Circular Economy Network Building: Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Automotive Suppliers, and the Architecture of Reverse Supply Chain Collaboration | CSCC x Pyxera Global Series (2/5)

Absolutely.

And you know, you've made some really great points around looking for cross-pollination of other industries to learn, like what's working, what's innovative, but also systems thinking deployed at scale and circular economy thinking deployed.

And so Danielle, it's amazing that EMF is here because well known, you know, for advancing circular economy, but also moving into a new space, not plastics or single-use plastics, but critical minerals as, as Kellen and John have alluded to.

So how does this partnership help bring circular economy principles into a more complex industrial supply chain space?

Yes.

Well, um, the decision for the foundation to move into critical minerals actually was a, a pretty easy one because there's just-- we look for focal areas like plastics, like fashion and textiles, where there's a clear systems change play that we need and there's a, an intersecting economic and environmental imperative.

And that has never been more true as it relates to critical minerals, right? This is a $770 billion market.

In the next couple of years.

And the e-waste in particular is the fastest-growing waste stream, and there are just critical minerals resident in that e-waste.

And what is different and the opportunity, I think, for circular economy with critical minerals is that we need circular economy, we need secondary markets for critical minerals to feed the current demand, right? We can't do it with extraction alone.

And those dynamics have led to some of what we were talking about before with companies collaborating in new ways because they have to, to meet their business growth and their business demand.

And the foundation works at a fairly high of set the vision, provide the research and thought leadership, and start the implementation level.

But what CSCC brings us and why we're so excited about the partnership is because there's kind of a regional, local, on-the-ground implementation on the procurement side, and that is something that we know needs to be unlocked in order to get the systems change that we need.

So for us, it's just a matter of when and how quickly can we move versus if we should.

And the last thing that I'll say is, I think the point that John made earlier is so important on the, where circular economy has lived in the past has been, within companies anyway, has been within the sustainability realm.

Mm.

And those budgets, which are small and in some cases getting smaller right now.

And this is a business side problem with business side budgets that should be associated with it.

And I think that argument there, that foundation is so positive and strong, and we're getting, we're getting a lot of inbound interest in it from companies, right? We're not having to pound the pavement to say, "Hey, pay attention to circular economy.

It's an important thing." They're, they're there.

They're at the table because it's so important to them already.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, and also high-value material flows can accelerate a lot of cooperation within sector.

Data sharing, which I know comes up quite a bit, avoiding duplication.

Like when these networks of networks collaborate, how do you make it real for true collaboration to produce the outcomes that clearly CSCC is, is creating? And John, maybe we'll start with you.