Create a Better Tomorrow

1. Help San Diego be Zero Waste by 2015 Create a Better Tomorrow

2. Thanks to our Sponsors…

3. Stephanie Barger Stephanie Barger is the founder and Executive Director of Earth Resource Foundation (ERF) which teaches environmental responsibility where you live, work and play. ERF has three programs which focus on business, youth and the community. Miss Barger has developed successful campaigns as varied as saving the “best shopping street in Orange County”, protecting a native park, smokefree beaches, saving the electric “Toyota Rav 4”, and encouraging alternative and sustainable packaging. By providing the community with the consequences of our current daily practices and sustainable solutions, Miss Barger is grateful for the opportunity to share her experience with our youth, business and community. Barger received a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from San Diego State University. She then pursued a career with KPMG Peat Marwick as a CPA and Management Consultant. Her past employment includes computer analyst, real estate and mortgage broker, corporate trainer and fashion designer. Through her volunteering, she helped start over 5 nonprofits. Her nonprofit background includes homelessness, child abuse, at-risk youth and the environment.

4. Leonard E. Robinson Riverside resident Leonard E. Robinson was appointed to the position of Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in September of 2004. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Robinson was the Environmental/Safety Manager at TAMCO Steel in Rancho Cucamonga, California’s only steel mill. He has over thirty (30) years experience in the environmental management field. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He has three children attending college at Tuskegee University and UC Santa Barbara. As Chief Deputy Director of DTSC, Mr. Robinson oversees the day-to-day operation: Office of Legal Affairs; Hazardous Waste Management and Statewide Compliance Program; Site Mitigation and Brownfields Reuse Program; External Affairs; Legislative Affairs; and the Science, Pollution Prevention and Technologies Program. Mr. Robinson’s past and present activities include: • Scholarship; Opportunities; Achievement and Responsibility (S.O.A.R.) – Board Member • Community Alliance Network (CAN) – Board Member • California Waste Association (CWA) – Board Member • Public Broadcast Station WETA Advisory Board Member • Steel Manufacturers Association Environment Committee - Chair • Chaffey College Environmental Technology Program Advisory Committee • City of Moreno Valley Ecological Protection Advisory Committee • Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) Industry • Principal of UC Riverside Saturday Academy • Chair of the Moreno Valley Ecological Protection Committee • Adjunct Instructor for Environmental Technology at Chaffey Community College • Radio Talk Show Host for Station KTIE 590 AM While at TAMCO Steel, Mr. Robinson started a program that allowed used oil filters to be recycled into steel reinforcing bar (rebar) for use in the construction industry. Another recycling program started my him was Project Isaiah…a program where firearms delivered by southern California law enforcement agencies were melted and recycled in to rebar. The Department of Toxic Substances Control’s mission is to restore, protect and enhance the environment, to ensure public health, environmental quality and economic vitality, by regulating hazardous waste, conducting and overseeing cleanups, and developing and promoting pollution prevention. Approximately 1,000 scientists, engineers and specialized support staff work in nine offices statewide. DTSC is a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).

5. Linda Christopher

6. Gary Liss Gary Liss (Moderator/Committee Member) Mr. Liss has over 30 years of experience in the solid waste and recycling field. Gary Liss is now President of Gary Liss & Associates. He was a founder and past President of the National Recycling Coalition and was Solid Waste Manager for the City of San Jose, CA. In San Jose, Mr. Liss developed their recycling programs into national models, which are currently diverting 62% of the overall waste stream. He is a leading advocate of Zero Waste, and a special Zero Waste advisor to the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN). For the GRRN, he has documented Zero Waste Businesses, developed Zero Waste business principles (see http://www.grrn.org/zerowaste/business/) and is helping to develop their Zero Waste Communities Project. He helped write Zero Waste Plans for Del Norte County, CA, Nelson, British Columbia and Palo Alto, CA. He helped organize the Global Recycling Council International Dialog on Proper Discard Management in San Francisco on August 26-27, 2004, and the GRRN Zero Waste Network Action Conference in Oakland on August 28, 2004. He also helped write a Zero Waste Communities Strategy for the Zero Waste Task Force of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. He is also on the Planning Group for the new Zero Waste International Alliance (www.zwia.org) and a Board member of the new CA Resource Management Training Institute. Mr. Liss previously worked as Executive Director for the California Resource Recovery Association, Resource Recovery Director for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, West Coast Director for a national solid waste consulting firm, Assistant Administrator for Alternative Technologies for the New Jersey Department of Energy and Environmental Programs Manager for the City of Newark, New Jersey. He has a Masters in Public Administration from Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering major) from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.

7. Nancy Strauss Nancy Strauss is the Resource Conservation Coordinator at the Del Mar Fairgrounds where she has worked for 21 years. Nancy has spearheaded the recycling program since 1989 working with management, staff, and lessees toward a Board of Directors adopted goal of Zero Waste. The Fairgrounds is a California State Agency and encompasses over 400 acres off the Coast in San Diego County. The Fairgrounds has over 3 million visitors annually and has long been a leader in large venue recycling. In 2005, 26,566 tons of discards including deconstruction tonnage, food waste, cardboard and a variety of other materials were diverted from the landfill. This represents over a 91% diversion rate and saves the Fairgrounds over $1 million dollars annually. The program has received grant funding for equipment from the Department of Conservation and the California Integrated Waste Management Board totaling over $110,000. It has won numerous awards including the 2005 Western Fairs Association coveted Merrill Award for Superior Achievement in Recycling and Resource Conservation Programs.

8. Sue Beets Sue Beets, Regional Solid Waste Manager Bringing 13 years of solid waste management and recycling experience to the organization, Sue has directly overseen more than 690 million pounds of material recycled in her career. She has successfully designed and implemented many large and complex recycle programs for several Fortune 500 companies across the country. Sue is constantly “reinventing” systems for better efficiencies and started SBM’s own, internal recycling training program. Career Highlights: Increased Recycling diversion rate from 72 percent to 94 percent for a Fortune 500 company. Successfully managed the Solid Waste transition at the Richmond HP location including handling more than 1 million pounds a month. Increased diversion from 53% to 93% Successfully implemented solid waste changes at three large operations (Bay, Houston and San Diego) in conjunction with custodial change out Increased diversion in our current HP portfolio to 90.3% for FY05

9. Renee Robertson Renee Robertson, grew up in Southern California, but spent her high school years in Canada and Montana, nurturing her love, knowledge, and respect of nature. Entering college she was set to become a biologist, however, the long indoor hours at the lab didn’t fit her personality, so she decided to study philosophy and theology. During her undergraduate work Renee studied in Kenya and Indonesia giving her first hand experience in community development. After graduation, Renee taught science at an outdoor education program and realized her love of teaching. Now, Renee gets the enjoyment of mixing all her passions as she leads and develops the recycling program at Point Loma Nazarene University, and concurrently finishes her M.A. in Theology.

10. Martin Diedrich Martin Diedrich grew up in Guatemala where his family owned a small coffee farm. In 1983, Martin left behind a blossoming career in Mayan archeology and came to Costa Mesa to help his parents with their small custom coffee roastery. During that year his vision emerged to create community meeting places where folks could gather and enjoy his family’s high quality coffee. He founded the first Diedrich Coffee coffeehouse in Costa Mesa in 1984. Under Martin’s direction, Diedrich Coffee grew to nearly a dozen locations over the next ten years and earned the reputation as “The Best Coffeehouses in Orange County.” These original coffeehouses were exciting, creative hives of activity and the most popular gathering places in their respective neighborhoods. In September of 1996, Diedrich Coffee went public. Today there are more than 30 Diedrich Coffeehouses in California, Colorado and Texas. Martin Diedrich is now considered one of the pioneers of the coffeehouse phenomenon. Martin has been a Master Roaster for 21 years and is an internationally recognized coffee expert. In 2005 Martin was presented with the Specialty Coffee Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, an award only bestowed on a handful of other individuals, including, Alfred Peet the founder of Peet's Coffee, Jerry Baldwin the founder of Starbuck's, George Howell the founder of Coffee Connection in Boston, Dr. Illy the family patriarch of the Illy Coffee. In June of 2004, Martin resigned his position at Diedrich Coffee, and began to manifest a new vision: a state-of-the-art, cutting edge coffeehouse that would bring back the community feeling, coffee connoisseurship, and cultural atmosphere of his early Diedrich coffeehouses, as well as embrace his ideal that businesses should model community and global responsibility and awareness, both environmental and cultural. In December of 2005, Martin and his wife Karen opened the doors of Kean Coffee in Newport Beach, California. Named for their only son, Kean, Kean Coffee is just a stones throw from the first location where Martin had originally joined his parents Carl and Inga. Kean Coffee has already developed a loyal following of customers with its high quality artisan coffees fresh roasted onsite daily by Martin himself, in a world-class roaster built and manufactured by his brother Stephan Diedrich in Sandpoint Idaho. Through Kean Coffee, Martin Diedrich is taking his community coffeehouse vision to the next level.

11. Wayne Williams Dr. Wayne Williams is the Recycling Program Coordinator for the County of San Diego.  He has worked for many years using organic vegetative residues and manures to compost with cooperating farmers and communities in nineteen countries, most recently Tajikistan, Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova, as well as many Latin American countries.  One goal of his is to reduce organic refuse loads going into landfills by convincing people to produce less biomass waste.  Dr. Williams has authored about 250 articles, more than 100 in the scientific and governmental presses.  

12. Curt Smith Curt is the manager of refuse, recycling, and Intex for Vons A Safeway Company. He is responsible for one of the largest and most innovative supermarket recycling programs in the country. Mr. Smith oversees the receiving and redistribution of more than a quarter million tons of recyclable and reusable material each year. Furthermore, he is responsible for Vons 360,000 square foot overflow and holiday facility. Mr. Smith is currently enjoying his 30th year with Vons.

13. David Loring David Loring lives in Escondido, California and is owner of Phero Asia LLC, which provides pheromone based insect control products for the Asia Pacific region. He graduated from Cal Poly State University in 1977 with a Bachelor’s in Soil Science and has since worked as an agronomist and horticulturalist in California and abroad. Before coming to Tierra Miguel Foundation to initiate the soil conservation and mulching project he was project leader for the Dietrick Institute’s biocontrol program in Southeast Asia. At the Tierra Miguel Foundation farm he conducts infiltration and evaporation studies on mulch products in cooperation with UC Cooperative Extension, San Diego and consults on soil fertility and insect management for Tierra Miguel’s 84 acre organic, CCOF Certified vegetable farm. David has witnessed, first hand, the results of lost soil fertility when organic matter inputs are not maintained and is working with local farmers in the Pauma Valley area to connect farm operators with mulch generators while answering farmer concerns on the benefits and limitations of using off-farm mulch and compost products.

14. Susanne Zechiel Susanne Zechiel oversees the environmental programs for the Brown-Forman Corporation California Wine Group. This includes Fetzer Vineyards as well as Bonterra, Jekel, 5 Rivers, and Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards. Joining Fetzer Vineyards in 1997, Susanne initially worked on projects that proved that environmental issues were not in conflict with business performance and worked with then President Paul Dolan on demonstrating the “triple bottom line.” In 2004, Susanne stepped into her current role managing environmental compliance activities as well as pushing the wine group’s sustainability initiatives forward. She also manages the Trucking Department, but that’s another story. Susanne has a Bachelors degree from UCLA in Geography/Ecosystems Analysis and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and a Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) from Duke University. Over her career she has worked for the California Department of Water Resources, the environmental consulting firm of Michael Brandman Associates, and as the Interim EHS Manager for Sprint Mid-Atlantic.

15. Gunter Pauli Catch the excitement of internationally-known, environmental innovator Gunter Pauli. Gunter Pauli will engage attendees with his keynote presentation on "Adding Value to the Bottom Line and Eliminating Air, Water and Land Emissions." In 1994, Gunter established an organization called 'Zero Waste and Emissions Research and Initiatives.' The acronym was later shortened to ZERI, but 'zero waste' remains a central principle.ZERI has demonstrated in projects around the world over the past 12  years how we can do so much more with what nature provides, inspired by nature and applying a systems approach to solving problems. Gunter Pauli is fluent in 7 languages, and has written 12 books which have been published in 15 languages.  In his book "Upsizing," Mr. Pauli highlights many examples of businesses where the waste of one company has become the raw material for others.  Materials others view as worthless cascade into a stream of new processes, new products, and new wealth, with  companies that were previously considered unrelated clustering together.In Gaviotas, Colombia, he is working to expand their pioneering efforts of rainforest reforestation with a major corporate investment firm to grow 250,000 acres of rainforest in the next 4 years.  In Japan, he established a major investment fund for growing biomimicry companies into mainstream businesses. Gunter Pauli has also launched an educational initiative, with his book "Out of the Box."  His book builds on the ancient tradition of story telling, includes 36 "fables" which teach over 1,000 key scientific and natural principles in amusing tales of animals and their behavior.  This summer, Mr. Pauli trained over 100 teachers on this initiative in San Diego and Los Angeles schools. Through this initiative, he highlights how each person can make a difference by the way they live their lives and contribute to the world.

16. Gary Liss Gary Liss (Moderator/Committee Member) has over 30 years of experience in the solid waste and recycling field. Gary Liss is now President of Gary Liss and Associates. He was a founder and past President of the National Recycling Coalition and was Solid Waste Manager for the City of San Jose, CA. In San Jose, Mr. Liss developed their recycling programs into national models, which are currently diverting 62% of the overall waste stream. He is a leading advocate of Zero Waste, and a special Zero Waste advisor to the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN). For the GRRN, he has documented Zero Waste Businesses, developed Zero Waste business principles (see http://www.grrn.org/zerowaste/business/) and is helping to develop their Zero Waste Communities Project. He helped write Zero Waste Plans for Del Norte County, CA, Nelson, British Columbia and Palo Alto, CA. He helped organize the Global Recycling Council International Dialog on Proper Discard Management in San Francisco on August 26-27, 2004, and the GRRN Zero Waste Network Action Conference in Oakland on August 28, 2004. He also helped write a Zero Waste Communities Strategy for the Zero Waste Task Force of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. He is also on the Planning Group for the new Zero Waste International Alliance (www.zwia.org) and a Board member of the new CA Resource Management Training Institute.

17. Help San Diego be Zero Waste by 2015 Create a Better Tomorrow

18. Thanks to our Sponsors…