Why Waste System Design is the Most Visible Way to Communicate your Organization's Commitment to Sustainability with Julianna Doherty

0:02John Lee Dumas:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down why waste system design is the most visible way to communicate your organization's commitment to sustainability. And to drop these via bombs, I brought to Julianna Doherty in the EO Fire Studios. Juliana is the CEO of Recycle Away, helping organizations design intuitive waste and recycling systems that align sustainability with branding, human behavior, and operational efficiency across corporate campuses, universities, and public venues.

0:35John Lee Dumas:And today we talk about why recycling systems fail, real world success stories, who owns sustainability beyond symbolic sustainability, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Juliana and our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you eight to 20 qualified calls each month then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure.

1:11John Lee Dumas:High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Juliana, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. So I'm happy to talk to all of you. And I think fundamentally, it's this idea that you can't have it all or you can't do it all. And as a mom and a business leader and a member of a really important community here, I think you can have it all.

1:51And I think it's about setting those expectations for everyone in your world so that we can all align and then you can get it all done. And that's true with my kids and my team.

2:00John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, we're talking about why waste system design is the most visible way to communicate your organization's commitment to sustainability. And I want to start about that, talking about going from food to sustainability, because you have quite the entrepreneurial journey. I mean, you went from launching a natural food company for kids to leading Recycle Away as a sustainability strategist. You know, you help organizations across industries do this. So tell us more. Fun background. So after college, I went to consulting at Accenture, like, you know, sort of the standard route. And then I took eight years out of it to have my four amazing kids.

2:38And when I came back in, I started a natural food brand that really fit moms. It was where I was at and it was, you know, I could authentically launch a brand. When I sold that about 10 years ago, I have subsequently worked with some awesome brands who are in the position and needing to scale. And so that was really the B2C side, working with retailers. That was my bread and butter. And after the most recent sale of one of the businesses I was with in 2022, a headhunter called and asked about my interest in this sustainability business. and frankly it has been amazing for me and I think it's an incredible crossover from B2C into B2B and you know from putting products on shelf to an on an e-commerce based business and really realizing that customers are customers people are at the end of all of these need states and so being able to translate my experience from really holding the hands of customers through products that sit on shelf to now being able to help the people within organizations to do the right things for their sustainability goals has been an awesome crossover.

3:52John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, as you can tell, we're going to have a great conversation around this. And I think a good place to start, Juliana, is talking about why recycling systems fail. Because a lot of people, they genuinely, they want to reach zero waste. I mean, it's a goal of theirs. Like they will tell it to you, but the systems, they feel confusing. They feel inefficient. They feel ineffective. So go over the five biggest mistakes in waste design. And then we're going to talk about maybe how to fix one or two of them. Yeah, sure. So organizations really do recognize that the waste infrastructure matters in their facilities and it's part of their brand experience.

4:30And it's the best way is to remove ambiguity, right? People can't stand there and try to figure it out. We've all stood in front of a set of waste stations with a coffee cup in one hand and a wrapper in the other, and we have no idea what to do, right? But we're well-intentioned and we're going to give it a go. And most of the time we're going to fail. Why do we fail? Because we design for appearance instead of user behavior. The inconsistent bins across a facility or campus really make it so that people in one place or another can't figure out what to do. If waste stations are separated, people are going to do their best with what's where they are in that moment.

5:07And there's two others that I think get really missed overall. The people who need to help make those decisions are the people that deal with waste. So oftentimes organizations ignore the operational realities of the process. And the final one is signage can't be an afterthought. If you stand there and there's a very clear sign that says yes to this and no to this, you're going to make the right decision. And so all too often that signage in the waste systems is totally an afterthought and it can't be.

5:38John Lee Dumas:How do we fix it? So I think fundamentally it starts by doing a waste audit and understanding what needs to be true for your space. And those spaces are really different, right? Depending on who the end user is, but what needs to be true and then designing to a system that you believe your end user is gonna be capable of. And that means putting in the right set of streams that you're gonna be able to reduce the contamination and fundamentally getting the signage right. And the signage doesn't have to feel, you know, wonky and unattractive. The signage can be beautiful and really on brand, but this is your opportunity as a brand to say to everyone that comes into your facility that you care about the environment.

6:22And the one thing I'll say is you could have solar panels on your roof, use all of your water, have all of these sustainability goals. If your waste system, which is the thing people actually interact with, doesn't reflect your commitment and they can't figure out how to recycle, they don't believe any of your other ESG goals are true.

6:40John Lee Dumas:I wanna talk about real world success stories because man, when we can see a story, when we can feel a story, when we can hear a story that we can resonate with, it just feels great. So give us one example. It could be of a university, of a corporate office, of a stadium. It could be a hospitality. I mean, who's actually getting this right in the real world? Give us one example of one of your customers, one of your clients, or somebody that you're out there in the world that you're like, I really admire them because they're getting it right. Tell us that story. Give us that example. I think the one that I would lean on, Northeastern University in Boston.

7:14John Lee Dumas:Bean town. Bean town, right on, the homeland. But it's, we're so, you know, there's so many people getting it right. But what they have figured out is that they budget for it every year. They upgrade things every year. There's a massive level of consistency throughout. all of their facilities, and it's a complicated facility, very urban campus, right? Lots of students, lots of people moving through their campus. What they've figured out is to prioritize their consistency, prioritize their signage, and to consistently evolve as they realize things are and aren't working. And, you know, truly as one of my favorites, they see where things do and don't work and they're willing to pivot even if they thought it was the right thing, they'll make adjustments where it needs to happen.

8:03John Lee Dumas:Let's go into one more because I love that university idea. I mean, Northeastern, I went to Providence College, so it's like very regional for me. So I kind of love, I grew up in Maine, I'm a New Englander through and through. So I love to hear that people up in New England are doing something right. Give us another one that you're just like, they're at least on the right track. Yeah. And I'll say, so the New York Yankees are really impressive because New York Yankees committed to zero waste a long time ago, long before it was cool to commit to zero waste. And so when you're at Yankee Stadium, your bins give you two options.

8:36You can compost and you can recycle. And when you go to concessions, you're only given food in compostables with compostable, you know, cutlery you're given, you know, everything can either compost or so there's no option for waste, right? So they, So it's the perfect example. And so many are moving toward it. In the last couple of weeks, we did an NFL team in the Pacific Northwest and they did a similar lineup for their concessions. And then on the other end of it, you realize an MLB team in the Southeast that we just shipped to, but they needed something very different because they were doing their premium luxury suites.

9:12And so you need something much different, not only from a look, feel, and a design perspective, but these teams realize that their end users care, right? And so having something that fits their aesthetic, but also meets these goals, these teams really do an amazing job.

9:29John Lee Dumas:Okay, happy to hear about the Yankees. But listen, go Red Sox. Go Red Sox, I hear you. We're going to talk about sustainability, people-first leadership, symbolic sustainability, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed, all under one roof.

10:04John Lee Dumas:No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer, but you are not getting enough quality sales calls on the calendar, Nexus Install is exactly what you need.

10:45John Lee Dumas:This is a custom LinkedIn client acquisition system built to help you connect with the right prospects, start real conversations, and turn those conversations into booked calls. Here is what makes it different. We do not just hand you a bunch of theory and tell you, good luck. We build the system with you, dial in your audience, sharpen the messaging, run the outreach, and aim to book you 8 to 20 qualified calls each month. Then, once the system is proven and installed, we train you on how to run it yourself so you are not dependent on another agency forever. If you have a strong offer, a clear result, and are ready for more quality conversations with real prospects, email my team at john at eofire.com, and then we'll set up a call to see if Nexus install is the right fit for you.

11:30John Lee Dumas:Simple, focused, and built for predictable, long-term quality lead flow. Juliana, we're back, and I want to talk about sustainability. Who owns sustainability? I mean, inside an organization, who should actually be responsible for driving sustainability initiatives, and how can teams actually start taking meaningful action, not tomorrow, but today? It's such a good question, And it entirely depends on the organization. It's the beauty of what we do is we can work with people across organizations and then make sure everyone is included in the system. Because we work with facilities directors in certain circumstances, that's the right fit.

12:11In certain hospital chains, for example, there's a sustainability coordinator. or in one of the big bottling companies is putting in a huge facility outside of Denver. And you look at they've really focused and dialed in on their sustainability director leading that mission. So that becomes a player. What we really find is that all very often someone is assigned this task as an information gatherer. They're like, geez, because who the heck knows waste, right? It's everywhere, but nobody in any organization is really has that at the top of their job description. So it very much depends these information gatherers.

12:51And what we really prioritize is providing the information so that they can go back to the decision makers, whether and you'll appreciate Boston Symphony Orchestra. We were built in the same way when they did their most recent upgrades. They were meeting with the architects about getting the right lighting in place and all kinds of things that really matter to the aesthetic. And at the same time, they were getting those decision makers involved in putting the right waste bins in place. So it really crosses throughout the organization. And part of what we pride ourselves on is our ability to provide the information so decisions can get made and that everyone from the architect, property managers, everyone can get buy-in so that the right solutions are met for those facilities.

13:35John Lee Dumas:I want to talk about people-first leadership. I mean, that's one thing that I know you take a lot of pride in, and maybe this is where you can talk a little bit about your five-minute rule with your kids. So what's your leadership philosophy when it comes to building a people first culture while scaling a mission driven company? I truly believe that people matter more than anything and authentic relationships are what build credibility. And I think that's within my team. And that's how my team then works out into my customer base. And, you know, I think this idea in entrepreneurship is that often we believe that you got to hire the best people on paper, the strongest resumes, the most obvious credentials.

14:19And sometimes that works, but really at the end of the day, it's how do you drive performance through alignment with your organization? And so from my perspective, and I appreciate you ask about my five minute role, because my organization understands that I truly do believe you can be everything. I'm a mom of four kids. Three of those kids are out of the house between college and one working in New York City. Unlimited hours he works, but I have a five minute rule every single day. Every one of them has to call me for five minutes because there is five minutes. He usually gets me when he goes for his bagel run, you know, mid morning.

14:55But what happens is that ask is one that all my team recognizes. If I get a five minute call from one of my kids, I stop out. I step out of the meeting. I step out and I prioritize that as part of the people first sort of mission of my organization. I prioritize it for my family and I let my team see that that's true for them too, right? So we can do this balancing act, particularly as moms and as families, the balancing act is mission critical. And if we can demonstrate it throughout our own behaviors, then the team can recognize that really we prioritize them as people too.

15:30John Lee Dumas:I'm taking notes because listen, you can blink and I mean your kids you want to talk to them for weeks and you're just like what what just happened like it's literally been weeks like they've been busy I've been busy we've been missing each other xyz I mean I have a two and a half year old son and it's just like I mean I'm in the glory stages right now you enjoy every second every I mean I mean Julie I don't want to make you feel bad Juliana but you know I walk downstairs it's daddy daddy daddy and he runs and gives me the biggest hug ever and I'm like luckily I'm I'm an older father I'm 43 actually I'm 46 I had him when I I was 43.

16:03John Lee Dumas:Um, so I, I really am like, this is not going to last. Like I know, like I'm not like 24 years old being like, Oh yeah, I've got my whole life to enjoy it. No, I like, I'm like, I know this is going to be a blink of an eye. Cause I've lived 46 years on this planet. I know how these things work. So I am really trying to enjoy, but even that, even when you're super intentional, like sometimes things just slip by and I'm like, man, like I haven't got one of those hugs in a couple of days here. Like, let's go. Let's go. And you know, we hear it all the time. I'm honestly from my girlfriends whose kids are in similar positions to mine.

16:36And they'll say, oh, I talked to him last Sunday. Well, if you missed Monday through Friday, then the reality is when you ask them how they are, you get kind of like a good or you don't know who they had, you know, who they had either something great happened with or right because you're too far removed. So good. Enjoy all those hugs. It is the best.

16:56John Lee Dumas:Getting all of them. And I want to talk about symbolic sustainability and maybe even going beyond that, of course. I mean, that's the key. So looking ahead, what is the future of sustainability inside of organizations really look like, you know, in your mind, in the best case scenario? And how do businesses move from symbolic commitments to actual measurable impact? That is a fantastic question because people are smart, right? And so when organizations do it properly and they're measuring honestly and they're designing intentionally and reducing complexity, they can truly demonstrate that the certification and reporting and the frameworks they put together are truly about impact.

17:41And they're not just, you know, something we are, we're looking to demonstrate out to the world, but it's something the organization owns and it reflects on the brand. So the biggest trends that we see are that, you know, those businesses that succeed are the most aware that campaigns need to pivot to truly behavior centered infrastructure. People generally want to do the right thing from an environmental perspective. You've got to give them the systems to make the right choices. And that at the end of the day, when better design in every part of the sustainability world, better design is going to create better outcomes.

18:24And those outcomes are visible to your end users. all of your stakeholders care and making sure it isn't just for the end of the year report to say you have X percent diversion or other things, but that your brand is showing up every day with your sustainability goals being met.

18:44John Lee Dumas:Juliana, if my audience is listening and they're like, I'm digging this, I want to learn more. What is your call to action for Fire Nation? What steps do you want them to take to connect with you and your company? Yeah. So come to recycle away.com and you know, there's plenty of ways to engage with us. And sometimes I think when you visit a site like mine, it seems like, well, I'm not really in a place to, you know, to look for bins today, but I need some help thinking about the project or thinking about what I should do. We offer all kinds of things and I can send them and you can post them up, but you know, things like how to do a waste audit with your internal team, how to help your janitorial team give you feedback.

19:24All too often, they don't do that. All of those things exist on our site. And for some organizations, it's like, what does the lead toolkit look like that they could be using? Because you can get lead certification points from waste and it's often a missed gap. So come to RecycleAway.com. You'll find all of those things right there on the site.

19:42John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JD and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Juliana in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with links to everything we talked about. Juliana, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much. Take care and enjoy that baby. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Juliana for sponsoring today's episode.

20:16John Lee Dumas:And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit EOFire.com slash guest. EOFire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you eight to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you.

20:50John Lee Dumas:If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 and support, get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com.