Milan Kluko Email & Phone Number

United States

One of several senior level consultants at Nakupuna supporting the environmental and sustainability practice for the firm. Formerly was part of the NEPA Environmental Review Team (as a Senior NEPA Specialist) contracted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Program. Over 25 years of sustainability, technology transfer, facility permitting, regulatory compliance and NEPA experience with private and public sector clients.

New Buffalo, Michigan, United States

Results-driven (former) Senior Director, General Manager, Senior Project Manager and "Change Agent" with a focus on innovative approaches to problem solving for company or project success. Proven record of successful project development focusing on implementation of sustainable systems and renewables promoting decarbonization supporting the Circular Economy. ISO 14001 Lead Auditor.Technical and management advisor to steel industry, alternative energy, pulp & paper, and waste services companies as well as to investor groups with a practice focused on brownfield redevelopment, CEA operational assessments "seed-to-sale". Sustainability assessments - Materiality Assessments and benchmarking ESG performance while developing other systems within the circular economy. For clients perform Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments as well as NEPA Assessments (ER, EA, EIS), site redevelopment for industrial sites and related feasibility studies. Projects focusing in environmental engineering, solid waste & recycling, natural resource management, vertical farming CEA, and traditional agriculture including low impact development and related stormwater management assignments.Cultivating forward-thinking, inclusive, and performance-oriented business culture to lead industry in innovation to accelerate implementation progress. Working with start-ups and other clients to establish new business enterprises (or expand existing business lines) and build productive relationships with prospective customers, industry partners and competitors to support strategic business objectives in order to grow company businesses.

New Buffalo & Detroit Michigan

New Buffalo, Michigan

Green Spirit Farms (GSF) was one of the first commercial scale vertical farms and used proprietary indoor growing approaches referred to as Multi Vertical Growing Systems or MVGS. These systems developed and were configured into self-contained growing systems using low energy LED (originally used Induction Lighting) to grow up to 6,000 plants in just 250 square feet. GSF had been growing commercially in New Buffalo, Michigan 65 miles east of Chicago 2012-2018 and started distributed vertical farms in Atlanta, and a partnership in Suffolk County, England. GSF under a license agreement started a 2nd vertical farm in Detroit MI. on Earth Day 2015. This approach targeted underutilized commercial or warehouse buildings or “brownfields” to grow vegetables 24/7 and 365 days per year with up to 17 harvests of leafy greens (lettuces) and 4-5 harvests of various flowering plants (such as tomatoes and peppers) annually while significantly reducing food miles for maximum ecosystem performance.

Environmental and Civil Engineering Consulting FirmThe firm, which he co-founded, focused on brownfields and low impact development, renewable energy, cellulosic biofuels, beneficial use/recycling, sustainability and sustainable agriculture including CEA, solid waste, and small scale waste-to-energy projects. FHE provided system design, site development and regulatory management and as well as facility permitting. Conducted feasibility assessments for emerging CEA in urban areas as well as vertical farming assessments which led to the development of one of the first commercial scale vertical farms in North America - Green Spirit Farms in 2011. The firm had also provided engineering "support" services i.e. geotechnical, stormwater, NPDES, utility infrastructure services, Phase I and Phase II environmental investigations, NEPA evaluations, and remediation services for clients in the real estate development, steel, mining, solid waste, pulp & paper industries and energy sectors. FHE worked extensively with law firms and financial institutions for transaction based analyses for developers providing technical, regulatory and project management services. FHE developed industrial beneficial use (recycling and pollution prevention) programs for pulp and paper mill clients as well as for coal fired power plants using proprietary technologies. For these and other assignments FHE secured local and state permits (authorizations) for new technology as well as other required "operational" permits (i.e. RCRA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and related state authorized programs). Coordinated the development of numerous Brownfield projects (and investigations) in over a dozen states in the United States as well as several projects at former industrial sites in Canada, England and South America. The firm participated in two expeditions to several research bases in Antarctica performing focused analyses to implement sustainable base operations including CEA potential.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Former Owner of MK Associates, LLC (MKA) and this practiced was merged into LANDMARK Technologies and became Regional Manager with LANDMARK Technologies.Merged an existing consulting practice and opened new Chicago Office for LANDMARK. Acted as Senior Project Manager coordinating projects throughout Midwest as well as corporate Business Development for firms as well as for mobile laboratory services and renewables pre development (i.e. Siting or wind and solar farms). Acted as Senior Project Manager for NEPA assessments for clients (ER, EA, and EIS).MK Associates, LLC - developed beneficial use (BU) programs for foundry clients, coal ash BU programs for coal fired power plants, copper mine and abandoned coal mine remediation services as well as participated in joint ventures with real estate developers for renewables development and Brownfield assignments. Formed MK Associates, LLC after the sale of previous company - Highland EnviroCorp in 1994 (to Growth Environmental Services) then subsequently merged this practice in 1995 with LANDMARK Technologies.

Founded Highland EnviroCorp (HEC) in 1993 and served as its President until the firm was sold in August 1994 to a publicly traded company (Growth Environmental Services) and became General Manager of the new entity.HEC had offices in Chicago, Illinois, Madison, Green Bay and Hayward, Wisconsin. The firm assisted clients with regulatory, environmental, siting, analyses as well as developed permit submissions for sanitary landfills, solid waste transfer stations, numerous small stream hydro, proposed solar farms, wastewater pre-treatment and fuel blending facilities. HEC developed organic and green waste composting systems for clients as well as permitting of air new stationary sources (industrial boilers) as well as permitting of non-metallic processing systems (i.e. mobile concrete recycling plants).The firm also had an emergency response practice (land and water releases) as well as a Field Services Division that removed underground storage tanks and performed specialty demolition for clients (process tanks, lagoon closures, former industrial facilities).

Greater Chicago Area

The Mid-Central Region of BFI was one of eight geographic regions, which comprised Browning-Ferris Industries, at the time the second largest waste service company in the world (revenues exceeding $3.5 billion dollars annually - at the time). As Manager of Business development, responsibilities included acquisitions of landfills, transfer stations, and hauling companies; permitting of new solid waste disposal facilities and transfer stations as well as direct marketing for the company at trade shows and conferences. Supported over 20 operating districts in Wisconsin and Illinois with solid waste technical expertise as well as design, technical and regulatory assistance (as needed) for newly developed C&D and municipal Material Recovery Facility (MRF) development including permitting of new yardwaste composting operations. Served as Vice President of the state companies and reported directly to the BFI Regional Vice President and was also a registered lobbyist.

Houston, Texas, United States

Responsibilities included coordinating development and permitting activities on specific WTE projects; developing marketing strategies for WTE development in North America and identifying new business opportunities.American Ref-Fuel (at the time) was a joint venture between BFI (Houston, TX) and Air Products and Chemicals of Allentown, PA) formed to market waste-to-energy systems in North America. The company financed construction of over 15,000 tons per day (TPD) of installed disposal capacity valued at nearly $1 billion dollars.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Envirodyne Engineers, Inc. (EEI) was an ENR Top 50 consulting engineering firm in Chicago with offices in New York, and St. Louis, Missouri. Primary responsibilities included coordinating business development activities for the Geotechnical and Solid Waste Practice for the firm. In addition, was responsible for supervising solid waste and waste-to-energy assignments; and preparing workscopes and budgets for environmental or geotechnical assignments. Developed sampling plans for environmental investigations and assisted the company's Maryland Heights, MO. laboratory on larger environmental assignments as requested.Clients included the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, Connecticuit Resource Recovery Authority (CRRA), City of New York, DuPage County, Illinois, Will County, Illinois, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Washington Dc-Baltimore Area

Gershman, Brickner and Bratton, Inc. (GBB) was a national management and consulting engineering firm specializing in waste-to-energy and solid waste management. GBB, headquartered in Washington, D.C., had offices in New York (Long Island), Inner Grove Heights, Minnesota, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Seattle, Washington.As a consultant for the firm Mr. Kluko was responsible for waste characterization analyses for Wabash, Indiana, Harford County, Maryland, Easton, Maryland, Seattle, Washington, Iosco County, Michigan (U.S. Air Force Base), Bay City and Saginaw, Michigan. Particpated as a consultant on district heating and cooling assessements for alternative energy systems, Project consultant for a $100 million (800 TPD) waste-to-energy (WTE) facility procurement, Pierce County, Washington; Regulatory and Task Manager for a $130 million 1,000 TPD WTE procurement - Request for Proposal(s) Snohomish County, Washington WTE project; Regulatory Manager and Interim Project Manager for a $38 million 420 TPD WTE project in Shelton, Connecticut; Task Manager for the Consulting Engineers Report for the tax-exempt bond issue for a $15 million 300 TPD WTE facility in Harford County, Maryland (for the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority); Task Manager for the Consulting Engineers Report for the tax-exempt bond issue for a $19 Million 350 TPD WTE facility in Springfield, Massachusetts.Also was a Project Consultant assigned to materials recovery/prepared fuel processing analysis (RDF) in Wabash, Indiana; Seattle, Washington; Kootenai County, Idaho; Livingston County, Michigan; and Chicago, Illinois (Mayors Task Force on Solid Waste Management).

Greater Chicago Area

Founder of the company which specialized in solid waste management and natural resource consulting. For the City of Chicago the firm worked on assignments for the Department of Planning, Department of Streets and Sanitation, Department of Public Works and the Mayor’s Office – Task Force on Solid Waste Management. Projects for the City of Chicago included the development of an initial solid waste management data base for public and privately generated solid waste; privatization and pre-procurement analyses for the (former) 1,000 TPD Northwest Waste-to-Energy Facility and the (former) Southwest Supplemental Fuel Facility; solid waste legislative analyst and co-authored the City of Chicago’s first comprehensive solid waste management plan.For Lake County, Illinois Department of Planning, Zoning and Environmental Quality – developed initial countywide stormwater management strategy; developed the first computerized drainage basin map; provided technical evaluations for proposed Stormwater Management Utility.For the Avon-Fremont Drainage District, Grayslake, Illinois developed comprehensive drainage basin data base analysis for the District in cooperation with the United States Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Lake County, Illinois. For Lake County SCS conducted wetland evaluations and provided field services for land use change analyses and was Technical Staff member for Task Force on Urban Storm Water Management Guidelines.

Bachelor Of Applied Science - Basc, Geological And Earth Sciences/Geosciences

Education record