excellent innovation when you think of
innovation what a sexy word innovation
to me means Bowl and means technology it
means futuristic it means all kinds of
things that can be invented you look at
innovation look at both statements look
at what president john f kennedy did in
1961 he boldly told the world we’re
gonna put a man on the moon and bring
him back safely because of that
statement in 1969 we did it but we did
it was 1,600 innovative ideas 1,600
inventions happened because of that what
do you think of like if I ask the
question who are some of the biggest
innovators that you’ve seen in your
lifetime
I see these light bulbs going off in the
audience now I say sustainability who
are some the most sustainable people in
your lifetime who’s a who’s a giant
sustainer in your world these lightbulbs
just all popped who are the light go the
sustainer this sounds like something you
wouldn’t you spill coffee on your shirt
in the morning sustained why is intimate
why is innovation and sustainability so
separated I’m here saying that there’s
things that innovation has done that’s
been unbelievable we have to evaluate
that and how does it relate to
sustainability but what you’re going to
see do you just see bold statements in
innovation but it takes the action of
people in this room the everyday common
man like myself to make these things
happen
let’s take a look at four issues I think
these four issues not because they’re
political they shouldn’t be left or
right wing there should be our issues
that we battle every day you look at
drilling for oil this is big business we
have so many blessings because we’ve
innovated how to drill for oil we’ve put
a person in the space for people in
space because of the fuel 98% of
plastics are derived from petroleum we
have all these wonderful technologies
based on petroleum based products but
how much oil is left in the planet do we
know I have my buddy ask Syria
he’s an iPhone guy he asked Siri Siri
says let me check brought him to a
website with British Petroleum estimated
51 years wait what
51 years and then other sites saying we
have more than that how much more so
this is right look at types of
technologies that we use for this and
how do we extend that 50 years or a
hundred years how do we get to that part
of it another issue that we have is you
look at water our water pollution we
have more chemical and fertilizer runoff
in our waterways and ever before we have
less green space than before because of
how fast were growing and you look at
the type of filtration technology
chemicals we use to treat our water
we’ll look at Flint Michigan this is a
problem that we have every day based on
our based on our daily activities based
on our habits that we learn from our
parents and our grandparents and our
great-grandparents are we evolving as
technology is evolving are we doing
common-sense practice then we have look
at our food processing again development
of our food we have seven billion people
on the planet today seven billion and we
have a hard time feeding everybody now
20 between 2030 and 2040 we’re gonna
have around 9 billion people so we need
to feed 2 billion more people between 20
2020 2030 and 2040 all right so look at
these issues now people are moving to
the cities cities are getting bigger so
there’s more urban urban sprawl less
farmland so we have enough farmers less
acres to grow product on and Rob exposed
some really good food I won’t lie we
like having food not frozen so now we
have a demand from a lot of consumers
that want the food to be bought locally
150 miles an N that’s taste the best so
now you have to not freeze it so you
have to make it locally and we want to
use organic type of method
organic farming means you need more land
for the same amount of fruit and
vegetables Wow how do you feed two
Glenmore people with less land buy
locally
organic these are some issues that we
have and then we have landfill capacity
this is a hard one and it’s it’s fun for
me to share these disinformation I had
it big for it and how I weigh it fills
in digging but you look at there’s a
website that shows that Chicago the city
of Chicago has ten years left of the
landfill capacity ten years
forgot us landfill space that’s one big
city you look at this how are we
practicing how we get rid of things we
throw a lot of things into the landfill
we look at well this is recycling let’s
just had better practice reduce reuse
recycle
I get that last up that were throwing
into these things are not recyclable
it’s organics our food scraps right now
we’re only putting 5% of our organic
food waste into compost sites 9510 our
food waste goes to landfills that’s got
a bad decision but why do we do it
because we always have done it what’s
the difference would be putting it into
a compost bin or a landfill bit there’s
really no difference people the smell is
the same our garbage doesn’t smell good
so to put in the compost bin smells the
same these are the things that we have
to think about so I talked about
landfill I want to show you why the
landfills becoming a bigger issue the
men and women that remove our glow our
trash from our houses every day every
week have done an amazing job of getting
it out of our sight out our mind this is
what it looked like a landfill in 1913
this shows open and closed landfills in
1913 we jump to 1938 a few more
landfills pop up the more we go from
there 1963 Oh world spots coming from
the last yet I have is from 1907 2013 oh
my gosh more people more rubbish more
rubbish is getting into our backyards
pretty soon we can’t remove it from our
neighborhoods because it is our new
hood so what do we do about this this is
becoming a big problem and so what I
shown you have shown you four major
issues but guess what there they can be
easily resolved by even bracing
innovation and making sustainability in
your lifestyle here is a product a
garden pot how can I talk about four
giant issues and come back to a garden
pot let me show you what we invented
here and why I choose and all these
things and motivate people to make the
changes in their lifestyle – this here
is made from not petroleum-based plastic
made from plants it’s not soft its rigid
it works in production methods but it’s
made from plant based plastic called PLA
this specifically comes from corn we’re
not using the corn kernel we’re not
taking food away from animals and people
we’re using the corn roots and the corn
stalks and we break that down to its
sugars and build up a polymer so now
let’s just take the our petroleum issue
what if we put we use four billion
garden pots a year are sold with plants
in them
four billion two percent of recycle
those mostly all petroleum pots what if
we went away from petroleum pots so
using plant based plastics and we
decided to carpool or drive more
fuel-efficient car or if I had to use
the light rail what if we had 51 years
of oil left and by reducing half our
consumption of oil we now have a hundred
years why that’s important it allows our
children and grandchildren and their
grandchildren gives them more time to
give think of a better solution well a
lot of time to think we’re forced to
support ourselves to come up with a
solution based on no time we’re reactive
and solving these problems let’s buy
some time
so for alleged to run off garden pot why
is important before lies run off we’ve
put plant food already in the plastic in
this where you were using nutrients from
other methods of manufacturing so the
byproduct of making ethanol or whiskey
it’s called distillers grains DDGS
that has great protein for plants
we’ve taken that compound in the
plant-based plastic no more need for a
plant food or fertilizer so it doesn’t
run off I look at this thing so we’re
feeding the roots if you go to the
doctor because you have a bad knee and
your doctor he or she gives you a neck
brace you’re not very happy with your
doctor at that point you want your copay
back so why do we continue you put the
plants in the ground the roots in the
ground and we sprinkle fertilizer and
chemicals on the surface makes no sense
too much wind too much rain goes wrath
on our waterways
so then feed in the world now being from
Minnesota we’re much more humble than
saying we can solve the world
we feed everybody but Iowa State did a
test for us I was a tested our garden
pots with petroleum garden pot and
traditional fiber garden pots they did
eggplants tomatoes and red peppers they
planted the what they saw they saw
faster growth their plants more fruits
and vegetables because the roots
continued to be nurtured while they were
growing eggplants versus the competitors
garden pots they got two eggplants for a
garden pot with our garden pot with the
plant-based one that doesn’t go in the
landfill these got four eggplants per
and they got bigger eggplants versus the
two red red to red peppers two red
peppers per plant versus traditional
methods with this one seven red peppers
per plant same amount of soil same up
product not running anything it up in
the waterways and not drilling for oil
so this is a small little innovative
project that’s thinking about
sustainability and the cool part about
this landfill this fits plant in the
ground with your plant you peel the tabs
let the roots grow out it breaks down as
it breaks down continues to feed the
roots of the plant that’s why it
producing more fruits and vegetables
larger plants and avoids a landfill we
say what we’s didn’t recycle more of
those four billion pots here’s the
problem the 2% right now are being
recycled because of cross contamination
there’s different soils different media
things in there so they have to bring
them back use
chemicals and water to sterilize them
it’s not cost-effective and again more
chemicals and runoff so we look at these
type of applications and I think to is
recycling you can only recycle plastic
up to five times before it loses this
properties so 5 times the material and
when you use something that’s been
recycled does the same any time it’s
been recycled already
we’re not documenting how tenderly
recycling this so materials like glass
materials like aluminum steel they can
recycle unlimited amounts so that’s why
it’s matter we should be buying products
that can be reused or truly recycled I
look at our grandparents it’s nice when
they would bring their coffee container
to work and back their metal fork to
work and back you throw anything away so
that’s why we have to look at those
things at the end of the day we need to
embrace innovation to get us to be more
sustainable but we have to act we have
to buy differently we need to take the
responsibility on ourselves and then
raise those bold statements but actually
act bolder in making a difference thank you