Vetrazzo's 4-Legged Waste Diversion Program

So, now that you know that the purpose of the blog is to shed some light on the Vetrazzo culture, let me introduce you to Vetrazzo’s newest and most behind-the-scenes star… Mama Goat.

Yes, our one-and-only quadruped star is a goat. But not just any goat. You may even call her The G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time). Her name is Mama Goat, but her bucket here at the office is labeled “Goatie”. She belongs to our office assistant, Sharon, who rescued her from abandonment 5 years ago. Goatie is a short, yet important, part of our office waste diversion program.

The first leg of the Vetrazzo office waste diversion project is your typical office recycling program. Every Wednesday and Friday we weigh our paper, plastic, aluminum, etc. and log it so that we can set a benchmark for next year to reduce not only our garbage, but the amount of recyclable waste that leaves the office.

I am the second leg of this program and the first line of defense when it comes to unconsumed grub… I’ve been to Thailand…I eat anything and everything…

I hate wasting food and therefore I consume everybody’s leftovers, within reason, before they can make it to Goatie’s bucket. If it wasn’t for me Goatie would be the fattest goat in the ‘burbs and may not like having her picture taken…like this goat…

Goatie is the third leg, getting second dibs on the food before it hits the compost bucket. Sharon takes Mama Goat’s bucket home every Wednesday and Friday, filled with whatever food munchies I didn’t want (like stems and peels) and mixes it with Purina Goat Chow. We’ve heard this brings a big goat smile to Mama’s face. I have no idea what that looks like so I found this picture of a smiling goat for you to reference…

The fourth leg is composting. Our VP of Marketing keeps a tub in the kitchen for un-goat/Murph-worthy scraps such as coffee grounds, tea bags, cheese, etc. Karen takes that tub home every two days and deposits it in her compost pile. Riding home with a bucket of food waste takes dedication, and if you think it doesn’t, take a look at the food waste left in your company kitchen garbage after a lunch… stanky!

I already mentioned that the goal here is to cut down the amount of waste exiting this office down to the bare minimum, but to some degree we are up-cycling as well. The bottles we recycle make it into a Vetrazzo countertop. The food I eat keeps me in a good mood to write these blogs. The food Karen composts will eventually make its way as soil to our Victory Garden at Ford Point. And last, but not least the food Goatie gets gives her the jump start she needs for her typical goat weekend activities of baying, walking the dog and goat boxing Sharon’s son…

Mama Goat is undefeated, as Shawn never actually throws a punch. Next time Karen will introduce you to the fruits of our waste diversion labor, The Vetrazzo Victory Garden…

Vetrazzo Company Culture

As I sit here looking at a couple of empty 32oz Tecate bottles I brought back from a trip to Mexico last year to split with our CFO (who likes the Tecate Light, but graciously accepted the original) I think about the company culture that makes Vetrazzo what it is. See, I go down to Tecate, Mexico once a year with an NGO called Club Dust to build houses in a shanty town called El Nino. I was only 3 months into my job here at Vetrazzo when the management team happily gave me paid time off to go on this trip. I have just now returned from a very successful trip this year.

Many large corporations will have some sort of paid philanthropy policy…what makes Vetrazzo different is that we have 2 people in our entire Marketing Department, so encouraging half the team to take off for a week is a unique choice. Where I went and what I did are only small details that bring me to my main point: Vetrazzo is a different kind of company.

This blog will mainly be about the company culture of Vetrazzo. I am trying to have a conversation about a different way of doing business and, though there are some great examples of this here at Vetrazzo, the conversation will not always be about Vetrazzo.

I want to talk about socially responsible business practices such as providing healthcare to all workers or bringing manufacturing back to the USA. I love to write and everyday I see something different and interesting that happens at Vetrazzo or I read about a sustainability trailblazing company like Interface. It’s not hard to see new ways that we push ourselves towards sustainability or find true life events that validate our belief that there is a story in every surface™ we create.

The stories told by the unique types of glass you will find in a Vetrazzo surface are not the only stories about Vetrazzo. It is the stories like mine or our Office Assistant’s goat that eats our lunch leftovers, that truly determine Vetrazzo’s story. More on Mama Goat in the next post...

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