Eco advocate: Former player Fieck ’06 promotes agricultural recycling
Amy Fieck, a 2006 University of Wisconsin-Green Bay graduate, has a message: Her employer, Sanimax, shouldn’t just be tolerated, it should be embraced.
Sanimax, North America’s leading “BioReturn” company, with headquarters in Green Bay, gets a bad rap, she says, because when the wind blows just right, the odor coming from the west side plant is, well, a bit offensive. But it’s also a strong reminder that in the Green Bay facility alone, three million pounds — 60 truckloads — of agricultural and animal waste is being recycled into useful by-products every day, rather than being dumped into landfills.
At the recent Einstein Project Science Expo at Shopko Hall, Fieck was front-and-center with her company’s recycling message, engaging school-age students and their parents about the company’s benefit to the local community and our world.
Her message:
“Collecting this material provides an essential, reliable and sanitary service in the communities we live in… Without this service, this material would be land-filled, burned, buried or inappropriately dumped with large amounts of carbon dioxide, ammonia and other compounds ending up in our air and water.”
Examples? Wet grains from breweries are transformed into cattle feed; animal fats become soap and toothpaste; yellow grease from restaurants finds new use as biodiesel… and the list goes on.
For Fieck, a communications graduate and former Phoenix women’s basketball player, spreading a positive message about a company that has been promoting “green” principles for 130 years comes naturally and is an extension of her undergraduate experience at a University known as the original Eco U.
“My time at UW-Green Bay gave me a great insight to the business world,” Fieck said. “I apply the knowledge I gained through my various classes on a daily basis. My basketball experience also taught me discipline, time management, and to be confident in spreading the word about the things I’m most passionate about.”
As a talent management adviser, Fieck recruits and trains employees at Green Bay, DeForest and South Saint Paul, Minn. locations. The company has 15 locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
