Mark Wenzler, Peter Nosler Director of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative, believes Chautauqua Institution can be a driving force for reducing waste and cultivating sustainable business practices in Western New York — and the rest of the country.
At 12:15 p.m. today in Smith Wilkes Hall, the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative hosts the Forum on the Circular Economy, a panel discussion featuring business, university and nonprofit leaders from around the region. After the panel, the CCI will also host a screening of “Beyond Zero,” a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a company that successfully implemented zero-waste measures in their business practices.
“It’s important for Chautauqua Institution, as we are embarking on our own net-zero carbon climate action plan, to be engaged with like-minded organizations throughout our region, whether those are universities or businesses, because we all need to do this together,” Wenzler said. “None of us can take that on alone. It’s important for the Institution, both as part of our leadership, also as part of our learning journey, to be collaborating with these other entities in our region who are similarly focused.”
The forum will feature three speakers: Kate Walker, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Materials Management at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Denise Coogan, the recently retired environmental partnership manager Subaru of America; and Diane Cohen, chief executive officer of Finger Lakes ReUse. The forum will begin with a brief introductory lecture from Walker, followed by a panel discussion.
In a circular economy, Walker explained, materials or products are recycled, reused or repurposed — as opposed to being thrown away and sent off to landfills once they are no longer being used — allowing the materials to remain in use for significantly longer periods of time
“Circular economy is a system where materials never become waste, and nature is regenerated,” Walker said. “Through that lens, we are tackling climate change and all of these other environmental global challenges — things like biodiversity loss, waste, pollution — by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite sources.”
For the circular economy to actually work, though, collaboration between private businesses, government entities, academic institutions and the general public is “critical,” Walker added. As more consumers seek out sustainably produced products and environmentally-conscious companies, there is more pressure than ever on businesses to incorporate some of the ideas set forth in the circular economy model into their day-to-day practices.
Subaru of America joined the mix fairly early on.
Coogan, prior to working as the environmental partnership manager for Subaru of America, worked as the safety and environmental compliance manager at Subaru of Indiana, where Subaru conducts the majority of its manufacturing operations in the United States. She led the charge when the plant decided to eliminate all of its waste.
“On May 4, 2004, we sent our last load to a landfill,” she said. “Since then, they’ve sent no waste to landfill, and they recycle over 99% of everything they generate.”
With Coogan at the helm, Subaru of America began facilitating partnerships with other companies and organizations around the United States to lend a hand in implementing zero-waste initiatives. Notably, it began working with the National Park Conservation Association, establishing pilot programs at Grand Teton, Denali and Yosemite. Those programs sought to use some of the same practices Subaru used to eliminate waste in its production facilities to help the national parks eliminate waste that often came from guests.
The partnership between Subaru of America and the National Park Conservation Association, Coogan said, is a prime example of how private corporations can partner with public entities (organizations managed by the government) and nonprofit organizations to build the circular economy.
With the National Park Conservation Association, Subaru of America assisted each of the three pilot parks in identifying their leading causes of waste, where that waste was coming from, and introduced alternatives to those wasted materials. Consistently, Coogan said, food was the largest source, accounting for nearly half of all waste in each of the national parks. Through the partnership, each national park saw the amount of food waste significantly decrease, thanks in large part to simply increasing the amount of information about food waste prevention being disseminated.
“When you know better, you do better, as the saying goes,” Coogan said. “I think that’s what we were really trying to get across to people: Just making these simple changes can make a huge difference.”
The panel discussion today will focus on some of the other ways that businesses, organizations, and individuals from various sectors can come together to reduce the amount of waste being produced, often with detrimental effects on the environment. Walker said working with universities and nonprofits can often be just as important as cooperation between corporations and public entities; universities are able to offer research-backed advice and solutions, and nonprofits often have a much better understanding of the needs of individual communities and can help implement programs that will benefit the most people.
Finding more ways to collaborate with businesses, academic institutions, public services and local communities is essential to ensuring the long term success of a circular economy model, Wenzler said. He hopes the Institution can become a hub for sustainable material management, and that today’s forum can be the first step toward accomplishing that goal. By bringing together local business leaders and community members, in addition to the speakers at the forum, Wenzler is confident that today’s events can signal the beginning of a circular economy in Western New York.
“Something that Chautauqua does universally, across all of our programs, whether it’s the arts, religion, (or) education, that convening role that we play is a really important one for us,” he said. “The fact that we can provide our campus and our programs and invite people in from the outside is really powerful — it’s a place that people want to come. I think that when we open our doors to our neighbors to come in for a forum like this, I think it’s really helpful. It creates a space where they can come and have these programs that might not otherwise be available to them.”
