OUR HISTORY

Letter from the President and Chief Executive Officer

Dear friends,

On April 18, 1994 at O’Hare Airport, the first formal board meeting of the foundation was held.  In attendance were: Lonnie Poole (Waste Industries), Patrick Banfield (Banfield and Associates), Gene Wingerter (National Solid Waste Management Association), Bob Duncan (J.C. Duncan Companies), Izzie Abrams (Dual Removal Systems, Ltd.), Whit Hudson (Hudson Management Company), and Lee Brandsma (Groot Industries).

They created what was then called the National Solid Waste Management Association Foundation because they accepted the premise that research by the waste industry was so small that it was judged to be insignificant; and to fill the information gap, these early leaders designed the foundation which would serve as a subsidiary and resource for NSWMA and, later, the Environmental Industry Associations.

This changed in 1998 when the board of directors voted to make the foundation independent of the trade association and renamed it the Environmental Research and Education Foundation.  Its mission: to develop and evaluate new approaches to manage municipal solid waste and to provide scholarships to America’s brightest and best.

In the future we will concentrate on developing a clear path to bring new waste management technologies that we have developed from the university laboratory to the workplace - to empower us to translate ideas into desired action.  Where there is no bold vision and planning, EREF will stand still - that is not what we were created to do.

I challenge you to join us in this quest with a donation and dedicate yourself to the extremely important mission of the EREF; together we can dare, explore, and break though old barriers.

Kind regards,

Michael J. Cagney, President and Chief Executive Officer

P.S. If you would like to make a contribution now click here.

Mission

Developing environmental solutions for the future.

The Foundation Values

Technological innovations that promote the safety of waste service employees and the public, as well as waste service productivity and resource conservation.

Educational initiatives to increase the public’s understanding of waste services.

Scientific discoveries and applied research that advance state-of-the-art waste services for the ages.

A scholarship program for Ph.D., or post Ph.D. environmental scientists in memory of Francois Fiessinger, Ph.D.