Evaluating Massachusetts Policy for Circularity and Sustainability | Circular Choice
A few weeks ago, Circular Play got to attend the Evaluating Massachusetts Policy for Circularity and Sustainability hosted by the Circular Economy Club of Boston. It was a panel and discussion forum moderated by Alison Cove — of USEFULL and some exceptional, systems change policy organizers such as Kirstie Pecci, founder and Executive Director of Just Zero, Madhavi Venkatesan, Associate Teaching Professor of Economics at Northeastern University and Founder of Sustainable Practices in Cape Cod (leading plastic bottle bands/single-use takeout bans), and Susan Hopp & Jinesse Reynolds from Marin County, California who are advocates for circular policy in Marin County leading Marin’s Reusable Foodware Ordinance.
The event was hosted by The Circular Economy Club of Boston, a chapter organization that aims to transform and build community for the Circular Economy adoption of Boston. Through entrepreneurship, community events, and knowledge transfer/capacity building, the club is a welcoming community for change agents, entrepreneurs, policy advocates, and inventors in the Circular Economy. It is led by the home base organization, the Circular Economy Institute.
“The Institute’s mission is to promote the highest standards of practice in the circular economy field, to build the strong leadership we need internationally to shift from linear to circular.”
As the circular economy continues to grow in the Commonwealth and around the United States — as its been a very centered European phenomena–it is important to understand how the transformation can be done, why it’s urgent in the face of climate change, and what YOU can do to be part of the structural, social, and ecological transformation.
As an entrepreneur in the space, and also as a lay person who has the right and access to vote, invest, and consume in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there were milestone take aways shared by Madhavi Venkatesan that I think truly show the people and human centered power in being able to pivot a plastic based economy and consumption based economy. Madhavi throughout sharing her experiences in shifting Cape Cod Policy through plastic bans often referenced what I later shaped as Circular Consumer Choice.
CIRCULAR CONSUMER CHOICE
This graphic was built post the Forum to capture the choices a consumer | investor | and U.S. Citizen voter has to influence the Circular Economy.
They are inspired by the take-aways from Sustainable Practices.
Madhavi’s organization Sustainable Practices has been able to have advocacy solutions and planning in 15 towns. With representative town councils, municipal bans across the Cape, her and her team have successfully gotten 9 towns to pass plastic bans. Through the Plastic Reduction Initiative there’s been great efforts shifting the Cape towards plastic free options and decreases in green house gas emissions. Removing plastic from the Cape, can inherently create transition for more alternative material sources like fabric bags and avoid environmental health hazards in which microplastics can create health risks for children, adults, and families. It’s a sub zero game– the benefits of removing plastic.
Kristie Pecci at Just Zero had shared some remarkable efforts her team and organization have done in Zero Waste Programs and also in the Zero Waste Caucus in the Boston State House. Kristie has been able to truly navigate how to influence State Politics and shared with us the importance of participating in City Councils, Sustainability Commissions with the efforts of banning bioplastics. Susan Hopp and Jinesse Reynolds shared very similar architecture for their policy transformations in Marin County. They shared too the importance of the
- Local
- State
- And Federal pressure needed for transformation.
Entrepreneurship, New Solutions
In Boston currently, there’s been a rise in Circular solutions, creating the inception of a new economy. New interests in venture capital, and new product design to tackle these pain points is being felt from biodegradable products, zero-waste shops/products, technology, fashion, and alternative construction material. As Circular Play aims to shift the built in environment through an exposure to new policies/urban design through a learning technology, we found the speakers to incredibly resonate with our goals, and justify the continued development of our technology. It was a helpful event as well as we were able to capture further best practices that enabled the pivot.
Challenges to Tackle for the Circular Economy
Many of the challenges that were discussed in the forum were around changing the economy of individualism towards one of shared responsibility and empathy. The Circular Economy with its regenerative nature aims to truly allows the benefits of:
- Repurposing materials and waste
- Redesigning products for new value add with reverse logistics
- Inviting new investors to be more responsible, climate sensitive, and contribute to climate mitigation
The Circular Economy as a Commonwealth, can make the State more humble in its resource use, resource depletion, and in its innovation. Shaping the state to look within, and enhance its current use of goods, can not only create important GHG (green house gas) reductions, but it can cement neighborhood economies, community development, and bring back civic engagement towards a shared goal, shared responsibility of protecting the planet and natural resources. The environmental health benefits as well from removing plastic from our homes, corporate workplaces, and municipalities are really also a major driver that I believe gets overlooked.
Source: https://www.ciel.org/plasticandhealth/
From our Start up, Circular Play, we leave you all with some of the key aspects and take aways from the Policy Forum. These aspects have transitioned further in the unique Circular Play learning technology for gamification.
- Climate Disclosures
- Investor Circular Forums
- Greenwash Bans/Analysis
- Culture of Collaborations
- Stakeholder Engagement/Consensus Building
- Transparency & Reporting
- Implementation Phases
- Product Responsibility Organizations
- Corporate Incentives for Adoption
If you’re a municipality, please take our City Wide Survey today. We are eager to hear from you, and learn about your appetite to adopting these solutions.
Join us with the rest of the Circular Economy Club of Boston here: https://www.circulareconomyclub.com/club/cec-boston/
