And now my guest is a technical director of the US office of Netherlands base Glass Technology company Celsius and a former Owens-Illinois management executive.

He's a glass scientist and has a glass container background.

Doctor Scott Cooper is helping to develop the direction of the Northwest Ohio Innovation Consortium operationally and from a laboratory and training standpoint.

Welcome to Business Life.

360 Scott, great to have you here.

Scott Cooper Thank you so much for having me.

Kristi: There are so many exciting facets that are happening now in the world of glass.

And in northwest Ohio, not just Ohio is really at the forefront of so much of this.

So tell u more about your company, Celsius and how you came to open the U.S office from the Netherlands Corporate HQ, to serve as North American clients.

Scott Cooper: So what we do is we offer training to the glass industry, we offer lab testing, and we offer some reall sophisticated computer modeling, to help glass manufacturers ensure that the furnaces that they build to melt glass are going to be efficien and will make the right quality.

How it came to be that calcium came here, to the United States and specifically Toledo, it was 2022 and the international Year of Glass, and there was a lot of publicity and all of that happening, here.

But worldwide around that, the role of glass, in the world, the managing director and I just got together and he said, you know, we've been thinking about opening a US offic and we want it to be in Toledo.

So got back with him.

And, you know, it took a few months, but we we worked through it all an we're really happy to be here.

Kristi: Scott Glass is critical to so many sectors, whether it's food, construction automotive, it goes on and on.

How does session work with clients such as some of those and the consortium itself, to create a more sustainable future?

Scott Cooper Sustainability is a vital topic for all of the glass industry.

It's it's something that is top of mind at O-I, Owens Corning, Corning, all of them.

The where we come in is we really like to work in partnerships.

So we try to zipper in with their technical teams to help them where they need it.

And sometimes that's in doing certain lab testing, sometimes that's in training, sometimes that's, developing new sensors, for example.

So that's where we really look to work, meshed in with glass manufacturers as well as the vendors and suppliers.

And so the glass industry.

Kristi: So we know and you and I have talked off camera as well about some of the challenge in the glass industry, from jobs to decreasing the carbon footprint to recycling.

So describe for us how Salesian will provide direction and help in the execution in terms of the consortium, to truly meet some of these kinds of challenges in the glass industry.

Scott Cooper: Right.

The top thing we hear from all manufacturers, the top challenge they have is knowledge and the workforc and having a skilled workforce.

One of the things that calcium does is we offer one of the premier trainings in glass manufacturing.

We've been doing this for over 20 years.

We've trained over 3000 people in the glass industry from around the world.

So once a year, we have a five day, wee long training, here in Toledo.

It's our glass technology training.

And we get people from Canada, US, Mexico, they come in to do that.

Kristi So we also talked a little bit then about decarbonizing the glass industry and the carbon footprint.

Tell us more about Celsius.

And we'll be working on that particular industry issue, if you will.

Scott Cooper: Right.

So nearly every major glass manufacturer has set really aggressive goals in reducing their carbon footprint by 2030, in the range of 25 to 50% reduction.

And that's within the next six years.

And this is a this is a heavy industry which is not easy to decarbonize.

So the Department of Energy recognizes this.

And they've been investin in developing and demonstrating new technologie to lower the carbon footprint.

Most of the carbon in glassmakin comes from the melting process.

So we're sourcing is going t help, is that we're going to be, we received a grant together, with others, for $3 million and a three year project from the Department of Energ to advance all electric melting, as a way to significantly reduces the carbon footprint.

So we're really excited to get started on this year.

Kristi: So, Scott, how important is recycling to the glass industry?

Scott Cooper: It's really critical.

It is probably the the quickest thing, the quickest win that we can get to lowering our carbon footprint.

But in this country we're behind in our practices compared to what's done, let's say in Europe, in this country, we recycle about 30% of the glass that we produce.

So we know that we have a long way to go.

And part of this innovatio consortium will be figuring out how do we increase that amount because the glass manufacturers that can use it really want that recycled content.

Kristi: I love the notion that foreign investment is in northwest Ohio and specifically in Toledo, Ohio.

This region is truly seen in many of the stories we've done here on Business Life.

360 but all parts of the globe really are starting to understand and see how relevant and impactful the glass industry is here in this region.

So for those who are living here in this region, described the reputation that we have here from a global perspective.

Scott Cooper: Well, I think let's talk into the world of glass, because that's that's really what I know.

So seeing had that rep has that reputation over in, in Europe, it was a division of Philips, which was really well known for lighting and television.

And they took their glass technology group out of Philips and essentially made it a national lab.

So when, when this group was looking to expand into the US, they kne they needed to be in the center of the glass world.

Kristi: Well, Scott, thank you so much for all you're doing at Salesian for the glass industry.

Your work is critical to helping create a sustainable, cleaner future for the glass industry and for the planet.

So we appreciate you being here on Business Life 360.

It's been great talking with you.

Scott Cooper: Thank you Kristi, it's been great to be here.