Green Chemistry Event Produces Ideas for Strengthening California Economy
On November 4th, over 50 thought leaders and professionals met at the Autodesk Gallery in downtown San Francisco to lay the groundwork for recommendations to move California towards a sustainable and abundant economic future. Those recommendations are likely to include ideas like adopting a zero waste policy for the state of California, holding foreign waste processors accountable to California's own health and safety standards, and encouraging Producer Responsibility Organizations (third party groups funded by producers to handle end-of-use waste issues - these have been popular in Europe). In concert, policies like these would create a viable local market for recycled materials, while at the same time giving manufacturers incentive to design away waste and take responsibility for the collection of its own discards. Value is retained and added within the state, and waste becomes a thing of the past.
(Image courtesy of Mike Lee, On the Green Carpet)
Green chemistry was the theme of the day, and those gathered were tasked with developing a path forward, embracing safe and healthy materials in California's products while creating economic opportunities for jobs and investment.
The group included entrepreneurs and business leaders, sustainability experts, policy professionals, advocacy organizations, lawyers, NGO leaders, and scientists. After a welcome from the Mayor's Office, those in attendance heard from visionary Hewlett-Packard sustainability leader Helen Holder. HP is a working example of what a company might look like in a California that is actively working to remove toxic substances from consumer products.
Dr. Michael Wilson, Associate Director of UC Berkeley's green chemistry program, outlined the the scientific case for green chemistry. Thousands of toxic chemicals go unregulated, even as more and more of them are being connected with environmental and human health risks.
Those gathered on Friday were there with one goal: to create the foundation of a report for Governor Brown showing broad stakeholder support for green chemistry, seeing it as an opportunity for jobs creation.
Chris Bui, of the American Focus, facilitated the event using collective intelligence interactive voting technologies, allowing the group to vote on ideas in real time to find areas of consensus and divergence. Small groups discussed critical things that would need to happen for green chemistry to become an economic force in California, the role of producers in carrying the external costs of their products, the opportunities in California waste streams, and the role of the consumer in the market for safe and healthy products.
Over lunch, Mike Biddle, CEO of MBA Polymers, spoke on an informal panel with Bill Shireman, CEO of Future 500, an organization that coordinates social responsibility between companies and their non-profit counterparts. Biddle is founder of MBA Polymers, a Richmond based company working on the forefront of plastic material recovery. He sees plastics as valuable resources, far to precious to be burned, buried, or discarded abroad. So how does California create more opportunities for businesses like MBA Polymers to create jobs and revenue off it's own discarded materials?
'Responsibility' is the key, according to Biddle, California must own responsibility for the discarded material that it is shipping away overseas, processed at great cost to the global environment and human health. If the state demanded the same health and safety standards of its waste processed over seas as it does in the state, local recyclers and processors would be much more viable. If all of the recyclable material that continues to go to landfills (in CA and other states) were collected for processing, Biddle would have enough feedstock to meet the demands of local manufacturers interested in using his material.
These ideas and more reverberated throughout the lively conversation of the small group sessions, culminating in a full group voting process to assess the common ground of the diverse group. In the coming weeks, a final set of recommendations for Governor Brown will be wrought from the 60-some ideas generated over the course of the day.
This event was graciously co-hosted by San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee, SF Environment, Autodesk, Bellwether Partners, EcoTech Law Group, the Plastic Pollution Coalition, OnGreen, California Product Stewardship Council, As You Sow, On the Green Carpet, and the Green Economy Think Tank.