If I really had to narrow it down to one person, I would say environmental entrepreneur Paul Hawken. He has been a pioneer for conscious and natural capitalism for 50 years.  

From a professional perspective, I like to solve big problems. I l like thinking about the “what ifs” and coming up with ways to answer them. Seeing things come to fruition that people have thought was either unlikely or difficult is very rewarding. 

Give it your all and if you fail, at least you learned while trying your hardest.   

I would try to reduce consumerism. Our urge to buy and own and buy goods that are easily disposable are the main reason we are in the global waste crisis we are in right now.  

From a business perspective, I would say my top three achievements are: starting TerraCycle, pivoting the company to a new business model while it was successful with the current one, and launching our most recent division, Loop.  

Sustainability to me means trying to create more circular systems so that we can move from a linear model to something that can reduce the amount of waste in our landfills and waterways and the demands on our natural resources. 

When I was young, my family left communist Hungary and emigrated eventually to Canada. Seeing people throw out perfectly good TVs or other items was astonishing. In Hungary, we didn’t even have access to any of this and here, they were garbage. That’s when I became interested in waste.