Sustainable Nation

Brian W. King joined ADS in September 2020 and serves as Executive Vice President, Product Management and Marketing. Mr. King came to the Company with over 25 years of product management and marketing experience in both consumer and commercial businesses. From 2013 to September 2020, Mr. King worked at Owens Corning, a Toledo, Ohio-based company that develops and produces insulation, roofing and fiberglass composites and related materials, serving as Vice President, Strategic Marketing from 2016 to 2020 and Director of Strategic Marketing from 2015 to 2016. Prior to Mr. King’s role at Owens Corning, he held leadership positions at The Stanley Works, Elmer’s Products Inc., and Avery Dennison Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University. He has received certifications in Marketing Management and Executive Education from York University and the University of North Carolina respectively. Brian Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: ADS’ plastic recycling operations and achievements Strategic efforts at ADS to reduce GHG emissions and their recognition as one of America's climate leaders by USA Today Partnerships that advance recycling and sustainability initiatives Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Brian’s Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I think we tend to underestimate what change we can make over a decade, and so I think we need to look at change over a longer period. We overestimate what you can do in a year. We're always very aggressive about what you can do in a year, and then we underestimate what you can do over a decade. But if you look back, you find that we've made great change over decades. So I think we need to adjust how we look at how change. The change we make and the impact that we have needs to be longer term. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I get really excited when people say plastics recycling doesn't work, because it does. Even though there's no silver bullet in solving the plastics problem. Because plastics in the environment is a problem, and we need to work together to solve that. I get pretty excited because a lot of people tell us that plastics recycling doesn't work, and ADS is an example that, yes, it does. We can actually effectively create circular economies for plastics and we can help to solve the plastic problem. That excites me because that is a big deal. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? My favorite is Cradle to Cradle. It's remaking the way that we make things. As someone who's done product management for a lot of their career, sustainability is key to product management. We need to think about end of life. When you design a product, it shouldn't just be around the economic value or the features and benefits or the value proposition that the product's delivering. You need to think about what happens at the end of life. Cradle to Cradle is a great way to open your eyes to that. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? We talked about one of them, being partners with groups like the Recycling Partnership. There's passionate individuals, people who are doing things across the country that you can hear from. The Ohio State Sustainability Institute being another one I talked about. Talking to those like minded companies, talking to those like minded people, people finding those like minded organizations out there that are aligned with what it is that you want to do from a sustainability perspective. Sustainability professionals listen to this. We have to make sure we make those connections because some of the best resources are talking to people about what they've learned, what failed, what worked. That gets me really excited. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at ADS? If anyone wants to email me here at ADS, it's [email protected]. I'm on LinkedIn, Brian W. King. LinkedIn is the way to find me. If you want to go to our website, adspipe.com/sustainability we have an interactive version of our 2024 sustainability report that allows you to dig into some of the good work that we're doing.

Meredith Lindvall earned a BS in Environmental Science and a Master of Public Health in Environmental Health both from Emory University. She has a passion for the relationship between people’s health and their environments that has led to a commitment to careers in the environment. An Atlanta native, she has worked in the health research, environmental and sustainability departments at Emory Pediatric Pulmonology, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot and Cox Enterprises where she currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of Waste, Water, Nature & Biodiversity. Meredith joined Cox in 2011 and led Cox’s recent industry leading achievement of Zero Waste to Landfill by 2024. She currently serves on the board of LiveThrive Atlanta, who operates the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, and as Secretary of the Board of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation. Meredith Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Steps to achieving 90% waste diversion rate Employee engagement strategies and initiatives, including translating zero waste to KPIs Cost benefits of moving to zero waste Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Meredith’s Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? My advice is to meet people where they are. The reason that's important is because you are trying to gain buy-in. If you can put yourselves in their shoes, figure out why they should care, you can translate sustainability to a really wide range of audiences. Think about, when you're not talking to sustainability professionals, how can you translate what your mission is into a way that this person can be passionate about it? Whether that is a time savings, whether that's that they like to go out on the weekends with their grandkids and learn about the environment, they want to deliver financial savings, they want to have a different relationship with their supplier. I would encourage you to carve out time to think about your audience and meet them where they're at and then bring them on that journey with you. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I am excited that the sustainability world is really rapidly expanding past carbon to add things like biodiversity and nature that really, for me, connect our why back to nature and ecosystems and the planet. You heard me say up top that that's really where my passion has been. We're really interconnected, the environment, humans and the planet and species. I'm excited to see biodiversity goals and some of these other things that are really more closely connecting the dots between climate change, species, habitat, and traditional environmental work that, in my opinion, has been a little bit siloed. I'm excited about those coming together. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? I'm guessing everyone's read Green to Gold, so for a more current one, I would say Drawdown, which builds on Paul Hawkins’ work in the ecology of commerce and really breaks it into truly actionable steps that we as a society can take to combat climate change in the next 50 years. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Knowing that your audience are experts in this field, some I'm sure they've been to themselves, but I would say GreenBiz, which is now Trellis, Sustainable Brands, Environment+Energy Leader, in-house tools. Big helpful things for us have been to gamify the actions that we want employees to take. Whether that is an in-house tool or an off the shelf tool, I would just encourage people to look at what can you do to amplify your work given that sustainability teams are often very small. One that I did want to throw out there that folks might not be as familiar with, but again where my passions intersect, is the National Association of Environmental Managers, which really, from my perspective is connecting the environmental health and safety and sustainability work together. As sustainability becomes more regulated and compliance based, I really see a lot of synergy there in that association. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Cox? Listeners can go to coxenterprises.com and look under the Our Impact tab and there you can see our impact report. You'll see a call out on all of our sustainability work where you'll be able to check out the zero waste to landfill achievement, our water work, our carbon work, and then you'll also be able to look at our social impact impact work there as well for 34 by 34. You can find me on LinkedIn, Meredith Lindvall.

Meghan Weinman joined Carrix and SSA Marine in 2024 as Vice President of Sustainability. She is an industry leader across the sustainability, transportation, and environment sectors and has worked throughout North America and internationally, including Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Prior to joining Carrix and SSA Marine, Ms. Weinman was a Managing Director at Edison Energy, leading the Transportation Electrification and Clean Energy Practice. She has also served in roles in management, engineering, and consulting across sustainability and built infrastructure. Ms. Weinman has served as a mentor for the Clean Tech Alliance, an industry advisor at Kellogg School of Management, and is also a frequent speaker on topics relating to sustainability, transportation, clean energy transition, climate, and women in leadership. Meghan Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The scope of sustainability at SSA Marine and 2030 targets Decarbonization strategies including renewable energy sourcing Renewable diesel and hydrogen fuel options Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Meghan’s Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Taking on different roles that strengthen understanding of the overall business is always something that would benefit sustainability. I started out in engineering, I went to business school, I'm now in my role today. That has been hugely helpful to understand different parts and wearing different hats and really being able to think cross functionally. With that, networking with other professionals not only in your industry, but adjacent industries. I always learn things when I talk to others in their roles. I had lunch with one of my colleagues who's at Alaska Airlines and we got to swap stories about how they're handling waste management. That was really helpful. Lastly, being a collaborative partner and really looking at how you can solve problems for stakeholders internally always is a way that can benefit not only sustainability, but the business overall. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'll go back to the answer that I gave around doing things that are really good for the business, but that can be sustainability initiatives. I get really excited about doing things that can be mutual wins across an organization. I've been working in electric vehicles now for almost 10 years through a couple of different roles, and there's been so much progress that's been made in terms of technological advancement. The commitment from automakers and equipment makers and increasingly the technology is becoming more and more of a mainstay, and that makes it easier and easier to incorporate into operations. It also brings about cost parity. Those are the things that I'm really getting excited about because it really is at a tipping point. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? I’ll give one book in two different categories. One that jump started my interest in sustainability over 20 years ago, and I'm sure this is probably known to most readers, was Natural Capitalism. That really helped me think about sustainability in a different way and really put into perspective the work that we're doing. But more recently I'm enjoying books that are at the intersection of business and can really help in a sustainability role, and so they're actually negotiation books, and you might wonder why negotiation. It's about coming up with solutions that may benefit many stakeholders across an organization and finding solutions that benefit potentially both sides. If you're thinking about how to convince your CFO or your commercial team, really think about it from a perspective of: how do I get what I want in sustainability, and also the finance team gets what they want. I’m going to give two books here, but one of them is Negotiate Without Fear by Victoria Medvec, and the other one is Getting to Yes, which is a classic by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Those are two that I would recommend any sustainability professional think about in terms of their own organization. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I really do like getting newsletters. I love reading and finding out what's happening across the industry. A couple that I like is ESG Dive from Industry Dive. That one I find to be really great information about what's happening across different companies, a blend of news and initiatives. I also really like Fortune's newsletters. Fortune has a number of newsletters, but one that has a lot of sustainability topics in there is the Trust Factor. They talk a lot about how sustainability and ESG is really paramount to businesses. But they also have other great newsletters too, like CEO Daily and CFO Daily, and they dabble into sustainability in those newsletters, too. Where can...

Norman Vossschulte is originally from Berlin, Germany. His culturally rich background included ten years living abroad in Africa, Iraq and Spain before moving back to Germany to finish High School and College. He studied Biology and Physical Science before deciding to move to New York City in 1996 to attend the Herbert Berghof Institute for Fine Theatre Arts and Drama. Norman’s work experience is as eclectic as his upbringing. He has worked in the hotel industry, the non-profit industry, as well as both sports and entertainment industries. 25 years of practicing customer and client relations, has given him an overview of which techniques consistently enhance guest experiences. Norman has over 16 years of staff training and team leadership experience working with The Walt Disney Company and currently the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2014, Norman became the official GO GREEN spokesperson and began leading the green team for the Philadelphia Eagles. During his tenure the Eagles obtained LEED Gold certification and were the first sports team in the world to obtain ISO20121 certification. He organized and re-branded the initiative as the GO GREEN ECO Committee (Engagement, Communication, Operations) to involve the entire organization. One of the main missions of the ECO Committee is to Innovate & Sustain. The Eagles are now the first sports team to actively invest in the ocean by offsetting carbon emissions from player travel by planting sea grass. Norman Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How the strong sustainability program for the Eagles began and evolved Material issues and initiatives of the Eagles’ sustainability program How the Eagles have achieved 99.9% of waste diversion The approach to engaging fans in sustainability Ideas for making sustainability more mainstream across sports Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Norman’s Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I love this question. Sustainability professionals are at heart, a lot of the ones I meet at least, scientists. They're folks that have either studied this or are really in tune with some of the data and some of the science behind sustainability. A lot of those folks that really live and breathe sustainability every day, their language doesn't necessarily easily translate into sports because we speak the language of fans and teams. So in the sustainability sector, you have to find people that can bridge that gap and literally put into very simple terms some of these sustainability practices that you are trying to bring to a sports team. Every one of us has to figure out how we can translate a lot of this incredible sustainability language into an everyday language so that everyone will understand it and actions. Because actions have to be taken. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited that finally it seems like everyone is talking about it. We have some of our mainstream partners that come to us now and say, “Hey, we want to work with you on sustainability.” That's exciting to me because before that, if you had a sustainability partner that was already working in the sustainability space, of course they would talk about sustainability with you, but mainstream partners necessarily didn't. My biggest excitement is Gen Z, the new generation who are now the majority in the workplace and are the ones that are really pushing this agenda. I don't want them to stop because it's important, and because it's their kids who are going to inherit this planet when a lot of these predictions about climate change are going to come true. Gen Z is really pushing this agenda because they're the consumers, they're the clients now, they're the fans. It's important to us and it's important to them and their generation. They're the information generation that loves to post on social media, and it excites me. I think there's a real movement happening, and I don't want it to stop. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Sustainable Development. It basically dives into the United Nations climate pledge document that was written a few years ago that we actually were part of and that a lot of sports leagues and sports teams in the world have signed onto now. It addresses pretty much every area of sustainability, like waste and climate. We wrote one of those chapters in that book. Anthony Bonagura, one of our directors, actually wrote it and I helped a little bit. It was used in college education, but it’s now available for purchase. It dives into a lot of the science and the data, the United Nations force for climate change pledge program that's out there, and that a lot of leagues in the world, including FIFA and the NFL have signed on to. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Our sustai...

Thomas Stanchak is a seasoned Commercial Real Estate professional with over 20 years of diverse experience. He began his career with his current employer, Stoneweg US in 2017 as an Asset Manager, where he was responsible for overseeing operations, maximizing occupancy, and maintaining budgets for 17 assets in the Midwest region. In 2019, he was promoted to Senior Asset Manager assuming operational responsibility for more than 50% of total AUMs; where his operational leadership was hugely impactful in Stoneweg US’ ability to deliver healthy returns to its investors that year. In 2020, Tom began focusing his efforts on implementing various energy-efficient and innovative practices to his portfolio by introducing water conservation, LED lighting retrofits, and effective recycling methods that would not only incorporate sustainability, but also provide key value-add for residents. Thomas Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Key material ESG issues Stoneweg focuses on Stoneweg’s approach to collecting quality data Evaluation of climate risks and opportunities including climate transition modeling How Stoneweg is preparing for electrification in the industry Thomas’ Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Not everybody is going to agree with you, and not everybody is going to like you, but over time, I've found that if you really work hard and you really do the math around the data and reporting and linking it to finding opportunity, that's the wedge to do things at scale. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Real time energy monitoring and being able to get responsive feedback from these sorts of technologies as we make improvements. The simple example is, as I change HVAC systems, I can actually see the difference in how the property is functioning. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I'm thinking more about multifamily and ESG and that place because I'm sort of responsible for encompassing all of those, as many people in my place are. I bought a book called Safe and Sound, it's by a trans woman named Mercury Stardust. The reason I bought this book is that I read in an article that she is a maintenance professional at an apartment community. She wrote this book because people like her or LBGT people often have to overcome an anxiety or a fear of having people come into their homes to even do minor repairs or do services and that sort of thing. It’s a great book because it opened my mind. I have hundreds of people working in our communities. We have tens of thousands of residents. It kind of opened my mind to a perspective that some people, just to ask for their dripping faucet to be fixed, have to overcome an anxiety; will they be accepted? Will they be treated with dignity? I really found a great affinity with this. I felt like I learned something from the article when I bought the book. I think that more people should be more in tune and more focused on the people that they're trying to serve, the people that lease from you and occupy your real estate. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? If everyone is not using Energy Star Portfolio Manager is nuts, because they should be using it. It's something that the DOE and the EPA are really investing in bringing to the next level. We use several softwares for physical climate risk. We use separate softwares for modeling transition risk and finding opportunities to model how our investments are going to change our carbon intensity over time. We use different software for warehousing the enormous amount of data when it comes to having a large real estate portfolio with separate funds and strategies and that sort of thing. In putting all this data together for measuring the success or the shortfall of how we're investing, how it impacts the stated goals in terms of decarbonization or energy efficiency, it’s a number of technologies that we're employing. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Stoneweg US? I'm really proud that we've relaunched our website, https://www.stoneweg.us, and there's an ESG optimization section. This is something that I really worked really hard to provide a deep dive into how we're approaching all the material subjects around ESG and how we're making it tactical, going beyond good intentions. It's something that I'll maintain and share our progress and what we learn over time. Part of that is there's no point in me having a Net Zero portfolio, we all need to do it. That's part of the collaboration and that's why our company makes it front facing on our website.