Rogat+-+Empire+Zero+Interview+Notes

Michelle Rogat Empire Zero Interview Notes

Interview done November 13, 2013, from 2:15-3:15pm with Tyler Holloway


 * Notes || Ideas that resulted/what is useful ||
 * # Empire Zero (EZ) was founded in April 2012 because when he got back from (school?) he was interested in composting food and food waste recycling, his dad was working on it at a national level, there was a big demand from institutions like Schenectady County Community College, Union, St Peter's Hospital, Sienna - these were contracts
 * 1) mostly in the capital region, some expansion into Columbia and Berkshire Counties
 * 2) states are pending a ban on food waste, will happen in NY in the next 2-3 years
 * 3) EZ usually makes the initiative to a prospective client, they don't do much advertising
 * 4) they are included in the consortium with Waterveliet and Troy for residential programs, they would be providing the curbside pick up and dropping off to an anaerobic digester in Waterveliet - Which Mike Manning, the mayor, is heading it up
 * 5) they make/use specialty food waste trucks
 * 6) Bountiful Bread - John Olcott (spelling?) is the Dining Services Manager and is focused on everything in the restaurant to be compostable, including the paper plates and ethanol plastic utensils
 * 7) 333 Cafe in Delmar, looking at Barrington Brewery from Great Barrington, MA as well
 * 8) reasons for institutions to buy their services - going green for colleges is great advertising or its the saving money aspect
 * 9) because we are a small business, its not always possible but they try to price their service to be comparable to trash companies, sometimes they come out to be the same, cheaper, or more expensive
 * 10) when the trash company is charging by weight, you do see a lot of savings for a business in sorting out its food waste
 * 11) they also do business with empire state plaza
 * 12) it's difficult to change habits in the kitchen, they offer a training program where they will go and train their customer's employees, or if there is someone at that business that is invested in this and wants to put forth the effort, they will train that worker over the phone how to train the staff to transition better
 * 13) would really have to work with the employees that empty and take out the garbages - like the dishwashers
 * 14) kitchen can be set up differently, it's usually custom for each place, like the tote could be in the kitchen or trays set up to collect food waste and then bring it out to the tote outside
 * 15) issues for EZ are with contamination, the problem is small, they haven't denied loads really but they can, but there is the issues of handler's gloves (prep gloves in the kitchen) that get tossed in with the food, same problem with saran wrap
 * 16) it's not that big of an issue for them because the composting facility(ies) they bring the food waste to first screens the waste before grinding anything
 * 17) everything can go in the food waste, proteins, shells, bones, all compostable items and soiled papers - everything goes in!
 * 18) makes business viable, it wouldn't be otherwise
 * 19) Gene Bonato - Cornell Waste Management Institution could explain the process of how bacteria at a higher heat breaks down proteins and makes the acceptance of everything possible
 * 20) [have you ever worked with a business that couldn't work past problems that came up and failed to do this, so stopped your service?] "Usually if you commit, failure is not an option." so no, they've never had that happen, it's always been able to work
 * 21) issues with employees include handlers gloves, saran wrap that's balled up like it was thrown in there absent mindedly, wrappers
 * 22) he suggests moving the garbage for harder access and in monitoring bins and employees
 * 23) "it isn't easy because you're changing how people think and their nature, in less than a second they have to become aware"
 * 24) signage can help with this
 * 25) they do have issues with hospitals, patients are always new - there aren't, hopefully returning customers. How do you get their attention when they have much more personal alarming issues going on
 * 26) waste audit - 2 options
 * 27) free visual audit - where they bring in a tarp and open up garbage, separate out the food waste and get a visual for how much of overall garbage is food waste
 * 28) full waste audit - 3-5 days, separate out food waste and weigh it, from EVERYTHING, this costs $85/hour
 * 29) equipment - could use the scale where you hang a bag like the kind of idea at the grocery store, or just use the common bathroom scale (he admits there are over 100 different guidelines for waste audits)
 * 30) pricing - it's a tote swap service - 32 gallon totes, those themselves no charge, use compostable liners, takes ALL food waste and soiled papers and wax cardboard. At least 1 pick up/week, usually 2/week. 3 tote minimum which is $8/tote/pick up = about $100/month with pick ups 1x/week
 * 31) only issue is odor from totes can attract pests, never a big problem though, another in the liners getting stuck in winter because it becomes a frozen cube of food waste - can be tricky to empty sometimes.
 * 32) AFTER THE INTERVIEW - started discussing how I work at the country club and might try to convince my boss and members in the future to use this service - Tyler was interested in how the chef is interested in food waste, because in his experiences when Empire Zero has tried discussing with chefs about the food waste coming out of the restaurant and how they could provide a service for them, their response was that it's great, but "I don't have any food waste in my restaurant." To chefs the term 'food waste' means something different, it means how efficiently they use the food products they buy to make the meals without wasting anything in the production process up to putting the food on the plates and serving it to the customers. What they usually miss in the term 'food waste' is the post-consumer leftovers that get cleared off the tables and thrown out in the kitchen.
 * 33) I then told Tyler how I had briefly mentioned food waste to the club's chef from a previous research project on food security, and chef had said he would be interested in collecting food waste in the club's kitchen. What is different, I guess, at the club is that chef comes around and sees the leftover food we have to through out, and he shakes his head and literally says "What a waste." - Tyler seemed gladly surprised by this. || #3 - check into what laws are banning food waste in landfills in the near future, add this to the legislative side of the thesis - this is an example of the regulations the businesses have to follow, if they went ahead with sustainability projects then it usually turns out that they already end up following regulations for now and for what is coming in the future.


 * 1) 4 - the fact that they don't do much advertising now and that this ban will be implemented in the next couple of years points out that economically there is going to be this demand for food waste collection businesses and right now they aren't meeting that demand, which is only going to get a lot bigger. Yes, municipalities or other such government agencies are most likely going to have to help to meet these new regulations, but this also a huge opportunity for new businesses in the market.


 * 1) 7 - get in touch with Bountiful Bread, and John Olcott (?) the Dining Services Manager, for interviewing as an example of a restaurant going green - what's their motive and where is that energy for becoming sustainable coming from? What issues have they been coming across, etc.


 * 1) 8 - possibly look into 333 Cafe in Delmar and see what they are doing as well


 * 1) 9 - motivations for institutions to begin using the food waste collection service is the right to brag about it in advertising, and a way to save money.


 * 1) 10 - an issue for this food waste collection service is that it's a small business, so they can't always offer the competitive pricing in comparison with bigger trash companies. This has an effect on the use of these services altogether, on the demand for it, because it is affecting it's price and competition in the market. To tie this into the hospitality industry, the way that those businesses are going to be able to choose the companies practicing sustainability is if its worth it to them, either in terms of improving their reputation, or it's cheaper for them.


 * 1) 's 13, 16 - their approach to making their business succeed is to really make it easier for their clients by providing training to the places' staff and to allow every food waste into the bins, including bones and proteins. This makes their business viable, otherwise it probably wouldn't succeed.


 * 1) 18 - when asked if a company they were hired by ever failed to be able to use the service properly and had to stop using their service he said no. **GOOD QUOTE - "Usually if you commit, failure is not an option." **


 * 1) 21 - when discussing the issues related to their business and separating out food waste Tyler said, **"It isn't easy because you're changing how people think and their nature, in less than a second they have to become aware." GOOD QUOTE**

__**POSSIBILITY FOR THE COUNTRY CLUB**__
 * 1) 13 - if the club does decide to separate out food waste, they could explain to me and to some other staff - possibly the GM and one of the chef's, and could train us over the phone about how to transition or staff and situate our kitchen to make this possible. We would definitely need to emphasize to the dishwashers and to the waitstaff on the importance of throwing away the food in the correct bin, and discuss with them how to make this work for them, like have a separate bin next to every garbage bin maybe.


 * 1) 24 - I would be the one to do a food waste audit probably. I talked it over with Tyler briefly, and instead of having them come out to lay out the garbage and take pictures of it I would probably do that and send them the pictures. That would be a free waste audit. Or, I think there are some extra bins around, I could talk it out with the chefs and staff first and see if they are will to separate food waste out for a day, then count/weigh the bags of food waste versus garbage at the end of it. I would have to do one of these instead of the 3rd option where Empire Zero would come out and do a food waste audit for $85/hour.


 * 1) 25 - Once I do an audit and see how much of our garbage is food waste, I would have to find out how we pay for garbage pick up now, if it's by weight or by container, and that if we did separate food waste, would we be able to downsize and save money on the cost of garbage pick up. ||