ACTIVITY PROFILE

Keynote Speaker: "How Can Entrepreneurship Save Our Planet?"

Koury Auditorium, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

27599

14 November 2012 - 15 November 2012

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Organizer: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"How Can Entrepreneurship Save Our Planet?" Keynote Speaker: Tom Szaky, Founder of TerraCycle 5:30 - 6:00pm World renown 29 year-old founder of Terracyle, Tom Szaky, has been named one of Forbes top 30 social entrepreneurs. When Tom Szaky was a freshman at Princeton he hit upon the idea of using worm poop as an organic fertilizer. He borrowed money from family and friends and spent all his savings on a $20,000 "worm gin"—which can hold hundreds of thousands of the invertebrates—and dropped out of college. With a $2,000 angel investment from a venture capitalist, Szaky started packaging the fertilizer in used soda bottles and selling it out of his car to local gardening centers. In 2004 he convinced a buyer for Home Depot to take a flier on his fertilizer, which is also now available in Target and Wal-Mart. In addition to the ­fertilizer, Terracycle collects trash and turns it into bright, fun products, like messenger bags made out of used Capri Sun packages and trippy "urban art trash cans." The company donates 2 cents to charity for each waste item it ­recycles, raising $3.2 million so far.