Dear Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ) Workshop Attendee:
We are pleased to invite you to CalRecycle's Zone Works Training Workshop on May 30-31, 2018 at the Holiday Inn in Sacramento. Zone Works offers the unique opportunity for Zone Administrators, CalRecycle Zone Liaisons and Loan staff, and valued program partners to regularly convene and discuss current issues and to coordinate business assistance activities. Through the educational and networking sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about new and expanding funding opportunities and other business incentives to support recycling manufacturers and reuse/recovery networks.
Following the CARMDZ meeting, RMDZ 101 Training, and lunch on Day One, May 30th, the first session of the training workshop will outline the differences between GHG and RMDZ loans and showcase examples of each.
The next session will illustrate how some zones integrate their Green Business Certification and RMDZ programs to leverage the benefits of both for their manufacturers.
During the third session on Day One, Maureen Hart will lead Peer Share. During this time, Zone Administrators will share business assistance cases in which they have engaged since we last met and participate in a discussion of how market changes such China’s policies and California’s cannabis industry have affected business assistance efforts.
During the last session of the day, Frank Severson will share the highlights of the new ZIF cycle with you and, more importantly, show you how to sign up for the new agreement if you haven’t done so yet.
We will conclude the first day with a networking reception during which attendees have the opportunity to discuss the material shared throughout the afternoon’s training and have additional access to workshop presenters.
On Day Two, we will learn directly from manufacturers about their recycling manufacturing businesses and how Zone Administrators and CalRecycle helped them site or expand in California.
We will wrap up our workshop with a session that will give you the tools to market your zone program to businesses and help your businesses market their products to their customers.
As you can see, the workshop agenda represents a diverse array of excellent topics and knowledgeable speakers. We hope you will join us in Sacramento on May 30-31, 2018 to learn and to share your specific experience with others.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about Zone Works, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Frank Severson, Zone Works Coordinator
Local Assistance and Market Development
Shawn Orgel-Olson is head of Marketing and Performance Standards for the California Green Business Network (CAGBN). He advises the Performance Standards and Marketing Committees of CAGBN.
Prior to joining CAGBN, Mr. Orgel-Olson worked for the City of Santa Cruz on their Operations and Resource Recovery teams where he focused on energy efficiency, resource recovery and the City’s Green Business Program. The City of Santa Cruz boasts some of the highest numbers of certified Green Businesses per capita. His experience working at Disney Consumer Products in their Sustainable Business Practices and International Labor Standards groups provides invaluable corporate sustainability experience. As a Project Coordinator for the Alliance to Save Energy at UC Berkeley he focused on projects that reduced the energy consumption of fume hoods, dormitories and campus vending machines.
Mr. Navid Rezaei follows a distinguished career in management. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State University Sacramento, Masters in Business Administration from University of Phoenix, and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Grow up in Incline Village NV, and moved to Sacramento for College. In July 2009, he accepted a position as Senior Mechanical Engineer with Zimmer Biomet in Reno, NV where he developed new medical products, injection mold tool design, modify current products, tooling design for manufacturing, oversee laser marking department until November 2013 were he started his new term as Plant Manager with Epic Plastics in Lodi, CA. Under his tenure, Mr. Rezaei oversees day to day operations, employees, production, efficiency, and budget to name a few. He also oversees the environmental side of business, planning engineering and laying out any new machinery, equipment, vehicles and preventative maintenance of the plant.
Jeffrey Kupets is Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Circular Polymers LLC. Circular Polymers recycles carpet in Lincoln, CA and is doubling its plant capacity after receiving a $2 million dollar RMDZ loan from CalRecycle. Mr. Kupets is a 30 year veteran of the financial industry, and served as Managing Partner of a proprietary derivatives trading company in Chicago for the eight years prior to founding Circular Polymers. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to co-founding rPlanet Earth, Bob worked for over 25 years in the financial services sector where he held senior positions at large financial institutions including Wells Fargo, Guggenheim Partners and PIMCO. Bob is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of rPlanet Earth, a green tech/clean tech company that will produce packaging that incorporates post-consumer bottle grade recycled PET into its high quality packaging products. Bob holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and International Business from New York University where he graduated first in his class. He holds an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University in Accounting with a minor in Management Information Systems. Bob also holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.