People make the world go round. With that in mind, it's important to put them first — as both consumers and contributors — when designing new circular models and processes.
As noted in the description for a GreenBiz 21 session titled "The Human Side of Circular Supply Chains," "Without intention, a circular economy will continue to reinforce the inequity and injustice inherent in the current linear system and communities will be no better off than they were before."
For Ashish Gadnis, CEO and co-founder of BanQu, a logistics and supply chain company, addressing inequity in the circular economy looks like enabling people to use the resources they already have differently.
"You need to meet people where they are and empower them," he said.
Ethically sourcing ocean plastics
What are the debit and/or credit cards in your wallet made of? Plastic. Have you ever considered where the materials for that item come from? For many, the answer is probably no.
For CPI Card Group, a credit and debit card producer whose customers are mostly financial institutions, considering the materials for its products and the people along its supply chain became more important in recent years.
"It’s not the first place people think of when they think of moving toward a circular economy, but it became front and center to us," said Terra Grantham, vice president of sustainability strategy and partnerships at CPI Card Group, during the GreenBiz 21 discussion.
When the company decided to launch an "eco card" made from upcycled ocean-bound plastic, the approach motivated CPI to use a new supply chain in places where it hadn’t worked before. And it wanted to make sure it ethically sourced materials. That’s when it started to partner with First Mile, an initiative of nonprofit Work and Thread International that supports waste collectors in Haiti, Honduras and Taiwan.
First Mile helps CPI with traceability to make sure it’s ethically sourcing ocean plastic and tracking its impact throughout its supply chain — for example, how much revenue collectors generate. And Work supports people in the communities where collection is happening by removing barriers to their success, and providing them with resources such as access to workforce development programs, education and medical care.
Using blockchain to bake equity into circular supply chains
Most supply chain managers are seeking ways to make processes more traceable and transparent, said BanQu's Gadnis, but oftentimes they’re missing out on being equitable to those who participate, such as waste pickers.
BanQu’s software platform serves as a link between a waste picker and a company sourcing recycled materials. Each time a person sells a bottle or other piece of material, they receive a text message that proves and validates their existence in the supply chain. This same information — who the waste picker is and how much material they’re bringing into the supply chain — is provided to the company buying the materials.
"It brings this economic passport for the [waste picker], which is key to [alleviate] poverty and create gender inequality," said Gadnis, who later noted the importance of supporting female waste pickers and farmers in supply chains because they are often denied access to banks and loans that can support their work.
BanQu works with a lot of large companies, including Anheuser-Busch InBev and Coca-Cola. Gadnis said companies are drawn to working with BanQu because they want to be able to better understand their supply chains from end to end.
"If you don’t go all the way and understand where this material is going and coming from, you’re not going to be able to optimize your supply chain and meet your ESG goals," Gadnis said.
The future of circular strategies, solutions and jobs
As companies think about transitioning to a circular economy, they must reflect more thoughtfully about future roles for the workers who will be essential to making these new models work.
Esther Goodwin Brown, lead of the circular jobs initiative at Amsterdam-based think tank Circle Economy, said there are three types of jobs that companies considering being more circular should think about: core; enabling; and indirect. Core circular jobs are those "that ensure the closure of raw material cycles, including jobs in repair, renewable energy, waste and resource management," according to Circle Economy, while enabling jobs are those that enable the acceleration of core circular activities. Indirect jobs don't play a direct role in bolstering the circular economy but supports it indirectly — it might include jobs in information services, logistics and the public sector.
"There’s a real opportunity to look into the future and be forward-facing," Brown said. "One of the biggest opportunities but also one of the biggest unknowns [for the circular economy] is [developing] a whole different way of valuing and thinking about labor and setting up systems within your company that support labor mobility."
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