Long Beach, CA – SCS Engineers announces several strategic promotions that increase its support for its waste management and sustainable materials management clients in North America. This month the Board of Directors confirmed Michelle Leonard as a Senior Vice President.
As a sustainable materials management leader, Leonard, well known throughout the waste industry, is also SCS’s National Expert in Solid Waste Planning, Recycling, and Sustainability. She has over 30 years of environmental consulting and project management experience, including solid waste management planning and facilities focusing on reducing, reusing, and recycling waste materials.
Leonard is a long proponent of integrating the principles of a circular economy into the waste industry. “Sustainable materials management can help meet the challenges of waste reduction and management as states impose disposal bans, diversion mandates, and emissions restrictions,” said Leonard. “It’s economically sound and socially responsible too.” She promotes municipalities and private waste companies adopting circular strategies, which reduce waste going into landfills. Reducing waste reduces methane emissions, thus improving air quality and public health and safety.
States and local governments are increasingly using the concept of sustainable materials management as they plan for the future. The management practice includes the source reduction of certain MSW streams and the recovery of generated waste for reuse, recycling or composting. It also includes environmentally sound management through energy recovery, landfilling practices that meet current standards, and newly emerging waste conversion technologies, as explained in Leonard’s recent publication Responsible Solid Waste Management.
Leonard puts her expertise to work preparing solid waste management plans, designing and implementing waste reduction, recycling, and reuse programs, and evaluating existing programs for efficiency. Planning requires a broad knowledge of transfer stations, material recovery facilities, drop-off and buy-back centers, and the materials markets. The plans are data-driven, addressing residential, commercial, and industrial waste and the opportunities to manage waste for the highest and best use.
Ms. Leonard is an industry leader and has a positive influence on many in the waste industry. She is a member of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), including the International Board Past President; Past Director of SWANA’s Recycling and Special Waste Technical Division; and is on the Board of Directors of SWANA’s Southern California Founding Chapter since 2009. She is also a Past Director of the Southern California Waste Management Forum, Past President of the Women’s Environmental Council, currently serving on the Southern California Women in Solid Waste and Recycling leadership team.
“Michelle informs some of the largest cities and waste company programs in the country,” said Jim Walsh, SCS President and CEO. “Her knowledge and dedication to her clients, industry, and within SCS earn her the position of Senior Vice President and our respect.”
About SCS Engineers
SCS Engineers’ environmental solutions directly result from our experience and dedication to solid waste management and other industries responsible for safeguarding the environment. For more information about SCS, please view our 50th-anniversary video at www.scsengineers.com, contact , or follow us on LinkedIn.
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