March 16th - WASTE MANAGEMENT

Session #3

Keynote Speaker: Ron Gonen, founder, RecycleBank

Prior to RecycleBank, Ron was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting. Ron focused on developing CRM and strategic account management programs for clients. His clients have included Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, Bank One, GE, and DIRECTV. Ron was a co-recipient of Deloitte Consulting’s National Impact Award in 2002 for his development and management of a consulting unit that provides pro bono consulting services to non-profit and charitable organizations. In addition, Ron was a founding member of the National Conference for High School Students Against Hunger and Homelessness. Ron received an MBA from Columbia Business School where he was a Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship award winner and received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Economics from the University of Massachusetts where he graduated cum laude and was awarded Massachusetts Commonwealth Scholar honors.

Ron has been a guest speaker on the role of business in society and environmental policy at a number of venues, most recently at Columbia Business School, Wharton, CUNY, Penn State, EarthRight , The National Recycling Coalition Annual Conference, The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia Conference and the NYC Cleantech CEO Panel. Ron is a mentor for the Global Social Venture Competition.

Panelists:

Maurice Sampson, Board Member, Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia
Linda Knapp, Senior Program Manager, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)

Deconstruction is re-emerging as an industry in the United States because of the recognition of the value of used building materials and the need to reduce the amount of demolition debris in the waste stream. Deconstruction is the planned and systematic disassembly of buildings with the purpose of harvesting and processing materials for reuse. Linda Knapp will provide a brief overview of deconstruction opportunities in Philadelphia and her work during the past three years to support a local “restoration economy” for processing and selling recovered materials for use in construction and renovation projects, or for remanufacture.