Sustainability in a circular economy basically means finding ways to keep resources in use for as long as possible. Instead of just taking, using, and tossing stuff out, it’s all about recycling, reusing, and reducing waste to create a more sustainable system.
Eunice Heath, a winner of a Career Communications Group award, recently co-hosted the 40th annual World Environment Center Symposium.
She was joined by corporate executives, as well as leaders from government and the sustainability science community.
Together, they explored the climate and energy landscape during the session titled "Solutions for the Energy Transition: Accelerating the Shift to Clean Energy."
Heath is currently the senior vice president and chief sustainability officer at CRH, a wholesale building materials company.
Prior to this role, she spent over three decades at Dow, where she played a key role in the implementation of the Dow 2025 circular economy initiative and liaised with organizations such as The Sustainability Consortium, Change Chemistry (formerly the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council), and the American Chemistry Council.
Regarding Dow's efforts toward a circular economy, Heath highlighted that the company laid a strong foundation over 20 years of sustainability efforts.
This involved creating a footprint, handprint, and blueprint necessary for transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy.
A notable example of Dow's initiatives is the Energy Bag pilot program, which successfully converted 6,000 pounds of previously non-recyclable plastic waste—such as juice pouches, candy wrappers, and plastic dinnerware—into 512 gallons of fuel.
In addition to her corporate responsibilities, Heath also managed sustainability-focused higher education programs at Dow.
This included overseeing the implementation of the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award program at 18 strategic universities worldwide, supporting the development of the next generation of talent in sustainability.
