Ralph Bianculli Jr., Managing Director
Ralph Bianculli Jr.
Emerald Brand
350 Michael Dr.
Syosset, NY 11791
Phone: (516) 496-0000
Since 1997, Emerald Brand has been a leading innovator in sustainable everyday disposables and retail packaging made from unique rapidly renewable materials, such as bagasse (a sugarcane byproduct) and plant starch, in efforts to combat deforestation and climate change.
Emerald’s mission is to provide everyday disposables to companies and consumers that are healthy for people and safe for the environment. Its innovative process delivers a price-neutral alternative when compared to tree-based and plastic-based products, making change an easy choice for all customers. Emerald also includes an environmental consultation service—Emerald Ecovations that helps businesses adhere to new regulations and environmental mandates.
Starting out his career in high school, Ralph Bianculli Jr. quickly rose up the ranks of the company. He and Emerald are now pioneering in the forefront of environmental sustainability. Emerald Brand is responsible for the innovative creation of Tree-Free products, which are traditional paper products without the harmful use and depletion of trees, along with many more advanced environmentally friendly products. Bianculli is on a mission to change the landscape of sustainability by turning it upside down. He has traveled the country on a mission to educate about how attainable sustainability is through the Emerald Programs and products.
NIE: Emerald Brand recently announced the creation of the Emerald Sustainability Accreditation Program. How does the program work?
Bianculli: The Emerald Sustainability Accreditation Program is our education platform that expands our expertise in sustainability to Emerald Licensed dealers. This program certifies our partners to represent Emerald Brand to end-users and present our newest innovations in material technology. This program provides tools, knowledge and innovations to our licensed dealers’ sales representatives. This includes overall knowledge as it relates to sustainability, the most up to date rules and regulations implemented by municipalities around the country, as well as technical expertise on Emerald Brand’s tree-free and plastic free material technology. The program is by invitation only to committed licensed partners that want to gain the knowledge and expertise to become “Accredited Licensed Dealers.”
NIE: What is the Emerald Eco-Squad and why did the company decide to create it?
Bianculli: The Eco-Squad is a group of Emerald Sustainability experts across the country. The role of this team is to educate, communicate and incorporate environmental strategies to our client base and end-users nationally. We created the Eco-Squad as we saw a major void throughout the supply channel; there is no expertise in our industry on sustainability to educate both distribution and end-users. Some of our tools include Environmental Impact Statements that measure a company’s environmental savings, as well as onsite events, and education/consulting services that provide awareness, education and continuous improvements.
NIE: In 2018, the company reestablished its mission to “Emerald: Protect Life.” What was Emerald Brand’s motivation behind this decision?
Bianculli: The facts are that deforestation and the use of petroleum-based plastics are extremely detrimental to our environment and all forms of life (Environmental Life, Animal Life & Human Life). Our Tree-Free and Plastic-Free material technology and education platforms help to mitigate this. We are not only preventing deforestation and the use of fossil fuel based plastics in disposables, but supporting farmers who have been left with the fibrous by-products we are leveraging in our pulp and finished goods. Our process gives this fibrous waste material a second life and prevents it from being burned/discarded. Beyond that, we are extremely conscious of omitting key chemicals from our products, like BPA and chlorine, which are and have been found in plastic and paper products for many years. We are disrupting and industry and supply channel that has been performing wasteful and destructive practices for many decades.
NIE: What Is The Emerald & Royal Waste Full Circle Solution?
Bianculli: We pride ourselves on creating innovative, “out of the box,” solutions. With landfill becoming sparse and the greenhouse gases continue to be emitted into the atmosphere from landfills, we saw the need to help our client “close the loop.” Our partnership with Royal Waste accomplishes just that. This program includes Emerald compostable materials, such as towel-tissue, food service items and packaging materials to commercial composting facilities where Royal waste provides the hauling of that compost material to a composting farm, providing clients with a full-circle sustainable solution. This process diverts organic materials, including food waste—a major portion of total organic waste—from landfills. We then measure our client’s landfill diversion through our Environmental Impact Statements. Composting is the future. We’ve been saying it for years and we’re starting to see it come to fruition.
NIE: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Bianculli: Make no mistake; we have been the trailblazers in this space for 22 years. When everyone told us we were crazy, that “green” was a “fad,” what we were doing would never work or last, we persevered. We are now changing the landscape of a $100-plus billion dollar industry, and touching millions and millions of people every day with our mission and our message. We are bringing the change and awareness needed to overhaul an industry that is long overdue, and we will not stop until the mission is complete.
