Zero Waste Initiative for Businesses, Heather Johnson – Ingenium

heather johnson

[00:00:00] Heather Johnson: , We're all fighting for the same talent on our teams and the younger generation more than anybody wants to work for a company that's doing the right thing. And the right thing is, inclusive of protecting our environment

[00:00:30] Catherine: Hello there. I'm Catherine, your host of this variety show podcast. Your positive imprint is transforming how we live today for a more sustainable tomorrow through education and information. Your own positive actions inspire change. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, your positive imprint. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Visit my website, your positive imprint.com and learn more about the podcast and sign up for email updates.

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Heather Johnson. Well, she's more than an entrepreneur. She's taken Ingenium, and you'll hear more about Ingenium from Heather here in a moment, but she helped build it for us today for a better tomorrow with her approach to sustainability and waste management. She's here to share her positive imprints and her 25 years with her Zero Waste Initiative experience.

As CEO. She oversees the certification process for companies who are seeking solutions to waste management. That is brilliant, Heather. Absolutely brilliant. So in a nutshell, Ingenium's team, named, and this is such a great name, Destination Zero Team, specializes in guiding organizations toward waste reduction and sustainable operational excellence.

So I won't get into all of the different certifications that Ingenium assists with, but I do want to mention some. And, I am telling you it is so incredibly interesting to read about these different certifications, and I'm happy to bring these to you.

TRUE, T R U E, which stands for Total Resource Use and Efficiency. This certification is a zero waste certification that promotes sustainable resource management and reduction practices to improve environmental, and environmental, Health and economic outcomes. So basically, if the company has a TRUE certification, then that company is working to change the way materials flow through society.

And that's us. That is us. So they're trying to divert waste from the landfills, and . from incinerators, etc. Another certification is UL. Of course, we know this stands for Underwriters Laboratories, or Underwriters Laboratories. And that is Zero Waste to Landfill and Landfill Waste Diversion Claim Validations recognize companies that are handling their waste in environmentally responsible and innovative ways.

There's also a database, Green Circle Database, in which you can start looking for different companies around the world who have different certifications. Again, as CEO, Heather Johnson oversees the certification process,

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[00:03:51] Catherine: Heather, there's so much about you and so much for a better tomorrow that you're bringing us today. Thank you for being here on the show.

[00:04:00] Heather Johnson: Thank you, Catherine. I'm excited to be here today.

[00:04:03] Catherine: I am too, and I have all sorts of questions, and I know that you have answers, and you have Such an incredible past and let's start first with Heather and who you are and why you wanted to move towards waste management.

[00:04:19] Heather Johnson: Sure. I don't know that I ever thought I wanted to move toward waste management. It just kind of happened early, early, early on in my career. And while I was going to school, answering phones for a waste management company, one opportunity just led to another. And here we are 25 plus years later. But I do want to say that along the way, it's been such an amazing experience that I've never thought about doing anything else.

And it's such a dynamic, , environment and space with sustainability over the years becoming more of a buzzword, almost too much of a buzzword now. But what we've been able to do in the waste management space, In line with sustainability and zero waste.

Ingenium at its core is a waste management, uh, transportation and disposal company. We work with businesses that use chemicals in their processes and um, no longer have a use for them. Then we have to figure out how to dispose of them. Traditionally, disposal has been incineration or landfill. And as time has gone by, 25 years ago, we weren't looking at sustainability and recycling and zero waste to the extent we are today.

And to tell you the truth, I think maybe even only 10 years ago did this really start to get some traction. And even still then, only in recent years has business really taken more initiative globally to to do more, it costs more in a lot of sense. And so businesses, it impacts their profitability and they have to weigh, the environment and sustainability and all these things to their bottom line and making sure they can sustain their business at the same time.

So it's a it's a balancing act. And Ingenium, Back in 2008, I think when we had that financial crisis, a lot of businesses went out of business because they couldn't get funding to stay in business and they would purge brand new chemicals, tons and tons and tons. The chemicals were going to incineration mostly, but the landfills too.

And it was like, Oh my gosh, we have to do something about this. There's got to be a better way than taking this stuff. Inventory. Of think about a chemistry lab, maybe in college or high school with all the little chemicals just going for waste. So that's where we as a company first started looking at, what else can we do?

Can we repurpose some of this stuff to a company that's still in business? They can use these materials in their processes and then even save on acquiring new inventory. So it was, that was the beginning for us, but it wasn't well received way back then because of the cost. So now as, as we've moved into this, uh, 2024, it's really being embraced much more positively and people are working together to do more of this as a whole.

[00:07:19] Catherine: Do you see that they actually are working together as a whole or is there legislation that forces them to do that? Or is it by choice?

[00:07:29] Heather Johnson: I think it's more a societal push.

[00:07:33] Catherine: Okay.

The legislation is ever changing in making things more challenging for businesses in the way of managing waste. More things are regulated and can't be put in your trash but I don't know that regulation is forcing recycling over landfill or incineration It's people who want to do something want to protect our environment. The future of our environment and what else can we do? And this, this even, um, goes upstream. The waste is the end, the end product, but upstream looking at vendors and suppliers and saying, what else can we do in terms of the manufacturing of these things to make them less toxic, the packaging of these things, to make it, to make less waste as a whole, not even including just the hazardous chemical piece of it.

So I would say it's. It's everybody, uh, not, not necessarily regulation, even though regulation is there.

I'm so glad to hear that because that is how we really want to see the future moving is in the direction that we know it really has to go in in order to preserve tomorrow. Your goal is zero waste , how are you working to expand on that with the companies? How do you get them on board?

[00:08:55] Heather Johnson: It's challenging for sure, because just like I described, it's everybody in this effort to do things better. If you go into an individual business, then, you know, each business is doing things differently. And so you go into a business and you say, what are you guys doing? And, and again, this spans beyond hazardous chemical waste.

This is All waste.

A lot of businesses don't know what they're doing. They don't know at the, , desktop level, what is going into the trash cans, if they have trash cans in each individual's office or at their desk. And, , beyond that, the aggregate of the waste, what is that comprised of? So our initiative starts with getting in front of business leaders and individuals who want to collect data for starters.

just to understand what is happening today in their business environment to work toward better tomorrow. So we call it a dumpster dive. Literally, we get into the trash and we say, okay, your teams are throwing, cardboard and plastic and whatever is in there and we and we provide them information that they can use to start to make a difference.

With that information, , it's not just as simple as snapping your finger and saying change. Now you have to get your people on board to want to make a difference, understand with this information what's happening, and then as a whole, what can we do. to be better. And that's a process over time that you have to continue to collect data and show improvement, ultimately, , demonstrating a reduction over time and whatever your goals that you put in place and targets are that you set for yourself to reduce the waste and present less over time.

[00:10:46] Catherine: Okay, so when we're looking at data, are we talking about like a, I give you my waste and you turn it into something reusable?

[00:10:55] Heather Johnson: That's an iteration of this process. in the future. So once you get the data, then you determine what you're putting in the waste that can be recycled, reused, repurposed, as opposed to end up in the landfill. So you start to remove those things from the trash over time and get them into the avenues that make the most sense for the environment.

In the first stage, it's just understanding what's in the trash.

Process is about, let's say, depending if people are on board, two to three months,

, it's really short. Understanding what's in the trash is the easy part. What to do with the information once you understand is the hard part because A., you need to have options for some of these things that may or may not be readily available, which requires research and innovation.

Other things, most people know that you recycle cardboard and they keep it separate. Not everybody does it, but most people, but that would be an easy one. If we, if we went into a dumpster at a business and discovered you guys are throwing just abundant amounts of cardboard boxes in your trash, let's get that out of there straight away.

We can get that into a recycler. They even toll back, I think in cardboard. So there's a, there's a financial gain for a business to remove that stuff, separate it and get it into recycling. Other things are more challenging. So. You know, depending on what we find in there, then where is our biggest opportunity?

Right? Again, if it was cardboard, that would be a huge win fast. But otherwise, what else? And how much of it? Because you get diminishing returns on the smaller pieces, but focusing on the biggest opportunities first. And there are more and more technologies and innovations presenting themselves regularly that things already exist.

You don't necessarily have to do a lot of research. And we would then advise, okay, based on this data that we've discovered in your dumpster, you have this option, that option and the other. And then when you talk about timelines, that's a movement within your organization, depending on how large it is, getting people to comply with what you want them to do

in the future. Small organizations, easy to make change, large ones. It's a communication. It's a training. It's a, it's a conversation and it takes time. So it's about one year that we want to track improvement over time and then see what that looks like.

[00:13:22] Catherine: So, how does the certification work,

[00:13:24] Heather Johnson: , so the certification is, you have to get to a certain percentage of, of waste or lack of waste to qualify for the certification. It's huge touting rights for businesses because this now is a big deal more than ever, even in the hiring. I think one of the biggest challenges today is hiring talent.

We're all fighting for the same talent on our teams and the younger generation more than anybody wants to work for a company that's doing the right thing. And the right thing is, is inclusive of protecting our environment. , the certification is something that a business could tout all the efforts that they've put into reducing the waste and protecting the environment.

But you have to go through the process. As I described earlier to get to the point where you qualify for the certification.

[00:14:13] Catherine: How we as consumers can tell the difference or can try to work at telling the difference. Maybe we have to look up certifications because there are companies out there, they tout on the fact that they are doing all of these things for the environment when you

dive in and do the research, they're just planting a few trees in South America.

[00:14:37] Heather Johnson: You, you would want to look up the certification that's being offered by the company because you're right. I could give you a certificate and say, you're doing green things. You're wonderful. You planted two trees. What does that mean to anybody or everybody? I think it's dependent on the person. But if you have if you have a certification that has meaning behind it and in this case, ours does because you have to reduce the amount of waste that goes into your trash and and ultimately into the landfill by 90 plus percent.

So that's what you're touting as opposed to planting two trees or whatever these different things businesses are doing. I think you asked the question, what are you doing or not doing? Because I think what you're not doing is putting a bunch of waste in a landfill. And that's what you're touting. And that's what this certification is proving that you've done.

You bring up an interesting point that's never been posed to me before, but as people get on this wagon, perhaps you're going to have a lot of people with not the best certification.

And how do you know the difference? In our certification, it is very specific that you don't want waste in the landfill, our certification is very specific to the amount of waste you're generating and what's happening with the material, recycling it versus disposing of it.

We do have some really good stories because it takes time to get to this certification. We've only been doing this for three to four years now. I want to say we officially rolled this out and we got a big pharmaceutical company on board with this. I should back up and say the pharmaceutical industry is really embracing this and interested in

getting the zero waste certification. So we work with mostly pharmaceutical companies to do this and a big pharma. And I'm, I'm not able to name names, but a big pharma went through this process and actually got the, the zero waste certification. And, and there's a lot of other businesses that are trying to do the same thing.

Again, it's. It's not easy to do because you have to get your organization on board with complying with what needs to happen to ultimately qualify for this reduction. And then you have to continue to behave this way over time to keep your certification. They audit you and it's not just here you've got it and now you can revert back to your old ways.

And so in this certification process, we are measuring because we're taking data points over time and showing, maybe we're showing that nothing's changed.

That's a data point too, right? And, um, and a measurement or, Hey, look at, look how far we've come. This is great. And we need to do more or, Oh my gosh, we have achieved our goals. before we even expected to. All of these different things are realities for businesses, and it's just the constant review, analysis, and continuation of improvement in your process over time.

[00:17:33] Catherine: Did you have to do any lobbying nationally ?

[00:17:35] Heather Johnson: It's a good question because it's actually not our program. It's a program that we, that, that's, and I don't know the answer to your question if they had to go through legislature to get this certification. But it's a program that exists that we are just bringing to the forefront for our customers and showing them how to get there.

We are consultants in the matter. , we understand what they have to do, and then we help them achieve the certification as opposed to we did not create the certification program that we're now promoting.

[00:18:09] Catherine: I love data, and this process definitely shows what companies are doing,

[00:18:15] Heather Johnson: I want to speak to something, um, that you prompted me to think about we, as an organization tout ourselves as a sustainability company, but it's always been about providing sustainability options to our customers.

First and foremost in the recycling and disposal side of things. And now in this zero waste initiative that we have, but we had to reflect upon our own behaviors internally as an organization and recognize that if we're going to present ourselves as a sustainable company, we've got to be sustainable.

So we ourselves are going through the zero waste certification process for all of our locations to ensure that we're doing the best we can as a business for the environment ourselves, , not just our customers doing it and we help them along the way we need, we need to live that same way.

So I'm proud to say that we're going through this process. And I told you, it's a process. We aren't there yet, but we want to be able to show our customers, Hey, we're doing this as well and working toward the same end goals.

[00:19:19] Catherine: That's great. And the end goal really is our sustainability for our species, but also for the planet. And not just our species, but the animals part of our stewardship, environmental stewardship, and I take that responsibility heavily.

[00:19:35] Heather Johnson: Businesses are getting a lot of pressure. They really are , from society to, to make a difference because they do have the ability. Businesses are just so instrumental in, in life, right? With, with what's being created, whether it's their products that are bad or the, the waste coming off of their products that's bad.

We have a zero waste team that, , could speak to you for hours about how powerful this certification is in the process. I'm kind of ancillary. I endorse it as the CEO and I rely on them to really promote the product and, and ensure that, the word is getting out.

You have to really research and understand What exactly is this product? What does it mean? And yeah, I, I don't know where it ends. I think people can get away with a lot. And if you don't understand what, what you're looking at, you, you buy into it pretty easily.

[00:20:33] Catherine: That's true, and that's part of what my podcast is for is to help people who might not do that or might not know to do that.

And so this information is helpful so will we be able to, catch up with Europe?

[00:20:48] Heather Johnson: Yeah, we're, we're pretty far behind. I, will we ever catch up or will they stay more advanced? Always hard to know.

I think what's most important is that we're making effort and strides. in that direction.

[00:21:03] Catherine: Yes, and that is, that is a positive way to look at it.

[00:21:06] Heather Johnson: I appreciate all these opportunities to be able to speak through people like yourself and share this information. So the word does get out in larger doses.

[00:21:16] Catherine: I thank you so much for being here, sharing your positive imprints and your, uh, absolute ingenious, , initiative for moving companies forward into zero waste.

And I appreciate that as a citizen, as a global citizen. . Heather Johnson, your last inspiring words,

[00:21:36] Heather Johnson: Yeah. So just speaking of gratitude and appreciation, I think it's, it's good to be appreciative more in, in this world today and always be kind. I think we don't know who we're talking to at any point in time and to just be kind can go a long way.

[00:21:52] Catherine: Oh, thank you, Heather. And thank you for your kindness. I appreciate it.

[00:21:57] Heather Johnson: There's so many inspiring people around this world and to have the opportunity to. See, meet them and hear experiences. That's pretty awesome. I envy you for that.

[00:22:10] Catherine: oh thank you, I love it.

[00:22:12] Heather Johnson: Yeah, thank you

To learn more about Ingenium, go to

[00:22:16] Heather Johnson: Pureingenium. com.

And to listen to InGenium podcasts, including this one, go to pureingenium. com slash podcasts and another slash.

That will take you directly to Heather as well as the website and you can learn much more about Heather and InGenium.

Ingenium is I N G E N I U M.

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