Waste to Profit Network
Helping the CEO of the Chicago Manufacturing Center, Demetria Giannisis, to transform her vision of sustainable manufacturing into reality was one of the great career experiences of my life. My biggest contribution was creating the Waste to Profit Network for the City of Chicago back in 2005 when I was working for Demetria as the Director of Sustainability.
The Waste to Profit Network was created in collaboration with the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (USBCD) and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme in England.
Initially, I thought I would only be creating the funding for the program, but I ended up serving as Program Manager from its launch in 2006 to 2008. It became an award-winning network, serving over 200 companies, and diverting several hundred thousand tons of waste from landfill in the Chicago area.
This project was an example of a successful public/private partnerships between business and government.
The Waste to Profit Network was one of the most challenging projects that I've ever created and it showed me what can be done when you don't say something is impossible. My former boss, Demetria Giannisis, is now the Managing Director of Northwestern's Institute for Sustainability and Energy (ISEN), and is still creating what other people see as "impossible" projects, that are challenging and tough to do, yet needed.
It was a great honor to work on this project with so many regional and global leaders in the field of sustainability.