You may have seen news recently announcing Circular Solutions’ partnership with the Green Sports Alliance (GSA) and its Foundation. GSA harnesses the power of sports, music, and entertainment to drive environmental change. This new partnership is a game changer for recycling.

Everybody Wins

Green Sports Alliance’s Play to Zero platform is a leadership recognition platform and sustainability performance toolkit for GSA Members that guides and celebrates progress towards a net zero energy, net zero water, zero waste, and a more resilient future.

Play to Zero is helping collegiate and professional teams, major venues, nonprofits, and corporations achieve their goals, and we want to encourage more organizations to participate. So, CS is donating 10 percent of all new engagements with GSA-member clients to the Green Sports Alliance Foundation, directly supporting the foundation’s mission to catalyze environmental progress across the sports and entertainment world.

Verification Builds Trust

Trust takes more than good intentions. Many venues are doing great work to collect recyclable materials to prevent them ending up in landfills or incineration. The problem is, often items organizations think they’re recycling actually don’t make it all the way through the process to create new bottles and cans, for example, from used ones.

That’s where Circular Solutions comes in. Our team is using tech-driven solutions to help venues verify their efforts at every step in the process—from the location to the hauler to the material recovery facility—so they can substantiate their results and report their real metrics that can’t be manipulated. In our experience, tools and technology are providing the edge organizations need to dispel doubt and show the effectiveness of their efforts with proven data that is beyond reproach. Often organizations can reduce their waste management costs in the process.

A Sporting Chance

Recycling at sports and entertainment venues is not just about managing trash—it’s about reducing environmental impact, meeting stakeholder and regulatory expectations, and reinforcing their role as a community leader.

This new partnership and our proprietary technology is giving recycling a sporting chance–to make sure the values central to sports, including honor and fairness, truth and transparency, are also giving recycling a fighting chance to succeed, and fans a chance to make a difference for the environment.

1. Be flexible

You know what they say about best-laid plans. When you create a plan, include Plan B options and contingency plans to consider in case the environment changes.

• Control what you can control

There’s no need to stress over things that are out of our hands. We may not be able to control pending legislation, but we can influence it with facts, and we can prepare our business for rule changes that are most likely to occur.

• Don’t wait for perfection to act

One of my favorite sayings is ‘don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.’ We must seek out the best intelligence we can and make calculated decisions based on what we know.

• Leverage your network

Remember, you are not in this boat alone. Connect with colleagues in the business to identify trends, challenges and potential solutions. Attend relevant conferences and consider areas where you might work together.

• Keep moving forward

No one can sit by and wait for the confusing to become clear. Take action, review progress and adjust as needed. Even small steps forward matter. They may be the foundation of larger steps down the road.

Since we know uncertainty is one of the few certainties in life, at CSA we customize circularity strategy to each individual client’s changing needs. We embrace science and are always looking for new technologies to make recycling more effective and cost-effective, while investing in the future. We help clients develop strategic relationships with best-in-class materials processors and help them get the best value from the recycled plastics marketplace.

While a world of uncertainty is a sure bet, it doesn’t have to be a roadblock. With the right mindset, approach, and partners, uncertainty might help us create just the opportunity we’re looking for.

I’m not surprised that world leaders have not yet come up with a resolution. It is great to set global aspirations, but difficult if not impossible to create legislation across states– much less across countries.

Environmentalists, engineers, and industry leaders discussed solutions ranging from limiting production on new plastics, to tariffs on production, reengineering materials to make packaging more earth-friendly and, of course, recycling.

I believe it will take a combination of solutions working together to address the global issue. Recycling is important, as well as mining and recycling plastics currently in landfills. Mining can be efficient and economical, and it doesn’t rely solely on the consumer to be a diligent recycler.

The experts and environmentalists will be back at the table in November when treaty talks resume Busan, Korea. I hope to see the current aspirations codified, with a focus on standardizing approval processes for new packaging. Unified guidelines are a great start and could be implemented by each country in its own way. If world leaders can agree on a plan, it will be the most significant action related to climate change and environmental protection since the 2015 Paris Agreement.

At Circular Solutions Advisors, we will be watching and cheering them on.