Fine Tune joins the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development to work with leading US companies on acceleration of sustainable solutions to ecosystems, carbon, circular economy and water challenges

AUSTIN, TX. – April 7, 2021 – Fine Tune, a provider of indirect expense management services, has joined the US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD), an action-oriented and member-led nonprofit business association, founded in 1992 to give leading US businesses a platform to work together to design, implement and scale sustainability solutions. US BCSD-led platforms, projects and partnerships help leading companies scale solutions to ecosystems, climate, circular economy and water challenges.

Delivering hard-dollar savings, Fine Tune manages clients’ complex tail spend expense categories – including waste and recycling, uniform rental, facility services, security services, and pest control – throughout their full contract life cycle from sourcing to negotiating to auditing and service issue resolution. Sustainability and supply are inevitably intertwined, and Fine Tune is thus leading the charge to integrate the two from an expense management perspective, providing solutions that not only advance clients’ sustainability efforts but improve bottom lines as well.

As a US BCSD member, Fine Tune will work with other US BCSD member companies and partners on a variety of cross-industry sustainability initiatives, using the US BCSD’s proven methodology for translating business goals into actionable projects and programs. This includes active engagement in the US BCSD’s Materials Marketplace program, a US-wide program to develop and scale new reuse and recycling market opportunities. To date, the Materials Marketplace has helped companies divert over 14 million pounds of material to higher and better use, creating over $1.4 million in estimated economic value.

Engaging in US BCSD’s Materials Marketplace program will provide Fine Tune with opportunities to better understand the sustainability needs of clients, learn of sustainability and circularity solutions for recommendation to clients, and ultimately bridge the gap between end-product “waste” and reuse ROI.

“Membership in the US BCSD opens up access to an influential, collaborative and diverse network of business-sustainability practitioners and subject matter experts around the US,” says Andrew Mangan, Executive Director of the US BCSD. “Fine Tune is uniquely positioned to work with other US BCSD members in our facilitated, neutral setting on joint projects that capitalize on opportunities and address pressing sustainability challenges.”

“It is clear in every way that it is no longer acceptable for sustainability and circularity to simply ‘sit’ as concepts at the forefront of businesses’ ambitions,” says Chad Roeder, Director of Waste and Recycling Services for Fine Tune. “Rather, it is paramount that real-world actions with tangible results be implemented. US BCSD is a leader in facilitating sustainable solutions by and between businesses, and Fine Tune’s membership will enhance our ability to serve clients through an active participation in the Materials Marketplace, with an end result of addressing clients’ circularity goals while increasing their bottom lines.”

About Fine Tune

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Fine Tune partners with companies to source, negotiate, manage and audit certain complex indirect expense programs. Led by executive-level industry insiders, Fine Tune has also developed proprietary auditing software which monitors client invoices to ensure adherence with the implemented agreements. Several of the world’s most recognizable brands have chosen Fine Tune, including Cargill, Pep Boys, Siemens, Advance Auto Parts, Caterpillar, and MilliporeSigma. For more information, visit www.FineTuneUS.com/sustainability.

About the US Business Council for Sustainable Development

The US BCSD is an action-oriented and member-led nonprofit business association, founded in 1992 to give leading US businesses a platform to mobilize boots on the ground and work together to design, implement and scale sustainability solutions. Business-led platforms, projects and partnerships are helping leading companies scale solutions to ecosystems, cities, circular economy and water challenges. Since 2014, the US BCSD’s Circular Economy platform has led development of the Materials Marketplace - an award-winning regional and national platform that connects businesses to develop and scale new reuse and recycling market opportunities. Manufacturers are using the Marketplace to source materials and find new solutions for challenging wastes and by-products, recycling companies are uncovering new customers and end-markets, and entrepreneurs are using the program as an innovation platform to build new reuse and recycling businesses. Learn more at https://usbcsd.org.

AUSTIN, TX – The City of Austin is accepting applications from local businesses and institutions to participate in the sixth annual [Re]Verse Pitch Competition, a program that aims to reduce waste in Austin and within the business community.

The [Re]Verse Pitch Competition is seeking businesses with surplus materials or by-product waste to apply to be a material supplier, as many businesses and organizations have waste products that have more economic potential than being sent to the landfill. As a material supplier, businesses will pitch their surplus material to competing innovators and entrepreneurs, who will create a new product or business venture using the material. Competing entrepreneurs will receive guidance as they create a business plan and test their concepts for viability. Details on the prize will be announced in the coming months.

The deadline to apply to become a material supplier for the [Re]Verse Pitch Competition is December 9, 2020. The application can be found here.

As a material supplier, Austin businesses could cut their disposal costs, create new partnerships among the business community, have a positive social and economic impact in Austin, and establish new systems for waste reduction.

The [Re]Verse Pitch Competition is also seeking volunteer mentors and advisors; volunteer opportunities can be found here. For more information, visit reversepitch.org.

The [Re]Verse Pitch Competition is a collaboration between the City of Austin, the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce, and the US Business Council for Sustainable Development with additional support from a wide variety of community partners.

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About the Circular Economy Program | The City of Austin Circular Economy Program’s mission is to attract, retain, and grow businesses, non-profits, and entrepreneurs in the zero waste industry in order to create well-paying local jobs, attract investment, and support the necessary infrastructure for a resilient circular economy in Central Texas. The program is a partnership between Austin Resource Recovery and the Economic Development Department.

About Austin Resource Recovery | Austin Resource Recovery provides a wide range of services designed to transform waste into resources while keeping our community clean. Services include curbside collection of recycling, trash, yard trimmings and large brush and bulk items; street sweeping; dead animal collection; household hazardous waste disposal and recycling; and outreach and education. Austin Resource Recovery offers free, voluntary and confidential consulting services to help Austin businesses reduce waste and comply with the City’s recycling ordinances. In December 2011, the Austin City Council approved the Austin Resource Recovery Master Plan, which is the City’s road map to Zero Waste. The City of Austin is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to area landfills by 90 percent by 2040. Learn more at austinrecycles.com.

About the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce | The Austin Young Chamber promotes the general economic interests of the Central Texas business community through initiatives and efforts designed to build and strengthen our young professional workforce. Connect with the Austin Young Chamber on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, or check out upcoming programs at austinyc.org.

Members of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative and invited guests are meeting on April 8, 2020 on Zoom Video Conference for the group’s first quarterly working meeting.

The online working meeting will include presentations, facilitated discussion and working group breakout sessions focusing on project development around key content areas defined at the December launch meeting in New Orleans. These include land-based sequestration, CCUS, electrification, strategy/technology information sharing, and barriers and enablers related to policy and regulation, education and communications.

Learn more on our newly launched website, carbon-collaborative.org.

UL and the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development have agreed to support the expansion of US BCSD's Materials Marketplace and help companies secure recognition for reuse through third-party certification.

ATLANTA- December 10, 2019 – The US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) has entered into an agreement with UL to support the expansion of the Materials Marketplace and help companies secure recognition for reuse through third-party certification.

As part of the agreement, UL and US BCSD will work to extend third-party validation services such as UL’s standards for circularity, recycled content and waste diversion, to members of the Material Marketplace, which will help them demonstrate recognition for their efforts to help create a more circular economy. The organizations will collaborate on market education and outreach efforts to continue to “expand the circle” and drive development and scale of new reuse and recycling market opportunities with business and industry in the US.

“The idea that a company can find value in something that another does not need is one aspect of what makes the circular economy so popular across industries and sectors,” said Catherine Sheehy, global lead of sustainability partnerships for UL’s Environment & Sustainability division. “The US BCSD’s Materials Marketplace facilitates the need to find and create value from materials that would normally be considered waste on an industrial level, and UL can support their clients through auditing and validation services that strengthen and support the growth of that marketplace by creating added value in the transactions to all parties involved.”

“This agreement advances the US BCSD and UL’s shared goals of enabling new opportunities for economic growth that do not depend solely on extracting more raw materials or buying new,” said Andrew Mangan, executive director of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development. He continued, “The marketplace helps scale reuse and generates cost savings, energy savings, and helps create new jobs. This collaboration with UL offers the more than 2,000 participants the chance to amplify the success of these efforts through science-based validation from UL and facilitate access to those are searching for more circular products and services from more sustainable organizations.”

About UL

UL helps create a better world by applying science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. We empower trust by enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. All of our work, from independent research and standards development, to testing and certification, to providing analytical and digital solutions, helps improve global well-being. Businesses, industries, governments, regulatory authorities and the public put their trust in us so they can make smarter decisions. To learn more, visit UL.com.

About the US Business Council for Sustainable Development

The US BCSD is an action-oriented and member-led nonprofit business association, founded in 1992 to give leading US businesses a platform to mobilize boots on the ground and work together to design, implement and scale sustainability solutions. Business-led platforms, projects and partnerships are helping leading companies scale solutions to ecosystems, cities, circular economy and water challenges. Since 2014, the US BCSD’s Circular Economy platform has led development of the Materials Marketplace - an award-winning regional and national platform that connects businesses to develop and scale new reuse and recycling market opportunities. Manufacturers are using the Marketplace to source materials and find new solutions for challenging wastes and by-products, recycling companies are uncovering new customers and end-markets, and entrepreneurs are using the program as an innovation platform to build new reuse and recycling businesses. Learn more at https://usbcsd.org.

NEW ORLEANS, December 4, 2019 Nearly five dozen Gulf Coast industry representatives from the automotive, power, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, chemical, refining, and transportation sectors came together this week to share and scale decarbonization strategies at the inaugural meeting of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative. The Collaborative is the first-of-its-kind industry initiative focused on cross-sector solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Companies are looking for ways to further reduce their own carbon footprints and those of other industry sectors as the region focuses on resiliency in the face of growing climate change effects such as rising sea levels and extreme weather, endangering coastal communities and industrial infrastructure.

“There is tremendous industrial activity in the Gulf Coast Region supporting a strong economy. At the same time, companies want to avoid putting more carbon into the atmosphere. They are interested in learning different strategies, techniques and ways they can work together to leverage greater carbon reduction.” - Andrew Mangan, Founder of US BCSD

A broad range of stakeholders want to see companies take the lead in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and forward-thinking companies have been responding by modernizing equipment, switching to electricity/other low- and zero-carbon fuels, and using both nature and technology to capture and store carbon. The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative was organized by the US Business Council for Sustainable Development and Entergy Corporation to accelerate cross-industry carbon reduction.

The US BCSD is a nonprofit business association that gives leading businesses a shared platform to identify and jointly solve critical sustainability challenges. The collaborative is designed to establish new projects that help companies reach carbon reduction goals. It is an action-based model that can be replicated in other parts of the country.

“If we can bring the collective power of this group and examples of the projects that come out of it to bear on developing good policies, they are much more likely to become reality.” - Chuck Barlow, vice president, sustainability and environmental policy for Entergy. “The result will be greater net benefits to our communities and our planet.”

Entergy is an integrated energy company that delivers electricity to customers in multiple states covered by the collaborative including Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy made a commitment to action on climate change more than 20 years ago, recognizing the threat it posed to the health and vitality of the Gulf region the company serves. Entergy adopted a new emission rate reduction goal and issued a climate scenario analysis earlier this year.

A new report by the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) recommends that companies seek out opportunities to work across sectors to reduce emissions, which is the basis of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative. Interested companies are encouraged to join the effort.

“Decarbonization will move faster and more efficiently if more oars are rowing in the same direction,” the report, Getting to Zero: a U.S. Climate Agenda, notes.

For more information:

• Visit usbcsd.org/gc3

• Daniel Kietzer at the US BCSD; kietzer@usbcsd.org or 512.981.5417

• Neal Kirby at Entergy; nkirby@entergy.com or 504.576.4238

Download the Report

P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 – is a new initiative, commenced in 2018, with the ambition of becoming the world’s leading forum for developing concrete public-private partnerships at scale to deliver on the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement. P4G brings together business, government, and civil society organizations in innovative public-private partnerships to advance solutions that help meet humanity’s greatest needs in five key areas: food and agriculture, water, energy, cities and circular economy.

The Vietnam Materials Marketplace - a P4G partnership - is a materials trading system that directs Vietnam’s booming manufacturing industries towards the circular economy. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing countries in Asia, hosting a thriving manufacturing economy and serving as a hub for much of the world’s material flows. But the amount of materials deposited in Vietnam’s landfills is a significant health and environmental challenge. In fact, material production and use drive the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

The Materials Marketplace takes this challenge head on – helping manufacturers reduce both waste disposal and excessive production through an online marketplace where manufacturers can buy, sell or trade materials and equipment suitable for further or alternative use. This model will move industrial waste up the value chain into its highest and best use, reducing environmental impact and using circular economy principles to grow Vietnam’s economy in a sustainable and resilient way.

Through support from The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the US BCSD, the Materials Marketplace will use successful, proven models from other industry hubs around the world to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance quality of life in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Materials Marketplace concluded its partnership period with P4G in July 2019. This closeout report discusses how P4G partnership funding enabled the partnership to research, evaluate and map specific gaps in the Vietnam waste, reuse and recycling ecosystems to inform the design and configuration of their proposed marketplace.

Florim USA and Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations connect through the Tennessee Materials Marketplace to close the loop on end-of-life materials

Americans dispose of some 10 million metric tons of reusable materials, like glass, annually. Most of it ends up in the landfill, and only about one-third gets recycled. That’s not because of some intrinsic materials or chemical property that makes materials like plastic and glass difficult to recycle, but rather a reflection of a very challenging interplay between collection processes, market supply and demand, and rising freight costs to move material in the US.

“Glass is 100% recyclable,” says Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, executive director of the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC), a nonprofit trade association. “It has an unlimited life and can be melted and recycled endlessly to make new glass products with no loss in quality,” he adds.

The difficulty is that most processes that can use recycled glass need it to be clean, sorted by color, and/or meet some minimal contamination requirements. This is difficult for our single-stream recycling systems in the US to produce. Glass is also very heavy, making it difficult for manufacturers to source recycled glass at a manageable cost.

That being said, there are some very creative companies right here in Tennessee finding ways to “mine” this valuable material.

Photo courtesy of Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations

In Clarksville, TN, Florim USA is producing large format porcelain tiles that offer surfaces for all requirements in architecture, interior design and building construction. The American subsidiary of the Florim Group, based in Italy, Florim USA is one of the largest and most technologically advanced porcelain facilities in North America. The process they use is considered “closed-loop,” with all waste generated throughout the six processing operations recycled back through the system.

Not only that, but they can and do utilize a variety of post-consumer and post-industrial materials as a raw material in their tiles, replacing various virgin raw materials. They are committed to producing high-quality products in an efficient and environmentally sustainable manner, constantly exploring the latest technological advances and best management practices. Active material exploration is one reason they are an engaged participant in the Tennessee Materials Marketplace.

"At Florim we are focused on the environment and its sustainability. Post-consumer material is an aspect of the process that Don Haynes and his team have been working on for several years. We are now very proud to be able to use post-consumer materials in all of our tiles," said Marco Fregni, CEO at Florim USA.

Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations is a full-service electronics and materials lifecycle management company with locations in Onalaska, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee. They have years of experience managing the unique risks and regulations of organizations seeking to safely participate in recycling, while safeguarding sensitive data and protecting the environment from e-waste and other pollutants by closing the loop for all sorts of electronic devices.

One of the challenges Dynamic has managed to tackle is end-of-life materials from electronics. Dynamic utilizes a proprietary process to separate the different kinds of components of electronic wastes, and as a result is producing millions of pounds of recyclable materials in clean commodity form.

Dynamic is also an active user on the Tennessee Materials Marketplace. While working on the platform to identify opportunities for buying used gaylord boxes, they noticed that Florim USA had posted a “wanted material” listing detailing specific post-consumer materials they could use in their manufacturing process. Once connected, it didn’t take long for the two parties to see the potential for a reuse application, especially as they began to explore the logistics of the deal.

Dynamic’s trucks regularly make the trip from Wisconsin to their location in Nashville, TN to pick up recyclable items needing special processing. They can now make one productive loop - taking full truckloads of material south, and returning north with full truckloads of materials from their Nashville facility.

Both companies see this as a significant win, the regions they serve and for the Tennessee Materials Marketplace. The application makes financial sense, environmental sense and it demonstrates how important the right connections can be. As often happens, both companies are beginning to explore other materials and improved methods of delivery and packaging that will smooth the process even more.

Is your company looking to source by-products and recycled materials to use in your products, or establish new end-markets for existing materials? The Tennessee Materials Marketplace may be able to help. It’s quick and easy to get engaged - click here get set up in our program today.

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About Dynamic LIfecycle Innovations

• Website: thinkdynamic.com

• Facebook: click here

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About Florim USA

• Website: www.milestonetiles.com

• Facebook: click here

US BCSD Executive Director Andy Mangan

Andy Mangan introducing the Materials Marketplace and US BCSD Circular Economy platform.

LDEQ Secretary Chuck Brown Ph.D.

LDEQ Secretary Chuck Brown Ph.D. provided the latest on LDEQ initiatives.

Ecolab DIrector of Sustainability Emilio Tenuta

Emilio Tenuta, Ecolab, discusses the connection between water and circularity.

City Park

Meeting attendees tour one of the sculpture gardens at City Park.

Members of the US BCSD and leading companies - including Dow, Schlumberger, and Ingersoll Rand - and organizations from around the US gathered in New Orleans, LA at the end of January 2019 for our first National Meeting of the year.

Meeting attendees discussed a range of water, circular economy, cities, and ecosystems challenges; and identified actionable opportunities to work together in existing or emerging US BCSD projects. A high-level summary of outcomes can be found below. For questions or to get involved with our work, email us at info@usbcsd.org.

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Water

Objectives

Awareness of the risks associated with water-related issues is coming to the forefront of industry planning and operations. Understanding and addressing risks and opportunities helps organizations navigate water quality, quantity and stormwater issues at both site-specific and watershed scales. This session presented examples from the US BCSD Louisiana Water Synergy Project of how companies and partners are dealing with water issues through collaboration and regional scale solutions.

Key Takeaways

Port Fourchon - Ninety percent of all Gulf of Mexico deepwater petroleum output for the entire United States flows through this small port at the southern tip of Louisiana. And Port Fourchon is rapidly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico. A collaborative project between the Port Authority and industrial tenants to make beneficial use of dredge material from deepening the shipways is in development. The goal is to use material to maintain and restore lost land for long-term coastal protection and habitat creation.

Simone Maloz of Restore or Retreat described the role of participants and the nature of the project, highlighting the importance of collaboration among the private-public partnership between tenant companies and the port authority. Justin Ehrenwerth of The Water Institute of the Gulf further discussed the nature of the project, and reiterated the importance of metrics and using sound science.

Water Quality Trading - In 2017, project participants partnered with environmental, agricultural, and coastal protection agencies to design a framework and develop guidance for a Water Quality Trading Program for Louisiana. This public/private program is aimed at facilitating trades between industrial and municipal point sources with agricultural and other types of non-point sources. The Louisiana DEQ is working with the US BCSD Louisiana Water Synergy Project to develop practical common sense program rules by the end of 2019. The goal is to demonstrate how voluntary, market-based solutions can successfully improve water quality in Louisiana, the Mississippi River, and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico at a lower cost and more efficiently than traditional regulatory approaches.

Tierra Resources - Sarah Mack, president of Tierra Resources, described the Luling wetlands project which, in partnership with Entergy, will generate carbon offsets and nutrient pollution reductions which could become tradable credits. George Kelly of RES gave an overview of different types of trading projects under development or in place in other states.

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Cities

Objectives

This session sought to explore how to more effectively connect regional business capabilities and interests with the big city challenges; issues like resiliency, data collection and organization, energy efficiency, mobility and others. It also set out to explore what partnerships (organization and program partnerships) the US BCSD should be prioritizing to support its emerging cities platform.

Key Takeaways

The Greater New Orleans Foundation provided an overview of its work to create a vibrant, sustainable and just Greater New Orleans region, highlighting work with partners at the City of New Orleans, New Orleans Business Alliance, Louisiana Coastal Exchange and others. They described efforts under way to work more closely with construction and real estate industry associations, and to promote “sustainable tourism”.

Speakers from the City of New Orleans and Life City stressed the need for holistic, big picture thinking to solve city-sustainability-resiliency challenges; and the opportunity for an “expert idea exchange” between cities to share ideas and best practices.

And City Park, our host, presented a number of sustainability projects that improve resiliency and address stormwater challenges in the local community.

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Circular Economy

Objectives

The US BCSD is the leading facilitator for business-to-business material reuse in the US, helping develop and scale new reuse and recycling market opportunities. Updates included a new multi-state approach to building and developing new Materials Marketplace programs, a case study showed how Shell had joined with the US BCSD, its Marketplace partner Pathway21, and a Louisiana coastal resiliency company, Martin Ecosystems, to show how used water bottles from the New Orleans Jazz Fest were converted through eight stages into coastal barriers supporting seagrass growth on the Louisiana coast.

Key Takeaways

The Materials Marketplace continues provide an actionable path for companies, regions and organizations to engage in the circular economy. Tennessee, Michigan, and Ohio are leading the way with state government supported efforts and over 2,000 companies are engaged today.

Storytelling value can be just as important as environmental and economic benefits. Meeting attendees were fascinated learning each of the steps involved to turn PET bottles into floating islands for seagrass beds. Stories like this should increase consumer participation in recycling and reuse.

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Ecosystems

Objectives

Ecosystem services are becoming an integral part of infrastructure solutions. Nature based solutions can offer lower cost, highly reliable approaches to dealing with issues such as stormwater management, flooding mitigation, water quality and quantity issues, and carbon sequestration. Industry is collaborating with key partners to identify, quantify, and in some cases monetize, ecosystem services in order to make a more compelling business case.

Key Takeaways

Overall, this session stressed the importance of recognizing the value of leveraging natural systems, ecosystem services and green infrastructure.

Restore the Earth Foundation described their Point aux Chenes restoration project and the numerous environmental, economic, and social co-benefits created. The business council has a strategic alliance with Restore the Earth Foundation to apply a business-led model to landscape scale restoration. Various parties are working jointly to implement a 4,000-acre coastal restoration project at the Point-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management area, southeast of Houma, Louisiana. REF also shared insight into their EcoMetrics methodology that quantifies and monetizes the co-benefits using location-based data and stakeholder inputs.

Dow presented the Nature Goal Initiative that drives their determination of how and when to use natural solutions to address operational needs such as water treatment and stormwater management.

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Other Initiatives Discussed

Alliance for Sustainable Progress - Andy Mangan, US BCSD, presented a business/academic/government alliance concept to the US BCSD member companies for feedback. Responses were neutral on the idea. Concerns included lack of focus on specific goals, like water or the built environment. Some questioned the need for another organization, though the reasoning for accelerated action on SD goals was not disputed. Several were concerned about the academic side as presented, saying that by choosing one university to work with it initially it would be hard to get others on board. Overall, they were understanding of the concept but said it needed more work.

Great Lakes Sustainability Initiative - The Council of Great Lakes Industries has conducted a project to assess the state of sustainability efforts underway by companies in the Great Lakes region and to propose recommendations for building on these efforts. CGLI is not positioned to lead the next stage of this project, which includes establishing collaboration among industry and key stakeholders to define and take action on the challenges identified in the initial analysis. US BCSD is in discussion with CGLI on establishing a collaboration platform model, similar to the Louisiana Water Synergy Project, to engage companies and move forward on the recommended actions.

10 Across - the US BCSD will attend this year's 10X Summit in Arizona which explores economic, environmental, and social challenges and opportunities for communities along the I-10 corridor. As Houston, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans all lie along I-10, there is potential collaboration opportunities for US BCSD.

US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center - the US BCSD has been in exploratory discussions with the CCC to explore collaborative opportunities. This group is mainly industry, and there is membership overlap. This group does not get into projects and therefore working with US BCSD would be a good partner.

Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard - the AWS standard certifies sites based on their commitment and performance on site and watershed water stewardship efforts. Ecolab's Garyville, Louisiana site is pursuing certification. This site is an active member of the LWSP. AWS is also partnering with Restore the Earth Foundation to leverage the EcoMetrics model as a method to address quantification and monetization of benefits requirements in the standard. A crosswalk between the AWS requirements and EcoMetrics is available.

The Ohio Materials Marketplace ended year one (April 4, 2017 – April 4, 2018) with 3,362,000 pounds of material diverted from Ohio’s landfills and saved participating companies more than $153,000 through virgin material substitution costs and avoided landfill costs.

A wide variety of business and organization types have signed up in the first year, and are actively engaged in continuous transaction conversations through the marketplace platform. Material listings, both available and wanted, are as diverse as the marketplace membership and are beginning to reveal trends in material management challenges across Ohio.

As the program moves into Year 2, the Ohio EPA will continue to direct marketplace management and marketing to increasing participation numbers and diversity while improving platform interactions that drive high-value, high-impact reuse transactions.

For more information, download the full Year 1 Report here, or visit ohio.materialsmarketplace.org.
 

In September 2017 US BCSD staff kicked off a deep review of our strategy and priorities. Over three months we interviewed members, project participants, partner organizations and other key stakeholders; asking questions about business sustainability challenges they’re facing, areas they’d like the US BCSD to focus on, brainstorming specific project ideas, and discussing operational enhancements that could help grow our effectiveness and scale.

Early 2018 was been dedicated to reviewing and processing this data, with input and oversight from our US BCSD Executive Committee. A number of key decision points and opportunities for future platform and project development were identified and brought to US BCSD members at a Strategic Planning Workshop in late-March 2018. Below is a summary of outcomes of that workshop, and some important steps in our path forward. 

As always, thanks to US BCSD’s members, partners and staff for your engagement and support along the way - we’re looking forward to this new chapter.

1. Stay Rooted in the US BCSD Process

2. Drive Engagement and New Project Development through US BCSD Platforms

US BCSD platforms are ongoing venues for key stakeholders to define the critical needs for business action in sustainability within a topic area, share perspectives, and develop potential project-based solutions for testing. Platforms are the source of US BCSD projects, and serve as issue-focused think tanks with an action emphasis. Projects on the other-hand are focused efforts to develop and test specific actionable solutions, and may be spun off and scaled up if successful. Projects have substantive scope with a clear business case; and discrete beginnings, ends, activities and outcomes.

3. 2018 Platforms

Circular Economy - A venue to define, design and test solutions to materials reuse, supply web challenges and opportunities, circular design, and circular partnerships. Stakeholders are scoping a variety of new project opportunities on supply web engagement, carbon accounting, cross-state regulatory harmonization, and identifying and capturing at-risk resources in addition to continuing new Materials Marketplace project development.

Water - A venue to define, design and test solutions to regional and national water quality, quantity, stormwater and other water-related challenges and issues. Stakeholders are keen on expanding the model developed by the Louisiana Water Synergy Project to new geographies - including the Mid-Mississippi region and Houston/Texas Gulf Coast - and to address additional water-related challenges.

Cities (in development) - A venue to clearly define and understand real city issues, and link them up with actionable private-sector solutions and partnerships. This platform may address issues and challenges related to resilience, city competitiveness, and support for rural areas during economic downturns.
 

Ecosystems (in development) - A venue for companies to define, design and test solutions to land-use, conservation, and other non-water ecosystem challenges and opportunities.

4. Additional Key Outcomes and Implementation Plan

Additional key outcomes identified during the workshop include renewed focus on:

• Partnerships - Reevaluate the landscape and establish new US BCSD partnerships to support platform and membership growth.
• Membership Growth - Focus efforts to drive membership growth, especially to new sectors not currently represented in the US BCSD membership.
• Member Engagement - Expand member engagement and continue to define the US BCSD value proposition with existing members.
• Visibility - Improve the visibility of our projects and platforms, and create more impactful opportunities to showcase our work, especially through national meetings.

March - July 2018: Platform Development and Company Engagement

Following this workshop, US BCSD members and staff have been engaged in smaller planning discussions to frame out 2018 platforms, identify initial project opportunities, and pull-in current and prospective members in the process. If you’re interested in participating in any of the above platforms, contact Daniel Kietzer at the US BCSD.

Fall 2018: Next US BCSD National Meeting

We’re planning our next US BCSD national meeting for the Fall of 2018, date and location to be announced shortly. This meeting will be an important milestone and venue to engage additional platform and project participants, and harvest new ideas to fuel platform growth.
 

Registration is now open for two very important March 2018 events - our Strategic Planning Workshop on the 27th (limited to US BCSD members and invited guests only) and South Central Regional Meeting on the 28th. Learn more about these events by clicking the graphics below, or contact us with any questions.

Happy holidays from the US BCSD team! Thank you for your support and engagement in 2017; we're looking forward to our continued work together in the new year.

Andy Mangan, executive director, U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Ryan Jones, associate partner of Lake|Flato Architects were members of the design jury. (Photo credit)

Story reposted from General Motors Green:

General Motors thinks of waste as a resource out of place. To help make the zero-waste mindset more mainstream, the company engages others in its mission, including students. Most recently it was Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture helping reimagine waste materials to keep them in use.   

The students’ assignment was to design the Houston Museum of Waste, an imaginary 27,000-square-foot museum. As in many projects, there was a challenge. They had to incorporate offal – a galvanized piece of thin sheet metal left over when stamping out car parts – within the building’s physical separation of its interior and exterior. This variable encouraged students to provide a novel solution to design a building envelope using byproducts from the manufacturing industry.

The jury committee included experts and professionals from GM; U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development; Zahner; Lake|Flato Architects; and Corgan Associates. The jury credited the winner, Yingzhe Duan, for her use of offal in a functional, practical and replicable way. Yingzhe’s museum proposal delivered an airy, translucent appearance thanks to its simple, open floor plan, glass walls and an interior shading system made from offal sheet metal. Read more...

The United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) is pleased to announce that Edwin (Ed) Piñero is joining the Council as Director, Water Projects. Ed is joining the Business Council team to fill Susan Fernandes' role as the Water Program Director and Project Manager of the Louisiana Water Synergy Project. After seven years of dedicated work, Susan is retiring from the US BCSD, effective November 30th.

Susan notes, “I know that Ed will be a great leader to continue what we have started and take the US BCSD Water Program and the Louisiana Water Synergy Project further.”

Ed has a long history with the Louisiana Water Synergy Project, and as Senior Vice President for Sustainability at Veolia North America, spearheaded their engagement starting in 2011. Ed is a seasoned veteran in sustainability leadership, and brings to this role a strong mix of science, business, and policy experience. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Alliance for Water Stewardship Board of Directors and is a member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship North American Steering Committee. He is also a member of America's Water Initiative Advisory Board.

Ed will be engaged with the US BCSD on part-time basis, and will continue as President of The Pinero Group LLC.

Get in touch with Ed: pinero@usbcsd.org | Linkedin | Twitter

The US BCSD is an action oriented and member-led nonprofit business association that harnesses the power of collaborative projects, platforms and partnerships to develop, deploy and scale solutions to ecosystems, energy, materials and water challenges.

Leading companies, state environmental agencies, and nonprofits mix sweat equity, technology, creativity and innovation to create lasting impact on the Ohio River

CINCINNATI - Materials lacking end-of-life solutions don’t just end up in the landfill - some find their way into rivers and waterways, too. In September, a dedicated group of company leaders, representatives from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and materials technology innovators from the US Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Materials Marketplace, gathered on the Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) barge to help solve the problem.

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This mix of people from Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin and Tennessee climbed into aluminum long boats and motored to collection zones along the Ohio River. Throughout the day, they loaded everything from ubiquitous plastic containers to dilapidated refrigerators, bringing more than 2,500 pounds of mixed materials back to the barge for separation. The team then entered those materials into the Ohio Materials Marketplace, an online software platform facilitating company-to-company materials reuse, enabling one another to purchase scrap versus buying new. In addition to diverting waste from landfills and rivers, the Materials Marketplace helps save money and energy while creating jobs and business opportunities.

Any organization operating in Ohio can upload details about their various excess materials into the Materials Marketplace free of charge. The Marketplace team then analyzes those entries for reuse by others in the program. The Ohio EPA and US BCSD launched the program in April, and by October, more than 370 companies have used it. As awareness spreads, so too do transactions.

Repurposing materials, even the kind found in the muddy banks of the Ohio River, is doable, according to the US BCSD. 

“We found some challenging materials during the two days on the barge,” said Daniel Kietzer, US BCSD. “Very dirty and deteriorated non-PET plastics currently have limited reuse or remanufacturing end uses; but we found non-landfill outlets for all the material, validating that all businesses and communities can do the same.”

The river cleanup also offers a collaborative model for post-disaster cleanup efforts, like those underway from Texas to Florida following the sweeping hurricanes that hit in the last six weeks. Companies, governments and community organizations can work together to turn perceived waste into valuable products, aligning with a more circular economy that creates economic opportunities along the way. 

General Motors and Johnson Controls led the Ohio River cleanup activity, with participants from organizations including Veolia, Pathway21, Covanta, Phoenix Technologies International, Waste Management, ERM, US Ecology, The Ohio EPA, the Tennessee Department for Environment and Conservation, and the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment. LL&W provided the ability to gather on the river, collect and separate materials; and the Ohio Materials Marketplace brought the data together in one place to be organized, analyzed, repurposed and reported, all in a landfill-free way.

Living Lands & Waters

Headquartered in East Moline, Illinois, Living Lands & Waters is a 501(c)3 environmental organization established by Chad Pregracke in 1998. LL&W has grown to be the only “industrial strength” river cleanup organization like it in the world.

Spending up to 9 months a year living and traveling on the barge, the LL&W crew hosts river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops, tree plantings and other conservation efforts.

The nonprofit has worked with over 100,000 volunteers from companies, schools, universities and community organizations in more than 1,000 river cleanups. As a result, they have removed 9 million tons of material from 23 rivers. 

Materials Reuse, Circular Economy and Business Supply Chains

In a circular economy, all materials recirculate back productively into the economy. Leading US companies like General Motors and Johnson Controls are challenging traditional take-make-dispose practices and moving to circular models, spurring new levels of innovation, collaboration and connectivity up and down the supply chain.

For example, GM makes car parts from plastic water bottles and Johnson Controls seeks ways to increase the recycled content of lead-acid vehicle batteries - already the most recycled consumer product in the world. Solution and service providers play a major role, from processing and transporting materials, to providing environmentally positive end-of-life disposal when no higher and better solutions are applicable. The Materials Marketplace accelerates such efforts. 

The Ohio EPA and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation are spearheading statewide Materials Marketplace programs, opening the doors for hundreds of companies in their states to get involved. This has created a tool for their agencies to engage with business in collaborative dialogue outside of the typical regulator role.

Results from Ohio River Cleanup

The US BCSD team led discussions on reuse opportunities for the materials collected from the river, such as bottles, tires, barge line, metal, rigid plastic, glass, polystyrene and films. Together the group identified viable business opportunities and created action plans to use the materials in new or existing supply chains. Finally, they created Materials Marketplace listings for each material type. 

Looking Ahead

Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. In many ways, this event served as a demonstration model for companies, organizations and government agencies to: 

1. Collaborate in new ways that merge business objectives with environmental initiatives
2. Look creatively for new sources of materials, and use technologies and programs like the Materials Marketplace to their fullest extent
3. Embrace the role of hands-on hard work in employee engagement to get teams outside finding and solving tough problems.

“Living Lands & Waters is an incredible organization, and if you’re not working with them already, you should find ways of getting engaged with what they do,” said John Bradburn, General Motors. “But there are also tons of other great organizations out there. We hope people can use our example to explore ways to work together in deeper, more impactful ways, and bring their networks together to support and collaborate.” 

There is space for innovation in this market - especially with foams and films - to expand collection and processing opportunities. These are all materials that should not be in the river to begin with, so expanding education and outreach efforts in communities plays a key role. 

“At the end of the day, we wish organizations like Living Lands and Waters didn’t need to exist,” said John. “But we’re glad they do.” 

Special thanks to Living Lands and Waters, General Motors, Johnson Controls, Covanta, Veolia, Pathway21, Phoenix Technologies International, Waste Management, the US BCSD, ERM, US Ecology, The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Department for Environment and Conservation, and the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment.

Ohio Materials Marketplace (Launched April 2017)

Completed transactions for plastic bottle caps, wood pallets, e-waste, plastic drums and plastic bottles. 64 other transactions are currently being explored by participants.

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Tennessee Materials Marketplace (Launched August 2017)

Our newest state-scale Marketplace project. Companies - including General Motors, Nissan, American Snuff, La-Z-Boy, Trane, Bridgestone, Lucite International, and others - are just starting to finish the onboarding process and upload data.

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Austin Materials Marketplace (Launched 2014)

Active since 2014, the Austin Materials Marketplace has facilitated over 330 transactions, saving or creating over $350,000 in value for participants and avoiding more than 740 MTCO2E.

Our thoughts go out to our friends and colleagues along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast who continue to be impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Houston is an incredible city; and we hope for a speedy return to dry homes, safe conditions, and normal operations for our US BCSD members and partners in the area.

New circular economy program connects businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs to uncover and implement new creative solutions for hard-to-recycle wastes and by-products

Franklin, Tennessee - August 14, 2017: The US Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation today announced the launch of a new online platform that allows for circular reuse of products and materials that might otherwise be destined for disposal in landfills. Through the cloud-based Tennessee Materials Marketplace, traditional and non-traditional waste streams are matched with new product and revenue opportunities, ultimately enabling the culture shift to a circular, closed-loop economy. 

Tennessee is the second state in the US to adopt a circular economy program of this scope and scale; and joins an international network of Materials Marketplace projects already underway across the globe, including the Ohio and Austin Materials Marketplaces, US Materials Marketplace, and the Turkey Materials Marketplace.

In addition to facilitating reuse matches, the program also allows for collaborations to be made between Tennessee’s larger manufacturers working towards zero-landfill and highest and best use of materials like General Motors and American Snuff, and agile and innovative small and medium-sized businesses. 

Over the past 20 years, Materials Marketplace projects spearheaded by the US BCSD and scale-up partner Pathway21 have engaged hundreds of companies - large and small - academic institutions, nonprofits and entrepreneurs around the world. Andrew Mangan, Founder and Executive Director of the US BCSD, says “Many businesses and organizations in Tennessee are challenging the traditional take-make-dispose model; the Materials Marketplace is an important enabler to move this new circular thinking into action.”

Additional Background/How to Get Involved:

• Visit the program's website at http://tennessee.materialsmarketplace.org for more information and steps for how to get involved. It's a quick and easy process.
• Participation is free for any company or organization with operations in or near the state that wants to explore new opportunities to transform by-product/waste materials into new products, or secure recycled material streams to reduce use of virgin feedstocks.
• The US BCSD manages the Tennessee Materials Marketplace, with initial funding support from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. 

On June 8, 2017 the Louisiana State Legislature passed HB423 authorizing the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to establish and administer a water quality trading program. This is a major milestone for the Louisiana Water Synergy Project, which has an active working group dedicated to designing a voluntary, market-based water quality trading program to improve water quality in Louisiana. 

Market-based solutions to improve water quality were identified by Water Synergy Project participants as a way to convert water problems into economic opportunities, and to develop a collective capacity for conserving watershed systems as both public and private goods. This approach is consistent with the Louisiana Nutrient Management Strategy that suggests that incentives such as water quality trading may provide opportunities for nutrient reduction and assimilation. In addition, this program may provide agricultural businesses and landowners with additional revenue sources and regulators with more policy options for improving water quality.

An existing law allowing a credit program was too narrow for the program to achieve the desired nutrient reductions. The Work Group, which includes representatives from LDEQ, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) took on the challenge to design a Water Quality Trading Program that would include both point sources (industrial and municipal wastewater treatment discharges) and nonpoint sources (agricultural production and stormwater management). 

The work group will continue to work closely with the LDEQ, nonpoint source agencies, and stakeholders to continue the program design work leading to adoption and promulgation of regulations to establish and administer the water quality trading program. For more information on the Water Synergy Project, visit usbcsd.org/water or contact us.