Chris Oestereich

Director of Linear to Circular and Morph
Linear to Circular

Chris Oestereich formerly led the zero-waste efforts for Albertsons, which worked to reduce the waste sent to landfill by the firm’s grocery stores and distribution centers. He now works with multinationals, development agencies, and academic institutions to rethink systems for financial, social, and environmental benefits through his firm, Linear to Circular (L2C). Through L2C, he’s currently launching an upcycled fashion brand, Morph Bags, that is partnering with informal workers to create their products. Morph is a solution provider that helps organizations turn their landfill-bound waste into useful products, while aiming to optimize the long-term value of those materials in the spirit of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Butterfly Diagram.

As a co-founder of the Circular Design Lab, Chris teaches systemic design to community members who want to design positive change for local issues via a systems thinking mindset. Chris is the publisher of the Wicked Problems Collaborative, an independent press that focuses on humanity’s biggest challenges, and he’s written for a wide range of outlets, including the Harvard Business Review, The RSA, Think Magazine The Week, OpenDemocracy, and the World Health Network. Chris is also a lecturer and former faculty member at Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies, where he teaches courses related to social innovation, and sustainability.

Chris Oestereich is tagged in 10 assets.
Article
Let’s Honour the Late King by Committing to the Sufficiency Economy

Thailand has bid the final farewell to its leader of seven decades, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. People throughout the Kingdom, and around the world, have celebrated and commemorated his life in a variety of ways. Ceremonies that have been practiced unti... View More

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Inclusive Business: Is It About Cutting Out the Middleman?

I was fortunate enough to visit Manila in the Philippines recently for an interesting summit that was held by the Asian Development Bank and supported by CSR Asia. The event brought together a diverse group of participants from government, investment... View More

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How Do We Assess Impact (and Why Should We)?

I recently attended the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) 2nd Inclusive Business Forum for Asia in the Philippines, where I sat in on an engaging discussion on assessing the merits of impact investments. ... View More

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How to Find Lasting Motivation and Engagement at Work

Are you excited about your work? Is it a fulfilling endeavor that you’re proud to take part in and which you enjoy doing? Or is it more of a grind?A recent Gallup survey found that only 30 percent of US workers were “actively engaged and inspired... View More

Article
Can a Tuktuk Ride Change the World?

If changing the world for the better was easy, we'd all be doing it. But thinking that you can make a difference is audacious. It takes a sort of beneficent arrogance to set out to push humanity in a positive direction. To believe you will succeed is... View More

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Unleash the Radical Intrapreneurs!

John Meynard Keynes once said: “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” I think most business leaders would scoff at the idea that an economist g... View More

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Why It's Time to Reframe the Role of Sustainability Leaders

My first big CSR/sustainability event was the 2010 Net Impact Conference - I had been invited there to speak on a panel on intrapreneurship, which gave me the opportunity to sit in on a number inspiring and insightful talks. One of the sessions I att... View More

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Are You a Radical Intrapreneur?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what we need from business leaders. And by business leaders, I mean everyone who is actively making (or influencing) business decisions. We know there are myriad problems that we need to deal with and that we... View More

Article
Don't Let Regulation Make Your Business a Rube Goldberg Machine

I love Rube Goldberg Machines — those inefficient systems, full of convoluted twists and turns that use chain reactions to complete simple tasks.In one of my favorite examples, a tipped milk bottle releases a sword, which cuts a rope that drops a g... View More

Article
Enough with the Semantics! Let's Get Down to Business

I have a bit of a bone to pick. Over the past couple of years, numerous well-intended articles have attempted to crystallize a moniker and definition for the work that we do. Universal language might help guide our efforts, but I don’t think we’r... View More

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