Articles – Page 11 – Lean Six Sigma and the Environment

How “walks” can help reduce the environmental footprint of your company

By -admin
Posted on May 25, 2019March 23, 2020
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Solid Waste

My first job out of college was working for a large aerospace company as a full-time process improvement specialist (called a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt) to help the company solve problems and save money. Most of my work involved improving the quality and speed of manufacturing a product. As I started to learn more

EC 050: Update on Lean Six Sigma and the Environment Progress

By -admin
Posted on May 25, 2019May 25, 2019
Posted in Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I share an update on my recent work to apply Lean and Six Sigma techniques to reduce environmental impacts. I discuss the following topics: Monthly Coaching Calls Green Banana Paper (Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia) IISE Annual Conference Volunteer Service Project Excellence in Sustainable Development Award Clothing nonprofit work Links IISE Sustainable

EC 049: Interview with Erica Stanulis from Follow the Sun

By -admin
Posted on May 24, 2019August 10, 2020
Posted in Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I share an interview I had with Erica Stanulis, who runs the consulting firm called Follow the Sun. She has a strong background in Lean and Six Sigma and sustainability, and we met a the 1% for the Planet Global Summit in Portland in April, and realized we had a similar background

EC 047: Lean and Energy Efficiency with Kjell van Zoen of Energy 350

By -admin
Posted on May 14, 2019May 24, 2019
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Employee Engagement, Energy, Kjell Van Zoen, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast

In this podcast, I share a presentation given by Kjell van Zoen, who was a lean consultant and small business owner, and who now runs the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program for Energy 350. He explains how there are strong overlaps in SEM and Lean principles, and how he is applying his lean skills to

EC 048: How 8 Wastes Impact the Environment

By -admin
Posted on May 12, 2019September 8, 2019
Posted in Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast

In this podcast, I share a snippet of a talk from the Master Brewers Association of America Northwest District Spring Meeting. I spoke as part of Lean Portland, along with Matt Horvat and Maria Grzanka. The full presentation is available on podcast and video. Links EPA Toolkit (reference for slide) Master Brewers Association of America

EC 046: Process Improvement Nonprofit Volunteering

By -admin
Posted on April 20, 2019May 7, 2019
Posted in Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I share a webinar that I gave to the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (as a board member of the Sustainable Development Division). The webinar is titled “Process Improvement Nonprofit Volunteering with Local IISE Chapters” I share some background on our Lean Portland group, and how it is connected to the

EC 045: Lean Startups for Social Change with Michel Gelobter

By -admin
Posted on April 10, 2019January 9, 2023
Posted in Book Review, Carbon Footprint, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Michel Gelobter, Podcast

In this podcast, I share a webinar that I setup with Michel Gelobter, author of “Lean Startups for Social Change“ The webinar is titled “Experimenting Our Way to Meaningful Change” He discusses the Lean Startup approach, and how it can be used to quickly and efficiently improve social, environmental and community issues (homelessness, climate change,

EC 044: Lean Principles in the Building Reuse Industry (BMRA)

By -admin
Posted on April 2, 2019April 6, 2019
Posted in Employee Engagement, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I share a webinar that I gave with Matt Horvat of Lean Portland, and Kelly Stevens from The Rebuilding Center. We were asked to talk about our experiences applying Lean to the building reuse industry, which includes work over the past few years with The Rebuilding Center and Habitat for Humanity Restore

EC 043: Lean Six Sigma Successes at Goodwill of the Heartland

By -admin
Posted on March 10, 2019March 11, 2019
Posted in Lean Six Sigma Tools, Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I interviewed Jess Schamberger, who is the Vice President of Operations at Goodwill of the Heartland in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Goodwill has a contract manufacturing division that most people don’t know about. She discusses some of the lean and Six Sigma improvements implemented in the donation receiving area, as well as the

EC 042: Process Improvement in the Building Reuse Industry

By -admin
Posted on February 12, 2019February 12, 2019
Posted in Land and Building Use, Podcast, Solid Waste

In this podcast, I read an article I wrote for the Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the recovery, reuse and recycling of building materials. I share my thoughts on how I hope the reuse industry can follow the path of other industries to embrace the concepts of