Achieving Zero Waste From the Bottom Up at Cascade Engineering
By: Christopher Marquis
Tags: Employee Engagement, Climate Change, B Corp, Zero Waste, Manufacturing

What type of training or guidance do new employees/contractors receive about the program? How do employees help shape the program?

Darby: We have a policy identifying where all waste goes. So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of different places— from office supplies to manufacturing supplies, oil to compost, plastic, glass, metal —and there are multiple sources for all of it. We have labeled bins and recycling containers, which we try to provide in convenient locations. For instance, upstairs, downstairs, the kitchen; areas that make sense.

You’re probably going to ask me, “How do you make sure people follow and put things where they need to?” That is a big concern, and with our ISO 14001 Certification (environmental management certification) we do get audited every year on this; we have to stay on top of it. The biggest impact is in orientation and people who come on site. They have to understand that we are zero waste, that we have no trash cans, and that it’s not appropriate for them to just put it in any container that they see fit, whether it’s labeled or not labeled. It is a constant reminder; it is education.

Kenyatta Brame: We have a unique culture, in the sense that this is grassroots-driven. I remember when I first got here, we still had the dumpsters, and through my first week of work, we did something called a “dumpster dive.” We’re going to jump inside this dumpster to see, to hold ourselves accountable, to make sure that we’re not contaminating the streams. If you go into one of the plants, an employee will tell you what you need to do. You just can’t dump things in any way.

I think that what’s unique about Cascade, in the sense that this wasn’t Fred sitting in his office saying, “You must do this.” These were employees on the floor saying, “This is how we’re going to do this,” to get to a level that we’ve achieved at this point.

What tips do you have for other companies that would like to reduce or eliminate their landfill waste?

Darby: As people are starting out, I would encourage them to track their progress on an annual basis, and not just look at their financial progress, but look at your progress relative to your environmental footprint, look at your progress relative to your people, and measure it.

And I think that’s part of the magic of the triple-bottom-line reports or B Corporation, or even the ISO 14001. If you track it, and you measure it, and you hold yourself accountable to it, you’re more likely to make that progress and to push through those barriers, because you’re seeing the results.

Fred Keller: There’s something about expecting the unexpected. There’s a prize in there, somewhere. You don’t know what it’s going to be. It isn’t necessarily going to be financial, but it might be. In our case, we found that there are financial benefits, obviously, adding$280,000 to your bottom line every year.

And it’s really hard to find the cost of doing that. People separating things out is pretty minimal, but there is some cost associated with having it happen. It does take everybody. The bottom-up thing is really kind of an important element: Letting the folks own it, as opposed to having it being imposed, is something that I think really helps. So that the leaders become cheerleaders, as opposed to enforcers.

What are some innovations in this area that have been impressive to you?

Fred Keller: I was in Israel working with a partner and learned of an organization, UBQ, that was working on this idea of taking, literally, garbage and making it recyclable. It would be plastic rich, but it would be full of other stuff, not very clean.

Christina Keller: Yeah. UBQ is really revolutionary because it is the first time that you can use true waste. We have so much waste that we don’t know what to do with. We don’t have to till a field for it, we don’t have to do an industrial application.

Everyone wants to talk about bioplastics now. But when you think about a true lifecycle analysis on a compostable bioplastic that you’re getting your coffee in, you are often utilizing grain or corn that has taken fertilizer and pesticides and all these other things to create, and it has an alternate use, consumption.

But they are then taking it down to make it into the bio-based product lines, is another industrial action that’s combining that down. And then, they’re making it into plastics that are compostable. But how often are they actually composted in an industrial composter? Often, those are then going into the landfill.

When you look at the full carbon lifecycle of a bioplastic that is compostable, you’re adding up a lot of chemicals to the field, adding a lot of industrial applications, and then you’re not really getting the benefit of that, from an excess perspective. Also, it generates methane.

Beyond recycling, what other business process changes have evolved to help you achieve this goal?

Brame: If you make a “bad” part, we can sell it as a secondary product. And we had some employees thinking, “You know what? That’s OK, because we’re still going to sell it.”

So we actually had some conversations with employees to say, “If we’re selling it as a good product versus a secondary product, there is a difference in our margin.” Some people had “aha!” moments — even though we are able to sell it, we’re selling it for 25% or 75% less. Therefore, take the time to make a good product so we can sell it at the appropriate rate, so we can all continue in this journey.

People ask questions about things that they may not have asked before. We have found that employees empowered with information make good decisions for the business.

Darby: There was a point in time where we were sending plastic parts to Beta Plastics for recycling, and then they were grinding up and reselling it. And we had asked, “Can’t we buy some of that back and reuse it in our product?” Now we buy as much of that back as we can, that’s within spec, to re-engage into new product.

For example, a group worked with Waste Management on an innovation to utilize more of the curbside recycled content into our carts. We are continuing the innovation cycle. We started with 10% recycled content while still meeting all of the standards for rigidity and making sure that it’s strong enough — those carts go through a lot, being outdoors and being racked every week. Now they’re there working on the next gen, which will be closer to 40% recycled content.

A lot of this, as you heard from the team, is a continuous improvement effort. It’s not getting there on the first step, but it’s setting the intention or direction. We want to have less waste, we want to be good for the environment, and then it’s really that innovation cycle getting closer and closer each time.