June 2024 The Shift e-newsletter
Maximize LCA ROI Webinar | IC Reuse | Circular Footprint Formula | Upcoming Training
Free Webinar:
Proven Approaches to Maximizing LCA ROI
DATE: June 13, 2024
TIME: 1pm-2pm ET
PRESENTERS:
Karen Martinsen Fleming, CMO, EarthShift Global
John Rooks, Senior Research & Culture Advisor, EarthShift Global
DESCRIPTION:
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a valuable scientific methodology for measuring the impacts of a product or process. The present global emphasis on climate change is driving significant interest in LCA, and, while important, there is so much more to be gained from LCA beyond measuring carbon emissions!
By considering the entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal, an LCA enables organizations of all sizes and types to understand its impacts and where the greatest impacts occur. A well crafted LCA does more than measure carbon emissions - the results can be leveraged to identify opportunities for innovation, reduce waste, manage supply chains, improve resource efficiencies, design new products, craft sales & marketing materials, engage employees, and more.
In this webinar, taught by two highly experienced ESG sustainability professionals, we will discuss proven approaches to maximizing the return on your LCA investment.
PRESENTER BIOS:
Karen Martinsen Fleming has over 25 years of marketing, product development, strategy, and business management experience and has been active in sustainable business for over two decades. Her career includes leadership positions at Stonyfield Farm and Seventh Generation where she was responsible for the brand foundation, strategy, and national rollout of these two widely recognized leaders in sustainable business.
She also has extensive teaching experience in sustainable business, marketing and entrepreneurship. She served as Professor of sustainable business and director of the Sustainable MBA program at Green Mountain College, the nation’s leading college for sustainability, and as President of the Harvard Business School Green Alumni Network.
Karen supports ESG clients with strategy, marketing, communications, new product development, reporting, materiality assessments, and organizational design.
She earned an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College.
John Rooks approaches sustainability with a cultural lens. He has worked with companies of various size from Fortune 10 to start-ups helping them understand sustainability in a cultural context, and unlock the power that comes from an aligned corporate culture.
John has a degree in Writing and Cultural Theory from PennWest Clarion, and is a frequent writer and professional speaker on the intersection of sustainability and culture.
John has completed profoundly revealing in-depth research into consumer and other stakeholder beliefs and actions around sustainability. This research includes ethnographic explorations into our relationships with the things we buy (and discard) employee sentiment with corporate actions, and supplier actions following standard corporate sustainability surveys. This culture-first lens is critical to managing our impacts on society and the environment and is an integral part of double materiality assessments.
John’s approach to sustainability results in more robust employee attraction and retention programs, more compliant supply chains, and an aligned corporate ecosystem that is required to reach aggressive and critical sustainability goals.
Leveraging Newly Gathered Data on Silicon Chips and e-Waste, ESG’s Amos Ncube Sees Opportunity for IC Reuse, Circular Practices
By Amos Ncube, Senior Sustainability Analyst
Source: Semiconductor Industry Association's 2024 Fact Book
Research to be presented at upcoming Electronics Goes Green conference
addresses importance of responsible end-of-life (EOL) management of ICs
Silicon chips are a defining product of our era, powering artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and a host of other applications. But with hundreds of billions of these integrated circuits (ICs) manufactured each year, and rapid obsolescence of the devices that contain them, the traditional linear economic approach to their production poses an increasing number of issues.
New research from EarthShift Global, to be presented by senior sustainability analyst Amos Ncube at the upcoming Electronics Goes Green conference in Berlin, addresses the importance of responsible end-of-life (EOL) management of ICs, with particular focus on the possibility of IC reuse as an avenue to address the high impacts of chip manufacturing and the growing problem of electronic waste (e-waste).
The work draws on information gathered under a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) program, in which Amos and other EarthShift Global team members partnered with Aftan Engineering and Schaffer Environmental LLC to review available literature and conduct expert interviews with a range of stakeholders across the electronics sector, including the EOL supply chain.
“The NIST research, particularly the stakeholder engagement, provided us with insights into the industry, and has enabled us to assess the factors that influence feasibility of IC reuse, including regulatory frameworks, market trends, technological advancements, and consumer behaviors,” notes Amos. “A shift from a linear economic model to a circular one has great potential to reduce environmental and health risks associated with improper e-waste disposal, through recycling and especially reuse of that waste.”
The Circular Footprint Formula: A Novel Source of Insight and Clarity for Organizations Pursuing Circularity
CFF provides circularity-oriented perspectives on materials, energy, and disposal, and can help translate complex concepts into simple language
Clear, consistent, reliable information on environmental impacts is essential for sustainability decision-making — particularly for organizations pursuing greater circularity. Strategic choices on selection and use of recycled materials can have an enduring effect on the environmental footprint of products.
The Circular Footprint Formula (CFF) is an emerging tool, promulgated by the European Commission, that offers useful circularity-oriented insights into materials, energy, and disposal considerations, including factors like avoided production of new materials and downstream recycling and energy recovery. It also provides important compliance information that will be increasingly necessary for products being sold into European markets.
“We’re seeing growing interest in CFF from a number of different types of clients; perhaps the greatest interest at this point is in the packaging industry, where paper and cardboard, metals, and plastics are so central,” explains Amalia Sojo, EarthShift Global’s director of analytical services, who has conducted a number of CFF training sessions.
Figure 1. Schematic view of the CFF
A schematic view of CFF (Figure 1) shows its focus on materials that are “circulated” through a product — inputs on the left can be either virgin or recycled, while outputs on the right cover recycling into other products, energy recovery, or disposal. This configuration makes it easy to differentiate the circular and linear aspects of a material’s use.
Upcoming Online Training
Introduction to Sustainability Assessment
June 12, 2024
Social Impact Assessment, Sustainability-ROI
September 11-12, 2024
Impact Assessment Methods
September 18, 2024
Introduction to Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)
September 18, 2024