Clean Agency

Recently attending the West Pack conference in Anaheim, Clean team members took a look at innovations in the packaging world. Though smaller than previous years, we were pleased to see that the Green Packaging Pavillion was centrally located, and that investments and interest in innovative secondary and tertiary packaging have grown. Some highlights include: reusable and recyclable pallets made from post-consumer recycled content, biodegradable cushioning materials for packing boxes, ultra-strong paper based recyclable honeycomb panels to substitute pallets and partitions in distribution, versatile paper made from stones without water or tree pulp that can be used for catalogues, tradeshow displays and labels, even bio-compostable tree-free food to-go boxes—all elements of packaging that would end up in a landfill if it weren’t for their environmentally preferable counterparts.

Knowing collaboration is a key to our success, the Clean team spent the day at Il Fornaio in Pasadena, brainstorming and strategizing for the new year.

Recently, Dr. Bob Vos and I visited the Athens Services waste management facility in City of Industry, to get a first hand look at how our South Pasadena waste is processed. In South Pas, all waste from residential and commercial locations is collected in the same bins, and sent by truck for sorting at Athens. From there, any recyclable materials extracted go to a variety of local and global recycling plants, and food and yard waste go to domestic organizations for composting. Materials for which there are no viable recycling or recovery options are sent to local landfills as a last resort. 

Landfilling as a disposal route, however, even as a last resort, will soon become more problematic in California with the upcoming 2013 closure of the Puente Hills landfill. Dennis Chiappetta, Athens’ Executive Vice President and our guide for our facility tour, informed us that the closure of Puente Hills, currently the largest landfill in the United States, will mean that local waste management agencies will have to find other, likely more distant and more costly, places to send their municipal solid waste.

Athens is currently developing landfill avoidance facilities and technologies with the goal of ensuring that less and less waste will go the way of the landfill. At Clean, it’s always been our philosophy that waste = lost profits, so fostering additional opportunities to recycle and recover waste materials is a strategy we’re definitely on board with.

The American Southwest was the chosen region for this year's GreenBuild International Conference & Expo. Clean was pleased to have gathered in the desert metropolis of Phoenix along with those leading the charge within the discipline of green building. Some sightings that are sure to stick with us: the ecoscorecard tool -  easing the process of LEED scoring, Interface's 'Elephant in the Room' communications platform,as well as the event's overall recycling effort - providing 54 recycling stations staffed by over 300 volunteers.

GreenBuild 2009 takes place through the end of this week, Nov. 13th.

SEE MORE OF CHRIS JORDAN'S IMAGES>>

From the artist's statement, on Midway, Message from the Gyre :

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

Jordan has also posted a YouTube slideshow of the images.

An inspirational day arranged by Maria Shriver & Governor Schwarzenegger with the message, "Be Who You Are.. An Architect of Change." Clean team members, Seri McClendon & Heidi Luko attended yesterday along with 25,000 women from a range of disciplines to discuss the struggles & transformations that females have endured & their impact in today's world.

As a member of the Businesses for Social Responsibility global network, Clean was counted among attendees at last week's conference held in San Francisco. Major Clean takeaway: taking inspiration from the corporations in attendance and their various investments in sustainable processes. Click here for video highlights.

With carrots in hand, the Clean team paid a visit to the United Pegasus Foundation (UPF), a nonprofit horse rescue group located in Tehachapi, California. Clean supports the UPF through the thoroughbred sponsorship program, as well as the donation of professional marketing and outeach services.

Clean's sponsored horse, Chicken Lips, pictured above is a retired thoroughbred racehorse.

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