The circular economy has become a recurring theme throughout my career, even before I always had the language to describe it.

At Climate Tech Innovators hosted by Texas Futures Coalition during Austin Climate Week, the conversation focused on circularity: reducing waste, keeping materials in use longer, and creating economic value without relying on constant disposal.

The event featured perspectives connected to the City of Austin, Upstream, and re:3D. It was especially meaningful to see re:3D represented because I had followed the organization’s work for years.

Circularity Is Bigger Than Recycling

Recycling is one part of a circular economy, but it is not the entire system. A stronger circular model asks how we can:

• Design products that last longer
• Repair items instead of replacing them
• Reuse materials before recycling them
• Recover valuable resources from waste
• Reduce unnecessary packaging
• Build businesses around sharing, resale, and refurbishment
• Keep materials circulating within the economy

Sports have a unique ability to reach people who may never attend a climate conference, sustainability panel, or environmental workshop.

That idea stood out during Sports x Sustainability Sips, an Earth Week event exploring how teams, venues, cities, athletes, and fans can help move sustainability forward.

The discussion showed that sports are not separate from environmental issues. Large events affect transportation, waste, energy use, food systems, water, and local infrastructure. That also means they can become powerful opportunities to model better practices.

Sustainability at Major Sporting Events

One major topic was how Houston is preparing for the FIFA World Cup (a project we won at Design Workshop) and incorporating citywide sustainability efforts into that planning.

Large sporting events create major logistical challenges, including:

• Increased traffic and transportation demand
• Large amounts of food and packaging waste
• Higher energy and water use
• Temporary infrastructure needs
• Increased pressure on local services

Planning for sustainability early can help cities reduce those impacts instead of trying to solve them after the event begins.

Composting, recycling, public transportation, reusable materials, and smarter venue operations can all contribute to a better experience for residents and visitors.

Some of the most valuable sustainability work begins with a simple conversation.

During Austin Earth Month, I attended several networking events that brought together people working in climate action, conservation, clean energy, circularity, and community engagement. Each event had a different format, but they shared the same purpose: helping people find one another.

Uncork & Connect

The first event was Uncork & Connect at Wanderlust Wine Co., hosted by Joon Community during Austin Climate Week.

The relaxed environment made it easier for people to move beyond job titles and talk about:

• Sustainability projects happening around Austin
• Climate solutions and emerging ideas
• Career paths in environmental work
• Local organizations and volunteer opportunities
• Ways to collaborate across different professional communities

I invited people from several green groups and sustainability communities I participate in. One of the best parts of the evening was watching people who had never met begin forming their own connections.

That is when networking becomes community-building.

Texas needs more energy, but it also needs healthy waterways, productive agricultural land, wildlife habitat, and natural areas that can support communities for generations.

That balance was the focus of the 2026 Texas Nature and Clean Energy Summit at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The event brought together conservation leaders, clean-energy professionals, researchers, and policy experts to discuss how Texas can expand renewable energy without repeating past environmental harms.

The conversation went beyond simply saying clean energy is good. It focused on the harder question: How do we build it responsibly?

Where Energy Projects Go Matters

One of my biggest takeaways was that the location of an energy project can be just as important as the technology itself.

Wind, solar, and battery-storage projects can help meet growing energy needs, but they can still affect ecosystems and communities when they are not carefully planned.

Responsible siting means asking questions such as:

• Is the project near a sensitive habitat or wildlife corridor?
• Could construction affect rivers, prairies, wetlands, or farmland?
• Are there already-disturbed sites that could be used instead?
• How will nearby communities and landowners be affected?
• What steps can reduce the project’s ecological footprint?

Asking those questions early can help avoid larger environmental and community conflicts later.

A Global Sustainability Conversation in Austin During SXSW

On March 12, 2026, I attended an Austin Sustainability Professionals event held in partnership with the UN Global Compact Network USA during SXSW in Austin. Framed as a private happy hour and panel discussion, the event centered on what organizers described as the “new language” of sustainability and how it intersects with innovation at a critical moment of transition. That framing felt especially timely.

Sustainability work today is often described through a growing list of overlapping terms: resilience, ESG, EHS, circular economy, climate innovation, regenerative systems, and more. Depending on the industry or audience, the language shifts. But beneath those labels, the larger question remains the same: how do we move from ambition to meaningful change?

This panel brought together voices from corporate sustainability, climate technology, global convening, and healthy buildings to discuss exactly that. In the middle of SXSW, when Austin becomes a meeting point for big ideas, bold claims, and future-focused conversations, this event stood out for being more grounded, reflective, and practical.

Rather than asking only what’s next, the discussion also asked whether many of the solutions already exist = and whether the real barriers are adoption, scale, communication, and alignment.