldn't you OK now
I want to do some other unsung heroes

down here this gentleman right here
that's chef Ahmad that's affairs remember

they rock too it's unbelievable what they
do over there in the back of the house and

they don't tell people but with you
want to zero waste event from them

you get a true zero waste a vent and
everything back to the house as

well as front of the house is
recycled mental picture that's.

Echo in midtown this group's the first
dumpster free restaurant in Atlanta

yeah that was written about either and

then on the right that is my friend Perry
down at the Atlanta area not the only

an airport Tampa International Airport
you know more about it they rock too

this is a food donation program now it
looks easy enough and they made it easy is

when you're in an airport all the grabbing
goes there's tremendous leftovers excesses

built into the business model because
number one they can't run out of food so

they always do ten percent overage Number
two they need to have variety OK for

their customers number three
quality is essential so

that means twenty four hours
it's off the shelves but

it's very edible still nutritious OK And

on the weekends those go to a program for
the children

who are on the programs at school and over
the weekends don't get a good meal and

that's when those meals go
collaboration is key for

success you know me say this tremendous
amounts of time and that was the official

tagline of the Zero Waste zones and
you'll see throughout here Georgia Tech is

a collaborator you all share this
is the first time I asked Cindy

please will you show me your
let me take bring so and

so here to show they phenomenal recycling
program the all of her written on the.

Little cart with Cindy it's
a trip it's fun OK but

this here this is Tim truss for this is
our first one this is two thousand and

eleven Tim still relatively new
in his position he's now director

director of sustainability for the Georgia
World Congress Center authority and

out of here and Cindy you're going to have
to help me here out of this meeting here

this is the first time Cindy and
tim met they became close friends and

a year later you all hosted it was the
collegiate sports sustainability Yeah so

this is what happens when you collaborate
this is what happens when you say yes and

you share what you were doing then
bigger things happen in that went on for

years and it was the first one was hosted
here at Georgia Tech All right now

I talked about diversion OK and
how diversion rates in the typical

sense diversion means the first
stop after collection.

And that's why they could say diversion
rates increase OK when you're

talking about recycling but what we
care about is the final destination and

when you source separate your material and
you keep it clean what you have

done is you have created a valuable
raw material for the manufacturing

industry and this is what we did
this our partner meetings we had so

much fun back in these days and Cindy
joined us on our two thousand and sixteen

partner tours and the first one they're
getting ready to go into Novellus is a.

Anyone toward the novellas
aluminum recycling plant in

Greensburg Georgia isn't like going
to Hades I mean you're walking around

in there and all of a sudden you look
over there a little flame comes up and

stuff it's really cool but to see at
the beginning this is the aluminum

cans coming in and then at the end you
see the big blocks of aluminum and

they won't little known fact when the
Georgia Dome when they begin the alleged

thousands officials recycling partner
they wouldn't have they couldn't get

the aluminum from the Georgia Dome
because this contamination it's

not Georgia Dome fault it's the system's
fault OK you must keep it separated

they have a very high standard the second
one down there that's proud industries we

should be very honored to have Pratt here
Pratt makes If you see the Home Depot they

may come Depot boxes and a lot of other
boxes that you don't see their name on and

they make them out of one hundred percent
recycled material but what's a lot of

not a lot but quite a few do that but what
they did they came up with a recipe and

you know all of our junk mail
that we get there's a lot of.

Contamination in there OK you
want to use another word and

you have to see huge huge big bales of
this they figured out how to put X.

amount of that mixed paper
into their corrugated

cardboard recipe so
they're hoping keeping that out of Phil's.

Right we do other things we have
are we do a platform approach

product stewardship integrity
throughout the entire product life so

we'll come back to recycling refine and
we'll come back to the other three.

Recycling refinement moving beyond
landfill diversion are you seeing

my point OK recycling integrity now
you're seeing the business here

maintaining maximum material
value with minimal.

Energy expended we have to take into
account the additional labor it does

take additional labor to source separate
your material and separately bêlit but

if you're increasing your bottom
line extra green labels a green

labor is a good thing OK and
if it's extra trucks to pick up and

to go around that must be accounted into
the equation we must be whole a graphic

and what's our definition
of contamination and

expensive trip to
the landfill it's not direct.

Plastic film recycling we were also
besides being the four runners in the food

waste collection we were the four
runners in plastic film recycling and

we were I know I can't put this in writing
but I will say it verbally is we've hosted

up in Charlotte North Carolina with Simon
Property Group the largest commercial real

estate real estate owner and shopping
mall there plastic film recycling and

it's a contaminant single string and
its value exceeds O.C.C.

and this is our zero waste war year and
our tagline there was if it was easy

it would already be done OK plastic film
recycling here either talked about this

they were our sustainable food court
initiative shopping mall pilot

you'll see more on the sustainable food
court initiative they were more about

front of the house were zero waste
sons were about back at the house and

what was fun is the American
Chemistry Council came to me and they

have the plastic film recycling group they
paid me to write about my own programs

last year that was fun I really like that
and that's where supper with his bailer.

Fresh point largest produce
distributor in the nation to and

by Cisco think about the amount of plastic
wrap and think about this with other

deliveries as produce is coming
in it's shrink wrapped in OK as

it's leaving it's shrink wrapped OK
we set up a plastic film recycling

pilot at their Atlanta distribution
center not got a picture of a dry.

Never coming off the truck with
the plastic shrinkwrap from a delivery

he's not leaving his waist behind and
it's not waste it's valuable material and

we made a ten minute video on it that was
fun OK plastic jug recycling I said H.M.S.

host rocked this is back
in two thousand and

eleven they had fifty percent of
the airport food vendor contract OK and

they had nine Starbucks twenty six
hundred milk jugs per week OK and think

that's just nine Starbucks at the Atlanta
airport how many Starbucks Caribous and

other coffee things are around our city
how many milk jugs H D P valuable material

are going to the landfill because they
refuse to get out of the box they just

want to do what they perceive is easier
OK the program broke even to make money

the main Baylor and received ninety
percent zero waste back to the house and

Cindy and Maria came down to the airport
and toured back to the house long with

them transfer with the collaboration
work and then we won a.

Growing green airports Award
in two thousand and eleven for

the groundbreaking contract provision
in the new concession their contract it

required food vendors to use compostable
packaging no one was doing to

universities weren't doing it back then OK
Portland Port Authority Portland Oregon I

was on the phone with him says that
Linda can do it we can OK we got to and.

Then this is National Restaurant
Association senior vice president with

H.M.S. host.

OK the Georgia Dome they were our venue
pilot and we worked the front of the house

and you guys are doing your stadium it's
not easy That front of the house you think

you have all compostable packaging then
you get a group led by someone like me and

you find these are executives that
are in there by the way and we went and

we picked that don't.

We picked a bowl afterwards and
we found all sorts of things that weren't

supposed to be there some were brought in
that lot of it was third party contractors

we also took that collected material and
we took it up to a food waste

composting site into Cohen Georgia made
sure that it broke down and what it

ended up doing is we did a compostable
food and beverage education session for

the whole Levy Restaurants on
the downtown campus Philips Arena.

Mercedes-Benz stadium is under
construction Georgia Dome and

G W C C and we educated them on
what they thought they knew.

OK source separated materials recycling
template I'll just go real quickly

this was because unless
you're a large generator

you are really stuck with single
string but if you use many bales and

we all work together in a collaborative
spirit we can do many bales

onsite all over the place member to
some of those many bills behind the back

of the house at the airport
Starbucks OK we can do this and

all it requires then is to get
a box truck to go around pick up

the materials OK take them to a common
recycling plant rebill into standard

sized Baylor's load them up into a tractor
trailer maximize the weight on it and

sell it directly to a manufacturer or
in the commodities market and

we have it all set up and
the Georgia Dome was the.

Foundation of it we had the triple Baylor
down there you'll see that in a second

that's our first aluminum can
bail down there all right and

that was claim a terrible Novellus could
take that they were partner of ours

at the time all right and
I love that see that bike there that's

a Mercedes Benz general manager Scott
Jenkins bike as we're because he came and

joined us he's a great guy he cares
about sustainability they get this

the Atlanta penitentiary we
have it all lined up with them.

To be our recycling center over there
on the right that's the boys OK and

I loved being down there and you know
some things happened and hopefully some

day we'll be able to come back to this
because everything's documented and

it makes good business sense OK that's
I think contamination is a mistake and

I want you to know you guys rock
when it comes to clean streams OK

you have source separated your
students do excellent jobs at

this these on the right in the left
are out at one of your centers that Maria

took us to and
the one that's really clean impressive is

the glass separated by color that
Cindy said no because it's fear and

many were under-aged so
I don't put it out there I listen and

OK I've already told you about
the total materials management approach

we've got to get out of our boxes we have
to all work together as a community and

not get caught between just those
budget lines OK mission accomplished

on recycling refine I have made I have
a whole section it's a long section

on our website a mission accomplished
because we've done what's important to

do there we've set up the systems I'm not
going to go out and deal with the apathy

of I don't want change we've set it up we
have the systems that are easy to do and

but it's always available under
Hollioake Comins consulting

all right airborne kitchen
grease I have to take a drink.

This is a proactive approach
to a costly kitchen byproduct

Jala been in kitchens whether your own or
you've been in commercial kitchens and

there's a tremendous amount of grease that
is produced when you're sauteeing your

frying in that and it goes up we call it
airborne kitchen grease what happens is it

comes up and you have kitchen exhaust
systems systems OK and they are regular.

It's and you must have them in and you
must clean them it's for fire protection

OK well what happens is a certain amount
of that gets caught on the baffle filters

baffle baffling flames then that's only
ten percent goes up into your dock system

that's a fire hazard all that grease up
there then you're going to see in a minute

let me show you here all disco ahead lets
a roof damage that's three months after.

Just use their Then this one is after they
put in our system which talks playing

in the minute and cleans off the roof and

you'll hear also in a minute that the
Atlanta airport did proved a campus wide.

Airborne kitchen grease initiative
because of roof damage OK but

the other thing is employee safety
OK A lot of I've heard horror stories

of the employees getting up on the
equipment to take a bath will filter down

the grease is still really hot in their
legs slips in OK It's horrible you don't

ever really recover from that OK you
have the fire damage we talked about but

the thing I care about because remember on
the big picture gallery right when you go

and you clean those kitchen exhaust
systems you're putting a tremendous

amount of grease Laden toxic because
it takes toxic chemical agents

into our sewer systems OK and
it congeals down there and

we've got lots of problems so that's where
I you know I only have like a minute and

a half so we're going to go through
this and my passion I finally get to

go to my passion when people vast me all
over the years why do you do this why have

you dedicated your life well my life is
dedicated to the water and soil microbial

communities we must get them back
to a healthy balance active stay.

In order for humanity to survive and
thrive I mean it's just factual all right

and so finally because we have
basically jumped ship from

over here with zero waste sounds and
recycling refinement creating supply for

compost here creating demand and

soil health regenerating the foundation of
life we announce a Summer is the primary

focus and I want to talk a hyacinth later
because carbon sequestration I'm going to

send you an article I wrote on the carbon
crisis merely a matter of balance and

it introduces the urban carbon
sink concept you guys could be

such incredible heroes merely
by implementing compost it is so

incredible farm tours you'll hear more
about that at another juncture macro cost

of micro contamination you all hear about
all the plastics in the oceans right

it's in our soils to people don't talk
about it because it's down below.

And.

Action took to intrust for on two farm
tours this year and up to Kennesaw State

was one of them with the hickory grove
farms they have there and he got so

inspired he found a third of an acre on
the Georgia World Congress Center campus

and they're going to do many farm there
with regenerative agriculture practices

what can Georgia Tech do what kind of farm
can you all do Southern farming gardens

I have this article I am I am officially
a photojournalist Now this is a seven page

spread in southern farming garden with my
photography my writing in my research and

first articles about Kennesaw State and
the things that they're doing and

then the next seven pages is
about Hickory Grove farm and

how they rejuvenated Department of
Transportation compact and land so

let's see I'd like to put the challenge
out there what can we do with

Georgia Tech How can I
go sell another article.

OK I'd like to do that OK and
we're hosting a conference put the U.S.

composting conference with a really
powerful compost empowering role

in sustainable soils so
I know I'm over my things I'm sorry OK and

I'm no questions but I'm going to be on
the panel and I'll be here afterwards and

I love to answer questions.