Blog Archives
Get to know: Jeff Schmitz, Business Development Manager
What is your role at Filtrexx?
My role in Business Development is to foster business relationships at the strategic level with end use customers to match our corporate sustainability mission with their sustainability initiatives and show how our products can help them achieve their goals.
What do you like most about working for Filtrexx?
Filtrexx is on the cutting edge of developing new and expanding current technologies and applications for erosion and sediment control. It’s exciting to be part of a team dedicated to this mission and knowing the results of our teamwork will have long lasting environmental, corporate and social benefits. We are uniquely positioned as the industry leader to leverage our internal capabilities with our extensive industry experience to drive positive change in our marketplace.
What do you find the most challenging about working for Filtrexx?
Finding ways to tell our story to the correct audience with the best message is a day-to-day challenge as we analyze the drivers behind purchasing and use decisions of our products. We stand alone in our industry in our approach and strategy for telling the Filtrexx sustainability story.
What has been one of your favorite projects to work on while at Filtrexx?
The Filtrexx team was able to convert one of the largest real estate development companies in California to use SiltSoxx on their projects by promoting the environmental sustainability of our products. The development company offset the carbon footprint they generated by land development equipment by using the GHG values saved by diverting organics from landfills into our product. This will have huge positive impacts when these values are included in the environmental impact report used in the permitting process for several very large current and future development projects in Southern California. Filtrexx is well positioned to help the entire state of California reach their recently legislated organic diversion goals in many different industries needing erosion and sediment control.
What have you learned that you didn’t know before becoming a Filtrexx employee?
The sustainability concept in general is a bigger deal than I thought and the environmental aspect of sustainability is getting increased attention all the way from the consumer level to the board room. Clearly, we are moving closer to a potential hockey stick effect on sustainability as political, economic and consumer drivers of environmental initiatives become more influential in our industry segment and others. It has been a long term initiative in some industries we serve but a new and growing initiative in others. Staying on top of these changes and how we can efficiently impact the outcome is an ongoing challenge.
What are some of your hobbies outside of work?
I do most of the maintenance and repair work on my vehicles at home. It’s been a challenging adventure… and is also my own little economically sustainable activity which blends aspects of work and home! Think sustainably!
Any random facts we should know about you?
Our college marching band participated in President Reagan’s inaugural parade in 1981. It was my first airplane ride and first time in D.C. The Iranian hostages were released that day after 444 days and the crisis delayed the parade. Never forget it.
Jeffrey Schmitz serves as the Business Development Manager for Filtrexx International. He is charged with helping large customers across the US in the oil and gas, utility and construction industries achieve their sustainability and environmental goals with the use of Filtrexx products and EcoPractices, our 3rd party environmental benefits verification partner. He has 13 years in the building materials industry, a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Business from South Dakota State University and an MBA from Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
I wanted to give a quick update on a regional event that Filtrexx will be attending. On Tuesday, March 12 I will return to my old Buckeye stomping grounds in Columbus (O-H-I-O!), to attend the Ohio Stormwater Management & Drainage Conference. We have seen an increased interest from Ohio engineers lately on various projects. From pipelines and well pads, to green solutions for shorelines. Our goal is to be present at this event to make sure designers know about the great solutions that Filtrexx can offer. Of course, I’m also very excited to hear updates from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on the new state permit. I want to explore how we can get more compost filter sock specified in the state of Ohio, the state where compost sock was invented! I will have a booth at the show and will be happy to answer questions, or provide solutions for your upcoming projects. Make sure to stop by and say hello!
Nick has a Bachelor of Science from The Ohio State University. He has been with Filtrexx for over 13 years and is now managing sales for the Northeast region. He has over 5 years of experience in SWPPP writing/review, stormwater inspections, and BMP installation. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and kayaking with his girlfriend and playing with his Boxer puppy Rudi!
Filtrexx International is committed to creating high performance environmentally sustainable products, not just for their intended application - environmental compliance, but to move beyond impact minimization, to creating products and services that are truly regenerative to the environment. Filtrexx views organic matter, the base material for all of its products, as form of natural capital, and the filtration it provides an essential ecosystem service – just as we find in natural ecosystems across the planet.
Filtrexx procures this essential base material by closing the loop for recycled organic materials diverted from landfills across North America, and upcycling it into all of our water quality protection products. By upcycling composted organic materials within the same bioregion in which they were generated we are able to reduce carbon emissions from landfills and transportation, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere by returning carbon to the soil and growing healthy, sustainable plants.In a single application, Filtrexx is uniquely able to reduce waste, protect water, and reduce carbon emissions.This is one more example of how Filtrexx is moving beyond industry recognized “best management practices” and toward high performance sustainable management practices. With that we are proud to announce in 2018 Filtrexx International:
- Recycled/diverted from landfills 796,753 tons of organic waste;
- Prevented 154,174 tons of sediment from entering rivers, lakes, and streams;
- Prevented/sequestered 1,660,355 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere – equivalent to removing 353,267 cars from roads and highways.
Dr. Britt Faucette, Ph.D., is an Ecosystem Scientist, CPESC, and LEED AP. He earned his Ph.D. from the Odom School of Ecology at the University of Georgia where he researched soil-water-plant performances of various BMPs used in soil erosion and stormwater management applications; served as a state specialist in storm water management, organics recycling, and pollution prevention programs; and served as an adjunct professor. Britt coordinates research, design, and training services for the stormwater and organic materials management industries and serves on technical committees and boards with ASTM, GRHC, CCREF, and IECA. In 2008 he was awarded the annual USCC Clean Water Award. Britt has authored numerous peer-reviewed and popular press publications and popular press articles, two books, federal and state specifications, and has been awarded nearly $500,000 in research grants.