Rubicon, a leading digital marketplace for waste and recycling and provider of innovative software-based solutions for businesses and governments worldwide, today announced the creation of the Rubicon Institute and its mission to “advance innovative, market-based policy solutions to address the environmental and national security threats posed by waste.”
With waste issues growing, and signaling an impending crisis, addressing the economic and security issues posed by waste is more important than ever before.
Waste is everywhere, from our oceans to outer space, and even, in the case of microplastics, in our bodies. The Rubicon Institute brings a fresh perspective to the sustainability conversation through consideration of economic opportunities around waste in rural and urban communities and national security concerns in space waste and electronic waste.
“The urgent waste crisis inspired me to create Rubicon, the digital waste and recycling category creator,” said Nate Morris, Chairman and CEO of Rubicon. “After more than a decade of success reducing the impact of waste and diverting waste from landfills, it is time to turn our attention to the larger issues of waste in regards to our economic safety and national security.”
The Institute was founded with the participation of Advisory Council members:
- Nate Morris, Chairman and CEO of Rubicon;
- Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and expert in national security affairs;
- Secretary Michael Chertoff, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of The Chertoff Group and former Secretary of Homeland Security;
- The Honorable Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto, CEO of the International Order of T. Roosevelt and former Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service;
- David B. Rivkin, Esq., partner at Baker Hostetler LLP and former White House Counsel’s Office, Department of Energy and Department of Justice;
- The Honorable Mike Rogers, former member of Congress representing Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence;
- and General Joseph L. Votel, a retired U.S. Army Four-Star officer and most recently the Commander of the U.S. Central Command – responsible for U.S. and coalition military operations in the Middle East, Levant, and Central and South Asia.
“The handling of waste is an issue that impacts us all,” said Ambassador Dobriansky. “It is a privilege to join these distinguished and accomplished council members in tackling the challenges posed by waste on our society.”
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The Institute’s first meeting was held in April, concurrent with the Concordia Lexington Summit, at Rubicon’s global headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky. With its launch, the Institute will focus on four main areas: Space Waste, National Security Issues around Waste, Rural Waste, and Urban Waste, and serve as the first think tank dedicated solely to solving pressing issues around waste.
“Policy issues are best solved by those closest to them and, with waste in particular, by focusing on improving economic opportunity alongside environmental outcomes,” said the Institute’s Executive Director, Aubrey Vaughan Travis. “The exemplary Advisory Council, alongside our local business and academic partners, will build the Rubicon Institute into an American thought leader on all things waste.”
Source: Rubicon Technologies