Global Soap Project: September IMPACTOR

The Global Soap Project improves and saves lives one bar of soap at a time by sanitizing, melting and remolding used soap into new bars for distribution to African refugee camps.

As an Uganda refugee, GSP founder Derreck Kayongo understands firsthand the living conditions of refugee camps and the unnecessary deaths due to the lack of clean water and sanitary conditions.

With the hospitality industry discarding 2.6 million used bars of soap per day, there is a tremendous supply available to the GSP for their soap production. Derrick’s passion and drive mobilizes the hotel and lodging industry to send used soap to GSP instead of the landfill, a double win!

To date GSP has received over 20 tons of soap from their hotel partners across the nation and has distributed an estimated 20,000 news bars of soap to Haiti, Swaziland, Kenya and Uganda. Currently, 10,000 bars of soap are in production for Ghana.

CALL TO ACTION: Whenever possible, educate those employed at hotels or other lodging facilities about GSP and encourage the property to participate in the double win program. Our collective voice is powerful and the time is NOW to verbalize our sustainability commitment.

Visit the IMPACTOR page to learn more about the importance of delivering soap to refugee camps.

Ei Board and Advisory Council Member, Debby Cannon featured Elemental Impact in her article Shades of Green, Innovations in Foodservice Sustainability published in the September, 2010 issue of Restaurant Forum, The Official Publication of the Georgia Restaurant Association. In the article, Debby validates the foodservice industry's commitment to sustainability by the tremendous response to the Compost:The Quiet Hero session presented by Holly Elmore, Ei CEO,at the May, 2010 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.

Ei's focus on soil rejuvenation receives it's media debut in the article. How exciting as several important projects relating to the soil and nutrition are in the planning stages with fall announcements anticipated. Stay tuned and get involved!

Ei Newsletter Archive

Did you miss a prior Ei newsletter send? No problem, you may visit the Ei newsletter archive at this link. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit the Ei Home Page for the formal sign-up or you may e-mail holly@elementalimpact.org with your contact information.

Ei Website Advertising Program

Ei Supporters and Sponsors may market their services the Ei website visitors via the new on-line advertising program. Ads begin at $100 per month, with multiple-month discounts. This fall Ei plans announce the evolution of the ZWZ program along with several new project launches. Benefit from the increased website traffic via the advertising program. Learn more at this link

Garth Peters: August IMPACTOR

Garth Peters, Director of Community Development for The Buckhead Coaltion, is the Elemental Impact August IMPACTOR. At a recent Neighborhood Planning Unit Safety Committee meeting where liquor license renewals, transfers and applications are reviewed, Garth questioned a new license applicant on his recycling practices and ZWZ~Buckhead participation. Although recycling is not required for a liquor license, future applicants can expect questions about their recycling practices in front of the Safety Committee.

To learn more about the meeting and Buckhead’s recycling commitment read the August 13, 2010 Buckhead Reporter article. To learn more about Elemental Impact's IMPACTOR program click this link.

Thank you Garth ~ individuals like you are necessary to drive communities and individuals to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives. You are a true IMPACTOR!

Urban Foraging: Taking Local, Sustainable to New Levels

Wow ~ talk about inspiration! Craig Durkin and Aubrey Daniels brave the urban environment in search of forgotten fruits and vegetables in public and private property. A substantial portion of their bounty is donated to feed Atlanta's hungry population. These young gentlemen, along with a crew of volunteers, spend most weekends May through October in the southern heat to ensure these local treasures end-up in human bellies.

Concrete Jungle is their local organization dedicated to urban foraging. At their website, residents may register their property for harvesting or volunteers may connect with the foraging team. The site works similar to a blog with posts on their weekly adventures along with a map of crop locations within the metro area and plenty of great pictures.

It is the drive and ingenuity of individuals like Craig and Aubrey who will shift consciousness to the next levels of local food commitment. Concrete Jungle is recognized as Elemental Impact's THE IMPACTOR for July. To learn more about THE IMPACTOR program and read about previous outstanding accomplishments visit the Ei website

Thank you Christiane Lauterbach of Atlanta Magazine for featuring these heroes in your It's a Jungle Out There, Urban foragers harvest fruit for charity article in the August issue.

Chase Donates Trucks to Food Bank

Amazing ~ in these challenging economic times Chase donated new trucks to the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Read on to learn how the ACFB may now increase their impact on both diverting organics to the hungry from landfills and feeding the hungry ...

At a time when more families in metro Atlanta face the threat of going hungry, the Atlanta Community Food Bank announced that Chase has donated three new, clean fuel-burning, refrigerated food delivery trucks. The donation will increase the Food Bank’s ability to collect donated product and distribute food to its more than 700 partner agencies in 38 counties serving those in need. In addition, Chase has donated funds to help with the operation of these trucks for the first year.

After one year, we expect to have expanded our service of picking up product at our retail partner locations to approximately 416,000 pounds per year. In addition, we expect to increase distribution in the same year time frame to 658,000 more pounds per year.

"After closing out our fiscal year in June, we now know that we had a record year in distribution,” said Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. “Demand was up 33 percent over last fiscal year and we distributed over 25 million pounds of food compared to the 23 million pounds we distributed last year. These three new vehicles in our fleet will boost our efforts significantly and help us reach more of our neighbors in need. We are deeply grateful to Chase for this generous donation."