SCS Engineers, Long Beach, California, has announced several strategic promotions to 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.
According to SCS, Leonard is well known throughout the industry as a leader in sustainable materials management (SMM). In addition to her new position, she 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. She promotes municipalities and private waste companies adopting circular strategies, which reduce waste going into landfills.
“Sustainable materials management can help meet the challenges of waste reduction and management as states impose disposal bans, diversion mandates and emissions restrictions,” she says. “It’s economically sound and socially responsible too.”
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, as well as the opportunities to manage waste for the highest and best use.
Leonard 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 has been 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, and is 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.”