Mark Your Calendars for Campus Sustainability Day on October 22, 2008
Colleges and universities across the country are pausing to celebrate National Campus Sustainability Day on Wednesday, October 22. Rider will host events on both the Lawrenceville and Princeton campus including information sessions and a Sustainability Day Lecture given by Tom Szaky, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the world's first products made from, and packaged, in waste. The lecture will begin at 4 p.m. on The Great Plains of the Princeton campus (rain location: Thayer Lounge) in conjunction with Fall Earth Festival and at 6 p.m. on the Lawrenceville campus in Science Hall, Room 102.
TerraCycle has been named the producer of most eco-friendly brands in America, has received the Home Depot Environmental stewardship award twice, been featured in Wal-Mart's sustainability report and been repeatedly named the ultimate eco-friendly brand.
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, Mr. Szaky emigrated from Hungary to Holland. In 1989 he and his family emigrated again from Holland to Canada. At 14 he started his first business, a web design company called Flyte Design. While in high school, Mr. Szaky cycled solo from Toronto to Vancouver to raise funds for the environmental organization Ontario Naturalists, setting a national speed record of 21 days for such a bike ride. Mr. Szaky came to the United States in 2001 to attend Princeton University. In 2002, Mr. Szaky took a leave of absence to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle, beginning as a two man outfit in the crowded basement of an old office building.
Today TerraCycle is the leader in upcycling, with sponsored waste partnerships with America's biggest brands, ranging from Capri Sun to Oreo to Stonyfield Yogurt, and is distributed in America's biggest retailers ranging from Wal-Mart to Target to Home Depot. TerraCycle has been featured in virtually every major media outlet from "60 Minutes" to the Wall Street Journal (5 times). TerraCycle is on its way to help eliminate the idea of waste on a grand scale all while sustaining sales growth of over 100% per year for the past five years!
