ERP UK • An Interview with Jan Patrick Schulz

10

years of WEEE in the UK Shaping the future An interview with Jan Patrick Schulz

An interview with

Jan Patrick Schulz, CEO of Landbell Group

Jan Patrick Schulz is CEO of Landbell Group, a worldwide specialist in environmental and chemical compliance and parent company of both ERP and Green Alley.

Firstly, could you please share some of your drivers and passions as Landbell CEO? There’s no single thing that drives me, but rather many things. I am fascinated by the idea of working with different cultures, in which people take different approaches both to business and to everyday life. That’s what interests me in my role as Landbell CEO: working with a rich variety of cultures both in Europe and worldwide. I enjoy the fantastic diversity here at Landbell.

The idea of ‘the journey’ also appeals to me. The concepts that we deal with in this field – the circular economy, green living, zero waste – none of these things are achievable in the short-term. It’s an exciting long-term journey, and a great one to take with so many different countries. That’s what interests me and what drives me.

European Recycling Platform (ERP) joined the Landbell Group in 2014. As CEO, can you explain the Group’s vision to become the global partner for product-related environmental services and solutions?

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When concepts like product stewardship emerged, around the early 1990s, it wasn’t initially regulation-driven. It was more of a social movement. Consumers began to demand more from companies, politicians reacted and, step by step, regulations evolved for packaging, and later for electronic waste and batteries.

It’s since become increasingly complex. Firstly, there are new regulations, which companies must comply with. Young people and start-up culture is another powerful influence. They demand something else from producers, regarding how products are designed and manufactured, the kinds of materials they contain, and what happens at the end of these products’ lives.

So the market is driven not only by regulation, but increasingly by the consumer. That’s why companies need to go beyond fulfilling legal obligations. We can help our customers by handling obligations, but also by engaging with young people outside of a business context, and liaising with other stakeholders

to explore the potential to create products in the context of their whole lifecycle.

One part of our vision is to operate in multiple countries, understand the different regulations, and help our customers overcome challenges. But we also engage in wider discussions around what consumers really want and where the circular economy is going. This helps companies to do more than simply fulfil obligations and to add value both for themselves and for their customers.

What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing producers in the next 5-10 years?

I think producers will face more regulations that will lack harmonisation. There are general rules within the European Union (EU), but individual member states often have their own ways of implementing them. Regulatory tracking is important and is a challenge for some producers. Europe is often perceived as one block, but it is 30-plus countries, with many waste streams and chemical regulations.

Consider the example of Kenya, where they introduced a ban on plastic bags in August.

Kenyans producing, selling or even using plastic bags risk imprisonment of up to four years or fines of £31,000 ($40,000). That’s an extreme example, but you can see that there are more regulations and the challenge is harmonising these regulations. If they are harmonised, it’s easier for producers and it’s easier to close loops, manage cross-border shipments, and so on.

Regarding products, recycling is often done in bulk, meaning producers don’t get their own products back. If producers can get their products back, there are huge opportunities.

It would provide a strong incentive to create products differently. Producers could consider recycling from the beginning and explore new ways of designing products in respect of their entire lifecycles. I expect this to happen in the coming years. There will be opportunities for producers with new business models that can be combined with different ways of recycling to ultimately close the loop.

Printers are a good example of this idea in practice. Generally, you sell printers and you sell cartridges, but some producers have started selling pages too. If you sell pages,

you have a strong incentive to create a longerlasting printer, to produce a longer-lasting cartridge you can sell at a higher price. The same is true for washing machines: if you sell wash cycles and washing machines, the results are twofold. There’s a strong incentive to create the product differently and, knowing you will get your products back, you can design it exclusively for how you will recycle it.

In emerging markets, it’s important to get things right from the start. What do you think are the biggest opportunities to make a difference, what are the risks if this does not happen effectively, and how can organisations like Landbell and ERP play a role in shaping sustainable growth?

In emerging markets, you must often deal with local waste management companies.

There are all kinds of existing structures, and we need to see that we respect those structures and use them to design appropriate compliance schemes; it’s not a copy-and-paste process.

to discover how best to achieve these targets: how much we need to collect, how much we need to recycle, and how it should be recycled. I believe in making things as clear as possible, enforcing the rules, and creating a level playing field.

Monopoly models can work initially, but – aside from increasing costs and reducing services – they tend to stifle innovation.

Innovation comes from competition: when many people try to find the best way to achieve something. This is why we value competition, and why we think targets and the enforcement of clear rules is important.

After that, let local entrepreneurs find the best way to get things done. We need innovative technology and innovative ways of dealing with recycling; this is true of the whole recycling industry. We should never think ‘oh this country or waste stream is too expensive, we can’t make recycling work here’ – this is simply a failure of innovation and entrepreneurialism.

You can avoid certain mistakes. It’s most important to set clear targets and rules, and then leave it to entrepreneurs and companies

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The circular economical approach is influencing many corporate objectives going forward. How can Landbell and ERP help companies realise this approach’s potential? Is outsourcing compliance a possibility?

It’s an ideal service to outsource. Look at the EU: there are 30-plus countries with various regulations. To keep track of all of them, you need a lot of specialists in your organisation. Not only that, you need a large organisation to start with to support all these specialists. Even then, it’s difficult to track every regulation. The question is: is that worthwhile?

It was worthwhile in the beginning. Producers wanted to ensure compliance was set up and executed properly. Now, there’s an established market which means it’s about reducing the cost of complexity, attaining peace of mind, and so on. Producers now understand that compliance isn’t something they need to do alone. There are reliable partners whose work can help businesses concentrate on innovating and adding value, and companies prefer to use their own people to innovate rather than focus on regulatory compliance. The more regulations that are introduced, the more complex compliance gets, makes it an ideal area for outsourcing.

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Producers see ERP as powerful influencers and lobbying partners in shaping legislation – a USP that’s highly valued.

What key priorities will you champion going forward?

Most important – which I mentioned before – is entrepreneurial freedom and competition.

Secondly, a fair and level playing field with consistent enforcement of the rules. And, last but not least, a clear scope so producers can comprehensively understand their obligations.

We need to emphasise these three areas when engaging with stakeholders such as politicians and legislators.

Your partnership with DHL opened the potential to manage producers’ environmental, supply chain, and compliance needs. How do you see this partnership evolving?

It will grow in two areas. Our product portfolio, comprised mostly of services, will certainly grow. Increasingly often, we engage with producers in a certain country in a certain way and discover an opportunity to easily replicate this offer for other customers.

The DHL partnership will help us to offer this larger product portfolio to more customers outside Europe – in the US, South America, and Asia – where our combined products and services can help make potential customers’ lives easier.

Besides supporting the B2B market, ERP has significantly influenced B2C activity.

With increasing numbers of high profile public awareness campaigns, especially around packaging, how do you think consumer demand will impact producers and local authorities?

Consumers will continue to demand more from producers, in the way products are designed and manufactured, the kinds of materials used, how products are packaged, and how they are recycled.

The Green Alley Award is a great indicator to help us find out what kind of products and packaging the next generation is looking for. Many Green Alley applications address questions like: how can we reduce packaging dramatically? What can we do with discarded food? What kind of apps can we produce to connect with consumers and retailers?

There’s a growing movement in which people are thinking of new ways to reduce packaging and food wastage. I think that producers across industries understand that there is an opportunity to talk differently with consumers and explore these issues. They’re thinking about how their products are recycled, and what they can do beyond regulatory compliance. It’s easier said than done, because after products are consumed, the packaging usually undergoes standard treatment

processes. How can companies approach that differently? There are interesting ideas in the start-up world – it’s something that the next generation cares about immensely.

Do you find it exciting to partake in initiatives like Green Alley, and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to innovate both environmentally and commercially?

Absolutely. To me, there doesn’t need to be a contradiction between contributing to the circular economy and making money.

Conversely, it makes sense to have a business model and to scale that business. If you make profit, you have more resources to create longer-lasting products and find new ways of dealing with waste.

In recent years, we find that more people – beyond entrepreneurs and start-ups – have a strong mission and strong ideals about how they will do their bit to change the world and achieve a circular economy. Their approach is fresh, they aren’t weighed down by experience and scepticism regarding what will and won’t work. They try new things and have refreshing ideas.

We’ll finish with an open question: who inspires you? It could be anyone, from a politician or change activist to a designer or a difference-making CEO. This industry is full of interesting people who are driven by the idea of making the world better and are determined to change things.

I would choose Dieter Rams, who was chief design officer for Braun. Rams defined 10 “good design” principles in the 1970s. One was that the product should be long-lasting, but also environmentally friendly. This was visionary: nearly 40 years ago, he was already thinking in terms of the product’s afterlife and how it should be designed to minimise its environmental impact.

Rams was ahead of his time. Ideas about sustainable design existed before him, but he was one of the first to lay them out as principles with such incredible clarity. In fact, Rams’ principles probably arrived when consumers and the market were not truly ready for them. Maybe now is a better time for them to thrive on a larger scale: the consumer demands it and the market is ready for it.

Rams’ impact is still felt today. Many companies continue to use his designs. That he was chief design officer at Braun, an ERP founding company, ‘closes the loop’ in some way. It shows we don’t need to reinvent everything: many solutions are already there, we just need to go back a bit to find them.

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