Communities are moving away from just accepting that generating waste is an acceptable byproduct of business – in fact, the new model is that waste is a result of inefficient systems that cost businesses money. Business and civic leaders alike know that recycling is not enough and needs to work, repair and reuse must take priority, and we need to find ways to eliminate or even monetize products at end-of-life and support recycling of industrial products and organics through composting. This webinar features Heidi Sanborn, who has led the way on innovative and cost-effective programs that will ensure we make progress to achieve a truly circular economy.
Resources
Meet the Speaker
Heidi Sanborn
CEO/Executive Director
National Stewardship Action Council
Heidi Sanborn
Heidi Sanborn is a highly motivated and experienced leader specializing in integrated materials management. She successfully coordinates with industries, collectors, recyclers and end markets to implement cost-effective projects that protect public health and the environment while advancing a circular economy. She offers a proven record of results in driving Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) at the highest levels, including causing the entire state of California, and the nation, to move in this policy direction. She is highly respected for founding and leading multiple organizations, educating legislators and advocating for bills, engaging with diverse stakeholder groups. She is an in-demand award-winning keynote speaker, focusing on the development of state and national policies that create jobs, increase recycling, and reduce waste. Remade in America is her slogan.
In her elected role as Director for Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) representing Ward 7, she helps to lead the world’s utilities in aiming for zero carbon emissions by 2030 while achieving 54% lower rates than a neighboring utility so customers benefit from the clean energy transition and continuously wins awards such as the first JD Power award as the most sustainable utility in the US in 2022 and 2023, as the SMUD is currently at 78% renewable power and on track to hit its 2030 goal on time, which will make it the first utility in the world to achieve that goal.
Heidi’s environmental and leadership career includes serving as Founding CEO for National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC), where, during COVID, she grew the organization to be the most impactful NGO in the Nation by advancing EPR to conserve resources, reduce costs to local governments, and create remanufacturing jobs while advocating for a circular economy and producer responsibility policies.
She additionally sits on the California Foundation for the Environment and Economy (CFEE) board, where she helped found the Recycling Challenge Study Trips; as Commission Chair for the Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets (2020-2022); Curbside Recycling where she led the writing of an almost 200-page report that resulted in the enactment of 15 state policies; and as Senior Advisor/Executive Director for the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), where she handled EPR transitional grant projects.
Heidi earned a Master of Public Administration in Non-Profit and Government Management from the University of Southern California, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California at Davis.