EC 017: Applying Lean and Green at Plywerk with Kjell Van Zoen and David Hall
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Summary
In this podcast, I conduct my first interview, and it turned out great!
I met up with lean consultant and former owner of Plywerk, Kjell Van Zoen, along with Dr. David E. Hall, sustainability consultant for Plywerk and professor at Portland State University. We discuss how Kjell and Dave worked together to make Plywerk more eco-conscious, and how Kjell connected lean concepts, systems thinking and permaculture into those efforts.
We talk about the following topics:
- Introductions and backgrounds
- Sustainability vs Eco-conscious
- Patagonia
- The Natural Step framework
- Replacement for bubble wrap
- Switch from plywood to bamboo
- Biomimicry and wood glue
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification
- Which is better, shipping bamboo from China or trucking bamboo from within the US?
- Eco-conscious freezer paper experiments
- The Gold Mine book
- Lean and Green tours
- Permaculture Principles
- Employee engagement
- Bike commuting tracker system
- Employee bike and walking incentives
- Recycling program
- Culture of Collaboration workshops
- Plywerk Manifesto
- Taiichi Ohno
- MLK Volunteer Day
- Changing and influencing vendors after Lean and Green transformation
- FSC vs SFI wood certification
- What happened to Plywerk?
- Next steps for Dave and Kjell
- The green economy and the Trump administration
This interview is 90 minutes long, but I feel it will be worth your time to listen to the whole thing.
If you’d like to contact Kjell Van Zoen, you can reach him at http://www.VanZoen.com
If you’d like to contact David Hall, you can reach him on LinkedIn
I’d like to hear your feedback on this interview. Is this something you’d like me to do more of? What were your key takeaways?
Links
- Plywerk
- Videos about Plywerk (Video #1 | Video #2 | Video #3)
- Plywerk Manifesto
- Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman–Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual by Yvon Chouinard
- Patagonia
- The Natural Step Framework
- 1… concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust (such as fossil CO2 and heavy metals)
- 2… concentrations of substances produced by society (such as antibiotics and endocrine disruptors)
- 3… degradation by physical means (such as deforestation and draining of groundwater tables).
- 4. And in that society there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality and meaning.
- Geami Paper Packaging
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification
- Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production by Taiichi Ohno
- Breitenbush
- Permaculture Course Instructor (Jenny Pell)
- Portland GoGreen Conference (Presentation | Video)
- Johnson Creek Watershed Council
- Sustainable Foresty Initiative (SFI) certification
- Native Perspectives on Sustainability (site from David’s dissertation)
