Waste reduction is an environmental goal more and more companies are talking about, with some even planning to get down to zero waste. It's a concept that helps the environment while saving money, time and resources.

One group providing support and services for cutting down waste is the non-profit Zero Waste Alliance.

Larry Chalfan, the Alliance's executive director, spoke recently with GreenBiz Radio about the best approach for businesses interested in or already on the path to zero waste.

Jonathan Bardelline: What does the Zero Waste Alliance do and what is its ultimate goal?

Larry Chalfan: The Zero Waste Alliance helps, we like to say society, everyone, whether it's private companies, businesses, or governments or individuals work toward a more sustainable society, more sustainable future. And I guess I included the goal right there. The big picture goal is that we understand by watching nature over the last millions and millions of years and seeing that waste is not created. Everything that's used to make a new body or a new tree or whatever is recycled at the end of its life and comes back as additional new people, animals, trees and so on.

And recognizing from that that society really needs to follow the same model because we've been cutting down the forests, American forests, rain forests, depleting fisheries, discharging waste to cause toxic buildups, another thing nature doesn't do. So, basically for our future generations, our big point is we need to follow nature's model in everything we use, not only biological items.

JB: Could you explain the general approach businesses should take in attempting to get to zero waste and reducing waste?

LC: Sure can. There are different ways to do the approach, there are different approaches that are taken I guess I should say. In some cases, a business will just identify someone to sort of head up a zero waste initiative and get a team together inside, kind of like quality circle team or something. And they'll start to work towards identifying what's in the trash and a common term used for that is "dumpster diving" where you really go in and assess what's there, figure out how much of it is food and how much of it is each type of plastic and how much is cardboard packaging material and so on. And then try to find recycling paths for each of those items, that's effective, get started.

We really recommend a higher-level approach, I guess I'd say, of making zero waste a bold visionary goal for the organization. We think that, actually it's clear, as it's worked for others, including myself, that a bold visionary goal that people can understand relates to themselves and their kids and grandkids, can be very, very effective to bring people together to work towards something. And when it's bold and visionary rather than a 5 percent reduction here or something else, small project. The big visionary goal can create lots of small projects that take lots of small steps and get much farther and much faster toward that end point which of course we suggest would be a sustainable zero waste future for society and humanity.

There are other things that can be done also. And one is sort of building a system around it. Once you have the goal in place, do studies to really understand all the wastes that are created by the organization, by the organization's existence. And that then gets to including transportation, and the buildings used, the raw materials used and what wastes are created during the production of those raw materials.

The common number used is it's 71 times as much waste is created to create the products that we throw in the landfill that actually goes into the landfill. And so getting a view of the large system effects of what our organization or even we as individuals do and applying that within design activities, recognizing that, thinking of the big system, we're within nature's system, Earth's system. And understand that also considering the lifetime impacts during a product's lifetime and at end of life. Integrate all that in to work that's done.

One of the best things is to actually include zero waste design principles in design review meetings, product definition meetings and then of course final review meetings before products are released to manufacturing. We can have our greatest, greatest effect when we're doing design. Very minimal effects of differences when we're dealing with waste and recycling and trash cans. It's almost impossible to do much except reduce what goes to the landfill.

Other activities can be to completely train people throughout the organization, every job, every level. Have a set of objectives defined and have responsible people and resources applied to achieve those objectives. When that's all together into a system which typically would include a review by management of the progress each year and setting of new objectives it can become a system that just leads the organization to better and better performance constantly.

JB: What are some of the main things that businesses should focus on when they're reducing waste and on the other hand are there any things that businesses shouldn't worry as much about?

LC: One of the key things I'd recommend is focusing on the waste created by the organization. It's relatively easy to do because people inside the company can see them and we can have a team start out and work on it. But I'd say almost more importantly, is for the organization to work on the designs of their products. It's only in design that we can have a really large effect and perhaps completely eliminate some waste products, some energy use, redesign packaging, use half or a quarter of the material. I think that I read Apple's new MacBook Air has a much smaller packaging than all the earlier products did. They're another company that is working in this direction and I don't think they have a zero waste goal per se, however, but design is really important.

One thing they should work on, I think your question had to do with specific things to work on. I would say that one thing to work on frankly is education of all the employees so that everyone understands why it's important and understands what role they can play. If we assign it to a team to look at the waste going out of the factory or just design department, they can't reach everything that happens. And by the way, we include the waste of people's time and careers if necessary people are part of the resources that an organization can waste.

JB: With zero waste efforts, the approach you described, is it a one size fits all approach where the same actions and advice applies to most industries or are there certain sector specific actions that you can recommend or that can be taken?

LC: There are some principles where one size still fits all, but each organization necessarily has different opportunities for improvement. A company that actually produces a product rather than a service of course has the product design phase and the packaging and end of life take back or at least end of life management. While a company that provides a service may not have those opportunities but the service might include the use of, say, cleaning chemicals and products and things and they can work on toxicity, work on products that come in concentrated form with very little packaging relative to products that are fully diluted for use when you receive them.

I think each organization has to kind of step back and look at the big picture of every way their activities, products and services create waste. And that of course, goes right into the purchasing department because they are the ones that can help push other producers to reduce their waste and to say, "Ship with less packaging material," or, "Ship by a method that creates less greenhouse gas."

So, one size doesn't fit all, but one approach to understand all of the issues and to consider in the analysis, not only materials but energy and human resources. Look at all of the wastes that are created, solid waste, hazardous waste. Many companies have that, it has to be shipped off and paid for.

Also paying attention to emissions and this, by this I mean fugitive emissions to air, to water, to soil, things that we don't as easily measure. And then finally of course, we talked about product lifetime. But there are also byproducts. Almost all of us make products that have a value greater than zero, so we can send them to someone else, sell them, or recycle or whatever but we didn't intend to make them as part of the product there, sell them as part of the product. But they have more value than pure waste.

So, understanding all of those and kind of peeling the onion to find the impact, an organization can come up with a listing and then find the ones that are most significant by looking at some criteria like the, say, cost saving potential, greenhouse gas contributions. Pick a few of those, determine what's at the top of the list, and then find ones that feel like they can be influenced. Sometimes we just can't influence what it is. We may be building a ship and we don't have much choice other than steel. So it's going to continue to be steel. But there would be other things we could do.

So a comprehensive approach to understand rank, prescreen at least the high impact possibilities and then choose some as objectives. Actually, recommend taking a fresh look at that each year in case of changes and selecting new project, objectives each year as a way to approach it.

JB: You mentioned businesses should expand the concept of zero waste beyond just themselves, would it be better if a business took up its own zero waste initiative first and then expanded that to its suppliers and supply chain and outside companies that it works with, or should it try to apply it all at once to its whole footprint?

LC: Most organizations would agree they should get their feet wet with zero waste before pushing others to do it and really convince themselves that they are indeed saving money as expected and reducing their impact. It is possible through some work to do calculations of course, of energy savings and so on, to find real cost savings. But also, to do calculations of greenhouse gases avoided and include that as part of a carbon neutrality or global climate change reduction effort that the organization has underway.

Zero waste is closely linked to, or, I should say, waste is closely linked to global warming, climate change, particularly because any of the waste we send to landfills that have biological molecules primarily will end up degrading and create methane and methane from the landfill is one of the top three generators that we have of greenhouse gases. And the methane molecule has 23 times the impact of a single carbon dioxide molecule.

All of that together is important. Doing it first, building a system, then a company that wishes to, can actually provide some of those calculation methods and things to help their vendors move more quickly to make improvements. And then of course, the company that's helping the vendors also moves forward more quickly and by making the proper calculations and so on, can rightfully lay claim to being greener and helping others be greener.

JB: You just slightly touched on it, but what are all of the different benefits that a business can realize from reducing its waste?

LC: A business can have all kinds of benefits. The biggest ones cost savings, probably, greenhouse gas reduction, but cost savings is small once you realize that, for example, packaging can be redesigned to take a fraction of the space. Then the amount of warehouse space for packaging for materials, for products in production can be reduced. So, you get a reduction in the need for additional building space. Lots of side things like this.

I've mentioned packaging. One thing I haven't mentioned is reuse. We all know the or have heard the waste mantra, recycling mantra: reuse, reduce and recycle. The idea of reusing products keeps them in circulation longer and fewer new products need to be produced along with all their impacts of raw material preparation and so on. Everything that we waste has come from something we purchased. Nearly everything we waste has come from something we purchased. And in that, once we start to prevent waste, reduce the use of things, and prevent. We immediately don't have to purchase those things. So, there's a direct cost savings right off.

One side effect, really excellent side effect is that when we do engage the organization in a major endeavor, whether it's a zero waste or a sustainability initiative or whatever it might be, if that initiative connects with people's internal values, they really buy into it and will work much harder to make it happen. I ran a company here in Oregon, subsidiary of a Japanese company and we did this in a number of environmental initiatives. And the company ultimately was closed as the Japanese company backed away from those products in the U.S. market here.

And after I laid the people off, told them they were going to be out of a job in a couple of months, a good quarter of the people came up and talked to me about how much they appreciated having been able to work for a company that cared about the environment and about their kids' and grandkids' future. And they talked about how they never planned to leave, they were going to retire at the company. And you can't buy that kind of commitment with high wages and special parking places and things. We didn't have any marked parking places for example. And so there are subtle benefits that come out that you don't realize until frankly, long after you do it.

JB: Do you have any examples of companies that are currently undertaking zero waste initiatives?

LC: I sure have. There are quite a number. Some of them have major visible activities and many don't. A few of those are Nike, has been a leader in it. Toyota, Ford, Xerox, Dell, and Hewlett Packard on the electronic side, Herman Miller in furniture and even Wal-Mart has zero waste targets for operations. Almost all are identifying the cost savings along the way. You didn't ask but cities such as Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Boulder and others around the world also have taken on zero waste initiatives. These initiatives typically last long term.

JB: Over the years how have you seen the number of businesses or cities taking up zero waste initiatives change or grow?

LC: Over the years, from the time we started Zero Waste Alliance in 1999, the growth has been phenomenal. At that time, it was a concept that really few people actually got. I got to it from the manufacturing side where you'd have zero waste in materials and so on. But not, say, the larger environmental picture, not having the larger environmental picture but just saving money and time. The number of articles coming out in magazines, Fortune, CNN, others that are covering the topic is really skyrocketing lately. And I've been kind of pleasantly surprised I'd have to say.

I don't have a rate of adoption idea, but more and more companies are having the environment and social responsibility come on the radar screen as something that is important to their customers. And that leads them to kind of analyze things and zero waste is often one of the things that comes around because almost everything you do in zero waste contributes to saving money. It's just right on the path.

JB: Thank you very much for your time.

LC: Sure, you're welcome. My pleasure.