Once we take into consideration what it can take to rework our international financial system, it’s simple to endure from one in every of two thought distortions:
The primary is an awesome sense of existential dread. One thing like, “This will by no means be carried out! The duty is just too massive!” I consider this because the unhappy Charlie Brown persona. The second is a go-it-alone angle that favors your organization forging forward alone with out backup or sidekicks. I name this one Batman syndrome.
I’ll say that after I was a sustainability practitioner, I oscillated between these two nearly every day relying on what wall I used to be banging my head in opposition to or how a lot sleep I acquired the evening earlier than.
So this week, I wished to introduce an possibility to assist overcome these competing emotions and spotlight a few case research that give me some hope that we’re headed in the fitting route.
Networking and collaboration
Sure, I do know, these two phrases are used far too usually and check with far too many issues. Having stated that, there are some good examples of networks which are serving to people resolve issues everywhere in the international financial system. What there doesn’t appear to be almost sufficient of, although, are peer networks designed to deliver round financial system professionals collectively to debate the challenges they face. We now have the Circularity convention (impactful, however fleeting), numerous regional networks (nice for that area, however tough to scale) and lots of NGOs working within the house (usually not hands-on sufficient for company practitioners). To handle the peer community hole, we’re launching the GreenBiz Circularity Community (GBCN). This member community will embrace practitioners representing main corporations from all sectors who’re dedicated to advancing the round financial system.
GBCN will construct on our profitable GreenBiz Government Community (GBEN) that has been key to many sustainability leaders’ progress through the years. Catherine Musulin, senior supervisor of sustainable growth at Danone North America, shared, “During the last seven years, the GBEN group has been an impactful extension of my staff. It’s a trusted cohort of passionate professionals keen and in a position to share their distinctive experience.” It’s with that purpose of sharing and collective motion that we’re creating GBCN.
Very like transitioning to a low carbon financial system, the transition to circularity is important and may’t wait.
The community will embrace common digital conversations to debate member-driven matters or characteristic visitor audio system, two in-person gatherings per 12 months, and report outs for members to make use of as reference. It is going to additionally embrace weekly emails the place members can ask questions, share job openings and promising candidates, study and join. In the event you’re , please attain out utilizing the shape within the GBCN webpage.
OK, sufficient of the shameless self promotion. Let’s transfer onto a pair items of fine information I’ve realized about not too long ago.
A promising circularity initiative from GAF
Current information from main roofing producer GAF matches squarely in my column of “promising developments.” The corporate has invested $100 million to create the primary shingle that incorporates recycled content material from outdated roofing materials and a brand new round manufacturing system the place they will reclaim 90 p.c of the tear-off materials of a discarded roof.
In accordance with GAF’s web site, the brand new shingle line incorporates 7 p.c recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) with out sacrificing any efficiency when in comparison with their different product strains and the staff at GAF instructed me they’ll have the ability to attain 15 p.c with extra assortment. “Our focus [now] is on persevering with to scale RAS operations throughout the whole GAF shingle manufacturing community,” stated Joe Dennes, vp of R&D at GAF, including that the corporate is constant analysis on this space. “Along with enlargement, we’re persevering with our growth work to extend the quantity of RAS content material that’s integrated into our merchandise past the 15 p.c that has been confirmed thus far.”
The financial funding is big, however stays a drop within the bucket for this trade. It’s estimated that 13 million tons of asphalt shingles are eliminated to make manner for brand spanking new shingles every year. Solely 10 p.c of that waste will get recycled to be used in paving and different tasks. To place that quantity in context, GAF has diverted simply 405,000 kilos from landfill in the course of the pilot part going again to 2020. This quantity is predicted to extend quickly as soon as the method is commercialized, however the hole to fill is big and can clearly require deep collaboration all through the availability chain. When requested concerning the alternative this work presents for GAF, CEO Jim Schnepper stated, “That is significant to us on so many ranges — serving to us to attain each our sustainability and development objectives. Most significantly, the power to reclaim 90 p.c of shingle waste is the clearest path obtainable towards protecting asphalt shingles out of landfills. That is good for the trade and good for the planet.”
Whereas GAF has developed the method to recycle and reuse asphalt shingle materials, the collaboration actually comes within the assortment step. After I spoke with Dennes and Jeff Terry, vp of sustainability and company social accountability, they made it clear that partnerships with giant waste haulers, roofing contractors and reverse logistics suppliers will likely be key to the success of this program. In different phrases, in the event that they don’t scale in a manner that’s worthwhile for everybody within the provide chain, this program received’t get off the bottom.
We will solely hope that an organization resembling GAF can begin to rewrite a few of the previous wrongs of shingle recycling such because the Blue Star Recycling debacle in Dallas.
Round footwear, zero glues
Athletic footwear have at all times been a little bit of a conundrum to me on the subject of circularity. They often have a number of supplies and adhesives, each of which may spell doom for the end-of-use for a product. Presently, 90 p.c of footwear find yourself within the landfill and the soles can survive in that atmosphere for 1,000 years. This can be a drawback that the entire trade is considering, however an article final week with an announcement a few new shoe design by Nike gave me some hope.
Many people have heard about Nike’s Round Design Information. It’s innovative in loads of methods as a result of it’s holistic, however essentially depends on quite a lot of confirmed strategies to create extra round merchandise. I don’t know what number of merchandise Nike has launched that integrated the rules, however I used to be very excited to see their announcement final week concerning the new IPSA Hyperlink shoe. The simplicity of building and the chance for modularity within the product is beautiful. The brand new design “options three interlocking modules linked with out glue that may be taken aside and dropped off at Nike shops providing recycling and donation providers,” in accordance with the corporate.
Nike clearly has the willingness and the dimensions to show the athletic attire trade towards circularity, however even they have to admit they will’t do it alone. The footwear provide chain, for instance, will play an enormous position on this transition the place the overlap with different manufacturers within the sector is big. The hope is that collaboration between manufacturers and their provide chains, perhaps by means of the Sustainable Attire Coalition, can translate to an enormous shift on this trade within the close to future towards circularity.
The takeaway (a minimum of for me)
Particular person circularity efforts are nice they usually could make a dent, however it’s clear at this level that no degree of “going it alone” goes to get us the place we have to be economy-wide. So, whereas every of us would possibly oscillate individually between the Charlie Brown and the Batman personas, it is crucial that our methods for collaboration and progress can stand up to these oscillations and hold shifting ahead. Very like transitioning to a low carbon financial system, the transition to circularity is important and may’t wait.
