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Scott Breen
Sustainability and Circular Economy Expert / Environmental Lawyer / Podcaster / Project Manager / Policy Analyst
Scott Breen is a professional with a unique background in policy and legal training, coupled with deep knowledge of sustainability and the circular economy. He has experience in project management, stakeholder engagement, and communications, and currently serves as the Vice President of Sustainability at the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), a national trade association representing the metal and composite can manufacturing industry in the United States.
With a JD/MPA graduate, Scott began his career as an Attorney-Advisor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he was part of the NOAA Administrator's Award-winning team for their work on revising the National Standard 1 Guidelines for the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Subsequently, he managed the Sustainability and Circular Economy Program at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, leading projects like Beyond 34 to increase the U.S. recycling rate and organizing events and initiatives for sustainability professionals within the Foundation's network.
In addition to his professional roles, Scott Breen co-created and monetized the podcast Sustainability Defined, which has a broad reach with over 125,000 downloads across the United States and more than 100 countries. His dedication to sustainability extends beyond his work, as evidenced by his involvement in various environmental and sustainability-related organizations and initiatives during his educational and professional journey.
Highlights
Weekly Friday Personal Post: I am honored and excited to have recently been elected Chair of the Board of The Recycling Partnership.
For those not familiar with The Partnership, it is a purpose-driven organization committed to building a better recycling system, one that delivers the economic and environmental benefits our communities and the hundreds of thousands of people who work throughout the recycling industry deserve. The Recycling Partnership’s team of experts, practitioners, and thought leaders with real-world experience works with its partners to create meaningful change across the recycling system and assist communities, companies, and policymakers in enacting such change.
A good example of this is with voluntary funding from companies and additional dollars invested from government and other sources, The Partnership is nearing 2 million recycling carts provided to communities in its ten years of existence. With ease of use and their size, the carts deliver increased recyclables each of the many years they are in use. Beyond grants for carts, infrastructure at recycling sortation facilities, and access at multifamily properties (e.g., apartment buildings), The Partnership leads in many areas. These areas include advancing smart policy, changing recycling behavior to be more consistent and correct, communicating about what is recyclable and the importance of recycling, and helping materials improve how they are designed for circularity and increasing the number of recycling programs that accept them for recycling. I’m proud to say that my organization, Can Manufacturers Institute, was one of the initial funders of what became The Recycling Partnership.
All this work is funded by dollars from several sources, primarily corporations and associations. But really what drives it is the dedication and talent of the now 100 employees that work at The Partnership as well as the volunteer board that drives The Partnership toward thoughtful, successful strategy that advances the organization’s mission to build a better recycling system. At our recent board meeting, we committed to developing bold leadership for strategic direction and scale that positions the partnership for sustained impact (see graphic in this post). More specifically, we’re going to create bold strategy around policy, new business models, and communications. We’ll also look to enhance how the board operates with more professional development, enhancing our committees, and recruiting for more people to engage with the organization’s committees and run to be on the board.
I’ve loved The Recycling Partnership and the people that compose it for a long time. I’m excited to roll up my sleeves alongside my fellow, brilliant board members to make the organization’s impact even greater and set it up for continued success.
#recycling #nonprofits #leadership #strategy
Weekly Friday Personal Post: Today Jay Siegel and I released a Sustainability Defined podcast episode on Sustainable Jewelry. It was #sponsored by MiaDonna & Company, an innovative, ethical fine jewelry company.
While jewelry can be beautiful and bring people joy, the reality is that earth-mined jewelry can have a significant environmental and economic impact from how it is mined as well as how it is processed. In the episode, we talk about the pollution, deforestation, and impacts on biodiversity that come with getting the raw materials for jewelry via mining. One shocking statistic is that for every 18 karat gold ring, there are around 20 tons produced of toxic waste, which includes cyanide, arsenic, and lead. Here's another one. It is estimated that for every carat of diamonds that are mined, nearly 100 square feet of land is moved and more than 5500 pounds of mineral waste are created. On the social side, at least 100 million people worldwide are involved in artisanal mining (i.e., small scale mining), often in dangerous conditions for measly pay. I also hadn't thought before about those cutting and polishing the stones once mined. Often this work is done without safety equipment. When these stones are cut, dust is produced that can be inhaled into the lungs or ingested, which can lead to many adverse health effects like silicosis.
We also get into the technical definition of blood diamonds and conflict minerals. Just because a piece doesn't fall into those definitions, doesn't mean environmental and social impact has been minimized.
Then we get into the alternatives to earth-mined diamonds like lab-grown, recycled jewelry, buying second-hand, and other materials (e.g., glass, wood). Also what people should look for when buying jewelry like Responsible Jewellery Council Certification and the Fairmined Gold and Silver Certification.
I think the best part of the episode is the interview. We talk with Anna-Mieke Anderson, Founder and CEO of MiaDonna. I love her story of how and why she started this business. Her entrepreneurism, activism, and commitment to making a difference are all inspiring. It's amazing how far lab-grown diamonds have come in the years since she founded the business in 2005. She's been to the mining communities as part of the Greener Diamond Foundation that's funded with 10% of all MiaDonna purchases, and she's been around the jewelry industry for years. We learned so much from our conversation.
I'm thankful to MiaDonna for providing my fiancé and I a discount as part of the sponsorship and that we have wedding bands we can wear with confidence that it was made with sustainability in mind. Listen to learn more about sustainable jewelry and MiaDonna!
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.