Can a Circular Economy Salvage the Climate?

Produce, consume, dispose: If you’ve ever made a purchase, you’re familiar with the steps of a traditional linear economy. Raw materials are extracted, produced into goods and used—sometimes only once, in the case of your morning Starbucks—before turning into waste.

Enter the circular economy. Beyond just recycling, several companies are “going circular” by transforming how their products are designed, used and remade. Some are eliminating waste altogether and optimizing product reuse. Others, such as Airbnb and Getaround, are using the sharing economy to cater to a new generation of customers more interested in product access than ownership. How crucial is the circular economy to salvaging climate and planet? Can reducing waste and increasing profits go hand in hand?

Join us with John Lanier, co-author of Mid-Course Correction Revisited: The Story and Legacy of a Radical Industrialist and His Quest for Authentic Change; Beth Rattner, executive director of the Biomimicry Institute; and Peter Templeton, president and CEO of Cradle to Cradle, for a discussion about companies running in circles to benefit customers and the environment.