Diverting Food Waste to Composting: The Foodservice + Restaurant Perspective Webinar

Jeff Clark manages the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) Conserve program and environmental education efforts. Together with Laura Abshire, he acts as an environmental liaison to the restaurant industry and regularly speaks to audiences about environmental topics.

Before joining the NRA team, Jeff consulted to the Energy Star Commercial Food Service program. In that position, he promoted energy efficiency in restaurant kitchens, co-authored the Energy Star Guide to Restaurants, and appeared on the PBS show Food Sense with Phil Lempert in 2010.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University. Outside of work, Jeff lives in California, is a part-time surfer, a full-time foodie, and an amateur photographer.

Ryan Walter Co-Founded The Compost Crew in 2011 and is their CEO. He has driven The Compost Crew from a fledgling startup to a successful small business serving thousands of customers with ever-accelerating growth. Through this success, Mr. Walter ensures that The Company Crew stays true to their founding mission:  to educate, engage, and empower our team, partners, and communities to reduce to zero waste and nurture our soils by creating sustainable, holistic products and solutions of the highest quality with integrity. Before The Compost Crew, Mr. Walter served as a Project Manager and Security Design Engineer. Mr. Walter graduated Cum Laude with degrees in Physics and Engineering Science and a Minor in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University.

Wes Benson is Franchise Affairs and Sustainability Manager for Taco Time Northwest, based in Renton, WA.  For the past seven years, Taco Time Northwest has led the industry locally in developing a single-container, all-compost waste diversion program in TTNW’s seventy-eight dining rooms.  Wes has been involved in this program from the beginning, working with the City of Seattle during the stakeholder process, developing systems, signage, and training, and encouraging constant improvement along the way.  Since then, Wes has been involved in electricity conservation through changing behavior in the restaurants and testing new, more efficient equipment; maximizing back of the house waste diversion (focused both on composting and recycling); and developing Taco Time Northwest’s solar program for all new construction.  He holds a BA in English from the University of Washington.

Renaud directs the strategy and implementation of Amy’s sustainability program. Before Amy’s, he spent a decade consulting on sustainability strategy and environmental accounting to clients across the consumer packaged goods industry. Renaud leads the operational aspect of Amy’s sustainability program with a broad focus on efficiency, waste reduction, and material optimization in product and packaging development, company-owned offices and manufacturing facilities, and logistics throughout the supply chain. He also works cross-functionally throughout the Amy’s organization to integrate environmental thinking into all departments and functions while representing the company in industry groups and stakeholder dialogues around sustainability.

Charlotte Dreizen is a Project Manager at GreenBlue and leads the Composting Collaborative and compostable packaging work at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. In the last 18 months, the Composting Collaborative has spearheaded research in pretreatment systems and composting access, as well as convened three in-person summits and kicked off a monthly webinar series. In addition, Charlotte co-developed the new Essentials of Sustainable Packaging course and has spoken at events like the New York City Food Waste Fair and the Green Sports Alliance Summit on organics recycling strategies. She holds a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University with dual concentrations in International Development and International Environmental Studies. Charlotte is also a LEED Green Associate and has earned Living Future Accreditation through the International Living Future Institute.