greencitizen.com

GreenCitizen offers our staff a very different type of career opportunity, one that speaks to their passion for the environment and their desire to use their education and experience to address our planet’s pressing problems with accelerated training in management, operations and business development.  In a sense, an on-the-job “green MBA.” Ours is a dedicated team of professionals working at the intersection of information technology, social entrepreneurship, retail and operations…all while saving the environment. We’d like to start introducing you to the people that make GreenCitizen go, starting with one of our earliest team members, Nafisah Ali.

Name: Nafisah Ali

College/University: UC Berkeley, BA – Physical Geography

Your role with GreenCitizen: Senior Center Manager.  I started as an intern in 2005, became Assistant Manager in 2006 and Manager in 2007 and now Senior Center Manager

Past positions held: Intern at Cal EPA – State Water Board

Years with Green Citizen: 6!

How did you discover GreenCitizen? Through the counselor of the Geography Department at Cal

What were your initial thoughts about the company and the position when it was first presented to you? I thought it would be a great opportunity to work for a start up and work for a company model that did not really exist at that time. When I first started there were only 4 full time staff members so there was great opportunity to help create a new system and help continue to build the company.

What does it mean to work at GreenCitizen? I personally feel that my work is important in the great scheme of things. Yes, there is the daily grind but I know I’m making a difference and I know we’re offering a valuable service to the community.

What is a typical day like? Right now I’m only working 2 days in Berkeley so my typical day is not what it used to be. When I was full time my day began with checking my emails and listing any priority tasks I needed to get done. Before my maternity leave, I was responsible for continual training of new staff, scheduling pickups, sending reports to property managers, updating our pickup database, invoicing, updating our vendor (majority ECS) payments, sending SB20 logs to ECS, along with other daily tasks.

Now at Berkeley for 2 days, it is much more relaxed =) I have delegated most of my major responsibilities to new staff members.  Now I am here to be a mentor and help cover the Berkeley center and attend other events if necessary.

What do you enjoy most about what you do? Again, when I was full time, my day was full of responsibilities and deadlines, but I knew at the end of the day we had accomplished something.  When logistics returned from the day’s pickups with reuse items that will in turn bring in revenue for GreenCitizen, I know it was our team effort that made it possible. It is the ability to work with great staff that really keeps me going.

How is your education being put to work? My general education is really being put to work. The ability to communicate clearly either verbally or in writing is important when dealing with customers and in having intelligent conversations with CEOs or heads of departments to build our customer relationships. My education included environmental studies so I have a better physical understanding of the effects of global environmental damage which in turn allows me to also have in depth conversations with customers. Not to say those who did not study in this field cannot have intelligent conversations, but it does allow for a greater appreciation of the issues when you dedicate years of study.

What new skills have you learned? I never thought I would be a managerial position so quickly but that meant I had to learn to problem solve and resolve customer issues in ways that wouldn’t hurt the business relationship. I’m confident in my ability to train and build a team. I have become more conscious of the business end of making a socially responsible company survive. I have learned a lot from James Kao, our CEO, on how to literally build a company from scratch from hiring and developing staff members to increasing revenue to managing people.

What keeps you here? I have been fortunate to work with great staff and that is really important to me. I believe in GreenCitizen’s mission and I want to continue to contribute my skills to help build GC to reach its goals.

What would you say to a new graduate who is considering a career opportunity with GreenCitizen? If you really want to challenge yourself and not sit in a cubicle for eight hours doing the same thing every day, then consider GreenCitizen. Here, you will be part of a team with a common goal. Your day will be filled with different challenges and you will push yourself to think outside the box. You will have an opportunity to help build a system and truly contribute to our company’s growth

What do you see/hope for yourself and for GreenCitizen in the future? I truly see GreenCitizen being successful. I see it changing as we grow but in a positive direction. I see growth into owning our own de-manufacturing and research facility, hundreds of drop off location (either through partner locations or our own satellite location), hundreds of job opportunities, and a position as atrue leader in the industry. I hope to stay and grow with GC. I would like to oversee the growth of front counter department and perhaps oversee the overall operation when we get to a larger scale.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the green job market, your personal career journey or GreenCitizen? There are a variety of positions in the green job market but the most exciting careers are with those companies that are pushing the boundaries and not just maintaining the status quo. I have worked for the Federal government and the State, but working for a private company has been the most interesting, especially a company starting from the ground up. There is no other company like us, which makes GC truly unique.

Plastic bags have been overused for a long period of time now and we’ve tried to come up with many solutions to our problem such as using paper bags, reusable bags, banning plastic bags, charging a tax on them, etc.

So what’s the most interesting solution? By far, the most interesting solution that I’ve come across is inventing a machine that turns plastic bags into oil!

Plastic is made from oil, so the CEO of Blest Corporation, Akinori Ito, developed a machine to convert our plastic trash back into oil.

You may be wondering how the machine works. Basically, to use the machine, you start out by placing plastic trash (bags, water bottle caps, etc.) into the machine. Once you turn the machine on, the temperature begins to rise and the plastic begins to melt and become liquid. Once the liquid boils into gas, the gas is cooled down by tap water, turning it into oil. According to Ito, “If you separate the oil, then you can use it for a car, or a motorbike, or a generator, or a boiler, and a stove. You can use it in the same way as regular oil.”

The machine seems like the perfect solution to help reduce plastic waste but it is yet to be tested in our community.

Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basal Action Network was recently interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. In summary….

In the past 10 years, the demand for new electronics has increased significantly, and the old electronics continue to pile up.

So, what do you do with your old electronics and why can’t they be put into the landfill?

Jim Puckett explains, these discarded electronics are toxic waste although they are still not recognized by the United States Government as such. There are three categories of toxins found in almost all electronics: Toxic metals, Bromated Flame Retardants, and rare metals. These toxins are most toxic during electronic production and throughout the recycling process. These are generally very dirty processes, performed in poor countries under dangerous working conditions and creates a significant amount of pollution. Two terrifying examples of the terrors involved with electronic recycling are found in Guiyu, China and Accra, Ghana.

Guiyu is ground zero for electronic waste dumping. In 2001, Jim Puckett went over to investigate and expose what was actually being done there. He describes it as a Cyber-age nightmare. We witnessed many people using archaic technology such as, women “cooking” circuit boards over their stoves to retrieve the metals. To retrieve gold, a process called aqua regia was being used. This process involves putting the gold through two separate acid baths to separate and coagulate the gold. After the acid is used most of it is dumped directly on to the ground. He says their ground water is completely shot and at the time fresh water was brought in on trucks.

The other horrifying example is in Accra, Ghana where the environmental impacts are detrimental although for different reasons. The types of environmental impacts are related to the market and demand of the old electronics. China is the center for electronic manufacturing and there is a higher demand for scrap electronic material. In Ghana old CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors will be put on the market to be sold. What doesn’t get sold is disposed of through open pit firing. This is done mainly by children, many of which are orphans and runaways. After the CRTs have been burned, the left over metal scraps are collected and sold for a minimal price. Most devastating, he said, this burn field is located next to the Agbobloshie market, the main food supply for the area. When these monitors are burned, dioxins and BFR’s are released into the air and directly on to their food. (Check out this link to see photos from the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/08/04/magazine/20100815-dump.html. )

Jim Puckett asserts, the dirty little secret of all this, is that 80% of all electronics are being shipped outside of the United States. He says recycling is just a name and it is often times hard for the individual to find out what the company really does with their “recycled waste.” Most people are trying to do the right thing by bringing their old electronics to superstores, thinking they will be safely recycled. In actuality they are being sold to brokers and “recycled” under some of the most horrifying conditions. In recent years, many states have enacted their own laws to keep electronics out of landfills. However, the U.S. Federal export Laws over ride the states laws preventing enforcement of electronic waste exportation. So we are cleaning up our own backyard and externalizing the costs. In other words, the people in places like Guiyu and Ghana pay the bill with their health and the destruction of their environment.

Even when done properly, the electronic recycling process is very dirty and creates toxic discharge. Jim Puckett, believes part of the solution is to build electronics without these dangerous toxins to reduce the environmental and health impacts at creation until they are discarded. He has spoken with engineers who say the technology has already been developed but for whatever reason, (economic gain?) it still has yet to be released.

Check out the full interview here    http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132204954/after-dump-what-happens-to-electronic-waste