Client Spotlight: Holly Elmore,
Green Foodservice Alliance

Holly Elmore has done just about everything, from working as a CPA with a Big Four firm to a controller for a real estate company to starting her own corporate catering business. It was the catering business that became a stepping stone into a successful career the Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA).

In 2006, Holly signed on as membership development executive and advertising director for the GRA's official magazine, Restaurant Forum. Today, Holly uses the skills and experiences from each of her previous jobs as founder and executive director of the Green Foodservice Alliance (GFA), an affiliate of the GRA.

With a mission to create and implement sustainable best practices in the foodservice industry, the GFA brings together government, business and consumer organizations to develop eco-friendly policies and procedures for restaurants, hotels, resorts and more. In February of this year, the GFA and Environmental Protection Agency announced the launch of the Southeast's first Zero Waste Zone in Atlanta, one of many programs spearheaded by the GFA. The Zero Waste Zone - Downtown Atlanta is an Atlanta Recycles initiative in partnership with the GFA, and participants pledge to recycle, reuse spent grease for the local production of biofuel and compost or donate food residuals to drastically decrease the amount of waste going to landfills.

Holly asked c21 to conduct media relations around the launch of the program. The result - more than 60 million media impressions, including a feature story on CNN. Listen to Holly talk about her experience working with c21, click here. The next step for the GFA is to build a Zero Waste Zone business plan that can be implemented in other cities nationwide, with a focus on training and education.

When Holly's not busy making the world a better place for us to live, she enjoys cooking, entertaining and traveling.