As building a circular economy for Australia moves sharply into focus, leading environmental foundation Planet Ark has a new leader to drive the transition. PKN spoke to Rebecca Gilling shortly after her appointment as CEO, announced at last week’s Circularity conference.
A stalwart of the Planet Ark team for more than 20 years, Gilling has played an integral role in building the organisation's credentials as Australia’s most trusted environmental group*. She takes the helm from Paul Klymenko who has headed the organisation for 30 years as founding director and CEO, and who will continue supporting the team as a strategic advisor.
Gilling, a former actress who graced television and cinema screens for more than two decades, starred in iconic Australian TV programs including The Young Doctors and Return to Eden. In the last twenty years, however, she has turned her focus to matters environmental.
In her time at Planet Ark, Gilling and the wider team have delivered some of Australia’s most successful and effective environmental programs, including the planting of more than 26 million trees by five million volunteers for National Tree Day, recycling more than 50 million printer cartridges through the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark program, and the launch of the Australian Circular Economy Hub, which last week ran its inaugural Circularity conference.
Gilling tells PKN that under her leadership, Planet Ark will target three critical areas that Australia must act on – the circular economy, how we use energy, and our connection to nature.
Packaging fits squarely in the circular economy piece. Gilling said, “A lot of our work involves educating consumers, and plastic packaging is high on their list of concerns, especially single-use plastics that ends up in the environment. One of our focus areas is educating consumers to avoid and reduce their use of unnecessary packaging.”
Gilling says consumers have a poor level of understanding of what circular economy means. “The circular economy is NOT recycling – this was one of the key messages to emerge from our Circularity conference. Another important point reinforced at the conference was that 80 per cent of the waste in packaging is built in at the design level, so work must be done to encourage design for circularity,” she said.
Gilling points to Planet Ark’s pioneering involvement, in collaboration with PREP Design, in the development of the PREP tool, now widely used by industry to evaluate the sustainability credentials of packaging and enabling designers to design waste out of packaging. The PREP tool is also used to verify the recycling information brand owners convey through the on-pack Australasian Recycling Label (ARL), another initiative Planet Ark was integrally involved in developing.
Today the ARL is owned outright by APCO, and, as Gilling explains, Planet Ark’s role is to support APCO in its promotion of the ARL to consumers, along with promoting sustainable packaging generally. Planet Ark’s strong affiliation with APCO includes participation in the Collective Action Group.
Gilling said at the Circularity conference she was “surprised and delighted by the breadth and depth of the knowledge and determination of the Coalition of the Willing present in the room”, noting that the conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to weigh in on the change that needs to happen.
“With Planet Ark’s world-class sustainability thought leaders, and our established and trusted education programs, we are excited to help even more businesses, consumers and governments to come together and take action,” Gilling said.
For Gilling, and indeed many others present, a highlight of the Circularity conference was the announcement by Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek, of the formation of a Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group.
Plibersek said, “This group will advise me and my colleagues on opportunities and challenges for Australia’s transition towards a circular economy.”
Gilling said what was heartening was that the group will look at how products are designed, manufactured, and used across all sectors of the economy and identify meaningful and direct changes government and industry can make to drive the transition.
“The Planet Ark team is passionate and committed to helping everyday Australians take positive environmental actions,” Gilling said. “I’m proud to be leading them in this new chapter, which is arguably the most important for the wellbeing of the planet and our communities. These past few months we have all seen the effects of climate change and resource depletion brought to life with devastating effects in our own backyards. If there was ever a time for people to rally and take this matter seriously, it’s now.”
Gilling thanked Paul Klymenko for his 30 years of “passionate and dedicated service” as CEO.
“During his tenure Paul has been one of the leading advocates for the circular economy movement in Australia, helping to put this vital issue firmly on the national agenda,” Gilling said.
Paul Klymenko commented: “It has been a great honour to lead the Planet Ark team for more than three decades. It’s a pleasure to hand over the reins to Rebecca and I’m confident the team is set to flourish under her able and inspiring leadership. I look forward to helping the Planet Ark team in an ongoing strategic advisory role and continuing to serve on the Planet Ark Board.”
* Planet Ark was rated by Australians as the #1 organisation for operating in an ethical, responsible and environmentally friendly manner in 2018 (Mobium Group, 2018 Living LOHAS 6).
