Faced with an obvious litter problem outside his NYC stores, Fini Pizza owner Sean Feeney decided to tackle the trash himself. Instead of waiting for NYC to place garbage cans on the sidewalk, he went ahead and bought some…
Second career
Feeny retired youngish – at just 43 – from a career in high finance, and opened the Fini Pizza location in Brooklyn last year. He’s a committed community participant, giving 3 percent of his revenues (not just profits) to community causes, hosting youth basketball tournaments, offering discounts to Firefighters, and more. An exemplary corporate citizen.
But the one thing that really got his hackles up was litter. In fact, he found that his customers agreed strongly with him. Over the first few months Fini was open, Feeny polled customers on what they thought could be improved. A whopping 94 percent said, they’d like to see the litter cleaned up.
He started by buying 5 garbage cans, painted green and decorated with the FINI ‘crown’ logo. And folks responded positively. Except for the city garbage authorities. They cited Feeny for violations of the trash code, for placing his cans too close to the curb. But after he talked it over with them, they withdrew the tickets and actually commended him for his effort.
‘Movement’ exploded
Feeny followed up his initial effort aggressively, buying a total of 50 Fini-branded trash cans – at a total cost of over $60 k – and distributing them between his Brooklyn and Williamsburg locations. As in the begnning, his own staff empty the cans daily, and reline them with plastic bags Feeny pays for himself.
Not just a Fini issue
Feeny points out that street trash is a serious problem throughout his city. And he’d like to see other businesses join his crusade.
“What if we were to incentivize other companies? How do we enter into a bigger public/private partnership to tackle this crisis, [to] support the city that’s going through a really tough time?” he wonders.
My take
But Feeny’s bottom line is more personal: ““I’m proud to live here. And I’m even prouder now that it’s cleaner.”
he’s the consummate example of a good corporate citizen, and a progressive businessman. Others should follow his example.
~ Maggie J.