Review of Sustainable in a Circular World

Book Link: Amazon (smile)

I've been getting more and more involved in the sustainability efforts in my company including some of our cicularity pieces so I wanted to read a bit more on the subject and improve my knowledge on it. This was a good overview of the reasons for having a circular economy and provide some good analogies for its benefits but I did not get much out of it (besides some of the brief case studies) about the details behind circularity. As a book promoting sustainability and providing some data and reasons for its importance, it does a good job. If you are wondering what this sustainability stuff is all about and why its so popular of a topic, then this is a good book to dive into. If you have a good understanding of it and are looking for a deeper dive, this book doesn't really provide the depth you are likely looking for.

Some highlights/thoughts from my reading: 1. A culture that is supported by a true sustainable vision is untethered by market shifts and leads to continuity for employees and customers. 2. Environmentalists and individuals are sounding the alarm postulating that if we continue at the rate we are going, by 2050, plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish. 3. A sustainability mission isn’t altered when times are good or bad. A pandemic (like COVID-19) shouldn’t alter employees from fulfilling any tasks previously set forth or following a corporate mission. The sustainability mission is supported 4. The four historical Turnings are: High (First Turning), Awakening (Second Turning), Unraveling (Third Turning), and Crisis (Fourth Turning). 5. They need the underlying narrative to ensure fairness. Young adults think about society as a whole and recognize inequality that hurts people’s ability to get ahead. 6. Many people have learned the three T’s of giving of time, talent, and tithing (treasure). We have been given gifts and how we choose the use them is what is key. 7. Simply meaning it is only at 8.6% circular. And that means the gap is not narrowing. Interestingly, two years ago it was at 9.1% circular. Things are clearly going in the wrong direction. 8. Here’s a known fact: the first global warming prediction was made as far back in 1896. It was actually made when Svante Arrhenius had estimated the burning of fossil fuels would eventually release enough CO2 to warm the Earth by 5 °C. 9. According the U.S. EPA, landfill gases comprise almost 18% of U.S. methane emissions, which is the equivalent of 103 million metric tonnes of CO2 released in the atmosphere. 10. The company understands that efficient vertical transportation is critical to efficient land use and sensitivity to the environment and society. 11. Much of our overconsumption and waste has led to the destruction of forests and water shortages. We have polluted and contaminated the earth. And it all began with the Industrial Revolution. Our overconsumption of our natural resources of timber, water, coal, iron, copper, silver, and gold to make, take, and waste for just about every product imaginable has led to the crisis the world is now debating. 12. Farmers’ report about half of the food grown is discarded simply because of the way it looks. 13. Emissions are separated in Scopes 1, 2, and 3. Scope 1: Direct emissions created from your sources or activities. These are your own heating, cooling, fleets, machines, vehicles. Scope 2: Indirect emission that is sourced from energy providers that power your office or home (simply the electricity that you purchase). Scope 3: Transferred indirect emissions. This means everything you are engaged in from disposal of trash, purchased goods which encompasses the entire supply chain including business travel of your team, electricity of the entire product lifecycle all your customers consume. 14. Take for example the University of Michigan, which has some 340 investment managers across all financial asset classes. These investment managers are not at the university, but rather they are third parties that the university relies on to essentially invest the endowment capital. 15. The Cradle to Cradle duo suggest where at the end of their useful life, products should not be just thrown away, rather they are encouraging innovators to rethink their positioning about end of life products and repurpose them as part of new products. 16. The take-make-waste model has just been feeding the human desire for decades. Manufacturers feed our insatiable appetite to possess and own the latest and greatest gadgets, fashion, vehicles, you name it, all contributing to us sucking the air right out of Mother Earth. 17. Part of the problem is that manufacturers relied on industry consultants and analysts who convinced them that JIT (just-in-time) processes would lead to the Holy Grail, but instead it led to a complete reliance on China suppliers. 18. In 2015, China had successfully argued that it was still a developing economy and it was for this reason it deserved developing nation status and should not have to share the same burden of curbing emissions as a developed nation whose pollution went unchecked for decades. China was granted the request and is able to continue to increase its emissions for another staggering 13 years under the accord. This only fueled the ire of the leader of the free world and confused other environmentalists. 19. China abruptly reversed its thinking in November 2020. It stated that as a world leader it is now pledging to lead by example, befitting a country that aspires to be a superpower. 20. as sustainability reporting increases and it becomes an integral part of everyday economic and financial analysis, it will only be a matter of time before you discover the real benefits of scale for green and a circular economy. 21. Generative families want to make an impact. Ask most of them and they will come straight out and tell you they are impressed by human effort and ingenuity. That is why they are so acutely aware of environmental and social initiatives, such as circular economy and sustainability. The thought of plastic drifting into the rivers and oceans—along the communities they live, shop, and pray—is very unsettling. 22. Walton noted the reason the Baby Boomers struggle with the Millennials is they want to be “won over and brought to manufacturing.” 23. What the industry should have spent more time on, Walton explained, was educating the next generation about all the aspects that are needed to run a manufacturing operation. 24. Warp + Weft has made a pretty impressive impact on the apparel industry, selling almost 500,000 pairs of jeans. It says it has saved almost 893 million gallons of water in the process. During the past three decades Warp + Weft has focused on regenerative design approaches, responsibly sourced cotton, eco-friendly dye, mastering water-saving techniques that require less than 10 gallons to make a pair of jeans—which as we can all imagine helps each of us in the community and the environment. The company also goes to great lengths to emphasize that it avoids the environmentally harmful bleaching process by opting for cutting-edge Dry Ozone technology, making it fully compliant with international social and environmental & quality standards. 25. The truth be told, late renown Australian scientist and professor Frank Fenner had even predicted humans will most likely be extinct within 100 years as a result of overpopulation, environmental destruction, and climate change. If you want to know his credentials, well, he helped eradicate smallpox. And he’s already 10 years into the prediction he made in 2010. Fenner based his assumptions on a few points: The consuming public has unbridled consumption coupled with the massive human population predicted to be 8.5 billion people by 2030. Even further, the United Nations has projections of 9.7 billion people by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100; and this is across all countries.