Reducing waste is not only good for the environment - it’s also great for your bottom line.  Targeting excess consumption is the first step.  You save money when you initially cut back on purchases of unnecessary supplies and materials, and later on when less waste needs to be collected and hauled away.  Reducing consumption requires an examination of all areas of spending, looking for ways to reduce expenditures and increase efficiency, and establishing purchasing guidelines for employees to follow.

Launching a corporate waste reduction program also has its rewards; however, to be effective, it must be comprehensive.  Waste reduction consultants can look at all areas of your business, determining where you can reduce, reuse, recycle and even compost.  Their expert inspections will look at all aspects of your operations – Do employees print double-sided copies?  Are memos distributed electronically?  Are blue recycling bins located in prime areas?  Can office supplies be reused?  Do dining facilities provide durable or disposable dishes, cups and utensils?  Is garbage properly separated to optimize composting of food scraps and recycling of cardboard, paper, toner cartridges, food & beverage containers?  Is recycling easy and convenient for employees and janitorial staff?  Are you receiving the best service possible from your waste collection company?

To learn how your business can reduce waste and save money, request a Free Consultation from iReuse Business Sustainability Consulting.

-Jim Christianson,
iReuse LLC

The iReuse blog has been neglected for many months because we have been extremely busy with clients and because our business has continued to evolve.  I guess posting on the evolution of the company would be valuable as well but as a growing company, resources are limited.  We initially launched the blog to promote stories about our clients who were helping the community and the environment by selling or donating their surplus through iReuse instead of sending it all to the landfill.  We also love to highlighting the many nonprofits who have benefited over the years.  Now, we have so many projects and clients that it is difficult to highlight them all.   Our green clients now include Wells Fargo, Salesforce.com, PG&E, Adobe, Mountain Hardware, Camelbak, Whole Foods, Safeway, Union Bank, Delta Dental, Skyline Construction, and many , many more.   We absolutely love having such an outstanding customer base and look forward to continuing to expand our services to meet our customers needs.  There will be a lot more news to come in the near future and we promise to post to the blog more regularly for all those people that have told me that they check our blog regularly for updates.

Best Wishes,

Ken

Thank you to the San Francisco Daily Candy for letting your readers know about iReuse. To see a copy of the article or to learn more about the Daily Candy you can go to http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francisco/article/34487 .

This is a great video all about the life cycle of stuff from extraction to disposal and what is really behind our consumer nation. It is very well done and hits on a lot of very important points that most consumers may not be aware of.

Just click on this link to go right to the video.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The following TV episode by ABC is very interesting.
There is a lot of data flying around about how much material is diverted from the landfill by counties, primarily as a result of their recycling efforts. There is a state wide mandate in California to divert at least 50% of waste and in Marin we boast 70%+ diversion but there are some loop holes in the laws as you can see from this video. I believe that data and accountability are key and as environmental awareness and activities increase we will hold businesses, governments, and individuals to a higher standard. I believe this TV segment is a great example of our increased standards, expectations, and accountability.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/media?id=5793831

I was just at a launch party last week for my good friend Tracey who is the President of a new company called Microplace ( http://www.microplace.com ) . It is a great company, actually acquired by eBay (go Tracey), which allows you to invest in micro loans to third world countries where a $50 loan could mean the start of a flourishing new business in chicken farming or some other venture which means prosperity and the end of poverty for so many.

You also get a small return on your investment while you are at it so it makes it a fairly easy way to invest your money wisely and sustainably. We don’t usually use this blog to promote services but I think that Microplace and what they are trying to accomplish is so amazing that I had to spread the word.

Each time I facilitate a project for Autodesk I wonder if they truly know how many Schools, Youth Groups, Housing Centers for the Poor or Troubled, Research Societies for diseases of all types, Music and Art Groups, Museums, Animal Groups, Libraries, Conservation Groups, Environmental Groups, and International Services they are supporting.  

Since I have Autodesk as a client and oversee each project, I may be the only one who actually witnesses the hundreds of thank yous received, the teary eyed pick-ups, the hugs received, those that jump up-and-down (really!), and the excited “this is just what we needed!” comments.

I know that Autodesk saves hauling, dumping, and storage fees; and reduces TONS of greenhouse gases but in addition I hope you can tell, that they support and help A TON of people as well.  Bravo Autodesk!

ARISE High School, a small new charter school in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, will open its doors to its inaugural class of 110 students at the end of August.  ARISE is a collaboration between the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), Mills College, and Oakland Community Organizations, and will focus on preparing low-income students to be the first in their families to attend college.  In addition, ARISE will ultimately serve as a training center for CES and Mills College to prepare adults for careers in teaching.

iReuse has recently been working with ARISE’s Director of Operations, Raul Villagomez, to outfit a large part of the new building with modern furniture for its classrooms and offices.  ARISE will be receiving many great donations from iReuse clients around the Bay Area, including desks, chairs, classroom tables, and filing cabinets.  This is a great example of how the simple act of reuse can benefit so many deserving students, and ultimately the community!

Thanks to all of the corporate donors who have made this possible! 

 �

Surfs Up! iReuse recently finished its first large project in Santa Cruz! 

Greater Bay Bank Carmel, a division of Coast Commercial Bank, was recently faced with the problem of having an entire bank filled with furniture that was no longer being used, but in excellent condition.  With iReuse’s help, Greater Bay Bank generously donated over 250 cubic yards of great office furniture to 18 different Santa Cruz area non-profits!  In the meantime, they were able to keep 97 tons of greenhouse gases out of our atmosphere!

A few of the happy non-profits include O’Neill Sea Odyssey, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz.

When I walk into my meetings with the Salesorce.com team I always appreciate such a great sense of passion, enthusiasm, and sustainability that seams to emanate from all around.  I know that may sound a little cheesy but I don’t even think my words really do them justice. 

Even in communications from Marc Benioff it is crystal clear that the company is committed to providing a sustainable and healthy work environment as well as being a sustainable partner in the greater community of the Bay Area and beyond.  It seams like every meetings I have with them, we are exploring ways to work together and be more sustainable, more innovative, and more resourceful to ensure that we are both being as environmentally and socially responsible as possible at all times.  To date we have reused 7.02 Tons of Material and eliminated 33.98 Metric Tons of Greenhouse gases with Salesforce.com and this is just the beginning.

Salesforce.com constantly keeps me on my toes and pushes us to be better every day and I think that is what I appreciate most.  I appreciate the fact that two years from now, iReuse will still be striving to innovate on a daily basis because of clients like Salesforce.com that expect/demand nothing but the best solutions.  I believe this same demand for excellence is exactly what has made Salesforce.com the leader in the CRM industry and I appreciate their insistence on the same standard of excellence from us.

Ken

A 5-year-old in my town recently saw the African Childrens Choir (a wonderful multinational group comprised uniquely of orphans) and the exprience touched him so deeply that he began his own a campaign to help families in need. His plan … to sell off some of his most treasured possessions in order to buy livestock through Heifer International for a family living in poverty!!! Friends and neighbors got to share his dream to help others through creative reuse.

Well, we almost got to the point of sitting on each others laps in the old office so this new space could not have come at a better time.  Our Head Quarters is now in beautiful Corte Madera and we have about 4 bike paths within a stones throw of the office.  We will be sure to post some pictures of the happy team in our new digs.  �

This was a great week for iReuse.  We were selected for the 2007 Acterra Business Environmental Awards which is an amazing honor.  Not only is this a wonderful honor but we are also being honored along with Adobe Systems, Farella Braun + Martel LLP, Genentech, Inc. Applied Materials, and Kimptoon Hotels.  It’s wonderful to be identified in the same league as these companies and can’t wait to be at the awards ceremony on June 7th.

Who do you call when you have tons of conference chairs and are getting new ones?  iReuse of course!  One of our recent projects was for over two hundred conference chairs specifically…and each one was reused, helping over 6 nonprofits.  Over 22.8 Metric tons of CO2e diverted on this little project alone.   Keep it going reusers!

In February we easily passed through our diversion goal of over 1 Million pounds of material diverted from the landfill!  This amount is for REUSED material only and does not include recycling, which is very impressive.   I’m very excited because one of our account managers is the person who put us over the 1 millionth mark and is the lucky winner of the “1 Million pound prize” to be awarded in our office.  The lucky winner will be announced soon!

Well, I have been so busy that I have not even had time to post to the iReuse Blog which I guess is a good thing.  We had a fun weekend though so I thought I would post something although we have had so many amazing developments over the last couple months I feel like I am short changing all the other amazing Reuse stories.  Any way, this weekend I was a guest on KGO radio which was a lot of fun.  Here is the link to listen  http://www.ireuse.com/upload/iReuse_on_KGORadio2.wav .  Here I am below with my big headphones in the studio.  I was told they have over 100,000 listeners which is amazing.  I have in my calendar to post a full update on iReuse next Monday to let everyone know ho thins are going and our growth over the last 3 months.

We had a set of little orange chairs on one of my projects that I just had to write about!  They were the most popular item from any of my projects to date.  I received a lot of requests for them and they were in excellent condition.  Please see the photo below.  Who knew our users were so retro?!  Now I know what you like!  You can visit the chairs at the Haight Ashbury Food Program - the lucky donation recipient of all 5 chairs.

This week I received the following message from a local school administrator and iReuse friend:  “Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help in getting us much needed chairs, desks, whiteboards, and office supplies. The Staff here is very excited about the new furniture!” 

Thank you for sharing!  Facilitating Reuse and helping our schools feels great!�

iReuse appreciates the kind words of Maria Lane, another fellow in the reuse revolution.

“I just read your article in Marin Green and I don’t even know you, but I was so proud of you. You are doing what I have done all my life, but much faster and more efficiently. I always liked helping people and I thought I was doing a good job, but you did it much better. Sorry that I am going on and on about how much I like what you are doing, but it is true. Helping people and recycling is a beautiful thing. You are great!!”

Case Study: IBM’s representative in SOMA called us to see if we could find new homes on-the-fly for 30 satellite radio receivers, 300 logo polo shirts, dozens of notepads, folders and trade show swag. iReuse responded in less than an hour to address the problem!!! You just solved “a hundred headaches,” said the client. For a fraction of the cost of disposing of these items or moving them to a new location, iReuse sold the radios and will donate the proceeds to charity on IBM’s behalf and had the shirts, office supplies and swag picked up by 2 very happy nonprofit organizations!!!