CRRA2020

Zero Waste Coordinator

Kikei Wong is the Zero Waste Coordinator of UCLA, helping the campus achieve the initiative to go Zero Waste by 2020.  She has multiple years of experience in the solid waste industry working with waste haulers to help customers be in compliance with city and state solid waste policies.  Kikei has worked closely with public officials and city staff to provide outreach and education as well as technical support to commercial businesses of all kinds, from casinos to cemeteries.

Kikei holds a BS in Environmental Science and Management with an emphasis on Ecology, Biodiversity, and Conservation from UC Davis. 

Shifting the Paradigm: Transforming Waste Disposal Systems

Right-sizing and streamlining recycling program infrastructure, while rolling out operational programs is essential in reducing contamination and increasing community engagement.

The University of California set a goal to go Zero Waste. However, very few buildings at UCLA had proper accessibility to compost and recycling receptacles, and it was clear that there was very little source separation.  In order to achieve the goal, the campus needed to find a way to capture the organic material generated from the buildings and improve the current infrastructure.  

Kikei will speak about Facilities Management outreach and training efforts to custodians and building occupants, bridging the communications gap and providing resources and additional support.  By working with student organizations and ambassadors, she is able to engage with the larger campus community.  In addition, she will go over case studies on UCLA’s centralized waste collection program which details how departments introduced the compost stream and transitioned from full size trash containers to small side-saddle 5 gallon containers. The session will highlight the issues that arose from balancing shifting streams while maintaining best practices for successful execution. This will provide key learnings for the audience to use in their own campus facilities.

The session will also focus on culture and communication, which are driving factors in the success of campus recycling and zero waste programs. The presentation will include case studies and best practices on how to create a paradigm shift and affect culture change to ensure increased community engagement to achieve zero waste goals.

Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer

As Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer, Bonny is a key member of the leadership team for sustainability at UCLA, helping manage sustainability across the university and working to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments to create a world class living laboratory. Bonny began her career in higher education sustainability as the Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives and the Director of University Sustainability Practices at Arizona State University. She then served as the Director of Sustainability for GreenerU, a greater Boston area consulting firm focusing on the higher-ed sector in New England.

Shifting the Paradigm: Transforming Waste Disposal Systems

Right-sizing and streamlining recycling program infrastructure, while rolling out operational programs is essential in reducing contamination and increasing community engagement.

The University of California set a goal to go Zero Waste. However, very few buildings at UCLA had proper accessibility to compost and recycling receptacles, and it was clear that there was very little source separation.  In order to achieve the goal, the campus needed to find a way to capture the organic material generated from the buildings and improve the current infrastructure.  

Bonny will speak about culture and communication on the campus as well as major overlaps across the UC sustainability goals.  She will provide a larger context of operational challenges in implementing zero waste initiatives and navigating the waters across a large, decentralized institution.  In addition, she will touch on the various policies and stakeholders that have influenced the success of zero waste initiative.  This session will highlight the complexities and challenges of making institutional changes where many stakeholders are involved.

The session will also focus on outreach efforts and case studies, which are driving factors in the success of campus recycling and zero waste programs. The presentation will include best practices for engagement and operations to create a paradigm shift and to affect culture change to ensure increased community engagement and achieve zero waste goals.

Energy & Sustainability Coordinator

Nikhil Schneider graduated from the University of Houston in 2016, where he earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Energy and Sustainability. While there, he spent three years working in the Outdoor Adventure program, and two years in The University's Office of Sustainability. In September of 2017 he began the position of Energy and Sustainability Coordinator in California State University, Northridge’s department of Facilities Planning, Design & Construction. He has since played a key role in The University's progress towards more sustainable waste practices, transportation, energy management and more.

Bin There, Done That: Improving CSUN's Indoor Waste Infrastructure

This presentation will describe the process undertaken by California State University Northridge (CSUN) to update its waste hauling contract, indoor waste infrastructure and educational efforts to divert more material from the landfill. Prior to these changes, CSUN had separate bins for CRV material (bottles and cans), mixed paper, and landfill material. Each of these streams were handled by different vendors, and this system forced users to put other recyclables, such as mixed plastics or non-CRV aluminum, into the landfill stream.

Shortly after adopting a Zero Waste Plan early in 2019, CSUN’s waste hauling contract expired, and the university took that opportunity to comingle its recyclables and add a new stream for compostable material. To accompany this change, new trios of bins were installed in centralized areas throughout all campus buildings, with separate streams for landfill, recyclable and compostable material. This was a drastic change for university employees, students and custodial staff, and CSUN has undertaken significant efforts since then to educate the campus community on what goes into each bin, keep up with shifting guidelines from its hauler, and keep the new system functioning smoothly.

Attendees will learn about CSUN’s approach to its new hauling contract, user education, and bin deployment, as well as the multitude of challenges that accompanied each of these steps. Audience members will be able to hear CSUN’s key takeaways, ask their own questions, and bring insights back to their own organizations to improve their own waste handing processes.

Zero Waste Manager

Ms. Muir has managed Stanford University’s Waste Reduction, Recycling, and Composting Program for the last 25 years.  She leads the implementation of Stanford's University's Zero Waste Plan to reach Stanford University's goal of Zero Waste by 2030.  She enjoys most working with students and the campus community on waste reduction and educating on the connection between zero waste, sustainable materials management, the circular economy, and climate change.  Julie Muir is Past-President and current Senior Advisor to the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) and Chair of the Zero Waste Campus Council of CRRA.

Implementing a Zero Waste Building Plan

Stanford University announced its Zero Waste Goal by 2030 in May of 2018 and developed a plan and budget in the fall of 2019.  The Zero Waste Plan calls for a transformation of the waste system in 300 buildings on campus, including redesign bin placement, custodial and waste service procedural changes, and changes in procurement, and outreach and education methodology to communicate and incentivize reducing waste, using reusables in the building, and sorting waste properly.  This presentation will review two pilots that changed the waste syste, encouraged reusables, and incentivized occupants to make the change possible within two seperate populations in two geographical areas at Stanford Unversity. The speaker will discussed what was learned about moving a population in a building to zero waste and how those lessons will be incorporated in the rollout to the other 298 buildings.  

Sustainabilty Program Manager

Brie is a Sustainability Program Manager at the Berkeley Lab. She leads the development and implementation of the Lab’s zero waste plan. Brie has a background helping organizations define and execute their sustainability strategy, foster employee engagement, as well as measure and communicate their environmental footprint. Past roles include managing sustainability and communications at Straus Family Creamery and as a consultant for a variety of Fortune 500, nonprofit, and government organizations. She earned her B. A. in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and her MBA in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School.

Redefining the Path to Zero Waste: Driving Strategy with Data

Berkeley Lab, a research campus with a daily population of five thousand, has used data gained from more than 120 waste audits to inform their strategy to meet ambitious zero waste goals. Faced with a diverse set of waste streams and a decentralized network where employees best respond to what is relevant to them, the Sustainable Berkeley Lab (SBL) group needed to take a personalized approach. So, in 2017, SBL developed a program to conduct mini waste audits on a building-by-building basis and communicate the results. The data has informed targeted strategies to tackle the many types of waste streams found across the Lab’s campus. Data from audits is processed, analyzed and distributed publicly using Google Data Studio (see reporting at www.bit.ly/sblwaste). 

The data from the audit program has helped the Lab to:

• Focus on reducing contamination rather than simply trying to meet a 90% diversion target 
• Motivate building occupants by showing them how their building ranks against others 
• Identify single under-desk waste bins as the most contaminated source of waste (4.5 times more contaminated than central 4-bin waste stations). 
• Highlight food and organics as the primary contaminate of the landfill waste stream (about 50%).
• Better identify buildings that needed specific infrastructure, bins, and signage.
• Monitor and track trends of increased diversion and decreased contamination. 

This program was set up with limited resources and is replicable on many levels. Attendees can learn how data can be collected and shared to engage and motivate people.