WELCOME TO WASHINGTON, DC!
 

On behalf of the more than 35,000 people collectively employed and served annually by our missions, Goodwill of Greater Washington, Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake and Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County are proud to welcome you to the inaugural Goodwill Sustainability Summit in the District of Columbia.
 
In 2022, our geographically adjacent Goodwill organizations joined together to explore collective recycling solutions. Through this collaboration, the value of donated items that are unsellable in our stores can be maximized for our organizations' social and environmental missions. Collectively, we operate 68 stores in the region (and growing!), receive more than 2.2 million donations each year, and generate more than $198 million in revenue.
 
The first initiative in our partnership to collect the plastic bags received from donors that previously held their donated items. These plastics bags are now sold to our partner, Trex, to be recycled into decking material for homes across the country. More than 23 million plastic bags have been collected and recycled through this effort since May 2022. This year, the partnership is launching solutions for more than 1 million pounds of glass and 700,000 pounds of rigid plastics, while also exploring textile recycling. These initiatives were accelerated thanks to a generous grant that allowed us to purchase three glass pulverizers, one at each of our sustainability centers, and create robust online trainings to upskill our DGR team members.
 
During our time together, we look forward to sharing more about our work and to learning alongside each of you as we all seek to do better and be better for our people, for our planet and for the prosperity of our missions.

Sincerely,

Catherine Meloy, President & CEO
Goodwill of Greater Washington
Catherine.Meloy@dcgoodwill.org
www.dcgoodwill.org

Lisa Rusyniak, President & CEO
Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake
rusyniak@goodwillches.org
goodwillches.org

Colleen Morrone, President & CEO
Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County
cmorrone@goodwillde.org
www.goodwillde.org