ACP's 4^th annual  Legislators Day event is coming up May 1, 2019.  We have stepped it up this year to include a tent on the capitol lawn (visibility) a breakfast presentation (Networking) AND even more advocacy and orientation.

To kick things off we have a 1/2 hour call scheduled for March 28th at 11:00am.  We will go over Leg Day activities, how to schedule your calls and how to make this day be a success for YOU and your business.

Legislative Day is a day of advocacy for the professional compost industry.  It is an excellent opportunity to meet with YOUR legislators to talk about important issues impacting our industry and provide valuable insight into our industry.  Your outreach will be the first step in building ongoing relationships with legislators and their staff and will go a long way towards bolstering ACP’s advocacy efforts.

Janaki Jagannath, who interned with ACP in Summer of 2018, researching and producing our "Environmental Justice in Composting - a Toolkit for California Composters"  under the supervision of ACP's Agroecology-Healthy Soil Workgroup, will be giving a brown bag lunch presentation titled "COMMUNITIES, COMPOST, AND CARBON: Social Equity in Organics Management," sponsored by CalRecycle on March 20, 2019.    

If you haven't heard Janaki's intelligence, compassion and eloquence on this topic, you're in for a treat and bit of enlightenment.  Also, check out ACP's "ACP Environmental Justice Toolkit," for which she's the principal author (attached to this email, too).

CalRecycle’s Environmental Justice (EJ) Program is hosting its second lunchtime Brown Bag.  In this session, Janaki Jagannath will discuss the link between social equity and compost production in the most impacted regions of the state, including pathways to community engagement and soil-carbon sequestration in the era of climate change.  Janaki will also speak about her work with the Association of Compost Producers and EJ in Composting, a Toolkit for California Composters, which is a manual she developed to assist compost facility operators as they implement the state’s organic waste reduction targets as outlined in SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016).  

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Noon - 1:00 p.m.

Coastal Hearing Room, 1001 I Street

The brown bag will be webcast at https://video.calepa.ca.gov

Everyone is welcome to bring their lunch. 

 

Janaki Jagannath is a law student at UC Davis School of Law. Previously she directed the Community Alliance for Agroecology, a coalition of rural community-based organizations in the San Joaquin Valley who work to advance agricultural and environmental policy towards justice for communities that support California’s food system.  She worked at California Rural Legal Assistance in Fresno enforcing EJ and worker protections, including access to clean drinking water for unincorporated farmworker communities.  Janaki has assisted in curriculum development for the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems degree at UC Davis and has farmed in diversified and orchard crops across the state. She also conducted trainings at the Refugee Entrepreneurial Agriculture Project in San Diego County with refugee women farmers. Janaki holds a B.S. in Agricultural Development from UC Davis and a crop producers’ certification in Ecological Horticulture.

See you there, or join her and CalRecycle via the Web.

Dear ACP Supporting  Members who attended our Annual Planning Meeting this week.  Dan will be sharing the first rough draft of a "comment letter" with recommendations to CalRecycle (Due on Monday).Thanks you So much to a number of you that already submitted comments to me prior to today!!  Your input was extremely helpful

Dan

Save the date for this year’s Legislative Day, May 1, 2019 … a day filled with networking, meetings with your state legislators, lively industry related topic discussions and much, much more!  Don't believe us, hear it from your fellow member Tom Shearer, consultant in soils and compost: Why You Need to Personally Attend to Represent Your Industry?  Your legislators work for you!  Tell your elected representative what you think about a certain issue or bill, and to try to get him or her to act on that issue.  Let them know the issues and legislation by bill number you wish to discuss.  Make sure they know that you are a constituent.  While larger institutions use lobbyist most of us do not have that ability, so we need to be the faces and voices that resonate with the legislators.  This is your once annual opportunity to speak about your business and industry don’t let it pass you by. For the past 3 years, ACP’s Legislative Day has remained the preeminent legislative event for California Composters.  Legislative Day gives compost producers, equipment manufacturers, Government agencies, landscapers, engineers, scientists and researchers the opportunity to meet and discuss compost issues, regulations and policy directly with their state legislators and staff.  Attending Legislative Day is not only a great investment in your business, it also provides you with an opportunity to hear from California's most dynamic political leaders, regulators and the members of ACP and your state association leadership. Importantly, you get to know your legislators, and their staff, and they learn from you, why compost is so important to their constituency! After a rewarding day of business, join your fellow members at a fabulous Capitol Reception. We look forward to collaborating with you at this year's Legislative Day!

Compost: Regenerating and Protecting California’s Fire Damaged Lands- ACP Lobbyist, Kathy Lynch, and Exec. Dir. Dan Noble, circulated a "ACP Ltr to Legislature_Regenerating CA Fire Damaged Lands_8-26-18" 2 page overview of how compost can and should be used to regenerate California's fire damaged lands.  It was sent to the Governor's office and all the California Legislators.  See a copy of this open letter to California governors on ACP's website.  ACP will be developing a number of these compost use documents to address important issues that impact our State's environment. Contact Dan Noble for additional information

ACP’s mission to “work and invest together to increase compost markets...”, is extended this year by directly getting to know our member’s legislators: relationship development with legislators, inform about Compost Benefits to the local community, and compost industry issues and initiatives. Working Group: Julia W., Zachary K., Dan N., Kathy L., and Jeff Z. This will ONLY happen on odd years after this year, alternating with a new ACP Compost Conference in May or June of each even numbered years, staring in 2020.

So this May, develop face-to-face, and name recognition with some regulators and your legislators and their staffs.  Introduce your compost business to them!  What you can talk about can include (we provide support material and coaching for you!):

• Get to know each other: Policy Makers and industry participants 

• Compost in your District: Who you work with, what you do, why compost is important (see Compost Benefits list)

• Funding: Cap & Trade funding (greenhouse gas reduction funds, GGRF), and our approach on using those dollars to build compost manufacturing capacity along with private sector 

• Legislation in process: What bills we are supporting this year, and why? (Review ACP Bill Priority List)

• Regulatory issues: What legislation is being turned into regulations, what is our position, how is that going. AB 901, AB 876, SB 1383

• State Agency Relationships: What are the industry's relationships with various state agencies, and what initiatives we are pursing with them now?  

Hope to see YOU there!

ACP held its annual Board of Director elections in December of this year. Three qualified nominations were received and the Board unanimously voted to expand the Board to six to allow the seating of all three candidates. The Board has been looking for an opportunity to expand and was excited at this opportunity. 

Please join us in welcoming Chris Seney of Republic Services to the ACP Board of Directors. Chris is the Director of Organics at Republic Services, Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering and a Master of Business Administration and he’s Professional Engineer in California, Arizona and Nevada. He’s an active participant in California organics and brings experience and energy to the association. The Board will select officers in January 2019.

2019 Board of Directors:  

●       Jeff Ziegenbein - President - Inland Empire Regional Composting Authority

●       Kathy Kellogg Johnson - Vice President -  Kellogg Garden Products

●       Bob Engel - Secretary/Treasurer - Engel & Gray, Inc. Regional Compost Facility

●       Craig Kolodge - Filtrex - Director - Filtrexx International

●       Tom Shearer - Director - Soil and Compost Consulting

●    Chris Seney - Director - Republic Services

●       Dan Noble - Executive Director

Membership in the Association of Compost Producers will provide you with technical information, advocacy, and professional networking opportunities, which will help advance both your business and career. You will be able to exchange research information with others in the composting field as well as participate in programming sessions offered at various conferences throughout the year. As part of your membership in the ACP you will receive the following:

• Build your clientele by tapping into ACP’s highly engaged community and reference your Membership directory
• Make lifelong friends through networking and collaborating with other members
• Show employees that you support their professional development and your company’s leadership at ACP Annual Conference
• Cutting edge information shared monthly on member call 4^th Wed. each month
• National representation on California State Chapter of  US Composting Council
• Join one of six technical working groups to build your team’s recycling management competencies to maximize performance and advance your mission
• Enhance your marketing development strategies and practices by adopting and collaborating on implementing ACP's Public and Member Marketing Plans
• Alerts and email announcements of meetings, workshops, technical groups, and conference sessions providing educational opportunities for your staff
• Build your reputation by participating on ACP Groups and many initiatives
• Advance your career by joining ACP member leaders on the Board of Directors
• The benefits of advocacy to maintain profitability in an increasingly complex business environment
• Aligning and enhancing your brand through sponsorship opportunities, by gaining more and ongoing visibility for your business
  

Thank you to our members who supported "The Compost Story" video.

"The Compost Story" This important video was made possible by: Kellogg Garden Products, A1 Organics, Tanks Green Stuff, Zanker Recycling, Natur-tec, OCSD, CalRecycle, New Earth Inc., Stop Waste- Alameda, EcoSafe, St Louis Composting, Elk Packaging, Vision Recycling, EDWW W. Pauley Foundation, Associated Labels, Texas Pure Products, Inland Empire Utilities Agency, Green Mountain Check it out here...Technologies.https://kisstheground.com/thecompoststory/

https://www.facebook.com/kissthegroundCA/videos/1346222315444457/

Join ACP Working Group as we work to expand the volume and value of compost being used to build healthy soil in California.

ACP Working Groups - Taking action to forward our mission

Compost Policy & Regulations

• ·         Legislative Executive Team
• ·         ACP Policy Committee
• ·         ACP Legislator’s Day & ICAW (with CCREF)

Compost Awareness & Markets

• ·         Sustainable Soil, Water, Air Tactical Team (SSWATT)
• ·         Agroecology & Healthy Soil Metrics
• ·         Marketing – feedstock purity & compost use (proposed)
• ·         ACP Compost Resource Center (Staff, for Stakeholders & ACP Members)

Compost Feedstocks & Products (Materials)

• ·         Contamination Reduction – feedstock and product quality
• ·         Specifications (products) – feedstock testing and STA with USCC (proposed)

Compost Soil Conditioning Uses (Services)

• ·         Specifications (use) – team with USCC and SHI (proposed)
• o   Ag – Crop/Soil, Water, Carbon Sequestration
• o   Landscape – small, med., large, specialty (e.g. sports fields, golf courses, etc.)
• o   Stormwater/Erosion Control - LID/Green Infrastructure
• o   Natural & Working Lands – public, private & non-profit (trusts, conservancies, etc.)

Contact Dan Noble to join this group