John is a Co-Incorporator, Registered Agent, President, Davidson County and out-of-state Contact Person, Newsletter Editor, brochure creator and Treasurer for RAM.

His background in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, Planning, and Illustration was mostly preceded by various factory work. Plenty of exposure to management of people and materials. John's 31 years of managing RAM was preceded by leadership in material recovery methodology for other solid waste management advocacy groups. Their limits led John to create RAM as a last resort.

John's studies included touring 196 solid waste facilities in 19 states and Ontario, Canada, from 1989 to 1996, with Sandy Loyd, and others past then. He organized several pilot wet/dry material recovery demonstrations. Hands on.

John focused on internalizing externalized economic and health valuations, particularly for waste disposal tip fees. These formed the foundation under long but ultimately successful campaigns to end combining fly and bottom ash, waste incineration, and loose treated ash utilization outside lined landfills. In 1993, John's calculations led him to be the only person in Davidson County to campaign for the closure of what was then the most economical waste-to-energy plant in the U.S. In 2002, it became the only voluntary closure of a large, financially viable WTE incinerator with up-to-date air pollution control equipment.

John volunteered for, and then worked at, The Re-Use Center, Inc., Nashville, TN, in 1996, organizing their paints and other chemicals

The mulch/compost operation John proposed still recovers more tonnage than any other program in Davidson County, 31 years after its implementation -- roughly the weight of one Titanic every year. He rallied statewide support that led TN to become the first U.S. state to establish soil-based compost quality standards as an incentive class. John successfully campaigned for permanent household hazardous waste collection centers in Davidson County. He led a team effort that changed state law to allow Davidson County to charge for all costs associated with solid waste disposal. John helped convince Davidson County's Solid Waste Region Board to call for a zero-waste plan, but then tried and failed to persuade it and the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to insist on a Scope of Work that would assure that outcome. He's still trying to correct that.

The last 9 years have also included co-founding and management (with Michael Goff) of 
Urban Cruise Ship  which has a Waste site, but also covers all environmental issues worldwide and beyond (like Space debris). A project of UCS,  Urban Foot Notes, aims to reduce transportation and construction waste.