State Environmental Commissioners and National Business Leaders Launch Materials Leadership Council

 
 

As interest in Sustainable Materials Management grows within both the public and private sectors, and the Materials Marketplace platform has emerged as a leading path to Sustainable Materials Management, an historic Materials Leadership Council is being established among members of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) and of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD). The initial purpose of this important public-private partnership is to connect the capabilities and interests of state and business leaders to scale creative material reuse across industries and develop policy solutions that support these shared goals. 

The Materials Marketplace is an award-winning regional and national platform to facilitate company-to-company industrial reuse. Through the cloud-based platform, traditional and non-traditional industrial waste streams are matched with new product and revenue opportunities, ultimately enabling the culture shift to a circular, closed-loop economy. In addition to diverting waste from landfills, these recovery activities generate significant cost and energy savings and create new jobs and business opportunities.

ECOS Materials Leadership Council members are environmental commissioners from the states of Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Louisiana. US BCSD participants are senior representatives of General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Ingersoll Rand, Entergy, LafargeHolcim, and others. Senior members of the US Environmental Protection Agency will be invited to observe and comment. 

"ECOS has a long commitment to advancing Sustainable Materials Management principles and to demonstrating how they work in practice through programs,” says Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Executive Director and General Counsel of ECOS. “The partnership we begin today will advance the sharing of exciting and innovative ideas between states and the private sector."
Andrew Mangan, Executive Director of the US BCSD, adds, “This partnership is a breakthrough alignment between business and government leaders on circular economy objectives. This public-private collaboration will open new doors to achieve greater resource efficiency while creating economic, environmental, and societal benefits.”
John Bradburn, GM, Global Manager of Waste Reduction added, “We are excited about the great potential this collaboration brings in managing materials in the most sustainable way across all sectors."

The Council’s first meeting is scheduled for today by teleconference. 

Background 

Increasingly, state and city governments, businesses, entrepreneurs, and researchers want to participate in Sustainable Materials Management and the Materials Marketplace because they see value in:

  • Finding material reuse matches that make business sense beyond conventional sourcing;
  • Reviewing existing regulations and structures to examine how they help or hurt Sustainable Materials Management and the Materials Marketplace;
  • Overcoming technical, business, and regulatory barriers to material reuse;
  • Building relationships externally – creating valuable intentional networks, not limited to “linear” progression up and down the value chain;
  • Broadening sustainability participation internally – having a vehicle for reaching out to multiple functions and/or facilities internally with something practical to do about sustainability; 
  • Taking a leadership role in Sustainable Materials Management and the Materials Marketplace – working with other business, government, academic, and NGO leaders to help shape materials policies and programs;
  • Developing alternative approaches to better align rules and regulations to achieving these objectives.

Dialogue, understanding, and innovation are needed. Each side of the Sustainable Materials Management ecosystem has an important role to play and must make its interests and capabilities known. Through this Council we will seek solutions that will help accelerate adoption and implementation of sound materials management and establishment of a national Materials Marketplace. Contact us for more information.

Fatima Sadaqat