Donald Frieson

written by Deborah Dull, on site at GreenBiz 2026   One of the most repeated excuses in the circular economy space is that American consumers just do not care enough. They will not sort their waste. They will not pay a premium for sustainable products. They will not participate in take-back programs. Europe is different, the story goes. Americans are a lost cause. Today I sat through a panel where that story got taken apart, piece by piece, with actual data. On this panel were Tom Szaky the CEO at TerraCycle and Loop, Gary Lewis the CEO at Resourcify, Rob Whitter the Head of Climate and Sustainability at Visa, and Casper Venbjerg Hansen the Senior Director of Sustainability Risk & Compliance for Ambu A/S; all facilitated by Lauren Phipps of MOLG. A company that runs in-store recycling programs across more than a million locations in 20 countries looked at their numbers. Whether someone was bringing back a wetsuit in Japan, cosmetics in France, or gear in the United States, the behavior was statistically identical. You could not tell the countries apart. American consumers who chose to participate were participating at the exact same rate as everyone else. Then there was…

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton caught up with Rob Haddock, a seasoned supply chain practitioner and advisor with Demand Chain AI, to discuss the persistent planning challenges organizations face—and why maturity, discipline, and optimization still matter more than buzzwords. Demand Chain AI blends consulting services with advanced supply chain technologies, focusing on optimization across trade promotion management, demand sensing, supply planning, and detailed production scheduling. Haddock’s role centers on helping organizations strengthen business processes—particularly sales and operations planning (S&OP), performance reporting, and the practical application of technology to improve execution on both the demand and supply sides.   A Practitioner’s Perspective on Planning Gaps Haddock’s perspective is shaped by decades spent inside large, sophisticated supply chain organizations. Early in his career, he worked within an iconic, global beverage company where advanced planning environments were already in place—though, in hindsight, he admits those tools were sometimes underutilized. Today, Haddock spends much of his time working with small and mid-sized organizations that haven’t been as fortunate. In many of these environments, planning maturity is still low, foundational practices are missing, and—unsurprisingly—Excel remains the primary planning tool. “Basic business practices that have been around since the 1990s…