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GRAND RAPIDS — Cascade Engineering today announced the promotion of Jo-Anne Perkins to corporate Vice President.  In her new position, Perkins will assume an increased leadership role within the Cascade Engineering family of companies and maintain strategic oversight for Cascade Cart Solutions, a flagship Cascade business unit focused on providing innovative solid waste and recycling solutions for municipalities, private waste haulers and consumers. Perkins will continue to report directly to Company founder, Chairman and CEO Fred Keller.

Perkins has played a key role in driving the Container Group’s growth since she joined the Company in 2001. Following a successful, two-decade career as a self-employed entrepreneur in the municipal solid waste industry, Perkins came to Cascade as a regional sales manager with responsibility for expanding the Company’s markets in Canada and the Northeast United States.  The following year, she was promoted to Municipal Sales Director, a position that required building a new sales team and marketing strategy for public waste haulers in markets across the United States and Canada. Perkins was subsequently named National Sales Director, with responsibility for all of the business unit’s sales targets and personnel.

In 2005, Perkins was appointed General Manager for Cascade’s solid waste business.  Working amid the economic challenges of the recession, Perkins doubled group revenues through a dual emphasis on new and organic business growth.  Today, Perkins’ business unit is one of Cascade’s two largest – out of a total 15 operating units worldwide.  Along the way, Perkins has become widely recognized as a leader and innovator in North America’s $53 billion solid waste and recycling industry, including being named a winner of the YWCA’s 2010 Tribute! Award, which recognized her extraordinary efforts to strengthen the West Michigan region through her business and community leadership.

“While Jo-Anne may be unique for having found a niche within such a gritty, traditionally male-defined industry, what is most remarkable is the business growth she has achieved and the fundamental ways in which she continues to transform the industry,” said Cascade’s founder, Chairman and CEO Fred Keller. “She has been a consistently strong contributor to Cascade, her promotion is well-deserved, and we look forward to continuing to tap her drive, innovation and strategic perspective.”

Perkins’ industry vision has included applying leading-edge technology in ways that are making the waste and recycling industry more efficient, environmentally friendly and beneficial for cities, haulers, and – for the first time – the consumer, as well.  Her focus has centered on making carts “smart” – including an entire system to support their operation in the field – and has involved the formation of two additional companies, Integrated Solutions and Capturit. Together, the businesses for which Perkins has oversight are dedicated to: making Cascade’s products more environmentally friendly (the Company’s EcoCart™ utilizes the highest post-consumer recycled content in the industry); manufacturing the SmartCart™, which incorporates barcode or RFID technology; and providing everything for the “back of the collection truck” – from the lifter that picks up the container, to the scanners and software that register each container’s pickup.

While these efforts to improve how communities recycle continue to have an important impact, Perkins recently took her dedication to building environmental and social capital to a new level through a high-profile breast cancer advocacy initiative that is rapidly gaining momentum across the United States and Canada.  Having suffered the tragic loss of her mother to breast cancer, Perkins conceived of a new offering in 2009 – “The Pink Cart” – that could build breast cancer awareness in neighborhoods nationwide. Having approached the local chapter of the American Cancer Society (ACS) and ultimately ACS’ national office, Perkins’ personal passion for breast cancer awareness translated into a partnership with ACS that is, in her own words, “transforming America’s curbside palette, providing an innovative way to get involved in raising awareness about a disease that continues to take an enormous toll on women’s health.”

The signature piece of the initiative is Cascade’s brightly colored waste and recycling cart, made from pink recyclable plastic that evokes ACS’ iconic pink ribbon symbol.  Under the terms of Cascade’s agreement with ACS, Cascade gives $5 from the purchase of each Pink Cart to support ACS’ breast cancer awareness programs, with the goal of providing more than $500,000 in funding for this cause.  Cascade also has an agreement with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) where for each Pink Cart sold in Canada, Cascade gives $5 to support CCS’ breast cancer research initiatives. Cascade is currently offering the program through arrangements with waste haulers and local municipalities, as well as directly to residential and commercial customers.  Since the launch of the Pink Cart program, more than 50,000 carts have been sold, and the number continues to rise – along with the Pink Cart’s dynamic social media following.

In addition to her work in breast cancer awareness, Perkins has played a key role in empowering women throughout the Cascade organization.  She helped to implement the Women’s Networking Group, a personal mentoring/training program through which she and other experienced career women share their professional insights with younger female employees and help them cultivate visibility and a greater voice within the organization.

As a member of Cascade’s senior management team, Perkins has also been involved in the company’s unique and aggressive efforts to “move the needle” in improving race relations and eliminating all forms of hidden or visible racism within the company – efforts that include setting tangible goals for confronting race-related issues head-on and implementing an internal process of continual dialogue and learning.  Perkins shares the company’s belief that by creating a “safe” environment within Cascade for confronting racism, not only will the company’s culture change, but Cascade will be better equipped to help eliminate racism in the broader community.

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