Tyler Bonner - From Ecotourism in the Bahamas to AmeriCorps in Appalachia

[00:00:00] Adam: Hello and welcome to another episode of Green Champions.

[00:00:02] Dominique: Thanks for joining us in a conversation with real people, making real environmental change in the work that they do.

I'm here with Adam, social enterprise extraordinaire,

[00:00:10] Adam: And I'm so glad to be here alongside Dominique, the sustainability expert. We bring you guests who see the potential for impact in their job or community and have done something about it.

[00:00:19] Dominique: From entrepreneurs to artists, scientists to activists. This podcast is a platform for green champions to share their stories and plant some new ideas.

[00:00:28] Tyler: Today, Dominique and I are joined by Tyler Bonner, founder and CEO at Zero Waste Event Productions. We're gonna chat with Tylerand really dive into his success in building a company that drives sustainability at outdoor events, festivals, and music concerts. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:43] Adam: It's fun to have you back in the room. We recorded a podcast together on people helping people a long time ago, but you've had a really interesting journey into sustainability, and I'd love to just start and kind of walk through that. How did that interest come about?

[00:00:55] Tyler: Sure. 

yeah, I grew up in Athens, Ohio, so southeastern Ohio, spending a lot of time just playing outdoors, getting into the woods, doing some hikes and, a little rock climbing and stuff like that. I went to School at the Hawkin College down there. It's a community college and I studied ecotourism adventure travel.

It's funny, I went in there and I didn't really know what I wanted to study and I was literally just like filling out an application on their computer in the admin building and, um, scrolling through different, different options and I was like, "Whoa, ecotourism. That sounds really cool." So...

[00:01:32] Dominique: what was the term you used after that?

[00:01:34] Tyler: Ecotourism adventure travel. It's sort of split into two. The ecotourism side was a lot of getting out into the woods and learning about pretty much anything we found. We'd have, classes, Dendrology and Ornithology, you know, studying trees and birds and just the ecosystems around us.

And it was really fun too. Like we'd meet in the parking lot, all pile into a van, drive down to a nature preserve and just walk around and whatever we discovered is what we would like learn about for that day. Sometimes taking samples back to the lab or just like, you know, journaling and stuff. The adventure travel side of it is really focused on, in tandem with that ecotourism, visiting these places that are really sweet and fun and enjoyable vacations, but also focusing on making sure that we're not damaging these places and we're respecting the local communities and if it's a preserve or a wildlife area, like practicing not walking all in the same line. So we're creating a new trail and stuff like that. 

There were sort, I actually did the land focus of that. And so we did a lot of backpacking and rock climbing and learned about vertical rope rescue and all kinds of stuff like that. 

We spent a quarter in The Bahamas on Honduras Island the four far field station down there. And yeah, just beautiful right on the beach. We got certified in open water scuba diving and advanced open water scuba, and self and wind propelled watercrafts, and pretty much every day just having an adventure out on the ocean or in the community there learning. Learning what's there. So

[00:03:10] Adam: So a really difficult degree to, to complete.

[00:03:14] Dominique: Yeah. Very challenging. Sounds hard. 

[00:03:16] Tyler: It was, uh, yeah, it was, it was hard not to have a smile on your face the entire time. It was a, it was a really good program.

And I actually I got to go back to The Bahamas. I did an internship down there for another quarter, and I got my dive master and rescue diver and got to be down there and help to sort of, not like lead the classes, but be an assistant for some of the classes that I had already taken for the next cohort of students down there. And a lot of them were my friends too. So I got to spend another nine weeks in paradise, just having fun with, with good people.

[00:03:49] Dominique: What kind of skills come outta that for you in terms of like, are you really specialized in like training people and bringing them to new places and like helping them overcome what they thought they were gonna get outta the experience versus what they could get outta the experience? Or are you more focused on like teaching 'em about like the water and the land and the nature around them?

[00:04:05] Tyler: think a little bit of both. Everybody has, some aspects that they're, that they're better at. But I think going through those courses, sometimes pretty challenging. Like doing the when I got my dive master, you do this like stress test and you have to breathe off the same tank with a partner and swap all your gear. It's really difficult to do. The whole time I felt like I was drowning. So it's like you, you're pushing to persevere. Just some of the activities are a little like you're pushing your own limits of what you're comfortable with and going through those but also working as a group, I think is, does make it a little easier to like guide other people through that experience too and help them maybe push, push their own boundaries a bit, but turn around and say, "Hey look, we just climbed that whole mountain right there and feeling the success of that too."

I do personally was really excited and focused on like the environmental side of things and learning just like what's in the environment and memorizing trees and birds and plants and life cycles and stuff like that is really interesting to me too. So I, there were a lot of folks that were in that program that were just like the adventurer, thrill seeking type that weren't as much into like the academic side of it.

But I definitely enjoyed both aspects and tried to take that with me. The next step along that journey, after I got the ecotourism degree, Hawkin College had a two and two program with a couple different universities. 

Ohio University was one in Athens, and I was like, "You know, I've lived there for so much of my life." I was never one of those people that were like, "I'm gonna grow up and get out of this town and never come back." Like it is a really sweet town and I love it. I'm back there now. 

But I did wanna see something new and one of the schools that they had a partnership with was the University of Idaho. And there was a similar four year program out there. At the time it was called Resource Recreation and Tourism. But while I was there, they actually changed the name of the degree to Conservation Social Sciences because it was more science oriented and how societies sort of fit into environments too.

[00:06:04] Dominique: And this two and two program, just 'cause I've never heard of that. It means like you do two years at the university you began with, and then you can start over two?

[00:06:10] Tyler: Yeah. Yep. So it's a kind of a seamless transition. It wasn't totally seamless because Hawkin College was on quarters and the university was on semesters, so the credits transferred a little funky, but 

[00:06:21] Dominique: When you got your math degree, was trying to transfer over your credit?

[00:06:24] Tyler: Exactly. All of the classes transferred. And then you dive right in and do two more years at the university and get the bachelor's degree. In a sense it was, it wasn't like all of the really fun classes that were like really hands-on were the ones that transferred. And then a lot of what I had to do out there was like sort of take a step back and check all the boxes for any bachelor's degree and do the sociology and the economics and statistics and all that stuff. So in a sense it was like, I felt like I was stepping back into the classroom from a very, like, hands-on experience in the woods. I did get to do a few more courses out there and like really get to know, the Pacific Northwest region, which is just absolutely beautiful and just a great place. So..

[00:07:09] Dominique: Yeah, what brought you back? 

[00:07:10] Tyler: After I got my degree, I, I really wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do initially, but I knew that I wanted to travel a little bit and just like explore so, I actually traveled around mostly the Western United States for almost a year. But I would always come back, even when I was gonna school out in Idaho, I always came back east in the summers for like the festival season, there's a couple music festivals that some friends and I would always go to: a summer camp, music festival in Illinois was one of 'em. And the All Good Festival in West Virginia when that was still happening on Marvin's mountaintop.

So I always like really loved the music and the culture and community of that. So even when I was going to school, I'd come back for the summer, travel around the east for two or three months and then head back for school. So after I got my degree, I did that summer circuit and then I continued back out west again. A cousin of mine was getting married in California that year, so I like traveled around California back up to the Pacific Northwest down, my mom was living in Colorado, so I swooped through there. 

But as I was traveling, I was like in the back of my mind kind of thinking, you know, eyeballing the different towns and cities I was going to, and like picturing myself living in those communities. And the whole time I was kind of like, "You know, I really want to a really sweet spot, but like of town, that's a lot like Athens, Ohio, but who knows where it's gonna be?" Bend, Oregon was almost, you know, on the top of the list. It was, it is a really awesome place. But somewhere in there, I think I was in Arkansas for the winter out with friends. And a friend of mine called me and he was asking if I was back in Athens because he was moving back to Athens to go to grad school at Ohio University. And I was like, "No, but I am suddenly so jealous right now that you're moving back there." And I was like, "I hadn't even thought of that as an option really."

 I was like, "apparently that's what I want to do too, because I'm really jealous of you." So I kind of gathered up my things and headed back. I think it was in the spring and my plan, I was gonna go to OU and I was going to try to get a, a master's degree and I was gonna like, just be a face on campus and poke my head in some classrooms and try to meet some professors and for a few months, hopefully try to nail down like an assistant position or something to help fund the tuition 'cause I definitely didn't have a lot of money. 

And while I was back there, I was just kind of looking for a summer job actually on Craigslist. 

And I saw an ad for the AmeriCorps positions at Rural Action. And they do a lot of really great environmental work. They've got sustainable agriculture programs and a lot of watershed restoration programs and the Zero Waste program was one of them. 

[00:09:55] Adam: And where are they situated?

[00:09:56] Tyler: So they are in the Plains, Ohio which is in Athens County. It's kind of sort of a suburb of Athens it's sort of a small town, but yeah, real close. 

[00:10:04] Dominique: And what is, what is real action?

[00:10:06] Tyler: So Rural Action is a nonprofit in southeastern Ohio. They're membership based, so people pay for like a year membership and they have access to like workshops and classes and a lot of cool things that are led by these various different programs.

[00:10:24] Dominique: On a variety of topics or is it focused on certain topics? 

[00:10:27] Tyler: A whole variety, but I mean, sort of within the realm of each program. So there's also like a sustainable forestry and part of that is a focus on like timber products that are not like cutting down the trees themselves. So like things that you can harvest in the woods. I know like one of the things they do is they distribute ginseng seeds and like collect and distribute them and teach people how to plant them and how to nurture the plants and stuff like that. 

[00:10:55] Dominique: For also some listeners that aren't familiar with AmeriCorps, can you share what that position is and why that's unique? 

[00:11:00] Tyler: AmeriCorps is a government program that allows you to serve your nation without in the army or you of the other cores. So really focused on the communities and getting into not even just like helping communities, but really integrating into them. 

So get a living stipend, like changes over time. I think now is significantly more than when I did the program was like a thousand dollars a month I think is what we've received. And of that is like, you know, you're trying to help these folks, and a lot of times they're like in poorer communities and like you're really living you that community with them and you're you're. financially struggling in, in a similar way.

They also help with like assistance programs and stuff too. So like you get this living stipend, but then you might get like an EBT card to help get your groceries and access to programs to like help cover the electric bill and things like that. So, you can really integrate into the communities where you're working. 

Some of of the AmeriCorps jobs are like, it really runs the gamut. Can get really hands-on, on, on the ground work experience in a variety of different fields. Rural Action is one of the only environmentally based programs or hosts one of the only environmentally based programs in the state. They've like won a bunch of awards for work that they've been doing too. I think when I through the program, my cohort was like 16 people and they have like 60 AmeriCorps members a year now because the programs have been so successful and they've been able to partner with other nonprofits and agencies in Southeast Ohio to, get AmeriCorps members in more fields.

[00:12:42] Adam: While you were there in this community, what were some of the issues that people in the community were facing that you are helping to serve? 

[00:12:47] Tyler: I actually did two terms of service. Each is a year long with the zero waste program and part of what I was doing was sort of the seed of my business now and working with local events and helping them to divert waste from the landfill.

But a big part of what I did during that time was like identifying local illegal dump site cleanups on back roads, and at public parks and public spaces and kind of rallying volunteers a lot of times from Ohio University or just like local folks. Sometimes like church groups and stuff. We had a grant that helped cover supplies for bags and litter grabbers and PPE and gloves and vests and stuff. And then also would cover a roll off dumpster or a dump truck or something to come park on the side of the road. And we would just spend the day cleaning up. A lot of times, folks find like the steepest hill they can find to like throw trash down. So we'd get daisy chains of people handing bags up. Really steep hills and really tough grueling work, but also fun.

So a lot of it was, yeah, finding these spaces, cleaning them up. And I think that really there's sort of a greater issue. A lot of these dump sites were sometimes it's like a generational thing. Like it's what my family's always done, dumping trash up the edge of the yard or over the hill or burning it in a barrel. But a lot of it too is I think is connected to poverty. And if you don't have the funds to like really make ends meet and feed your family. Then like paying for a trash pickup service is just like one more thing. And if you can toss it over the hill, that's not a great solution. But it is a temporary fix for their needs.

 Education is a big part of it too. 

Some folks are burning trash and they've always burned the trash, but they don't always understand or necessarily know, like the toxins that are coming out of this plastics and how the smoke is like hanging in the valley and everybody's kind of like breathing it a little bit too.

[00:14:45] Adam: And it's a lot of education.

[00:14:46] Tyler: Yeah, a lot of education. So a lot of hands-on stuff. And then we ended up starting like the zero waste program was leading some like community engagement meetings. 

[00:14:55] Dominique: Is that like anybody who can show up or this was like key drivers of waste in the community?

[00:15:00] Tyler: We did a bunch of surveys and identified all within the realm of zero waste. Identified things that the local community were concerned about, like dumping and burning was one of the examples. We had like these breakout groups for each of those sessions. So initially, it was like anybody can come and like voice concerns and we started just some brainstorming around what types of things we could do to address the problems and where we would want to be in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years down the road.

And then it sort of started to boil down to like the movers and the shakers in each of the smaller communities that were gonna be sort of the champion for their space and really wanted to see those goals get pushed forward. The mayor of Athens was at a few of 'em and we would host 'em at the Wayne National Forest conference room. So they were heavily involved and 'cause a lot of the dump sites are like on their property too.

[00:15:53] Dominique: What were some of like the key surprises for you in those sessions?

[00:15:57] Tyler: I think kind of what I was speaking to was like, going into it, you're kind of like, "Oh, these guys, they tossed all this trash down the hill."

Like I don't want to call 'em names or anything but in the back of your mind, you're like, somebody did something that we know is bad and it was easy for them and it's really hard for us to pull it out. So you're like trying not to have a grudge. But I think really when you dig into it, the problem at its root is more along poverty lines. And it's not that they're maliciously tossing trash so somebody else can clean it up. It, it really is just like the only solution that they had access to and could find. 

So what I was trying to like, push for 'em, we have these assistance programs for food and childcare and all kinds of things like. Let's consider something like that for trash pickup, because especially if it's Wayne National Forest Government employees going down these hills and pulling out 300 tires and having to pay to get 'em 

[00:16:53] Dominique: There's a cost to solving the problem. 

[00:16:56] Tyler: That's way more expensive. If you could add up all their hours and their time and their resources, like, that's probably a lot more expensive than providing a hundred people $6 a week trash service or.. 

[00:17:06] Dominique: Did that prove to be true? Did you implement that? 

[00:17:09] Tyler: So we didn't get that far, or I didn't personally, I I think that fight is still happening. Those conversations are still happening. 

[00:17:17] Dominique: Like it just makes so much sense. 

[00:17:19] Tyler: Yeah part of the beauty of the AmeriCorps program is that you serve this term of service. It's generally a year, you can do several years, but at the end of the term, you get an education award, that I think coincides with the Pell Grant. So whatever the value of the Pell Grant is at the time you do your service, you complete your hours and you get essentially a voucher to either pay off student loans to that amount or you can apply it to future schooling if you wanted to go back and I think a bunch of certification programs to qualify. 

Yeah, so part of the beauty is like you do this quick thing, you get a lot of good experience, 1700 hours in the field for one year. And then like you pay off a big chunk of your student loans and then you're like entering the job market with experience and ready to go. But the drawback, I guess, is because it's such a limited position, you put a lot of time and energy into certain projects that the next person that comes in, they might have whole other goals and aspirations or limitations so the project's life cycle themselves can be a little rockier road.

[00:18:22] Adam: We are gonna dive into Zero Waste Event productions in the next episode, but can you share just a little bit about what that is and how that grew out of this position? 

[00:18:31] Tyler: Sure. Yeah. A lot of the work, as I kind of mentioned that I was doing with the program, was helping with local events. There's the Nelsonville Music Festival down there in southeast Ohio and the Ohio PawPaw Fest.

The community hosts a bounty on the Bricks event that's like a big fundraiser each year. And there's a handful of other small events down there. So working with organizers, discovering what their waste stream consists of and figuring out different avenues for how we can divert that material from the landfill, either through reuse, recycling, composting. And then a big part of the work we were doing too is like tracking that data and really trying to identify like a diversion rate, like a percentage that we were able to divert from the landfill.

Toward the end of my term of service I think in January and my term ended in in August of that year, the director of the Zero Waste Program actually took a position in Columbus with SWACO, which was really awesome. But also a lot of the work that we were doing as a program with these local events was like solely on my plate for that season. So I had to, you know, go through all the motions start to finish. I wasn't just helping with it. I was having the meetings with the event organizers and setting up the events and executing the events. And at the end of my term of service, it kind of occurred to me that like a lot of this knowledge was gonna be walking out the door with me and also my co AmeriCorps members at the time, that was the end of their service too. There were three of us in that program. 

So I was able to sort of go back to the executive director at the time and pitch it as sort of a business opportunity. Like if we had enough event clients to raise enough funding to support my position throughout the year it could be a viable business opportunity. But at the time we, we only had a handful of smaller projects. Luckily, you know, she was really receptive of that and was like, "This sounds like a sweet idea."

They actually were very awesome and sort of brought me under the Rural Action umbrella. So I was an employee of the nonprofit for a few years, and during that time really had the freedom to put my full weight behind it. Do a ton of cold calls trying to convince new events that we have a service that they would find valuable and we could really help 'em out. So that was sort of the birth of transitioning from AmeriCorps program into focusing specifically on events and really doing all we can to maximize diversion from the landfill.

[00:21:00] Dominique: That's amazing. I feel like a lot of times in your storyline you've wanted to do something or had an idea or just felt drawn somewhere and you just let yourself follow that feeling. Is that just like something innate to you as a person, or do you feel like that's something that you've learned? Because I think that's kinda special.

[00:21:17] Tyler: I think I was always taught just to like not to fight upstream. Like if there's things you want, you can go get 'em. But if like the universe is just laid out in a way that, that's really difficult to do, just kind of taking a step back and recognizing like, "Okay, there's sort of a path of least resistance here and let's see where that path goes."

I definitely have like big goals and aspirations, but I always try to keep a foot in like the realm of realism. Like, "Okay, is this a super stressful endeavor? Am I gonna waste a ton of time and energy trying to push for that? Or is there like another avenue?" So I think part of it is, yeah, just being open to the opportunities as they arise. But a big part of it is just being in a, in the right place and time. So when they arise you can, uh, jump on it and capitalize for that.

[00:22:03] Dominique: Very, very cool. I just appreciate that part of like how you've made jumps in your journey, even with the way you were like, "I wanted to go travel a little bit. So I was there and then My friend called me and I felt drawn there" 

[00:22:13] Tyler: Yeah, it's interesting. Definitely not the path I thought I was gonna take in life, 

[00:22:18] Dominique: But everything feels cool and has like a smiley face next to it, it feels like. 

[00:22:22] Tyler: Yeah. I'm so grateful that it's the path I landed on. I think also just not necessarily having a specific career that I was like aiming for made it really possible to just yeah be open to the options that were potentially out there and follow the wind wherever it's blowing.

[00:22:40] Adam: For somebody who's starting out, is AmeriCorps still a good way to get involved in the community and find these cool projects? 

[00:22:46] Tyler: Yeah, absolutely. Like I kind of mentioned, it's like it's a wonderful way especially if you're just coming out of school as I was to get really solid work experience in the field. Even if it's not in the environmental field, there's several different types of AmeriCorps programs all over the country. Working with government agencies and working with nonprofit organizations. So you can almost definitely find a position in the field that you're interested in working in. Hopefully that's in a city that you wanna live in or an area that that you wanna be in but I think it's invaluable to have that experience. 

And then also like be working toward paying off your student loans just right out of the gate. A lot of folks spend time traveling or spend time working a summer job or something that is maybe making ends meet but isn't necessarily like taking a big step toward your career or toward like paying off student loan debt. So it's a really cool program that sort of does both of those things at once. The job market's hard too. Everybody seems to have degrees nowadays and having the additional work experience of a program like AmeriCorps, I think goes a long 

[00:23:56] Dominique: I think you're forced to learn a lot from a lot of my friends who've been through different AmeriCorps experiences. I feel like they always come out having like such a different sense of what they like and don't like, and you get thrust into just like a lot. I think a lot of people also find themselves in jobs they're not passionate about. Yeah. And so it's, I think it's amazing to be thrust into like a nonprofit service oriented role so early.

[00:24:16] Tyler: Yeah, for sure. And even if what you learn from that program is, "okay, this is not the realm I wanna work in." Like that's still a valuable work experience. Yeah. So..

[00:24:24] Adam: Plus, I mean, just the number of people that I know who've been through AmeriCorps or Teach for America or one of these other programs, they are typically very empowered and they're the ones that are coming up with creative solutions.

[00:24:35] Dominique: And I think, I think I come from the fact that they like really know what works and doesn't work because they've got a bit more of that application.

Yeah. Especially if you there in the community working with people really understanding their 

[00:24:45] Tyler: Yeah. And, and sort of having to figure out solutions to problems when you don't necessarily have all the resources hand. So you can't, you know, just throw a bunch of money at it. You gotta really get dirty and, you know, talk to the people on the ground and, see what the solutions could be. 

[00:25:03] Adam: Well, it's been really fun today just diving into your personal journey of how you got involved in sustainability work. I'm very excited to dive into Zero Waste Event Productions on our next episode. How can people find out about Rural Action or Zero Waste Event Productions?

[00:25:17] Tyler: Rural Action. Their website is ruralaction.org. So they've got a bunch of wonderful information about all their various programs on there. Zero Waste Event Productions is, zero Waste fest.com, F-E-S-T like festival.

And then we're also zerowaste_ep on Instagram. I think we're just Zero Waste Event Productions on Facebook, so you can follow along on our story and check out some pictures and stuff

[00:25:45] Adam: Now for Zero Waste Event productions. You have a lot of volunteers who come out and help out?

[00:25:50] Tyler: We do. Yeah. From event to event some events we don't get any volunteers for. We have to do it all just with our staff but a lot of festivals, folks can sign up to volunteer and get a free ticket to the show. Sometimes there's some other perks, like a meal ticket or early camping pass or something like that.

The shifts are generally like three to four hours per day of the event. Yeah, just come get your hands dirty and see some of the behind the scenes, not just our work, but like being part of what putting on this experience that festivals provide is, is really unique as well. 

[00:26:25] Adam: I love that. So if you're listening, one, listen to the upcoming episode about Zero Waste Event Productions. But also check out their website and go volunteer at one of these events.

[00:26:36] Dominique: Thanks for chatting with us. 

[00:26:37] Tyler: Thank you.

[00:26:38] Dominique: As always, our guests have found a unique way to champion sustainability. We're here to put real names and stories, just like Tyler's, behind the idea that no matter your background, career or interests, you really can contribute in the fight against climate change.

[00:26:50] Adam: You can find our episodes at thegreenchampions.com. If you want to stay in the loop, give us a review and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. If you have questions about climate change or sustainability, you can reach us on our website at thegreenchampions.com. Our music is by Zane Dweik. Thanks for listening to Green Champions, and we'll dig into another sustainability success story in our next episode. 

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