MEET OUR FACILITES + WAREHOUSE MANAGER
Meet Taz Johnson, Atthowe’s Facilities and Warehouse Manager. Taz is one of our earliest worker-owners, being part of the original 2021 group of 16. Today, we have grown to 31 worker-owners out of a total staff of 44.
I feel lucky that our company has reshaped itself as a co-op. Instead of a vertical shape where our efforts feed the top, our company feels more like a wave where the amount of energy we put out comes back to us as profit.
In total, Taz has spent 13 years working at Atthowe. Early on, he worked alongside our founder, Scott Atthowe, watching and learning from Scott's deep well of knowledge and experience in the field.
The majority of Taz's time is dedicated to maintaining our climate-controlled warehouses, where we store and protect artwork across our Oakland facilities. He keeps a close eye on alarms, climate levels, pests, and storage conditions, helping ensure our clients’ collections remain safe and well cared for.
Taz also plays a critical role in co-op committees. He is a key member of the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response (DPER) Committee and serves as chair of the Greening Committee.
One of the first projects we wanted to do in our Greening Committee was switch all 1,020 light bulbs to LED lights. It is quite the process because we are also retrofitting the light fixtures and recycling the ballasts. We have done 3 warehouses and have 2 to go!
Taz is also leading the expansion of our solar array to now include Atthowe’s biggest warehouse. In 2001 Scott Atthowe installed the largest solar panel array in Oakland for that time. Now, carrying on Scott’s sustainability values, our coop has made a new investment into solar, with Taz’s support being instrumental. "With the energy savings from the LED's and getting additional power from solar we will be even more energy efficient." Beyond sustainability, Taz has supported improvements in facility standards across the board. "I am proud that we passed the rigorous ICEFAT standards,” he says. “It signals to me that we are keeping up with professional standards of other companies internationally."
Outside of work, Taz can usually be found at the climbing gym or paddling on lakes and rivers, guided recently by a new favorite philosophy from Heraclitus: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man (person!)." —Heraclitus
