May 2, 2025 • 25 mins
Summary
In this conversation, Stephanie McLarty and Heidi Frasure discuss actionable circularity tips in celebration of Earth Week. They emphasize the importance of reframing messaging, redefining value in sustainability, and activating strategies to engage teams in sustainability efforts. The discussion highlights the need for integration of sustainability goals into corporate strategies and the importance of community impact. The conversation concludes with advice for sustainability professionals to take care of themselves amidst the challenges of the industry.
Takeaways
- Reframe your messaging to be more inclusive and engaging.
- Focus on how your sustainability efforts make people feel.
- Redefine value by integrating financial and social wins.
- Engage your entire workforce in sustainability efforts.
- Integrate sustainability goals into corporate strategies.
- Use storytelling to communicate the impact of sustainability initiatives.
- Recognize the importance of community impact in sustainability efforts.
- Sustainability is a team sport; everyone has a role to play.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Analysis.
Paralysis is real, especiallyat a time when what we really
need is action.
So what are simple things yourdepartment or organization can
do to advance circularity in thenext three months?
Welcome to the circular future.
Your access to thought leadersand innovations to help you be a
(00:22):
business sustainabilitychampion, even if it's not your
core job.
I'm your host.
(00:43):
Stephanie McLarty, head ofSustainability at Quantum
Lifecycle Partners, your trustedpartner in electronics
circularity.
I'm a firm believer that changeof any kind starts with
education.
So, to celebrate Earth Week, wedecided to take our
conversation to a whole newlevel of awareness.
(01:06):
We decided to try something new.
Go live on LinkedIn.
Yes, I invited Heidi Fraser tojoin me live and share three
tips to advance circularity inthe next three months.
Heidi is the Head ofSustainability at Green
(01:26):
Standards, the global leader insustainable office
decommissioning.
You may also recognize Heidifrom episode 33 on how to
measure circularity beyond justcarbon.
The following conversation wasrecorded live on LinkedIn and I
believe we are live on LinkedIn.
(01:48):
Hello, everyone, and welcome toour inaugural live with a guest
.
This is the first time we'redoing this.
We're talking today, incelebration of Earth Week, about
circularity tips.
So three circularity tips inthe next three months and I
(02:09):
thought to myself who would begreat to come on with me, who
would be someone who could justroll with it in a very
like-minded organization?
And I have to admit, my mindwent to Heidi at Green Standards
, because you are very aligned.
So thank you so much, heidi,for being here and testing this
(02:31):
out.
So we're basically using a thirdparty platform called Riverside
to do this, because you can'tdirectly stream through LinkedIn
at least not anymore to myunderstanding, and I'm not sure
entirely that we can see thecomments yet.
But if we can't while we'relive, we will circle back and
(02:52):
respond afterwards If you can.
If you are joining us live andyou can comment, give us a
hashtag live in the comments.
If you are joining the replay,give us a hashtag replay.
And here's a question to answerIf you're celebrating Earth
(03:14):
Week, or perhaps Earth Day twodays ago, what did you do?
Or what are you doing?
At Quantum?
We're doing an Earth Weekchallenge where every site
chooses a local communityorganization to support.
I would love to hear what areyou doing.
Drop it in the comments and,Heidi, I'd love to know what
you're doing too.
But first of all, give us aquick intro on who you are and
(03:39):
then tell us what you're doing,Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, so super excited to be here with you
today.
Stephanie, thanks for thinkingof me on Earth Week.
We were kind of chatting before, but this is kind of like our
Super Bowl for thesustainability world, right,
like this is a big deal for usWhile we live and breathe the
sustainability every day.
This week and this month iskind of our Super Bowl.
(04:01):
So it's exciting what we'redoing at Green Standards,
because we do live and breathesustainability and every project
we do is actually a sustainableproject.
We are doing a global trashpickup challenge, and so,
whether it's plogging whereyou're jogging and picking up
trash, I was just in Kansas Citywith an amazing panel and a
bunch of designers for KansasCity Design Week, and I picked
(04:25):
up quite a bit of trash on myway to and from the event, and
so that'll be kind of a funthing.
Everyone's sharing theirpictures of trash cleanup with
their kids and the dogs, and soit'll be fun to see all of those
photos come through.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I love that.
And what a perfect time of yearto do it, because it's spring
and when the snow melts, atleast around here there's a lot
of time to like yeah for sure.
Yeah.
So at quantum and, by the way,uh, stephanie mcclarty, head of
sustainability, at quantum lifecycle partners, we are your
trusted partner in electronicscircularity.
Basically, we touch anythingwith a battery or a plug.
(05:01):
We reuse it, recycle it, wipethe data on it, parts, harvest
all of that electroniccircularity stuff.
And so for Earth Week inHamilton, which I'm part of that
team we did, there's a localorganization that takes old
trophies and basically upcyclesthem, deplacks them so they can
(05:23):
be replacked, and gives them tokids.
Organizations that will thengive them to kids, and it's for
organizations that don't have abudget for any awards or
trophies, yeah, so it's reallycool.
So, heidi, tell us a little bitabout what you do at Green
Standards.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Sure, yeah, I kind of forgot to introduce myself and
Green Standards in that regard.
So Green Standards is acircular business model by
nature, right?
So we come in during workplacechanges and moves and help keep
assets interior assets in usefor longer through reuse.
First reuse we look for allsorts of reuse opportunities,
either through employeedonations, employee resale or
(06:04):
reusing in their existingportfolio.
Then we go down a wastehierarchy approach of going to
donation partners all thecommunity partners within a
30-mile radius that might findvalue in those assets and then
we look for resale potential,trying to keep those assets in
use for longer through resale,bringing value back into the
project.
And then we look forspecialized recyclers that can
(06:26):
take those assets and materialsand at least recover the
componentry to reuse thecomponentry in new products.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's awesome and I know that that quantum works
with green standards in terms ofthat electronics piece.
I also like how you describeyour business as like basically
taking an office and turning itover and shaking it out.
Anything that falls out is whatyou would handle.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah it's more than just furniture.
It's decor, it's plants, it'syou name it.
We're doing some gym equipmentright now for a client A lot of
forklifts, ironically so we'veprobably come in contact with
anything you could imagine thatwould be in an office.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That is amazing, and I see we've got Justin live
hashtag live.
Thank you, justin.
And as we go through this, wewelcome any comments, any
questions in the comments, soplease do add them.
So let's get into our topictoday, which is three
circularity tips in the nextthree months, and we chose this
because organizations arestruggling about what they can
(07:27):
do around circularity, but italso needs to be actionable, and
so I'm going to ask Heidi forwhat are her three tips for the
next three months forcircularity, and especially
applied to a business in generalor a department of a business?
So let's get started.
So, heidi, what would be yourfirst tip for circularity?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
So I think the first tip andthis applies to anyone in any
sustainability industry is toreframe, reframe your messaging,
reframe your language.
Whether we like it or not, ourmessaging has become political,
and I also think it's a goodopportunity for everyone in the
industry to re-engage differentaudiences, because I think we've
(08:13):
become a little bit too jargonywhere you're using a ton of
acronyms I know I use a ton ofacronyms in my life, coming from
a really highly technicalbackground and so dropping those
acronyms, dropping some of thatlanguage that is not inclusive,
and really bringing people inwith our messaging and our
language.
(08:33):
I love the Maya Angelou quoteabout you know, people don't
remember what you said or did,but they're going to remember
how you made them feel, and Ithink really having compelling
storytelling and messagingaround what you're doing in the
circular economy space canreally bring people in and help
break down some of thosebarriers that we all have from a
(08:55):
sustainability perspective.
And so that would be the firstpiece of advice Again, like, how
do you want clients to feel?
I love the Patagonia example.
There, too, people buyPatagonia because of how it
makes them feel, not necessarilybecause it's the most beautiful
outdoors wear right.
So I think it's important toreally have that compelling
storytelling and messaging,reframing your language and
(09:17):
bringing people to the table.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I love that Reframe your language.
It almost makes me laugh alittle bit, because in our space
, the acronym that we use allthe time is ITAD, which stands
for IT Asset Disposition, andeveryone knows what it is sort
of internally or within theindustry.
(09:40):
Nobody knows what it meansexternally.
And even when you say IT assetdisposition, for some people
they may intuitively get it, butfor others they may not, and so
I often find myself using theword reuse and remarketing
because it's the most simplistic, but it is a challenge.
(10:01):
Often, too, we call ourselveselectronics recyclers to make it
the most simple thing thatpeople can wrap their heads
around, but we do so much morethan just recycling and, to your
point about earlier about thewaste hierarchy, we do so much
around reuse and parts reuse andthe reduction through repair
and all of that.
(10:22):
So, yeah, it is a challenge andan opportunity to really
reframe.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, I think for me actually shout out to Ben and
Mark on my team.
They've really helped me a lot.
I mean, I come from a verytechnical background and I think
a lot of people in thesustainability world do right,
and so we kind of get in ourlittle silos and we think
everyone knows what we'retalking about.
But they don't, and I thinkwe've isolated ourselves a
little bit and I think that'salso caused a lot of people to
(10:51):
look at circular economy assomething that's really complex
and confusing.
But it's really not.
I mean, some of what we look atfrom a circular economy
perspective is verystraightforward.
It's old fashioned in somesense, like think about the old
milkman days of the milkmanbottle delivery.
That's a circular economybusiness model, right?
So really reframing it so thatit's not so complex and scary
(11:15):
for folks and that they canreally have an entry point.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, totally Okay.
So first tip reframe.
Keep it simple.
Focus on how you make peoplefeel, okay, love that.
What would be your second tip?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
My second one is redefine, and so these are all
kind of related.
You'll notice the theme here.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Lots of re-words.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, redefine our language, redefine on value and
resiliency those two topics arenot controversial for anyone and
really, quite frankly, from acircular economy perspective,
there should always be a valueinvolved in what you're trying
to do.
Or I know in my past life,anytime I was trying to initiate
a project that was related tothe circular economy, I looked
(12:00):
for areas where there was afinancial win, and there was
also an environmental or socialwin too, and so I think,
focusing in this, next year,next three months on, where can
you find those financial wins?
We just recently had a projectwith a client where we were able
to run the return on investmentfor them, and it was a $700,000
year over year savings for them.
Just recently had a projectwith a client where we were able
to run the return on investmentfor them, and it was a $700,000
(12:21):
year over year savings for them.
And so that's a no brainer.
And then it's also a reallypositive storytelling
opportunity for them to keepthose assets out of landfill, be
able to donate some brand newassets that were sitting in
storage collecting dust to theirlocal communities and
nonprofits, and so there's somereally amazing storytelling
(12:41):
opportunities from a social side.
And so don't forget about thatsocial piece.
When you're defining value, thatmatters.
The community impact matters.
At Green Standards, we'vedonated over $50 million of
in-kind donation in partnershipwith our clients, and that's
over 5,500 community partnersfrom shelters, schools, people
(13:03):
who are reintegrating, folksfrom incarceration.
Like this has a real impactbecause we're now giving them
assets in their office like taskchairs and stuff like that that
they can now sit in and havedignity in the work that they're
doing, and so there's somereally important community work
from a return on investmentperspective to focus on.
(13:26):
And then the resiliency side ofthings.
I think that's extremelyimportant right now, obviously
with the geopoliticalenvironment.
So finding resilient supplychains being able to harvest
parts and materials, likequantum is doing, to be able to
shore up some of our supplychain with critical minerals I
(13:47):
think is really important andimpactful, and so that's part of
a circular economy, right.
And so building out thatresiliency can really help shore
up and share that value andthat return on investment.
Don't just focus on short-termreturns.
Focus on those long-term onestoo, and be able to really have
that compelling storytelling andmessaging to bring back to your
(14:10):
internal stakeholders or yourexternal stakeholders.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So redefine essentially is what you're
saying here.
Yeah, on the critical mineralsfront, we actually just did an
analysis to look at what is ourinvolvement in critical minerals
, because we recycle about100,000 minerals sorry, 100
million pounds of electronicsper year.
That's not even considering thereuse side, and there are
(14:39):
critical minerals in thoseelectronics.
We know through our, you know,smartphones and our laptops,
like we need critical mineralsfor them existing in everyday
products yeah, so we actually umdid an analysis and every
jurisdiction defines criticalminerals differently in terms of
what is considered criticallyor critical.
(14:59):
But in Canada there are 34critical minerals and we process
in some way 11 of those 34,helping to put them back into
the supply chain.
But ultimately, I think whatyou're saying is sustainability,
and doing these kinds ofcircularity efforts is really
(15:19):
around creating value, and it'snow well proven that
sustainability helps to for,like the leading organizations,
really increase sales but alsodecrease costs.
Like there's a huge financialwin here.
We see it all the time atQuantum and what we're doing
with remarketing and recycling.
(15:40):
But, yeah, this is a win-winopportunity for organizations.
So don't just look at it assomething external and fluffy,
but something truly core to thevalue that your organization can
create and receive as well.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Salesforce just did a study and I'll put this link in
the chat for other people toreference, but it's an
interesting study and they found56% of the corporate executives
that they interviewed said thatsustainability was helping
their organizations with supplychain resiliency.
So that's huge right.
They're seeing the benefitwithin organizations with supply
(16:18):
chain resiliency.
So that's huge right.
They're seeing the benefitwithin their own supply chain.
So I think that it's importantto look at it both from an
external perspective, on areturn on investment, and an
internal perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, totally.
I see a comment here fromJustin.
It's mind-blowing how manyreusable materials can be found
in our everyday devices.
That's right.
And there is such a thingcalled electronic hibernation,
where we put our old electronicdevices in a drawer or in a
closet and we forget about them.
But we need to get them out andget them back into us yeah back
(16:53):
in the recovery process.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, I don't know the stat off the top of my head,
unfortunately but I know inorder to reach the Paris
Agreement, we're going to haveto extract and mine a lot more
minerals, right?
And so what does it look liketo actually harvest some of
those materials that alreadyexist, rather than going back in
and mining for more?
And I think that's the beautyof what you guys are doing from
(17:15):
a recycling recovery perspective, sometimes recycling gets a bad
rap in a circular economy.
I think it's absolutely crucialto mining some of those
component trees that we need inorder to advance into a green
energy economy.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, recycling is a huge and vital piece of a
circular economy.
But even we say at Quantum thatreuse is the best form of
recycling.
Yeah, okay, let's move on.
So we've had reframe, we've hadredefine.
So, heidi, what would be yourthird circularity tip?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's activate action my favorite part.
Right, let's act on all of that.
So it's one thing to speak andshare the messaging and
storytelling, but you reallyneed to have action in order to
have those stories to tell.
And so that's the main piece,and I know everyone is setting.
Most corporations, most bigcompanies and even small
companies and mid-sizedcompanies, are setting climate
(18:11):
change targets or some sort ofsustainability targets, and so
my piece of advice there is tomake sure you're integrating in
your existing strategies, yourbusiness strategies.
Oftentimes, what I've seen isyou have a corporate strategy
sitting on one side of things ofthe business and then
sustainability goals sitting offin the corner Maybe they're in
(18:32):
a closet somewhere, forgotten,like your cell phone, and they
need to be brought in andbrought together.
They need to inform one another.
One should be derived from theother right, and so there's a
lot of integration that needs tohappen with sustainability
goals and corporate strategygoals in order to really move
(18:52):
the needle here.
And then my second piece ofadvice under activate is engage,
and that means engage yourentire workforce, engage your
finance department, engage youroperations team and really level
up their skill sets.
Everyone should be wearing asustainability hat.
Really, there's no excuseanymore.
(19:12):
You can use AI and learn almostanything you want to know about
sustainability or circulareconomy, and so leverage AI to
help upskill your internal teamsand then, obviously, help
engage your clients too, andthat really speaks to that
messaging piece.
But it's time to act.
The time is now, and I thinkit's really important.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And I think it's really important Love that
Activate.
The time to act is now.
I will say that we at Quantumhave fallen into the trap where
some of our sustainability goalshave not been integrated.
They've been separate, reallycommon it's so common.
So this is you.
Don't worry, we're actuallyabout to start an updated
(19:55):
materiality assessment process,which we do every three years,
and one of the goals out of thatis actually to make sure
everything is fully integratedin terms of all of the metrics
that we're tracking are onesthat we're either already
tracking or like that makessense from an integrated
perspective on our dashboard.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, and also yeah, go ahead.
I was just going to say in thatreference that I'll share.
They call them advancedintegrators, but it's the
companies that have really donea good job of integrating
sustainability into theircorporate business practices and
they're seeing a lot morebenefit out of it 67% more
growth in sales, 70% moreemployee retention and
(20:36):
attraction so like they'reseeing more benefit from the
fact that they've been able tointegrate, and so I think that's
really important.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Wow, okay, just another piece around, like the
value creation that circularityand sustainability can provide,
love that.
The other thing around engagingyour team, totally, totally
agree with you.
I was actually asked on a panelon Tuesday how is
sustainability a team sportpositions your forwards and your
(21:05):
defense and your goalie, orwhether you think about
basketball, or my daughter's acompetitive dancer, and so
there's girls on her group thatare bigger and they lift the
smaller ones up.
Like everybody has a role toplay Everybody has a strength,
(21:28):
and when you have a goal, whichis whatever it is waste
reduction or greenhouse gasemissions reduction, circularity
you basically need individualsfrom across the entire
organization pulling in the samedirection, whether it's
operations and finance andprocurement and whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Everybody has to work together.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And I think at Quantum we do that really well,
in the sense that we call all ofour staff sustainability
superheroes.
That's the name for ourselves,and the planet is also one of
our key stakeholders.
So we're all in this togethertowards what we're working on,
which is essentially keepingproducts and materials in use,
(22:13):
at least electronics potentiallykeeping products and materials
in use, at least electronics.
Speaking of which ben notedthat dead electronics in a
drawer equals old furniture in awarehouse yes, that's our
analogy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, like I said we, we help clients save money by
getting all that stuff out ofthe warehouse and getting it in
the hands of the local community, who deserve it more than the
landfill.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, love that.
Okay, so, to summarize, we'vehad reframe, we've had redefine
and activate.
I love how.
In itself, those are just threesimple words to think about.
So, heidi, as we close out thisconversation, given everything
we've talked about, what wouldyou say is one piece of advice?
It is, by the way, the lastquestion we always ask on our
podcast, circular Future.
So what would be your lastpiece of advice that you'd leave
(23:05):
our audience with?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I guess I'm assuming I'm speaking to other
sustainability professionalsacross probably different
industries and differentfunctional areas.
I would just say take care ofyourselves.
I think we're kind of living indark times as an industry.
It's been a challenge.
We're obviously having toreframe our language and we're
(23:28):
having to do a lot of work toreally prove our value, and I
think the sustainabilityindustry as a whole actually
experiences more burnout thanany other industry.
Around 62% of sustainabilityprofessionals report some level
of burnout, and so take care ofyourself, take your vacation
time.
I just want to say thank youfor everything you're doing.
(23:50):
I know this is our Super Bowlweek and so it's been exciting,
but also make sure you're takingsome time for yourself.
We need you, the world needsyou, so keep doing what you're
doing, keep challenging thestatus quo, keep running those
return on investment numbers.
It's important and it's life'swork.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And to our point earlier, everybody is working in
sustainability in some way,shape or form.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So so thank you for all of your work.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yes, I think that that is really great advice, and
the phrase that comes up for meis fill your own cup and pour
from the overflow, and too often, especially as women, we don't,
and so that's really greatadvice.
Love to hear from you in thecomments what has been your
(24:39):
biggest takeaway in thisconversation.
Also, if you have any questions, because even when we end here,
the live will stay in the feed,you can watch the replay and
Heidi and I will be around toanswer any questions as well.
Thank you so much, heidi.
Be around to answer anyquestions as well.
Thank you so much, heidi.
(25:00):
Thank you for being our firstone in this inaugural LinkedIn
Live, where it's very much atest of what's possible with
LinkedIn, and thank you for allthat you do, both at Green
Standards and you personally.
I know you're a huge thoughtleader in this industry, and so
I appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, thank you for your collaboration.
Always, stephanie, weappreciate Quantum as well as a
partner and really appreciateeverything you're doing.
Thank you, keep up the goodwork.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
And remember, if you're looking for a partner to
help you repair, reuse andrecycle your electronics, we'd
love to chat Head on over toquantumlifecyclecom and contact
us.
This is a Quantum Lifecyclepodcast and the producer is
Sanjay Trivedi.
Thank you for being a CircularFuture Champion in your company
(25:46):
and beyond.
Analysis.
Paralysis is real, especiallyat a time when what we really
need is action.
So what are simple things yourdepartment or organization can
do to advance circularity in thenext three months?
Welcome to the circular future.
Your access to thought leadersand innovations to help you be a
(00:22):
business sustainabilitychampion, even if it's not your
core job.
I'm your host.
(00:43):
Stephanie McLarty, head ofSustainability at Quantum
Lifecycle Partners, your trustedpartner in electronics
circularity.
I'm a firm believer that changeof any kind starts with
education.
So, to celebrate Earth Week, wedecided to take our
conversation to a whole newlevel of awareness.
(01:06):
We decided to try something new.
Go live on LinkedIn.
Yes, I invited Heidi Fraser tojoin me live and share three
tips to advance circularity inthe next three months.
Heidi is the Head ofSustainability at Green
(01:26):
Standards, the global leader insustainable office
decommissioning.
You may also recognize Heidifrom episode 33 on how to
measure circularity beyond justcarbon.
The following conversation wasrecorded live on LinkedIn and I
believe we are live on LinkedIn.
(01:48):
Hello, everyone, and welcome toour inaugural live with a guest
.
This is the first time we'redoing this.
We're talking today, incelebration of Earth Week, about
circularity tips.
So three circularity tips inthe next three months and I
(02:09):
thought to myself who would begreat to come on with me, who
would be someone who could justroll with it in a very
like-minded organization?
And I have to admit, my mindwent to Heidi at Green Standards
, because you are very aligned.
So thank you so much, heidi,for being here and testing this
(02:31):
out.
So we're basically using a thirdparty platform called Riverside
to do this, because you can'tdirectly stream through LinkedIn
at least not anymore to myunderstanding, and I'm not sure
entirely that we can see thecomments yet.
But if we can't while we'relive, we will circle back and
(02:52):
respond afterwards If you can.
If you are joining us live andyou can comment, give us a
hashtag live in the comments.
If you are joining the replay,give us a hashtag replay.
And here's a question to answerIf you're celebrating Earth
(03:14):
Week, or perhaps Earth Day twodays ago, what did you do?
Or what are you doing?
At Quantum?
We're doing an Earth Weekchallenge where every site
chooses a local communityorganization to support.
I would love to hear what areyou doing.
Drop it in the comments and,Heidi, I'd love to know what
you're doing too.
But first of all, give us aquick intro on who you are and
(03:39):
then tell us what you're doing,Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, so super excited to be here with you
today.
Stephanie, thanks for thinkingof me on Earth Week.
We were kind of chatting before, but this is kind of like our
Super Bowl for thesustainability world, right,
like this is a big deal for usWhile we live and breathe the
sustainability every day.
This week and this month iskind of our Super Bowl.
(04:01):
So it's exciting what we'redoing at Green Standards,
because we do live and breathesustainability and every project
we do is actually a sustainableproject.
We are doing a global trashpickup challenge, and so,
whether it's plogging whereyou're jogging and picking up
trash, I was just in Kansas Citywith an amazing panel and a
bunch of designers for KansasCity Design Week, and I picked
(04:25):
up quite a bit of trash on myway to and from the event, and
so that'll be kind of a funthing.
Everyone's sharing theirpictures of trash cleanup with
their kids and the dogs, and soit'll be fun to see all of those
photos come through.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I love that.
And what a perfect time of yearto do it, because it's spring
and when the snow melts, atleast around here there's a lot
of time to like yeah for sure.
Yeah.
So at quantum and, by the way,uh, stephanie mcclarty, head of
sustainability, at quantum lifecycle partners, we are your
trusted partner in electronicscircularity.
Basically, we touch anythingwith a battery or a plug.
(05:01):
We reuse it, recycle it, wipethe data on it, parts, harvest
all of that electroniccircularity stuff.
And so for Earth Week inHamilton, which I'm part of that
team we did, there's a localorganization that takes old
trophies and basically upcyclesthem, deplacks them so they can
(05:23):
be replacked, and gives them tokids.
Organizations that will thengive them to kids, and it's for
organizations that don't have abudget for any awards or
trophies, yeah, so it's reallycool.
So, heidi, tell us a little bitabout what you do at Green
Standards.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Sure, yeah, I kind of forgot to introduce myself and
Green Standards in that regard.
So Green Standards is acircular business model by
nature, right?
So we come in during workplacechanges and moves and help keep
assets interior assets in usefor longer through reuse.
First reuse we look for allsorts of reuse opportunities,
either through employeedonations, employee resale or
(06:04):
reusing in their existingportfolio.
Then we go down a wastehierarchy approach of going to
donation partners all thecommunity partners within a
30-mile radius that might findvalue in those assets and then
we look for resale potential,trying to keep those assets in
use for longer through resale,bringing value back into the
project.
And then we look forspecialized recyclers that can
(06:26):
take those assets and materialsand at least recover the
componentry to reuse thecomponentry in new products.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's awesome and I know that that quantum works
with green standards in terms ofthat electronics piece.
I also like how you describeyour business as like basically
taking an office and turning itover and shaking it out.
Anything that falls out is whatyou would handle.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah it's more than just furniture.
It's decor, it's plants, it'syou name it.
We're doing some gym equipmentright now for a client A lot of
forklifts, ironically so we'veprobably come in contact with
anything you could imagine thatwould be in an office.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That is amazing, and I see we've got Justin live
hashtag live.
Thank you, justin.
And as we go through this, wewelcome any comments, any
questions in the comments, soplease do add them.
So let's get into our topictoday, which is three
circularity tips in the nextthree months, and we chose this
because organizations arestruggling about what they can
(07:27):
do around circularity, but italso needs to be actionable, and
so I'm going to ask Heidi forwhat are her three tips for the
next three months forcircularity, and especially
applied to a business in generalor a department of a business?
So let's get started.
So, heidi, what would be yourfirst tip for circularity?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
So I think the first tip andthis applies to anyone in any
sustainability industry is toreframe, reframe your messaging,
reframe your language.
Whether we like it or not, ourmessaging has become political,
and I also think it's a goodopportunity for everyone in the
industry to re-engage differentaudiences, because I think we've
(08:13):
become a little bit too jargonywhere you're using a ton of
acronyms I know I use a ton ofacronyms in my life, coming from
a really highly technicalbackground and so dropping those
acronyms, dropping some of thatlanguage that is not inclusive,
and really bringing people inwith our messaging and our
language.
(08:33):
I love the Maya Angelou quoteabout you know, people don't
remember what you said or did,but they're going to remember
how you made them feel, and Ithink really having compelling
storytelling and messagingaround what you're doing in the
circular economy space canreally bring people in and help
break down some of thosebarriers that we all have from a
(08:55):
sustainability perspective.
And so that would be the firstpiece of advice Again, like, how
do you want clients to feel?
I love the Patagonia example.
There, too, people buyPatagonia because of how it
makes them feel, not necessarilybecause it's the most beautiful
outdoors wear right.
So I think it's important toreally have that compelling
storytelling and messaging,reframing your language and
(09:17):
bringing people to the table.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I love that Reframe your language.
It almost makes me laugh alittle bit, because in our space
, the acronym that we use allthe time is ITAD, which stands
for IT Asset Disposition, andeveryone knows what it is sort
of internally or within theindustry.
(09:40):
Nobody knows what it meansexternally.
And even when you say IT assetdisposition, for some people
they may intuitively get it, butfor others they may not, and so
I often find myself using theword reuse and remarketing
because it's the most simplistic, but it is a challenge.
(10:01):
Often, too, we call ourselveselectronics recyclers to make it
the most simple thing thatpeople can wrap their heads
around, but we do so much morethan just recycling and, to your
point about earlier about thewaste hierarchy, we do so much
around reuse and parts reuse andthe reduction through repair
and all of that.
(10:22):
So, yeah, it is a challenge andan opportunity to really
reframe.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, I think for me actually shout out to Ben and
Mark on my team.
They've really helped me a lot.
I mean, I come from a verytechnical background and I think
a lot of people in thesustainability world do right,
and so we kind of get in ourlittle silos and we think
everyone knows what we'retalking about.
But they don't, and I thinkwe've isolated ourselves a
little bit and I think that'salso caused a lot of people to
(10:51):
look at circular economy assomething that's really complex
and confusing.
But it's really not.
I mean, some of what we look atfrom a circular economy
perspective is verystraightforward.
It's old fashioned in somesense, like think about the old
milkman days of the milkmanbottle delivery.
That's a circular economybusiness model, right?
So really reframing it so thatit's not so complex and scary
(11:15):
for folks and that they canreally have an entry point.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, totally Okay.
So first tip reframe.
Keep it simple.
Focus on how you make peoplefeel, okay, love that.
What would be your second tip?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
My second one is redefine, and so these are all
kind of related.
You'll notice the theme here.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Lots of re-words.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, redefine our language, redefine on value and
resiliency those two topics arenot controversial for anyone and
really, quite frankly, from acircular economy perspective,
there should always be a valueinvolved in what you're trying
to do.
Or I know in my past life,anytime I was trying to initiate
a project that was related tothe circular economy, I looked
(12:00):
for areas where there was afinancial win, and there was
also an environmental or socialwin too, and so I think,
focusing in this, next year,next three months on, where can
you find those financial wins?
We just recently had a projectwith a client where we were able
to run the return on investmentfor them, and it was a $700,000
year over year savings for them.
Just recently had a projectwith a client where we were able
to run the return on investmentfor them, and it was a $700,000
(12:21):
year over year savings for them.
And so that's a no brainer.
And then it's also a reallypositive storytelling
opportunity for them to keepthose assets out of landfill, be
able to donate some brand newassets that were sitting in
storage collecting dust to theirlocal communities and
nonprofits, and so there's somereally amazing storytelling
(12:41):
opportunities from a social side.
And so don't forget about thatsocial piece.
When you're defining value, thatmatters.
The community impact matters.
At Green Standards, we'vedonated over $50 million of
in-kind donation in partnershipwith our clients, and that's
over 5,500 community partnersfrom shelters, schools, people
(13:03):
who are reintegrating, folksfrom incarceration.
Like this has a real impactbecause we're now giving them
assets in their office like taskchairs and stuff like that that
they can now sit in and havedignity in the work that they're
doing, and so there's somereally important community work
from a return on investmentperspective to focus on.
(13:26):
And then the resiliency side ofthings.
I think that's extremelyimportant right now, obviously
with the geopoliticalenvironment.
So finding resilient supplychains being able to harvest
parts and materials, likequantum is doing, to be able to
shore up some of our supplychain with critical minerals I
(13:47):
think is really important andimpactful, and so that's part of
a circular economy, right.
And so building out thatresiliency can really help shore
up and share that value andthat return on investment.
Don't just focus on short-termreturns.
Focus on those long-term onestoo, and be able to really have
that compelling storytelling andmessaging to bring back to your
(14:10):
internal stakeholders or yourexternal stakeholders.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So redefine essentially is what you're
saying here.
Yeah, on the critical mineralsfront, we actually just did an
analysis to look at what is ourinvolvement in critical minerals
, because we recycle about100,000 minerals sorry, 100
million pounds of electronicsper year.
That's not even considering thereuse side, and there are
(14:39):
critical minerals in thoseelectronics.
We know through our, you know,smartphones and our laptops,
like we need critical mineralsfor them existing in everyday
products yeah, so we actually umdid an analysis and every
jurisdiction defines criticalminerals differently in terms of
what is considered criticallyor critical.
(14:59):
But in Canada there are 34critical minerals and we process
in some way 11 of those 34,helping to put them back into
the supply chain.
But ultimately, I think whatyou're saying is sustainability,
and doing these kinds ofcircularity efforts is really
(15:19):
around creating value, and it'snow well proven that
sustainability helps to for,like the leading organizations,
really increase sales but alsodecrease costs.
Like there's a huge financialwin here.
We see it all the time atQuantum and what we're doing
with remarketing and recycling.
(15:40):
But, yeah, this is a win-winopportunity for organizations.
So don't just look at it assomething external and fluffy,
but something truly core to thevalue that your organization can
create and receive as well.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Salesforce just did a study and I'll put this link in
the chat for other people toreference, but it's an
interesting study and they found56% of the corporate executives
that they interviewed said thatsustainability was helping
their organizations with supplychain resiliency.
So that's huge right.
They're seeing the benefitwithin organizations with supply
(16:18):
chain resiliency.
So that's huge right.
They're seeing the benefitwithin their own supply chain.
So I think that it's importantto look at it both from an
external perspective, on areturn on investment, and an
internal perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, totally.
I see a comment here fromJustin.
It's mind-blowing how manyreusable materials can be found
in our everyday devices.
That's right.
And there is such a thingcalled electronic hibernation,
where we put our old electronicdevices in a drawer or in a
closet and we forget about them.
But we need to get them out andget them back into us yeah back
(16:53):
in the recovery process.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, I don't know the stat off the top of my head,
unfortunately but I know inorder to reach the Paris
Agreement, we're going to haveto extract and mine a lot more
minerals, right?
And so what does it look liketo actually harvest some of
those materials that alreadyexist, rather than going back in
and mining for more?
And I think that's the beautyof what you guys are doing from
(17:15):
a recycling recovery perspective, sometimes recycling gets a bad
rap in a circular economy.
I think it's absolutely crucialto mining some of those
component trees that we need inorder to advance into a green
energy economy.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, recycling is a huge and vital piece of a
circular economy.
But even we say at Quantum thatreuse is the best form of
recycling.
Yeah, okay, let's move on.
So we've had reframe, we've hadredefine.
So, heidi, what would be yourthird circularity tip?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's activate action my favorite part.
Right, let's act on all of that.
So it's one thing to speak andshare the messaging and
storytelling, but you reallyneed to have action in order to
have those stories to tell.
And so that's the main piece,and I know everyone is setting.
Most corporations, most bigcompanies and even small
companies and mid-sizedcompanies, are setting climate
(18:11):
change targets or some sort ofsustainability targets, and so
my piece of advice there is tomake sure you're integrating in
your existing strategies, yourbusiness strategies.
Oftentimes, what I've seen isyou have a corporate strategy
sitting on one side of things ofthe business and then
sustainability goals sitting offin the corner Maybe they're in
(18:32):
a closet somewhere, forgotten,like your cell phone, and they
need to be brought in andbrought together.
They need to inform one another.
One should be derived from theother right, and so there's a
lot of integration that needs tohappen with sustainability
goals and corporate strategygoals in order to really move
(18:52):
the needle here.
And then my second piece ofadvice under activate is engage,
and that means engage yourentire workforce, engage your
finance department, engage youroperations team and really level
up their skill sets.
Everyone should be wearing asustainability hat.
Really, there's no excuseanymore.
(19:12):
You can use AI and learn almostanything you want to know about
sustainability or circulareconomy, and so leverage AI to
help upskill your internal teamsand then, obviously, help
engage your clients too, andthat really speaks to that
messaging piece.
But it's time to act.
The time is now, and I thinkit's really important.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And I think it's really important Love that
Activate.
The time to act is now.
I will say that we at Quantumhave fallen into the trap where
some of our sustainability goalshave not been integrated.
They've been separate, reallycommon it's so common.
So this is you.
Don't worry, we're actuallyabout to start an updated
(19:55):
materiality assessment process,which we do every three years,
and one of the goals out of thatis actually to make sure
everything is fully integratedin terms of all of the metrics
that we're tracking are onesthat we're either already
tracking or like that makessense from an integrated
perspective on our dashboard.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, and also yeah, go ahead.
I was just going to say in thatreference that I'll share.
They call them advancedintegrators, but it's the
companies that have really donea good job of integrating
sustainability into theircorporate business practices and
they're seeing a lot morebenefit out of it 67% more
growth in sales, 70% moreemployee retention and
(20:36):
attraction so like they'reseeing more benefit from the
fact that they've been able tointegrate, and so I think that's
really important.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Wow, okay, just another piece around, like the
value creation that circularityand sustainability can provide,
love that.
The other thing around engagingyour team, totally, totally
agree with you.
I was actually asked on a panelon Tuesday how is
sustainability a team sportpositions your forwards and your
(21:05):
defense and your goalie, orwhether you think about
basketball, or my daughter's acompetitive dancer, and so
there's girls on her group thatare bigger and they lift the
smaller ones up.
Like everybody has a role toplay Everybody has a strength,
(21:28):
and when you have a goal, whichis whatever it is waste
reduction or greenhouse gasemissions reduction, circularity
you basically need individualsfrom across the entire
organization pulling in the samedirection, whether it's
operations and finance andprocurement and whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Everybody has to work together.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And I think at Quantum we do that really well,
in the sense that we call all ofour staff sustainability
superheroes.
That's the name for ourselves,and the planet is also one of
our key stakeholders.
So we're all in this togethertowards what we're working on,
which is essentially keepingproducts and materials in use,
(22:13):
at least electronics potentiallykeeping products and materials
in use, at least electronics.
Speaking of which ben notedthat dead electronics in a
drawer equals old furniture in awarehouse yes, that's our
analogy.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, like I said we, we help clients save money by
getting all that stuff out ofthe warehouse and getting it in
the hands of the local community, who deserve it more than the
landfill.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, love that.
Okay, so, to summarize, we'vehad reframe, we've had redefine
and activate.
I love how.
In itself, those are just threesimple words to think about.
So, heidi, as we close out thisconversation, given everything
we've talked about, what wouldyou say is one piece of advice?
It is, by the way, the lastquestion we always ask on our
podcast, circular Future.
So what would be your lastpiece of advice that you'd leave
(23:05):
our audience with?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I guess I'm assuming I'm speaking to other
sustainability professionalsacross probably different
industries and differentfunctional areas.
I would just say take care ofyourselves.
I think we're kind of living indark times as an industry.
It's been a challenge.
We're obviously having toreframe our language and we're
(23:28):
having to do a lot of work toreally prove our value, and I
think the sustainabilityindustry as a whole actually
experiences more burnout thanany other industry.
Around 62% of sustainabilityprofessionals report some level
of burnout, and so take care ofyourself, take your vacation
time.
I just want to say thank youfor everything you're doing.
(23:50):
I know this is our Super Bowlweek and so it's been exciting,
but also make sure you're takingsome time for yourself.
We need you, the world needsyou, so keep doing what you're
doing, keep challenging thestatus quo, keep running those
return on investment numbers.
It's important and it's life'swork.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And to our point earlier, everybody is working in
sustainability in some way,shape or form.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
So so thank you for all of your work.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yes, I think that that is really great advice, and
the phrase that comes up for meis fill your own cup and pour
from the overflow, and too often, especially as women, we don't,
and so that's really greatadvice.
Love to hear from you in thecomments what has been your
(24:39):
biggest takeaway in thisconversation.
Also, if you have any questions, because even when we end here,
the live will stay in the feed,you can watch the replay and
Heidi and I will be around toanswer any questions as well.
Thank you so much, heidi.
Be around to answer anyquestions as well.
Thank you so much, heidi.
(25:00):
Thank you for being our firstone in this inaugural LinkedIn
Live, where it's very much atest of what's possible with
LinkedIn, and thank you for allthat you do, both at Green
Standards and you personally.
I know you're a huge thoughtleader in this industry, and so
I appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, thank you for your collaboration.
Always, stephanie, weappreciate Quantum as well as a
partner and really appreciateeverything you're doing.
Thank you, keep up the goodwork.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
And remember, if you're looking for a partner to
help you repair, reuse andrecycle your electronics, we'd
love to chat Head on over toquantumlifecyclecom and contact
us.
This is a Quantum Lifecyclepodcast and the producer is
Sanjay Trivedi.
Thank you for being a CircularFuture Champion in your company
(25:46):
and beyond.
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