Featuring:
-Dan O'Neill, General Manager, Sustainability Solutions Service, Arizona State University
-John Trujillo, Assistant Director of Public Works, City of Phoenix
View the recording of this presentation in the Sustainable Brands Library!
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/digital_learning/event_video/waste_not/reimagining_cities_resource_innovation_brand_platforms_future
20. 1. Enhance the current solid waste programs to
encourage more sustainable practices.
2. Increase sustainability communication and
education to residents and businesses.
3. Establish a sustainability platform for
businesses partners and community leaders.
Focus Areas
21. 1. The Power of Shared Values
2. The Power of Story
3. The Power of Co-Creation
4. The Power of 360 Media
5. The Power of Partnerships
5 Ways To Reach Beyond The Choir
Dan: Imagine if every university on the planet harnessed their enormous knowledge base and research capacity not only to educate…
Dan: …but to innovate.
Dan: Imagine if all universities made it their mission not just to analyze data…
Dan: …but to drive solutions.
John: Imagine if this powerful engine was applied to sustainability challenges that cities face every day, like waste diversion, clean water and resource management.
To put things in perspective, we drive 4 million miles every year collecting garbage and recycling from our residential customers. We also travel 3 million miles transporting garbage to be disposed in a landfill. This is equal to going to the moon and back 14 times each year.
John: Every year, Phoenix generates enough trash to fill the Arizona Diamondback Stadium, Chase Field, 7 times, to the rafters! That’s a lot of trash.
John: Why is this so important?
Because we know that Maricopa County is projected to grow to 7.3 Million people by 2050.
The Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale area is the 10th fastest growing metro area in the US, averaging approximately 150 new residents every day! As such, the quality of life we take for granted is at risk if we don’t adopt ways to lessen our shared impact on the environment
We need to prepare for this growth by conserving our resources, and our landfill space, and rethink what we throw away.
Right now, Phoenix residents divert 16% of our waste. The national average is approximately 34%.
Our goal is to reimagine what we can do if we all reduced the amount we consume and start to recycle “right.
Mayor Stanton wants to exceed the national average.
This is the foundation of the city’s Reimagine Phoenix initiative.
What is the mission or goal of Reimagine Phoenix?
To:
- EDUCATE
- INSPIRE
- AND ENGAGE
Phoenix residents to help us reach our 40% goal by using the 5 R’s in their daily lives, so that they understand to…
Reduce consumption and waste
Reuse by sharing with others
Recycle right, rather than landfilling
Reconsider by making smarter choices that value and respect our limited resources
Reimagine the future of Phoenix when we minimize the impact we have on our natural resources and harness the intellectual power of our partners,
We want our residents to understand…….
there’s no such thing as trash – only resources.
What can we do to preserve the current solid waste infrastructure we have, but still keep up with a growing city?
We have developed three focus areas to help us meet our 40% goal.
Our immediate consideration, of course, was to determine what enhancements could be made to the current residential programs. I’m pleased to announce we have 2 programs rolling out in July, including a Green Organics program and a “Save as You Reduce and Recycle” program that will offer residents the opportunity to downsize to a medium size trash container.
In addition to these new solid waste programs, we will continue to educate and communicate with Phoenix residents about averting, diverting and converting waste.
The city’s second focus area is Communication and Outreach through various channels such as city-owned media, outreach and community events, and a paid media campaign using the TV spot you saw earlier and a wide variety of signage opportunities throughout the greater Phoenix area including…
Wrapped garbage trucks
Billboards and,
kiosk posters
Electronic signage at our major sports venues
Website reskins
And, of course, a campaign-specific social media…
And website pages
To meet our 40% goal, we know this can’t be achieved through residential programs alone. We need to leverage and work with our community and industry leaders to meet our goals.
To date, the city has entered into partnership with these organizations – which all have strong commitments to sustainability and reducing their consumption.
This list of partners will continue to grow as our programs evolve.
We, at the city of Phoenix, are extremely excited about our partnership with ASU.
We recognized that ASU, in its role as a public institution and servant of public and private good, could look at the larger picture and help drive the local, regional - and ultimately global - economy by connecting the city with industry partners and serving as a research and technology resource for those partners.
So our story….. ASU president, Michael Crow, likes to refer to our institution as “The New American University”.
His vision is that our celebrated scientists and scholars pursue one overriding goal: to addresses the major challenges faced by the world and find and share knowledge that will become impactful solutions.
At ASU - home of the country’s first and most comprehensive School of Sustainability - research is not done for the sake of research, but with an applied purpose. Research that will move sustainability forward faster.
My team is the consulting arm of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, a program within ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. In our scant two years of operation, we have already made several public-private collaborations that, aided by our research and innovation services, have resulted in immediate impact. We plainly call ourselves Sustainability Solutions Services.
Here’s an example: a partnership between ASU, Salt River Project, a major Arizona utility company, and the City of Phoenix, which diverted 866 tons of waste from the City of Phoenix landfill. Additional solutions that came from our research, when implemented, will gain back the company $115,000 per year because of reduced hauling costs and increased recycled material revenue.
So, John asked us “what if we leveraged the combined resources of ASU and the city of Phoenix to develop sustainability solutions through research, education, innovation and entrepreneurship?”
So the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network – or RISN – was born, with a mission to accelerate the global transition to sustainable resource management.
But RISN wasn’t created in a vacuum. ASU worked with the city on a series of stakeholder workshops that included companies, NGOs and other municipalities from across the metro Phoenix region to assess the value of a network to drive development of new technologies and more efficient processes that would help the city become a leader in waste diversion and recycling. Again – creating matches through collaboration.
RISN, officially launched this past January, is a partnership between ASU and the city of Phoenix that will establish a global resource network for partners to tap into for best practices and project development. It will also match nascent innovations with qualified collaborators, including the academic expertise and resources at ASU.
What was the value that the city saw in RISN and the ASU partnership that led to its 4-year, $2million funding of the program?
Can you give us some examples of proposed new projects and technologies?
As I referenced earlier, the city of Phoenix currently transports all its garbage and recycling to either the landfill or China. To create a circular economy, we are currently master planning vacant land adjacent to the transfer station for businesses that want to become a partner with the city.
Our goal for this program is for the city to reduce costs, increase revenue and provide material for businesses to utilize for their products and services. Businesses will have access to feed stock, research and experts to help them become a more sustainable business.
The Resource Innovation and Solutions Network will also provided research for the city of Phoenix and those businesses that have emerging technologies.
When circular economy is established, tensions are diminished.
And we are very excited to announce that our first global hub will be in partnership with the Sustainability School of Lagos in Nigeria, Africa.
JOHN: So now imagine if every major city in the world worked to accelerate solutions by partnering with universities, corporations and NGO’s to tackle common challenges like clean water, clean air, food supply and waste?
DAN: We invite you to take the first step – join our network and let’s make matches that make sense and impact – for you and for all of us. The most powerful brands in the world are gathered in this room – let’s start re-imagining some solutions. Thank you.