美国红色保守阵营的绿色环保领袖

垃圾变现金

位置：佐治亚州亚特兰大

霍莉•艾尔莫是总部位于亚特兰大的非赢利机构Elemental Impact的CEO。该机构旨在调试餐饮行业降低食余残渣的时间，并将其应用于其他行业。她认为，从严格意义上来讲，降低工业废弃物也是一种商业模式。

她说，亚特兰大的商业氛围为Elemental Impact的发展提供了发展的沃土。亚特兰大的大部分收入来源于总部位于亚特兰大的企业，以及当地举办的各种会议和运动盛会。

在亚特兰大，每个人都关注如何处理废弃物，当地产生很多餐饮垃圾——假日酒店举办董事会会议以及在佐治亚体育馆（Georgia Dome）举办体育盛会，都会产生大量餐饮垃圾。Elemental Impact则协助实现餐饮垃圾的大规模回收和肥料提炼技术。

爱尔莫表示，一些公司可能会将环境保护列为公司宗旨的第一条，但在实际商业经营中却把它排在了最后一位。而她的环保组织则将重点放在为客户带来商业利益。

目前，爱尔莫致力于改善技术，以从超市（Publix）垃圾中提炼更多的肥料，并在亚特兰大和首都华盛顿特区对城市食品区的垃圾利用情况进行改革。

她表示，一旦播下“零垃圾”的种子，人们就会为之着迷，“当人们参与其中时，‘零垃圾’的观点就会融入人们的血液。”

（翻译 乔树静）

Trash to cash

Location: Atlanta, Ga.

    For Holly Elmore, reducing industry waste is strictly business. She's the CEO of Elemental Impact, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that aims to fine-tune the food industry's waste reduction practices and then apply them to companies in other industries.

    Atlanta's corporate culture provides fertile ground for Elemental Impact, she says. The city depends heavily on the revenue that comes from the many corporate headquarters it houses and the conventions and sports events it hosts.

    Everybody in Atlanta is being held accountable about what happens to waste, and there's plenty of it -- lots of clutter coming from board meetings at the Holiday Inn, lots of half-eaten hot dogs funneling out of the Georgia Dome. Elemental Impact helps facilitate huge recycling and composting efforts.

    Environmentalism may come first in the company's mission statement, but it goes last in the business pitch, Elmore says. The focus is on the business benefit the organization can provide to clients.

    Elmore's currently working to increase composting at Publix and revolutionize food court waste in two locations, one in Atlanta and another in Washington, D.C.

    Once you plant the seed, the zero waste mentality becomes addictive, she says, "You get people on board with you and it gets in their blood."