Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / Clean Energy Is Creating New Business Opportunities. Here’s How to Get In! - Ep. 193 w/ Dr. Madeline Walker Miller

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Clean Energy Is Creating New Business Opportunities. Here’s How to Get In! - Ep. 193 w/ Dr. Madeline Walker Miller · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really connect with sustainability until I saw how it was impacting communities of people who looked like us.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was really nobody at the time recycling that type of waste.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I found that company, I was like, how can I bring something like this to Detroit?
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But how can I make it different and how can I create products, right, as opposed to just collecting and sorting?
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: He says stands for resilience and equity in the clean energy sector summit.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is our,
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: National conference we have it every year is always hosted in Detroit and the concept of the conference is that the clean energy economy should include everybody.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: recess is about building resilience in our communities.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: This conference is about access.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is about equity.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are the innovators that we decide who generates energy, who uses it, how and where it is used.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: There's an intersection between the air pollution, asthma, people's respiratory illnesses, and how actually safe environments are in places that are not energy efficient, could impact the overall health of our communities.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's important for people of color to see other people of color, especially in the clean energy sector to understand, not only how we can work in it, but also how it impacts our health and our lives.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: The communities have to define their futures.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a core of energy democracy.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: Everyone deserves the chance to not only grieve clean air and drink clean water and not have their homes flow But I think everybody actually deserves they human right to be comfortable and you will not accept that Detroiters or anyone will be locked out Simply because of their social economic status or race
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: we wanted to make certain that independent contractors, that people of color, that women, that veterans, that people who didn't have access to the big dollars, that they had a chance to participate in the money side of environmental action.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is turned for us to walk into opportunities.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's start building the ecosystem that we want to be a part of.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_06]: What up though, Black Friday's family, welcome back to another installment of the Black Friday's podcast.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_06]: Before we get into today's episode, hit that like button, subscribe, drop a comment, since the video is the family friends and loved ones, so we keep this thing going.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_06]: All right, now that we got that business out of the way, I don't know about y'all, but I think it's time that we had a real conversation about clean energy and sustainability and who better than to have that conversation with, not only scientists, but a doctor at that Dr. Marilyn Walker Miller, welcome to the podcast.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, thank you for having me.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_06]: absolutely thank you for pulling up and I find it really interesting that pretty much your whole life has kind of been encompassed around sustainability, clean energy and things like that would love to be able to understand like when did you start to pay attention to these things granted that you are you have your own foundation or your own startup where next house where you're working on
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_06]: Sustainability in your own way, and then also be in a part of the Walker Miller energy family.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_06]: When it's sustainability started to come into play for you, when did you even start to notice these things in your life?
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think, so I'm the youngest of three, I have older brothers and we lived an outdoor kind of childhood.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: We were very outdoorsy.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I always liked being in nature, but I was never a bugs girl.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think the real kind of environmental sustainability connection came in undergrad.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did green club in high school, but my background is in environmental science.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I was in undergrad,
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I went to Spellman and I was working really closely with people in the local community who were, um, elders, especially who were concerned about their water quality, concerned about air quality, and they were on the ground getting out there and testing their own resources with testing kids that they found online and just doing anything they could do.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: So my sustainability roots are.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: in people as opposed to like a specific industry or career that I had a dream about.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really connect with sustainability until I saw how it was impacting communities of people who look like us.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, and then that was a lot of your work in terms of like your PhD programming and graduate school.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_06]: Like we just talked about, you did PhD at University of Michigan and then also your masters at University of Miami.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_06]: And you started to get, um,
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_06]: It's starting to get integrated in terms of being able to study.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_06]: I don't want to mess up the name.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_06]: Is it oceanography?
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't exactly oceanography, yeah.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, when I got there, I actually, I spent a lot of time in our took classes on the main campus that you Miami, but I was accepted to the school for a marine and atmospheric science.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, that school had a really big dive culture.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I got there, everybody already had a specific marine species that they were trying to say, and my goal was just to figure out, you know, like, what are the various marine species?
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is an ocean plastic?
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: and when I started to research that I learned that a lot of the synthetic fibers in our clothing and accessories, they mimic the plastics and utensils, plastic forks and spoons and containers and things.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I started to dig deeper to understand the industries that actually contribute to that kind of waste in the ocean, they were fashion and automotive.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And on my journey to
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I found one company out of New York that was recycling textiles specifically and what are textiles because I literally just figured out this definition within the last few months.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I probably don't have the for steel after six years in business.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The formal textiles definition, but I'm talking about a pair of fabrics.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: My company specializes in clothing waste, so polyesters, cotton blends, and things like that.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the seats that you would see in a car, the carpet, the headliner scrap, the steering wheel leather.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there was really nobody at the time recycling that type of waste.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I found that company, I was like,
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can I bring something like this to Detroit, but how can I make it different and how can I create products right as opposed to just collecting and sorting and when that experience ended I had to do an internship as a part of my masters and when that experience ended.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I came home with no intentions of coming home.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: COVID hit and it gave me a lot of time to dig and figure out what I could make from that waste.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And one of the first things that my mom, you talked about the Walker Miller energy family.
• 6:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: My mom is an energy and one of the first things that we saw in that waste.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: was building insulation.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And my goal from that point was to commercialize a product back the lower heating and cooling bills for people who are already poor and already can't afford their DTE or whatever utility services their area, you know, their bills.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_06]: And question for you in terms of how does the that actual like the textile waste end up in the ocean like would you be able to tell us more about that.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, and so when we put our waste out on the curb on trash day minus Friday, it's typically all of our household waste and if we do want to get rid of an old pair of jeans, then so be it, but there really is no designated.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: way to discard your textiles in most cities.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so people do just put them in there with their household waste.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so one example is when everything goes on the truck on the way to landfill things fall off once the waste ends up in a landfill is creating landfill gas and so.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: The landfill can't actually contain everything and so the chemicals and dies are seeping through and ending up in our soil and water and you know ultimately they make their way to large water bodies and there's really no comprehensive strategy for extracting them from the water at that point and they impact all of our resources from there.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_06]: And with your solution, you actually started it while you were in grad school with the inception of next house because you tell us a little bit more about that and then how you've been able to, like you already alluded to, been able to create real solutions for people by being able to a cycle.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, so next house is based in Detroit.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I started it during my COVID break, during my Netflix bingeing with my mom.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we're a textile recyclers.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we focus on helping manufacturers divert their ways from landfills.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so for apparel manufacturers, we're coming directly to their cut and so facility.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we're taking everything that is waste from the site.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's never been worn.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's never gone out to a consumer.
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're not adjacent to
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the same is true for automotive assembly plants.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: We take their seats that come off the line.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Any excess carpet scraps, steering wheel leather, any pre-consumer waste that comes from an operation, meaning it's clean and it's never been worn.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: We collect it, we take it to our processing facility, or it's shipped to us, and we shred it to convert it to feed stock that other manufacturers can use.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I never did commercialize my own building installation product, but I learned,
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: The types of blends that insulation manufacturers need it and we started to sell to them.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: We started to sell to outerwear companies that could use our shoddy in their bubble coats, punching bag organizations, petbed companies.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just a range of different organizations that can use our shredded material.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the business model is too full, so we compete with landfills and traditional dumpsters.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: We charge people to take the waste and then we're able to sell the new fees back on the other end.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_06]: But you had mentioned that you all directly compete with landfills in terms of opportunities to be able to, I guess, for you all, it's upcycling, but this place's waste is, I'm guessing what the landfills are doing, but how were you able to position yourself to even be in that space granite, like obviously that's a predominant industry industry in this own right to be able to divert some of what they would get to what it is that you do.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's always been a challenge for us, a company or a person who ever can landfill their waste for about six cents a pound.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And our rate has always been about a dollar or more.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so typically when we take on a new client, it takes convincing and alignment with whatever the mission of their business is.
• 10:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: But something that we always use to our advantage is our
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: recycling report, the metrics that we can provide to companies so that whoever the sustainability coordinator at said general motors assembly plant is can go back to their team and say that by recycling this many seats and this many pounds of headliner or carpet scrap with next tiles, we save this many trees or you know, made the marine environment this much healthier for said species and so
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: We typically do have to tailor sort of our strategy for different businesses because they've been landfilling for decades, most of them, and that's just what they're accustomed to.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But what works for us and what makes us kind of a key player is that there just aren't that many tech-sauber cycling organizations in the country that are readily available to take on ways.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for large-scale manufacturers, it matters that you can come quickly to free up the space so that their operation can flow.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_06]: And then given that value add that you all provided, I'm telling them that day will be able to help contribute to saving the environment, do they get a chance to claim being able to meet some of their sustainability standards so to speak by working with you all.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, so when we send out a report, there are a lot of metrics in it that I don't understand.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But for the ones that I do, I think the biggest metric that they're able to share is avoid it CO2.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what matters in terms of how efficient and how clean their operation is.
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they're able to share that metric back.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, we have really complex stuff in the report, but we have things that just the average person can understand.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: To say, hey, our company really is doing something about what's happening to the environment.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_06]: Truly making a world a better place, I see.
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing my best.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've got a lot of textile waste and a pair of manufacturing, you know, it increases every year, because the demand for fast fashion is so high, where people who love clothes and shoes, and we don't want to pay a lot typically, so it's the constant battle.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, for sure.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_06]: And so I have plenty more questions for you, but before we get to that, I want to introduce my favorite part of Black Friday, which is Freestyle Fridays.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Recess is an invitation to people who are not a part of the economy who don't even know what's going on.
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: We call them the Clean Energy Cheerios.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: You are invited just to fill and develop and curate it for people who aren't part of the
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_06]: So if you're on mine, I know you from Detroit spent some time at Atlanta and Miami.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_06]: We're going to need you to freestyle.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to need you to rap force.
• 13:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, are you serious?
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_06]: We're gonna need some bars.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_06]: We're gonna need some bars for you.
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_06]: That's crazy.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Am I getting a topic or anything?
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_06]: Um, I mean, you could write about sustainability.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_06]: You could say into a poem, um, interpret the dance.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_06]: Jazz.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's the interpretive dance?
• 13:50
  [SPEAKER_06]: It's up to you.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_06]: Freestyle Friday.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: But an interpretive dance is, is not.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_06]: Nice.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_06]: Something.
• 13:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: but it's a dance.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
• 14:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's no freestyle.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can freestyle dance?
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I could just dance.
• 14:04
  [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
• 14:05
  [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
• 14:05
  [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_06]: So you actually don't have to be none of the above.
• 14:08
  [SPEAKER_06]: It's actually random questions.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_06]: That's all about you.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_06]: But if you're going to wrap you one, I'm going to stop you.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can do it.
• 14:15
  [SPEAKER_06]: OK. OK. All right.
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_06]: So first thing I want to ask you, what is your favorite piece of a pair on that you thirsted?
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: My favorite piece, my favorite item, I have a vintage Fendi baguette, which is like one of my favorite purses and it's beaded, it's brown and I thrifted it, actually when I was living in Miami, so that's my favorite thrifted piece.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't usually find a lot of like designer-trifting opportunities, not like this Instagram and TikTok girls anyway, but that's one of my favorite pieces and then I'm a denim girlie, so anytime I can thrift a good pair of leave eyes, I love leave eyes.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_06]: And giving you a time in Miami and living in Detroit, what would you say that you learned from being in South Florida or Miami, that you've been able to take with you as you came back home?
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'll say when I first moved to Miami, I was not expecting, uh, so many that so many Spanish speaking people would be around me and I don't know any Spanish and so it, um, nudged me to kind of lean into my body language interpretations and so I learned a lot about body language just from my time there because a lot of times I didn't know what people were actually saying.
• 15:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I would say I took that away and then, um, I think South Florida has the culture of like, uh,
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: everybody works hard all over the country, but with so much access to coastline and opportunities to relax and vibe, I met so many people down there who were just like, I'm not going to kill myself working, I'm going to leave my life.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that culture is different from the traditional workaholic nature that I was exposed to.
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, they basically what they say because you don't pay income tax in the state of Florida They call it like the sunshine tax where basically because you got the sun year round.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, you know, you and it's a trade off, but then also that impacts like people's How much they want to enjoy and have leisure and just being able to just chill, relax and live life
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've never had so much, not downtime because I probably needed to be working, but just enjoy myself so much in the middle of the week.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's different from being in the Midwest, so.
• 16:28
  [SPEAKER_06]: Fisher, were you got two weeks to do that?
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_06]: It's a different time.
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_06]: What's your favorite?
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_06]: See you on me.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: my favorite sea animal.
• 16:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I have a turtle thing going now.
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm learning so many things about turtles.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like all of the, that mean there were so many metaphors when we were younger about turtles being slow, but I'm learning about all the different turtle species and how fast they can move in the array of kind of colors that they come in and things like that.
• 16:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I like turtles right now.
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_06]: Okay, shout to the turtles.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_06]: Do you have or ever have a crazy concept for something that could be upcycle?
• 17:03
  [SPEAKER_06]: Whether it's actually physically possible or not, have you had any ideas of something that you would want to upcycle and turn to something else?
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I am, you asked me what my favorite thrift item was and I said a parse.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love small parses, like many bags.
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And over the last year and a half or so, we've been recycling a lot of aircraft, seating leather, and often we get full hives of leather that can make,
• 17:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: jackets and you know so they can absolutely make a mini bag or a purse and so that's something that I've been leaning into.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just bought a new processing facility in Highland Park and one of the things that I want to implement outside of tours and exposing people to what text how waste means is access to industrial sewing equipment and spaces where people can learn and activate their creativity because when I brought the material to a couple of people
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, to learn that they didn't have access to the equipment that they need, even though they knew how to make it.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, was interesting to me.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't know it was so hard to come by those things.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so access to equipment is a barrier that a lot of creatives experience when it's time to make something.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to make a purse.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've reached out to so many Detroiters who will probably see this and be like, yeah, she has to make that purse.
• 18:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I want to make some more leather goods that are luxury and high fashion.
• 18:23
  [SPEAKER_06]: How close would you say you are to figure that piece out?
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're pretty close, you know, having the materials have to battle, and then we were just awarded a grant, a really exciting grant.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have an apply for grant dollars in a while.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I started my business off grants, but since we've been revenue generating, I've stepped away from it, but we just got a grant that I think will allow us to activate that.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're close.
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_06]: So we're going to see that we're going to see the line in the next house versus coming out so yeah we're going to have to re-bring because we're so industrial but you might see it's a bad thing But sure and then last but not least if you could buy ticket travel anywhere in the world tomorrow and be there for a week where would you go.
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's hard.
• 19:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anywhere in the world.
• 19:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm recycled in textile, so I don't want to seem like a super duper clothing kind of sore.
• 19:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this is probably on brand.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I always see the YouTube girl's thrifting in Japan, and so I want in on all of the thrifted vintage handbags, and then my family and I just left Martha's Vineyard, and we usually go to Martha's Vineyard, but we stay for two weeks this time, and my niece and nephew were there.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I don't really have usually have an opportunity to play in water with them and be with them for Days on days, so I would replay that trip if I could that's the sub Shout out to you for partaking in freestyle for a day.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_06]: Thank you next time you can wrap you had me thinking I was about
• 19:52
  [SPEAKER_06]: And so going back into being able to talk through the journey would love to be able to for you to be able to talk just a little bit more about Walker Miller energy because this is organized a company that's been around for almost three decades and has been the catalyst for a lot of equity and
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_06]: Um, inclusion when it comes to the energy space and being able to work with some large corporations, organizations, et cetera, all for the sake of being equitable in the clean energy space.
• 20:21
  [SPEAKER_06]: So a lot for you to be able to kind of tell us more about that from the first hand view.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so Walker Miller Energy Services is a company that my mom started 27 years ago.
• 20:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her name is Carla Walker Miller, and she really is an energy pioneer.
• 20:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: The company is an implementation organization.
• 20:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the simplest way that I typically explain it is that they partner with utilities.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Utilities don't have staff on hand that come into your home and provide a lot of the services if they do and so that work is Contract it out to organizations like hers, but her company has an equity lens and Just really specializes in tailored community outreach and trust building and communities that sets them apart from a lot of organizations doing this work She's the largest black woman on Energy efficiency organization in the country
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the cultural of our team is, you know, while the team is family oriented, they've been high growth and they really do prioritize people.
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's been exciting.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: This September, we're going to be having the recess conference.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's our baby recesses, our brain child.
• 21:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's something that she started because she's always been an energy, but before she started her business, she was in corporate America and didn't see many people
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so recess stands for resilience and equity in the clean energy sector summit, it is our national conference, we have it every year.
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not always in September, so I've got to stop saying that but it's always hosted in Detroit.
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the concept of the conference is that the clean energy economy.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: should include everybody, and the goal is to invite people who are traditionally not main players, so black people, indigenous people, brown people, women, to the clean energy economy to understand the career opportunities and just experience an actual on-ramp into this space.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_06]: So break that down from me a little bit more in terms of the clean energy economy because I love being able to just doing my research get exposed as to how people, especially people I look like us, have been able to develop not only careers, but entire businesses and corporations within this particular space, which is something that I'm not necessarily perv2 or fully understand, but would you be able to tell us more about what that clean energy economy kind of looks like and what the current state of it is?
• 22:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so when you think about renewable energy technologies like wind turbines and solar panels, these are different, they're the complete opposite of traditional fossil fuel power systems.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the first thing that comes to mind when I think about black people having opportunities and people in general having opportunities in the clean energy industry is workforce.
• 23:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, most of the contractors in our ecosystem are
• 23:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: accustomed to installing traditional systems, and so right now in the clean energy transition, we require a whole new workforce of people or to train people to understand how to install heat pumps and solar panels and things like that.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: and to create new products.
• 23:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the opportunities to meet our endless, my business is separate from a renewable energy technology but building installation is a part of the clean energy transition.
• 23:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Detroit has some of the oldest housing stock in the country.
• 23:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we drive through the city, we see a lot of blight and buildings that need to be torn down, but we also see a lot of residential homes that just need upgrades to be more comfortable and for it to be more feasible for families to live in them.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so building installation is a solution.
• 23:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there are so many others, but there are people along the clean energy sort of
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: pipeline that need to educate.
• 24:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we need people to teach youth about what a solar panel is and how to install solar panels.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: We need that contractor education element in order to participate.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that to me is just one lens where we got to know what the technologies are and how to install them in order to get involved.
• 24:25
  [SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_06]: And then as far as recess goes, I'm curious to based on what you said about the clean energy economy.
• 24:32
  [SPEAKER_06]: you get so many people from different backgrounds and industries intentionally from equity standpoint, but you get all those people in the room on an annual basis.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_06]: What are some of the things or the magic of recess that you see kind of come from the conference and what people's experiences events like so far?
• 24:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I think in terms of the conference access is so important.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: We make it a point to invite people who are not from utilities because when people think about energy, they think about paying money to a large utility to keep their lights on.
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this year, we have HBCU presidents who are coming to talk about deferred maintenance on campus.
• 25:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I went to an HBCU and I didn't have ACM, I don't arm.
• 25:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that matters.
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have people who are coming to talk about electric vehicle technologies and the gaps in the ecosystem in terms
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once all these people adopt EVs, where are they going to charge if we don't have enough charging stations?
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have students, we have young professionals, and so the access piece is important because a lot of people will likely never have this type of experience to be in the same room with some of the key players in energy efficiency and in clean energy.
• 25:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's kind of our secret sauce is making sure everybody knows that they're invited.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no skill level requirement.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we market the conference to people who are energy clean energy curious.
• 25:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, you don't have to know anything about clean energy to come.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we've tailored our sessions and a lot of our content so that if you're new to the space and this is your fresh, you know, your very first day out, you can understand what's going on.
• 26:02
  [SPEAKER_06]: fire and then is it any I know you're speaking yourself for and obviously participating but are there any new folks that's coming to be a part of panels or conversations that you like excited to have part of the conference thing here or any partners that you all have been able to work with over the years.
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of partners, we have some really amazing sponsors, but our new mayor, Mayor Sheffield, will be speaking at the conference this year, so I'm really excited about that.
• 26:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have a range of people from startup organizations, and so we have some young researchers.
• 26:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm on a panel call at faces of the future.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what's really cool to me is the diversity of our panels.
• 26:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're really intentional about making sure that there's representation from various voices on each panel.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: segments that combine CEOs from huge companies with people who are just getting started but they have an amazing solution so to me that's what's most exciting.
• 26:59
  [SPEAKER_06]: dope dope.
• 27:00
  [SPEAKER_06]: And then in terms of the, in terms of, um, lost my training to talk, but one thing that we did talk about is young people being a part of this conference intentionally and then also yourself being somebody who was able to grow up in the space and then go and study and get education around it, but there's always a conversation and a focus around STEM and communities like ours, like in Detroit and others across the, across
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_06]: What from your experiences are some things that we can do to better to get these to get We can focus on clean energy or stem whatever.
• 27:38
  [SPEAKER_06]: It may be I think they kind of go hand-to-hand, but what can we do to enhance the chances of young people finding careers in clean energy?
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think early exposure is so important.
• 27:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm most people don't see it that way.
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm still relatively new to energy.
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just joined Walker Miller energy services six months ago.
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I just finished my PhD, which was really the first space where I studied energy.
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But early exposure is so important.
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm the acronym police.
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So exposure to STEM careers, science, technology, engineering,
• 28:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: get so far along in the math is intimidating to them.
• 28:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was a, you know, that was a hold up to me.
• 28:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't focused as much as I wish I had on just being able to get through the math.
• 28:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so when I started as a dual degree engineering major at Spillman, I made it through, but it hindered my ability to actually be excited about it because I was struggling so badly.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so early exposure is important.
• 28:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, this year with me being a new PhD, we've added an academic component to the conference.
• 28:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, um, when I was at Spelman, I didn't really go to any academic conferences nor did I, you Miami.
• 28:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And by the time I started working on my doctorate, I was like, teeth chattering and me shaking when it was time to go to an academic conference because I didn't know what to expect.
• 29:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: with recess being an environment that's inviting to all is warm, adding an academic component to me is invaluable because researchers get to come and experience for the first time and something that models an academic research conference, but you're not nervous, you know, you have somebody to kind of hold your hand and introduce you.
• 29:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 29:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: We will have podium presentations and poster presentations where students, especially at the graduate level, can come and present their research and get feedback in an environment that doesn't feel judgy or give them anxiety.
• 29:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that matters so much because
• 29:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: people that look like us need to be contributing to the research right now.
• 29:41
  [SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_06]: Because one thing that I've noticed over the years and just even being more in tune with the tech community here in Detroit and like BlackTix nowadays and meeting different people who are on similar missions to be able to provide equitable, sustainable, clean energy solutions to people and just you think about Southwest Detroit being one of the most like
• 30:06
  [SPEAKER_06]: Lowest or worse air quality in the country and so you just think about those things and it's like that's not that's not about mistake And I also think about it's not necessarily like it doesn't pack environment, but also how they put freeways through a lot of our
• 30:22
  [SPEAKER_06]: predominantly black communities throughout the years across the country.
• 30:26
  [SPEAKER_06]: And so, you know, just thinking about things like that and what would that look like if you have qualified people that look like us or people who look like us in general who could be in the room to be talking about voice therapy and talking about these things.
• 30:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and those are the exact things we're talking about.
• 30:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I was doing my research, one of the things that stood out to me was that landfills where disproportionately burdened communities of color and their air quality was impacted.
• 30:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: But at recess, we're going to have several segments on data centers, exploring how communities and data centers can actually thrive together.
• 30:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And some of the things that communities might consider
• 31:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: not demanding but etching out in combination with developers to make sure that they see the benefits of such large scale development.
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we don't, we do not shy away from the hard topics at the recess conference.
• 31:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as warm and exciting as the conference is, you know, we're talking about the things that will ultimately determine our future.
• 31:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes those topics aren't fun.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_06]: And could you, so a young person had asked me, I was doing a presentation once teaching them about how to use AI to help them with their day-to-day.
• 31:31
  [SPEAKER_06]: And young lady had asked me about the relationship between the environment and data centers.
• 31:36
  [SPEAKER_06]: Would you be able to kind of like talk to us a little, got us a little bit through what that discourse is currently around data centers and the environment and possibly demystify any misconceptions about what data
• 31:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, now I can't speak specifically to data centers, excuse me, but any large scale development, any huge project or manufacturing site is going to be associated with emissions, you know greenhouse gas emissions noise pollution, there's going to be more traffic coming through that area and these are all things that impact our air, soil and water and in the past, I know that Governor Whitmer has announced some things that may be different about Michigan.
• 32:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in the past, when large developments like that have come to communities, residents are accustomed to seeing spikes in their energy bills and assuming some of the responsibility for paying for those large developments to operate.
• 32:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's where the discourse is really important because we have so much information about how people's health and wellbeing is impacted.
• 32:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: That, you know, it's going to be important that communities partner with data center developers to make sure that they get what they need.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are several models across the country where hyper scale data centers come to a community and they improve the quality of schools.
• 32:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they retrofit homes.
• 32:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the education component where we find out, you know, what can we get, what does our stake look like in this is to me what's most important about the conversations at recess.
• 33:02
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, and are there any ideal places to put large industrial projects like data centers or anything that's going to have like large emissions and stuff like that.
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_06]: Do you just keep moist and people in general and drop them in the middle of nowhere or is it just kind of like a given take.
• 33:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: What they're part of the challenge right now is that they're not being dropped in the middle of nowhere.
• 33:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're being a lot of them dropped in urban centers and in rural areas where people are trying to thrive and grow things and have decent health and work.
• 33:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that the placement depends on the size of the facility, but the idea is that we need to be involved in the planning rather than just subject to what happens post implementation.
• 33:43
  [SPEAKER_06]: Right.
• 33:45
  [SPEAKER_06]: And in terms of education and what we're talking about around the some of the topics that's going to be talked about a recess and they're also thinking about young people, what love to know for you.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_06]: I know you mentioned your introduction to like the clean energy space was when you had opportunity to work with people and see how things were impacted on first hand.
• 34:04
  [SPEAKER_06]: But when was that pivot for you to identify?
• 34:07
  [SPEAKER_06]: I think I want to be able to have my own startup or go into business for myself to be able to find
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_06]: a solution and then be able to carve your career path out that way when was that that pivot for you.
• 34:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'll say when I accepted the internship in New York, I was like New York.
• 34:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be exposed to all this fashion.
• 34:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be cute at work every day.
• 34:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I got there, I wasn't.
• 34:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was taking the train to work every day.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I was usually tired by the time I got there.
• 34:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to be honest, the company that I worked at was started up adjacent at the time.
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of the things that were needed around the warehouse I naturally ended up kind of helping with.
• 34:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that allowed me to see the inner workings of things and to understand like, okay, provided I have a place to do it, I could do something like this at home.
• 34:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that matters so much.
• 34:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's why at next house in at Walker Miller Energy Services, internships are so important to us because exposure to the inner workings of businesses,
• 35:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, not to see our regular AR, but to see how tangible access to these spaces is so important to me.
• 35:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's when the light really kind of came on like, I could do something like this at home.
• 35:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I got a couple dollars to get a space and have a vehicle to transport equipment.
• 35:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that goes hand in hand with kind of the nature of the conference because we're not gatekeeping.
• 35:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're letting people see and hear what happens on the inside of the clean energy industry.
• 35:31
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I think what they say, exposure leads to opportunity.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_06]: So yeah, we definitely need more of that.
• 35:37
  [SPEAKER_06]: So being a startup founder yourself, what advice would you have for young people?
• 35:42
  [SPEAKER_06]: I know you talked about internships and the importance of that.
• 35:44
  [SPEAKER_06]: But if someone is to consider and are playing around with the idea of being able to start their own thing, what advice would you have for them as far as getting into the startup space?
• 35:53
  [SPEAKER_06]: Because I think one,
• 35:54
  [SPEAKER_06]: Jim that you had dropped earlier was like the power of grants and like you actually were able to start your company with grants in it now being able to turn that into a revenue generation.
• 36:04
  [SPEAKER_06]: So we'll love to know if you had any other additional advice for people who may be looking to have their own start up.
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would say the start of ecosystem in any city can seem really intimidating and before I actually pulled the trigger on participating in accelerators and applying to grants and things like that, I was so in my head about all of the things that I didn't know.
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I always give people the advice to just start where you are.
• 36:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, you never really know the extent to which everybody is just kind of figuring it out until you get in it.
• 36:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I encourage people to start where they are right their concept down and get involved.
• 36:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're wrong or your ideas stupid or you have a big hole in your proposed operation, somebody will tell you.
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so to me, um, I think we see other cultural starting where they are all the time and black people and brown people need to be empowered to do that as well and be more comfortable with, um, learning along the way.
• 36:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: In another piece, I was just on a panel in Martha's Vineyard, so the first part was family vacation, but the other part was worth.
• 37:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I was on a panel with two other entrepreneurs who have raised millions of dollars in capital.
• 37:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I never went to fundraising route.
• 37:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I always bootstraps and apply for state and federal dollars.
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of been my secret sauce and it's allowed me to
• 37:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do my PhD and explore other businesses and do different innovative things in the company because I wasn't as constrained in terms of having to pay back investors and acquiring debt and things of that nature.
• 37:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to encourage entrepreneurs to kind of carve their own way in terms of what it looks like to raise capital and Get money for their whatever their business is because it's not a cookie kind of you know cookie cutter kind of thing It depends on what your business is what goals you have for it.
• 37:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: How locked in you are and how much money you need Thanks
• 37:55
  [SPEAKER_06]: And what made you want to bring it back home?
• 37:58
  [SPEAKER_06]: Once you had came up this idea, because you weren't grad school in Miami at the time, so you for that living in Atlanta, living in Miami, living in New York, like you had just mentioned, what made you want to bring it all back home?
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think the support, I feel like Detroit has a reputation for being a town of hustlers, but when I think about home, I think about all of the small businesses we have and how much we really do support each other.
• 38:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've started here lately to follow so many more of the creator pages and it's cool to see food and the presentation and stuff, but to me it's cool to see how many of us are creating content where we're
• 38:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: exploring other Detroit businesses.
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have so many small businesses here.
• 38:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I just saw myself being here.
• 38:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I would have support.
• 38:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I knew people would be excited about it.
• 38:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I would be able to pick both of my parents our entrepreneurs.
• 38:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I knew that I would be able to pick their brains.
• 38:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to be honest, it wasn't the initial plan.
• 38:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I literally came home in February of 2020.
• 38:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So COVID was...
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I came home because I was afraid, but it was a blessing in disguise to be able to be here and build this here.
• 39:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while I was quarantining, I was searching for opportunities to get involved in different startup accelerators.
• 39:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the first one that I found that was feasible was one at Tech Town Detroit and from there, just the support from Detroit and from Michigan kind of snowball.
• 39:26
  [SPEAKER_06]: And what do you see nextiles being a legacy business similar to Walker Miller Energy Services or how do you kind of see the evolution of nextiles and what you see in the crystal ball for the future?
• 39:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think so.
• 39:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we've navigated away from creating our own building installation products, but Walker Miller energy services is first hand, you know, going into hundreds of thousands of homes and doing energy efficient retrofits and building installation, which we make the feed stock for is a major need of
• 39:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, in aged housing stock, people that have hold old homes, they need building installation.
• 40:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I would love for us at some point to be manufacturing our own product.
• 40:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That Walker Miller could ideally install in homes.
• 40:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm still exploring that.
• 40:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just a baby and energy.
• 40:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm only six months old, but some kind of margin of the two would be ideal for me.
• 40:20
  [SPEAKER_06]: Would you consider expanding the next house to any other places in the country or the world, granite, you base here in Detroit, but obviously there's need for this across the globe, but any ideas of expansion or how you do so?
• 40:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so next time is based in Detroit, but we have a logistics arm, and then we also rely on other organizations to send us their ways, and so we serve as customers in about 20 states right now.
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 40:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love the idea of us having a processing facility, somewhere else in the country, right, because then our transportation-related emissions might go down, you know, if we have two facilities.
• 41:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're not that close yet, and partly reason is that,
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Up until 2025, we've always rented from another organization and I always wanted to get over that hump and for us to have our own processing facility where we could alter it as needed to allow students to come in and get textile education and to do tours and to.
• 41:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: make this space our own.
• 41:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think once we kind of reach that sweet spot, I'll feel more comfortable replicating that somewhere else in the country.
• 41:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But for now, we are available to provide recycling services all over the country.
• 41:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just have one processing facility.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_06]: And so is there anything else that you see in your crystal ball for yourself, walk another energy solution?
• 41:39
  [SPEAKER_06]: Next house recess anything that you might be able to let us in
• 41:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is this is the fourth year of the recess conference and I think it's going to be so big.
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fortunate to have been able to connect with younger people this year and explain to them how clean energy actually relates to them.
• 41:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think we'll have a younger president set the conference.
• 41:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have some amazing speakers and they're already listed on the recess conference dot com.
• 42:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But one of the things that we do to make sure that Detroiters can participate in recess is that 50% of the conference attendees come either free or at a reduced cost because we recognize that registration fees can be the biggest barrier to getting the information that you need to get a new job and a new industry or a discharge or business.
• 42:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's something that we're really intentional about.
• 42:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We see people taking advantage of it and I'm just really excited for September.
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_06]: That's dope.
• 42:31
  [SPEAKER_06]: And how can the people get access?
• 42:32
  [SPEAKER_06]: Where can they go to tap in to make sure that they get their tickets for recess?
• 42:36
  [SPEAKER_06]: That they can follow what's going on and who the speakers are going to be.
• 42:39
  [SPEAKER_06]: Where can they find that information?
• 42:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: All of that information is on the recessconference.com.
• 42:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to register the recessconference.com slash register 26, we're on Instagram as recess conference, on LinkedIn as recess.
• 42:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and that's how you can find this.
• 42:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I promote on our next Hows Detroit page as well.
• 42:58
  [SPEAKER_06]: perfect.
• 42:59
  [SPEAKER_06]: And then working to people tapping with you, if they want to follow the journey, they want to support.
• 43:03
  [SPEAKER_06]: They want to learn more.
• 43:04
  [SPEAKER_06]: How can they get in contact with you, socials, website, all the good stuff.
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we are next sales.org.
• 43:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's our website.
• 43:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're next house Detroit on Instagram.
• 43:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then we're just next house on LinkedIn.
• 43:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And always accepting inquiries about waste.
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: We usually work with pre-consumer ways, but we're doing more community clothing drives and things like that this year or so.
• 43:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody can reach out.
• 43:24
  [SPEAKER_06]: for sure.
• 43:25
  [SPEAKER_06]: And before we wrap up, I got to ask you this, do you let people refer to Miami as U of them or do you prefer to miss U of them as Michigan?
• 43:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: U of M is the University of Michigan.
• 43:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here we go, all right, perfect, perfect.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_06]: We are aligned.
• 43:37
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 43:39
  [SPEAKER_06]: Today you should try that when I was down there.
• 43:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you owe them like y'all like U of M. No, no, no, no, we'll be U of M. But have you ever noticed on Instagram how they are, how you mentioned you Miami are any other comments?
• 43:50
  [SPEAKER_06]: Uh-huh, yeah, they did a clap not too long ago.
• 43:53
  [SPEAKER_06]: Did they?
• 43:54
  [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, like a year or two ago, they did a clap video as to the U of M.
• 43:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, you, the real UM is University of Michigan.
• 44:01
  [SPEAKER_06]: Perfect.
• 44:02
  [SPEAKER_06]: That's a great way to wrap up this episode.
• 44:04
  [SPEAKER_06]: But no, I'm grateful for you to come here today and be able to talk to us about your journey in sustainability, clean energy, love what you are doing with next house.
• 44:14
  [SPEAKER_06]: Very important.
• 44:16
  [SPEAKER_06]: In terms of being able to upcycle these things and turn them in the real solutions that can impact people lives in a positive way and then love everything that's going on with watermelon energy solutions and then of course the recess conference which encourage and everybody out there listen and watch and definitely make sure to pull up to that.
• 44:33
  [SPEAKER_06]: So grateful for the work that you're doing, grateful that you came to the podcast today.
• 44:37
  [SPEAKER_06]: Really appreciate it.
• 44:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for having me.
• 44:39
  [SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
• 44:40
  [SPEAKER_06]: Everybody watching