In this episode of Logistics with Purpose, hosts Enrique Alvarez and Kevin Brown welcome Atul Vir, President of Equator Advanced Appliances to the show, to share his remarkable journey from a military boarding school in India to international entrepreneurship. He discusses key experiences, including navigating a coup, starting Equator, and collaborating with NASA, and emphasizes empathy, negotiation, and sustainability in business. The conversation also touches on his book, “Underdog Thinking,” and the impact of COVID-19 on Equator. Listen in as Enrique, Kevin, and Atul truly highlight the importance of logistics with purpose and building meaningful relationships and good values in business.

In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton sits down with two leaders shaping the future of reverse logistics from the floor to the classroom: Troy Campbell, Director of Reverse Logistics Centers at The Home Depot, and Dr. Glenn Richey, Jr., Harbert Eminent Scholar in Supply Chain Management at Auburn University. Troy opens the doors to Home Depot’s four Reverse Logistics Centers: Phoenix, Pittston (PA), McDonough (GA), and Indianapolis, showing why a people-first culture remains the operating system for returns at scale. He gets real about “automation when the box isn’t a box,” how rethinking inbound flows through 3PLs reduces touches and transportation cost, and why simple vendor conversations (like consolidating daily pallets into a single weekly load) can unlock outsized impact. His north star: make associates’ days easier, and the entire reverse network improves. Glenn zooms out to the macro shifts: the move from minimizing returns to maximizing returns within a circular economy, generative AI for scenario planning and real-time decision support, and reverse logistics as the operational backbone of sustainability. He maps the skills the next workforce will need, calls for clearer industry coding to separate reverse data from forward logistics, and outlines how universities can build…