Clay Phillips

written by Deborah Dull, on site at GreenBiz 2026   It started over drinks, 80s music, and a shared frustration that has probably launched more good organizations than any strategic planning process ever has. The Circular Supply Chain Coalition, or CSCC, came out of a realization that a lot of the right work was already happening, in reverse logistics, in remanufacturing, in local procurement, in community-based value chains, but nobody had connected it. The people doing the work were not in the same room. The companies with the materials were not talking to the processors who could recover them. The states with enabling policies were not linked to the investors looking for exactly those environments. So the coalition became, as its founders describe it, a collector of collectors. The focus right now is on three priority waste streams: batteries, semiconductors, and e-waste. These were not chosen randomly. They have two elements in common. They carry geopolitical consequence, meaning the supply chains behind them are controlled by other countries and that is a known vulnerability. And they have business cases that a CFO can actually evaluate. That second part matters more than people in the sustainability world usually admit. The hub…

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton met with John Lash, who leads strategy and vision at e2open, a WiseTech Global Group company. E2open is a global platform powering the entire lifecycle of making, moving, and selling goods, with capabilities spanning planning, logistics, global trade, supply management, and procurement. The platform is designed not just for enterprise visibility but for true end-to-end coordination across extended supply chain ecosystems. Lash emphasized that disruptions rarely originate within a company’s four walls. “Your sub-tiers are where most of the risk lives,” he explained. “That’s where your day-to-day operations—and your long-term strategy—are truly shaped.” It’s a lesson sharply reinforced during the pandemic, which reminded leaders worldwide that no one does supply chain alone.   Old Challenges Intensified by New Realities When Luton asked about the biggest challenges facing planning teams today, Lash pointed immediately to constraints—supply constraints, manufacturing constraints, and now, the added layer of global trade volatility. Trade policies that once shifted every few years now change weekly, daily, or even hourly. Lash offered a striking example: Brazilian coffee duties jumped from 10% to 50% this summer—before returning to 0%. “How do you plan through that?” he asked.…