Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Stewardship

Speakers: EPR in Action, Program Design and Implementation

Speakers participating at CIWMB's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Workshop on April 28, 2008, have submitted the following biographies and recent project descriptions. You may wish to visit the agenda page for more information about the workshop.

Walter Alcorn | Scott Canonico | Bobby Farris | Sego Jackson | Tony Kingsbury | Mark McKenney | Ian Morton | Joachim Quoden | Doug Smith | Michael Wilson

Walter Alcorn is an environmental consultant specializing in electronics recycling systems and co-founder of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). Current and recent clients include the NCER, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), the Washington Materials Management and Financing Authority, West Virginia University and several large electronics manufacturers. Project work in 2008 includes development of an electronics recycling system for manufacturer compliance in Washington State, the creation and management of the National Electronics Recycling Infrastructure Clearinghouse (NERIC) as a joint effort by the NCER and CEA (visit www.ecyclingresource.org) and facilitation of a workshop simulation exploring the electronics recycling systems in Maine and California.

Recent project work includes: analysis of current and projected electronics recycling system costs, development of collector and recycler documentation forms for the Minnesota electronics recycling program; the NERIC Patchwork Study to identify and quantify the dead weight costs of state-by-state electronics recycling mandates in comparison to a national approach; the NCER’s Brand Data Management System, business planning support for the Pacific Northwest Third Party Organization (TPO) project, management of development of the web-based application for the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), various electronics recycling industry modeling exercises, and development of the NCER’s Centralized Data Repository.

Walter is Manager of Product Ecology LLC and President of Alcorn Consulting located in Reston, Virginia. Previously Walter worked for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) from 1992 to 2003 where he led analysis of U.S. hazardous waste management capacity, managed SAIC’s GreenOnline product, developed advanced models of the U.S. electronics recycling industry and served as Deputy Division Manager for the Advanced Internet Applications Division. Prior to SAIC, Walter worked for Fairfax County government as a policy aide. Walter is an active member of his community and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Fairfax County Planning Commission (population 1.1 million).

Scott Canonico, Manager, Environmental Policy and Strategy, joined HP in 2000 as a Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Inkjet business unit. In that role he built a team that ensured HP’s compliance during a time of rapid business growth and major new product introductions. Recognizing the need to communicate HP’s environmental achievements to customers and other stakeholders, he joined the marketing team in 2003. Since then, he has worked extensively with HP’s government affairs and public relations organizations to advocate for effective environmental policy and share HP’s environmental record. In 2006 he took responsibility for marketing the HP Planet Partners print cartridge recycling program.

Prior to joining HP, Scott worked for International Paper as an Environmental Engineer and a facility Environmental Health and Safety Manager.

He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy, West Point and a MS in Environmental Science and Engineering form Colorado School of Mines. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Maine.

Scott currently resides in Corvallis, Oregon with his wife, Tricia, and their children, Jack and Alice. He enjoys active outdoor sports and photography.

Bobby Farris is the business Director for WM Recycle America--eCycling Services. He is responsible for the electronics recycling services and operations for WM Recycle America LLC. Mr. Farris has been active in the computer service and recycling industry since 1996. His initial work included managing a $30 million computer hardware service and procurement division in support of General Electric. He also helped develop one of the first Internet based fulfillment models for the computer repair market. He entered the electronics recycling industry in 1998 and, prior to joining Waste Management, worked in a leadership capacity for precious metals refining and asset recovery companies.

Mr. Farris earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma and an M.A. in International Relations from Florida State University. He also did two years of post-graduate work in Philosophy at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Mr. Farris currently participates in the North Texas Corporate Recycling Association and is on the Electronics Resource Recovery Council for the Recycling Alliance of Texas.

Sego Jackson is a Principal Planner with Snohomish County, Washington. He represented the interests of local governments as one of 15 government negotiators in the National Electronic Product Stewardship Initiative and has been instrumental in developing local, state and national pilots, programs and policies related to product stewardship. Related to electronics, examples include the Take it Back Network for electronics in Washington, several retailer take-back pilots, and a project to study the creation of a Third Party Organization to provide electronics collection and recycling on behalf of manufacturers. He is also working on initiatives related to paint, mercury-containing lighting and other products, pharmaceuticals, and framework policy approaches.

He has been actively involved in processes related to the successful passage of Washington’s landmark 2006 producer responsibility bill for electronic products, including stakeholder advisory committee work, helping craft the legislation, and rule making following passage. Currently he is involved in helping prepare stakeholders and existing collectors for transition to the new producer responsibility system that begins in 2009.

Sego is a founding steering committee member of the Northwest Product Stewardship Council and a founding councilor of the U.S. Green Electronics Council. He is a board member of the Product Policy Institute and is a frequent participant in Product Stewardship Institute initiatives.

Tony Kingsbury's professional experience:

Internships

• Getty Oil--oil field operations and reserve calculations.
• Hewlett Packard--integrated circuit manufacturing.
• Boise Cascade--pulp and paper production, quality and operations.

Dow Chemical (24 year career)

• Production Engineer in Southern California, Plastics.
• Product Development Engineer: packaging, electronics, medical, toys and consumer goods markets.
• Product Marketing Manager for Consumer Electronics.
• Plastics Sustainability, Issues and Industry Affairs manager covering the world.

Kingsbury worked out of Dow’s headquarters in Midland, Michigan where he lead a group responsible for plastics sustainability activities and industry affairs globally. He served as the key link between the $20+ billion plastics half of Dow (Dow is the largest plastics producer in the world.) and the corporate reputation and sustainability efforts. He has worked with value chains in markets ranging from packaging to toys, building products to footwear and consumer electronics to medical devices.

He represented Dow and held leadership positions on numerous organizations such as:

• American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division
• Environment and Plastics Industry Council of Canada
• Ocean Futures Society and The Ocean Conservancy
• Wal-Mart’s Packaging Sustainable Value Network
• Sustainable Packaging Council

Kingsbury is a recognized expert in global sustainability, environmentally preferred purchasing, life cycle thinking, plastics and chemical environmental issues and public policy. He was the co-developer of Dow’s Lifecycle Sustainability Index, a financial and life cycle metric of all Dow’s products. He is a sought after international speaker and consultant.

Kingsbury is known for using his wide ranging knowledge of the whole supply chain from raw material extraction, to manufacturing, to final use and disposal, to distill complex messages into understandable language.

Kingsbury received his bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University.

He has a wife and two teenage children.

Mark McKenney is the president of MGM Management, a British Columbia environmental consultancy which assists clients across North America. Mark has been involved in the environmental field for over 35 years, having experience in industrial, commercial and municipal pollution abatement and waste management programs. His assignments have included industrial and municipal water treatment, hazardous waste management, air pollution issues and particularly waste management and a long list of recycling programs.

Since the late 1980’s he has designed and administered various recycling and producer responsibility programs in Canada. Mark was a key figure in initiating one of the first widespread municipal curbside recycling programs in North America, in Ontario, Canada in the early 1990’s. These programs have evolved into producer responsibility programs whereby brand owners of packaging and printed materials share responsibility for the funding of curbside recycling in Canada’s two largest Provinces.

Through MGM Management, Mark continues to be an advisor to 8 major product stewardship organizations across Canada. Another specialty of MGM Management is in the design and execution of litter audits and litter abatement programs for large municipalities in North America. Mark is also the organizer and Managing Director of the Conference on Canadian Stewardship, a major conference held every two years and sponsored by those businesses most affected by producer stewardship programs in Canada.

Mr. McKenney holds a diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology as well as a bachelor degree in Law and Justice.

Ian Morton is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Summerhill Group. He is a recognized leader on environment issues; responsible for creating some of the most innovative and effective market based programs on air quality, climate change, and healthy housing in Canada. Ian was instrumental in the creation of the Clean Air Foundation and Healthy Indoors Partnership and has won several awards in honor of his work. He was named by Strategy Magazine as one of seven marketing leaders to watch in 2006 and recently was appointed to an advisory panel of eminent Canadians to provide advice and assistance to the Government of Canada at the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Indonesia. Ian lives in Toronto, volunteers for a number of charitable organizations, is an avid hockey player and active father to the two best boys in the world: Jackson and Charlie.

Since 1995, Summerhill Group has been instrumental in creating a diversity of strategic initiatives that have addressed a variety of policy and environmental priorities in Canada. Summerhill Group works with progressive companies such as The Home Depot, Union Gas, Toronto Hydro and the LCBO that are committed to transforming the market to sustainability--providing them with creative, market-based solutions that achieve measurable improvements to the environment and the economy. The Company is based in Toronto, and has 40 full-time staff and over 1100 part-time people employed for program delivery across Canada.

Joachim Quoden studied law at the "Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität" in Bonn between 1987 and 1992 and served his legal internship in Bonn and Cologne from 1993 until 1995. In between these placements he spent 4 months within the German Federal Ministry of Environment where he was working on packaging issues including the German Packaging Ordinance.

From February 1993 until June 2006, Mr. Quoden worked for Der Grüne Punkt--Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD) in various capacities. From January 2001, he served as Head of International Affairs of DSD and was vested with general commercial power of representation in 2003.

In January 2001 he also became Secretary General of PRO EUROPE, the umbrella organization of 32 packaging recovery organizations seated in 31 European countries and in Ontario, Canada. Since April 2005 he was appointed as managing director of this organization and since July 2006 he works fulltime as General Manager for PRO EUROPE.

Besides this he is working since June 1995 as independent German lawyer specialized on international trademark and producer responsibility law.

Douglas Smith, Director, Corporate Environment, Safety and Health, Sony. In this role he directs the corporate environmental affairs for North American operations. Smith establishes policies and corporate guidelines covering environmental, safety and health policies and supports the internal audit and ISO 14001 program for Sony North American facilities inclusive of US, Mexico and South America electronic manufacturing plants. Smith currently chairs the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) with over 30,000 collection points for consumer batteries in the US and Canada, and is on board of Portable Rechargeable Battery Association, dedicated to consistent solutions and standards for the portable power and mobile electronics industry.

Michael P. Wilson, PhD, MPH, is a research scientist with the Program in Green Chemistry and Chemicals Policy at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Wilson conducts research and practice in chemicals policy, exposure assessment, occupational safety and health, and sustainable production. He conducted his doctoral and masters research in environmental health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1996 to 2003, where he focused primarily on occupational exposure assessment and chemicals policy. He earned a bachelors degree with thesis honors in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1984.

Dr. Wilson is the chief author of a 2006 UC report to the California Legislature, Green Chemistry in California: A Framework for Leadership in Chemicals Policy and Innovation and a lead author with Berkeley and UCLA colleagues of a January 2008 UC report, Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a Sustainable California, for California EPA. These reports identify first principles of chemicals policy to improve health and environmental protection and motivate new investment in green chemistry and extended producer responsibility.

Dr. Wilson serves on the State of California Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel, the State’s Biomonitoring Program Scientific Guidance Panel.

April 28 Workshop Agenda