The Profoundness of Zero …

And the beauty of absolutes

When Sophie Carter wore a T-shirt to school that read “Zero waste to landfill,” her fellow fifth-grade students were incredulous. “Not really!” they exclaimed. Sophie confirmed, “Oh, yes, really.” “Are you absolutely sure it’s zero?” they probed, and she had to defer to the ultimate au­thority: “Well, that’s what Mom says.”

Sophie’s mom is Sandra Carter, the environmental engineering manager for Daimler

Trucks North America, parent company of Freightliner Custom Chas­sis Corp., profiled in this issue. It was she who tapped the FCCC folks to be the pilot program for Daimler’s zero­waste-to-landfill program. (Read Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp.’s amazing story)

The young students have already grasped one of life’s fundamental truths—that absolutes are hard to come by. When it comes to quantifying anything, qualifiers like “most,” “near­ly,” and “usually” usually precede.

Which makes reaching zero all the more profound.

“Zero Is Zero”

When the company implemented its zero-waste-to-landfill program, compa­ny President Bob Harbin decided that participation would have to be com­panywide. Waste would be eliminated throughout the entire facility—right down to banana peels in the employee breakroom, paper waste in the front of­fice, and industrial waste in the factory.

“If you say, ‘I’m 75 percent or 80 percent,’ it sounds like you’re making excuses,” Harbin said. “It’s much bet­ter when you can be definitive. There are no trash containers leaving here. Zero is zero.”

More Zeros

Another “zero” green initiative is net zero—a concept in which a building or process produces as much energy as it consumes via energy efficiency and on-site renewable-energy generation (from sources such as solar and wind).

This issue’s Sage Supplier article, “Lowering costs of lithium-ion batteries for EV power trains”, delves into the cost-down potential and develop­ments for the energy storage of what some consider to be the power train of the future. Much of the buzz about elec­tric vehicles centers around their zero tailpipe emissions.

Zero is unwavering. You’re either at zero  or you’re not.

Absolutely Nothing

Having an absolute as your goal elimi­nates the marginalizing that can follow in the wake of even the most ambitious goals.

It’s easy, even normal, to get close to a goal and then settle for “almost.” Without a clearly defined, absolute goal, humans naturally become unfocused, slip, slide, and fudge. There’s noth­ing like nothing to break the crutches of “almost” and evaporate the fog of “nearly.”

No trash containers leave the build­ing. No emissions leave an exhaust. (There is no exhaust, for that matter.) No more energy is consumed than is generated.

Zero is unwavering. You’re either at zero or you’re not.

For the chassis builder, finding re­cipients for the last few percent of its recyclable waste was “teeth-gnashing,” the program leaders said. It took an ex­traordinary effort to squeeze out those last few percent, but squeeze them they did, including grinding and blend­ing their organic waste into mulch on property grounds and having the ashes of paint filters they had burned added to a cement mixture.

DTNA Chief Operating Office Roger Nielsen said, “People ask, ‘Does “zero” mean everything you can get rid of?’ and we say, ‘No. Everything.’

“It takes some effort to do the due diligence, but at the end of the day, it’s all about ensuring that zero means zero.”