SCS Engineers Promotes Robert E. Dick, Michelle Leonard to Senior Vice President

Long Beach, CA – SCS Engineers announces several strategic promotions that increase its support for its landfill, waste management, and sustainable materials management clients in North America. The Board of Directors confirmed Robert E. Dick, PE, BCEE, as a Senior Vice President this month. Consistent with other professional engineers that comprise SCS’s executive leadership team, Dick remains dedicated to project-related problem solving and frequently spends time in the field listening to and serving clients – an advantage of employee-ownership.

Dick notes, “SCS provides the opportunity for me to be fully and intimately engaged daily in the technical aspects of executing project assignments while expanding my leadership role within our organization and the solid waste industry.”

Dick joined SCS Engineers in 1990, now leading SCS’ Solid Waste Engineering Practice in the mid-Atlantic region. With over 30 years of experience working on civil and environmental engineering projects related to solid waste management, he provides landfill, landfill gas, and sustainable solid waste facility engineering solutions in more than 15 states and several foreign countries.

Americans generate trash at an astonishing rate. Waste management, recycling, and landfills play an important role in most people’s lives without them realizing it. Using a holistic approach, Dick’s success, developing and implementing integrated solid waste management programs and associated facility operations, encompasses multiple disciplines to manage the waste cycle as cleanly and efficiently as possible. His engineering work includes numerous multi-disciplined landfill projects involving new landfill cell construction, vertical and lateral expansion, closure, post-closure care, groundwater monitoring, phasing operations, and financial assurance. All have positive impacts on clean air, water, and soil.

Dick leads SCS teams in formulating innovative and creative solutions for numerous project assignments related to solid waste planning and facility projects. Sustainable solutions involve residential and commercial collection and recycling programs, convenience centers, composting facilities, material recovery facility design, permitting, construction, and operations consulting. His expertise also stems from his support of landfills throughout the eastern seaboard and Mid-Atlantic, including over 150 landfill gas projects. He helps clients meet their Clean Air Act compliance goals and use methane gas for energy, reducing emissions.

“Bob plays a key role in our success,” said Jim Walsh, SCS President and CEO. “His work and dedication to his clients help them implement environmental solutions we employ in other parts of the U.S. and globally.”

Dick is actively involved in organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, Solid Waste Association of North America, National Waste & Recycling Association, and the International Solid Waste Association, along with multiple regional associations where he shares his knowledge with others.

Michelle Leonard 

This month the SCS Board of Directors also confirmed Michelle Leonard as a Senior Vice President.

As a sustainable materials management leader, Leonard, well known throughout the waste industry, is also SCS’s National Expert in Solid Waste Planning, Recycling, and Sustainability. She has over 30 years of environmental consulting and project management experience, including solid waste management planning and facilities focusing on reducing, reusing, and recycling waste materials.

Leonard is a long proponent of integrating the principles of a circular economy into the waste industry. “Sustainable materials management can help meet the challenges of waste reduction and management as states impose disposal bans, diversion mandates, and emissions restrictions,” said Leonard. “It’s economically sound and socially responsible too.” She promotes municipalities and private waste companies adopting circular strategies, which reduce waste going into landfills. Reducing waste reduces methane emissions, thus improving air quality and public health and safety.

States and local governments are increasingly using the concept of sustainable materials management as they plan for the future. The management practice includes the source reduction of certain MSW streams and the recovery of generated waste for reuse, recycling or composting. It also includes environmentally sound management through energy recovery, landfilling practices that meet current standards, and newly emerging waste conversion technologies, as explained in Leonard’s recent publication Responsible Solid Waste Management.

Leonard puts her expertise to work preparing solid waste management plans, designing and implementing waste reduction, recycling, and reuse programs, and evaluating existing programs for efficiency. Planning requires a broad knowledge of transfer stations, material recovery facilities, drop-off and buy-back centers, and the materials markets. The plans are data-driven, addressing residential, commercial, and industrial waste and the opportunities to manage waste for the highest and best use.

Ms. Leonard is an industry leader and has a positive influence on many in the waste industry. She is a member of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), including the International Board Past President; Past Director of SWANA’s Recycling and Special Waste Technical Division; and is on the Board of Directors of SWANA’s Southern California Founding Chapter since 2009. She is also a Past Director of the Southern California Waste Management Forum, Past President of the Women’s Environmental Council, currently serving on the Southern California Women in Solid Waste and Recycling leadership team.

“Michelle informs some of the largest cities and waste company programs in the country,” said Jim Walsh, SCS President and CEO. “Her knowledge and dedication to her clients, industry, and within SCS earn her the position of Senior Vice President and our respect.”

About SCS Engineers

SCS Engineers’ environmental solutions directly result from our experience and dedication to solid waste management and other industries responsible for safeguarding the environment. For more information about SCS, please view our 50th-anniversary video at  www.scsengineers.com, contact [email protected], or follow us on LinkedIn.