Zero’s a good number when it comes to sustainability. Zero emissions. Net-zero energy buildings. And, of course, zero waste.
I’ve been excited by the idea of zero waste ever since I wrote a FORTUNE story called The End of Garbage in 2007. Zero waste is radical. It’s attainable. It’s good business. And it’s cool. As the architect and designer Bill McDonough likes to say: “We’re not talking here about eliminating waste. We’re talking about eliminating the entire concept of waste.”
Companies get excited, too. General Motors, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Albertson’s and SuperValu are all driving towards zero waste, as GreenBiz reported last year.
But how does a company eliminate waste? That’s what I wanted to know when I heard that DuPont’s buildings division had gone from sending 81 million pounds of waste to landfill in 2008 to zero in 2012.
To find out, I arranged to speak with Dave Walter, a DuPont exec who led the zero waste effort. Dave, who is 52, has held 19 different jobs in his 29 years with DuPont. His current job is North American Strategic Product Manager for DuPont Building Innovations (who makes up these titles?), which basically means that he takes on a variety of projects for the company’s building products unit.
Source: GreenBiz
By Marc Gunther