October 6, 2022

Hi Janine,

Are you concerned about our "throw-away" consumer society? Are there ways to better design consumer products for reuse or lifetime use and deliver products without single-use or other wasteful packaging? Learn about emerging innovative solutions in an upcoming 3-part zero waste series! 

On October 11th (7:00-8:30 pm EDT), please join us for "Building a Circular Economy: Breaking the Produce-Consume-Dispose Paradigm." This free virtual webinar will examine how to create zero waste communities by rethinking how and where we produce, use, and reuse materials and goods. We'll look at how products and business practices can be redesigned to reduce impact on the environment, promote durability and reuse, and ultimately be recycled into new products for a more resilient community.  

You'll also hear about initiatives taking place to facilitate the circular economy and have time to interact (during the last half hour of the webinar in the discussion portion) with others who are interested in these topics. See more below.  

Learn about our speakers:

--Jamie Rhodes, Interim Chief Strategy Officer, Upstream Solutions.   Upstream Solutions was founded in 2003 as a public-interest, non-profit organization by a group of Zero Waste activists in the US and Canada. While working together in the 1990s, these leaders felt too many environmental groups were only focused on “downstream” or “end of pipe” solutions like recycling and composting. They are focused on working “upstream” to redesign the systems generating all the waste in the first place. 

--Jim Schulman, Executive Director, Alliance for Regional Cooperation (ARC) and member of the LE Circular Economy Working Group.  ARC is working to encourage sustainability-minded people and organizations to patronize and support other local businesses to help advance economic justice, sustainability, and cultural vitality in the DMV region. 

--Janine Finnell, Executive Director. Leaders in Energy (LE) will be the panel moderator.  

Event sponsors/organizers are -- Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions Arlington Hub, EcoAction Arlington, Sierra Club Potomac River Branch, Leaders in Energy, and Alliance for Regional Cooperation.

This is part one of a three session webinar series entitled, "Zero Waste: Building a Better Community." You can attend them all - for free!  

This 3-part series titled "Zero Waste: Building a Better Community." will take a deep dive into the environmental benefits and economic opportunities of a zero waste, circular economy. Learn about actions that you, your business, or your community can take to support a zero-waste economy.

•  "Beyond Recycling: Reduce, Reuse, Repair" - November 29
•  "Reimagining Our Waste Management Systems" - January 17

An additional Circular Economy opportunity! The DMV Roadmap Group will meet on Monday, October 17th - via zoom 

LE's Circular Economy Working Group has been working to collect data on various municipalities to determine the status of the circular economy in the DMV region (representing the District of Columbia, Suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia). If you are interested in participating in our DMV Circular Economy Roadmap group, send an email to info@leadersinenergy.org and we will send you a meeting invite. Our next meeting will be on Monday, October 17th, at 6:30 pm via Zoom.  

Leaders in Energy is dedicated to building a network of changemakers to accelerate clean energy and sustainability solutions, with multigenerational talent and leadership. Join us!

Executive Director: Janine Finnell

Creative Director/Editor: Carol Lampman McCaffrey

Learn more about our Board and Leadership Team. 

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