Blue Sky Hauling is an Oakland, California-based hauling company that is redefining the hauling industry and globally helping underserved populations at the same time. Unlike traditional hauling or recycling companies, Blue Sky Hauling removes unwanted items and materials from homes and businesses and then partners with local, national, and international organizations to deliver useable items and materials to places that have immediate need. By taking recycling one step further, Blue Sky Hauling is successfully partnering with non-profit organizations both locally and around the world to benefit the disadvantaged and those in crises.
Innovation
The various permutations of recycling, including both its advantages and perceived inefficiencies are nothing new to the business world. Most corporate recycling plans involve paper products, metal cans, and some plastic collection – the usual suspects. Blue Sky Hauling and owner Morgan Guberman, however, take recycling to fantastic new levels. Typically, hundreds of items used and even unused by corporations do not easily fit into the standard recycling arena. Getting rid of these items is usually the contracted work of a disposal company that dispatches trucks that haul everything to the garbage dump for a fee. Blue Sky Hauling implements the first step, the take-away, at a competitive rate, but that is where the similarity to typical hauling operations stops. After removing unwanted items and materials from homes and businesses, Blue Sky Hauling then coordinates the logistics of delivering the salvageable items to organizations that can use them via partnerships with local, national, and international organizations.
Guberman stumbled upon the innovative Blue Sky Hauling concept rather by accident several years ago when he supported himself doing creative landscaping work for individual clients. Although he enjoyed the outdoor aspect of the work, it was ultimately unfulfilling. He found himself asking the question, “what am I really doing for these people?”
Through a twist of fate at a dinner party, Guberman met someone who had just started a hauling company. The two of them hit it off and they went into business together hauling and recycling items. It was during this time that Guberman discovered the as-yet unrecognized business idea that would one day become Blue Sky Hauling. While he was still running his first hauling business with his partner, the company was bidding on a job to clean out a large corporation’s warehouse. The other hauling companies competing for the bid were just planning to take everything to the landfill. Guberman and his partner realized they could not only make a profit with their company but they could also help gather goods for disadvantaged people. Consequently, after their company won the bid they partnered with non-profit organizations to facilitate the transportation of useable items to Indonesia for tsunami relief, to Afghanistan for war relief, and to local organizations that had immediate needs.
After a successful run together, Guberman and his partner went their separate ways, with Guberman starting his own business in an effort to “take it to the next level”. He already had several trucks to his name, so he started Blue Sky Hauling, which built on the ideas of the former company but sought to “redefine the way people get rid of ‘waste’ and to change people’s perceptions about the reuse and recycling industry,” he says.
Impact
Although the company has not assembled every single cubic foot of waste it has hauled into a database for statistical analysis, it can be said that every truckload that is diverted from a landfill has an immediately observable impact. In the short-term, the diversion of waste means that landfills stay empty longer, which in turn affects the number of square miles dedicated to dump sites. Also in the short term, the redistribution of hauled goods means that they are delivered to people who will truly benefit from the items. In many cases, such as the East Asian tsunami zone and Afghanistan, without the efforts of companies like Blue Sky Hauling, access to these valuable recycled products might be literally impossible.
In the longer term, the impact can be felt by observing people’s perceptions of what it means to recycle. Guberman sees the longer-term impact reflected in a simple matter of choice. He assumes that if given the choice, people will choose to protect the environment and that if all factors are equal people will choose the more ethical company. As Guberman points out, Big Sky Hauling provides at least the same services as other companies, sometimes more, and their rates are competitive. He says, “We make it so easy for people to get rid of things responsibly without having to pay more, and without a lot of hassle… The folks that hire Blue Sky Hauling know that they’re being responsible. Hiring a hauling company to take everything to a landfill is not a very responsible decision.
"Through a creative partnering relationship established with organizations that provide domestic and overseas aid, Blue Sky Hauling has demonstrated the power of unusual partnerships. Working with aid organizations is certainly not the only option for turning a profit; there are other venues that will accept and use some of the items Blue Sky Hauling takes away. But Guberman’s individual inspiration for changing the way people think about reuse is responsible for the rare and beneficial partnership with non-profit organization.
Inspiration
One element that makes Blue Sky Hauling so effective is that environmentalism and the desire to help others is engrained in Guberman. He recalls some of his earliest environmental activities, such as recycling plastic bags and maintaining a worm bin. As with many great ideas, there was no special “eureka” moment in the development of Blue Sky Hauling. Building on the strengths of his natural inclinations Guberman creatively turned his ideas into a successful business model that benefits society.
Recalling the pivotal moment when his first company was bidding on the job to clean out a large corporation’s warehouse, he says, “It’s amazing to think about it now-- brand new toys, books, clothing, and bedding going straight to a landfill? How preposterous is that?” In addition, the company diverted nearly 700 cubic yards from the landfill. Guberman says, “If all we had done was just keep that out of the landfill, that would have been a success, but seeing these local and international non-profits get these donations and doing such good with them was incredibly rewarding. And that was just one job!"
The World Inquiry editorial team edited this profile from the original submission of the interviewer or other source. The views expressed do not necessarily represent Case Western Reserve University, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. More >>
