ARCHIVED VIDEO: Food Waste Reduction

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Food-permitted businesses are stepping up in the communities they serve by diverting food from landfills. Learn cost-saving food waste reduction techniques and how the federal Good Samaritan Act legally protects food businesses and affords tax benefits for food donations.

INSTRUCTOR BIO:

Stacy Savage was born and raised in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area of Southeast Texas where her parents worked at oil refineries for a collective 75 years. Her personal experience with air pollution and cancers in her family guided her professional career path to empower others to protect the planet.  Mrs. Savage has been a Texas “waste nerd” for 17 years starting in 2003 as a grassroots, door-to-door community organizer tackling local landfill expansion issues in Austin. She played a pivotal role in passing 2 key pieces of statewide legislation for the free and responsible recycling of toxic electronics known as the 2007 Texas Computer TakeBack Law (HB 2714 – Bonnen, R) and the 2011 Texas TV TakeBack Law (SB 329 – Watson, D). As Co-founder and former Chair of the Austin Zero Waste Alliance, she helped pass Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance (URO), which requires business recycling and food waste diversion, as well as Austin’s Single-Use Bag Ordinance (2012), Construction & Demolition Debris Recycling Ordinance (2015), and Curbside Compost Collection Ordinance (2015).  From 2015-2017, Mrs. Savage served as a City Council appointee on the Austin Zero Waste Advisory Commission (ZWAC). Her peers on this Commission elected her as their representative on the Joint Sustainability Committee, allowing her to provide a deeper level of service to the community.  In 2013, Mrs. Savage founded Zero Waste Strategies, an environmental consulting firm specializing in business waste reduction to drive increased revenue, deeper customer loyalty, employee empowerment, and a green marketing edge. Her client list includes Nestle Purina, Kohler, Dell Technologies, AT&T, and the City of Austin. Mrs. Savage has lived in the Austin area for the past 20 years and has recently moved 30 miles east to the pine-forested area of Bastrop with her husband, Jon, and their fur baby, Willie the Pitbull rescue. 

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