CRI welcomed two new board members in January
This January, CRI was honored to add two distinguished advocates to its board of Directors, Laura Haight and Scott Seydel.
Laura Haight is Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) in Albany, New York. NYPIRG is New York's largest non-profit consumer and environmental advocacy organization.
Prior to joining NYPIRG's staff in 1999, Ms. Haight held positions in several other nonprofit environmental groups in New York, including Clearwater, Scenic Hudson, and Environmental Advocates. She holds an M.S. in environmental studies from the Bard College Graduate School of Environmental Studies and received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University. Ms. Haight directs NYPIRG's advocacy on air, energy, toxics, and solid waste, and currently coordinates a statewide campaign to update and expand New York's "Bottle Bill."
Scott Seydel oversees an enterprise he founded in his twenties, offering its products through U.S. and global manufacturers in over three dozen countries. Long before it was fashionable, sustainability and environmental stewardship were cornerstones of Scott’s business endeavors, influencing his companies’ emphasis on energy and waste minimization, recycling and recyclability.
Scott is the chief executive of several process chemical companies including The Seydel Companies’ Pendergrass (GA) plant that has repeatedly captured first place in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National WasteWise competition, and EvCo Research in Atlanta that recycles plastic beverage bottles into water barrier coatings applied to textiles, paper, carpet, and building products.
Scott also serves as Board Chairman of Global Green, the U.S. arm of former Soviet President Gorbachev’s global sustainability organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In this capacity Scott has been involved in guiding the organization’s initiatives in promoting green building projects and renewable resource power generation, water conservation, municipal waste recycling, and the decommissioning of military bases and weapons of mass destruction. He also chairs the Board of the GreenBlue Institute (Charlottesville) and its Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
A long time civic leader, Scott has served on the boards of numerous schools, and serves as Chairman of Georgia State’s Robinson College Board and has Chaired the Boards of the Atlanta YMCA, The Georgia Hi-Tech Alliance, the Georgia World Congress Institute and the Atlanta Chamber’s International Committee during the 1996 Olympic Games.
Co-author of a college textile chemistry textbook, Scott is a frequent contributor of articles and technical reviews for the trade press, and is a frequent guest speaker on environmental conservation and global sustainability.
CRI welcomes the expertise and enthusiasm that Laura and Scott bring to our Board of Directors, and are pleased at the positive contributions they have both already made to CRI’s mission.
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