ZWZ Listed in Innovation Index

Recognizing the importance of growing and building smarter, Atlanta Magazine dedicated their August issue to "New Ground", naming Atlanta Groundbreakers in their feature article.  The individuals and projects honored are shaping the city's  future and tackling current challenges. Groundbreakers run the gamut of important issues from alternative senior healthcare (GATSBII) to urban agriculture amid food deserts (Rashid Nuri) to a connecting thoroughfare (The Atlanta Beltine).

Continual growth, long used as the barometer of community success, is no longer a viable solution. The time is NOW for community leaders to understand "smarter and effective" is more important than bigger. Kudos to Atlanta Magazine for dedicating an issue to the local heroes with the foresight to break the "bigger is better"  pattern with pioneering projects or products that are solution-based.


Serving a supporting role, the Innovation Index lists twenty-four breakthroughs, bright ideas, and brave new advances. The Zero Waste Zones are included in the index with the following copy:

In 2009 Holly Elmore—founder of Elemental Impact (Ei), an Atlanta-based nonprofit committed to sustainability—developed Zero Waste Zones, a program to reduce the volume of food-service waste hauled to landfills. “I thought, how do we create a program that makes good business sense on every level?” she says. Two years after its founding, Ei collaborated with the National Restaurant Association, a partnership that offers national reach and resources to ZWZ participants such as Ecco, a Midtown restaurant with a compost-friendly rooftop garden (and no Dumpster).

It is an honor the ZWZ are included among Atlanta's breakthough programs building the city into its full potential within the incoming paradigm. On September 18 Atlanta magazine hosts their first inaugural GROUNDBREAKER AWARDS RECEPTION where the groundbreakers and innovators are recognized - Ei founder Holly Elmore and Ei  program director will represent the Zero Wastes Zones at the event. 

Thank you Atlanta Magazine!