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Chattanooga Business Radio

Joy Krause of Boomers Together and John Hargraves of PM Environmental

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Joy Krause seeks to inspire. A writer, filmmaker, speaker, performer and producer, Joy has gained national acclaim. She recently graduated from the GigTank accelerator program at the Company Lab and is now woking on scaling her business, Boomers Together.

Boomers Together helps baby boomers gather together in their local communities. We offer events, workshops and parties that inspire, educate and celebrate this stage of life.

John Hargraves // PM Environmental Inc.

John Hargraves is a licensed Professional Geologist (PG) in AL, AR, TN, MS, GA, NC, SC, LA, and FL.

He has approximately 27 years of experience in environmental consulting working for banks, developers, attorneys, realtors, municipalities, regulatory agencies and industry. He has been involved in the completion of leaking underground storage tank investigations and cleanups, site remediation, Brownfield redevelopment and consulting, EPA Grant Application consulting and management and Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments.

Specialties: Environmental consultant for Brownfield re-development projects, environmental due diligence for M & A activity and the purchase, refinance and foreclosure of commercial properties. Licensed UST professional with expertise in contaminant delineation and remediation at numerous leaking UST sites in various geologic settings throughut the southeastern US.

Midtown Business Radio

Midtown Alliance and Blue Goblin

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Midtown Alliance and Blue Goblin

I hosted Shannon Powell and Ben Hirokawa of Midtown Alliance and Blue Goblin, respectively. Shannon Powell is the COO for Midtown Alliance and Ben Hirokawa is founder and President of Blue Goblin, a plastic foam recycling company.

Created in 1978, Midtown Alliance has been a significant force in the revitalization of Midtown Atlanta, a district that runs from ~Pine St. on the south end to the Peachtree Bridge over I-75 entering Buckhead on the north end, and east-west from I-75 to ~Piedmont Ave.

Midtown Alliance is a not-for-profit membership organization and consists of a coalition of local business and community leaders. Each member is committed to establishing Midtown as a leading destination for commerce, culture, education and living.

Midtown Alliance is led by a 71-member board of the district’s leading private sector executives and their mission is to improve and sustain the quality of life for those who live, work and play in this thriving business and residential district. The Alliance fulfills is mission through a comprehensive approach to planning and development, including numerous initiatives to enhance public safety, improve the physical environment, and strengthen the urban amenities giving the area its distinctive character.

Guided by a visionary master plan – Blueprint Midtown – and in partnership with the Midtown Improvement District, Midtown has become a national model for urban excellence.

Ben Hirokawa has been a leader in three different start-ups, including a recent one in South Carolina focused on recycling a variety of household appliances. That enterprise developed technology that would allow them to dispense with the noxious coolant materials and associated fumes/gases safely, allowing them to reclaim the metals and plastics.

Founded in 2014, Blue Goblin is an innovative, environmentally-sound solution for disposal of plastic foams. These versatile foams – found in products ranging from commercial roofing and wall insulation, to refrigerated transport units, to mattresses and other furniture, to many types of packaging – pose significant challenges at end-of-life: they are bulky and difficult to transport and compact, and they can emit significant greenhouse gasses.

Both the U.S. EPA and the California Air Resources Board have recognized emissions from PUR, XPS, and ISO foams

as significant environmental challenges, but currently virtually all of these foams are landfilled. Blue Goblin offers a solution:

• Mobile Service: Blue Goblin brings its processing unit directly to its customers, and begins the process of compacting and recycling these foams on-site, significantly reducing transportation and waste disposal costs

• Environmental Responsibility: Greenhouse gasses are captured and properly disposed

• Convenience and Customer Service: Blue Goblin works with each customer to define the scope of the job and maximize convenience and value

Special Guests:

Shannon Powell, COO, of Midtown Alliance