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When I established Contento Recycling LLC in 2017, it was poised to be Central New York’s first ever construction and demolition debris recycling business. I was tasked with the challenge that many sustainability professionals are tasked with and that was to show the community why they should stop taking their construction debris to the landfill, and instead bring it to my recycling center for processing, recycling, and landfill diversion. Over the last several years I applied for state grant funding, spread awareness about my new business, designed and constructed a material recovery facility, outfitted equipment, and trained staff. I now have a facility that accepts about 40 tons of mixed C&D debris per day, and diverts about 20% of that from the landfill.
On a more personal level, I learned a tremendous amount about dealing with change management. I’ve learned a lot about business development, and some keys to success when building a business. I’ve figured out how to help my employees and customers grow. I’ve learned to be more patient and flexible with my business endeavors. I have a much clearer vision of what I want for my business and for myself. I have developed a rousing optimism on the impact that my business, and myself can have on the sustainable development of Central New York. I will be a leader in environmental stewardship and partner with other people and organizations who want to work towards a more sustainable future.
One solution to the problems of poor air quality in Phoenix, Arizona and global climate change is to alter the way the population uses transportation. In the US, around one-fifth of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are due to cars and trucks used for transportation and the increasing level of CO2 emissions is exacerbating our impact on the climate and is causing a shift in climate. By switching from combustion engine vehicles to public transportation, electric vehicles, or going entirely vehicle-less, the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere every day will be decreased and overall air quality within cities will improve. If public transportation, riding a bicycle or walking is not an option, electric vehicles (EVs) are ideal as a lower-carbon emitting option over traditional combustion engines when they are recharged using renewable energy sources, like solar.
To encourage the adoption of EVs, this project pushed to overcome a few of the traditional barriers to adoption – initial cost, charging station infrastructure, and education about EVs. First, charging infrastructure was installed on all four ASU campuses. Then, to discover the biggest barriers to EV adoption, a literature review was conducted to develop a general understanding of barriers which guided the creation of survey questions. This survey was distributed to all staff and faculty at ASU (over 9,500 individuals) and received over 1,400 responses. To begin building the EV program at ASU, other universities with EV programs were interviewed to learn best practices and to understand what is most effective in encouraging EV adoption on campus. The responses determined that ASU needs to:
1. Install more charging stations on campus.
2. Offer premium parking for EV/hybrid users or a discounted parking pass or free charging.
3. Add charging stations to ASU interactive map.
4. Develop an incentive program with EV dealerships.
The project built partnerships with EV dealerships to lower the initial costs associated with buying and leasing EVs. Finally, to increase awareness of EVs, the dealership partners brought EVs to campus for a demonstration day paired with Earth Day. The ASU EV program will reduce barriers to EV adoption to help reduce CO2 emissions related to transportation at the ASU campuses and improve city air quality.
The American food system creates a significant amount of waste and relies on significant energy, land, and freshwater inputs, accounting for a large amount of the United States GHG emissions (US EPA, 2009). Across the supply chain, a total of 40-50% of all food is not consumed. Reducing food waste is a way to decrease the impacts of the food system across the supply chain. At present, restaurants do not know of options available to them to mitigate their food waste and decrease their impact on climate change. For this project I partnered with Local First Arizona to use food recovery, or donating unused food to organizations that serve food insecure people, as an attempt to close the loop between the food that is being wasted and those who struggle to meet their caloric needs. The restaurants at Devour Culinary Classic, a weekend long food festival in Phoenix, AZ, received information about food donation and were prompted to donate at the end of the event. In total, 24 restaurants donated food, diverting 500 pounds of food, or 7% of all diverted waste, from the event’s waste stream. Donations were given to refugees recently released from ICE custody through a partnership with Arizona Jews for Justice. Following the event, recommendations on how to improve the project in future years were given to Local First Arizona in the categories of organization & logistics, marketing, communication, financial, and sustainability. A diffusion of innovation framework was used to identify the barriers faced by restaurants and analyzed how food festivals are a way to overcome those barriers.
Domestic energy is an important component of our day to day lives and is something we cannot live without. Imagine how life would be without a means to cook our food, to warm our house, life would be unbearable. As we enjoy these comforts rarely do we stop to think what the opportunity cost is. For those using renewable sources, it is not a big issue, but for those who rely on wood fuel, they have to strike a delicate balance between need for fuel and the need to conserve the greatest support systems of their livelihoods, the forests. The main source of energy for households in many developing countries is biomass, mainly from forests and woodlands. The continued use of firewood and charcoal fuel puts a strain on forests, resulting in adverse effects on the environment such as prolonged droughts, loss of biodiversity, dwindling water resources, changing weather patterns among other sustainability challenges. An alternative to firewood to charcoal lies in biochar briquettes. This paper discusses the role of biochar briquettes in mitigating climate change and serves as a step by step guide on how biochar briquettes may be produced.