Radius CEO among 100 honored by 'Time'

Radius Recycling CEO Tamara Lundgren has been named to the inaugural TIME100 Climate List, which recognizes 100 people who are working to advocate for and expedite climate action.

“Amid the interconnected challenges facing the global business community today, it is critical to align economic progress and climate impact,” Lundgren says. “At Radius, our work to advance the circular economy highlights the importance of recycled metals to the world’s transition to low carbon technologies.

“To be included on the TIME100 Climate List is a profound honor, and our company is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other leading companies that are prioritizing a sustainable tomorrow.”

Time’s editors and reporters fielded nominations and recommendations from industry leaders and partner organizations like Global Optimism and The B Team, as well as a Time advisory council, then assessed the candidates on a variety of factors, including "recency of action, measurable results and influence.”

Lundgren, who was placed within an “Innovators” category within the list, tells Time she is looking forward to a potential United States-European Union agreement that could reward low-emissions and recycled-content metals production.

“Trade agreements that incorporate carbon tariffs can help level the playing field between countries that regulate carbon emissions and those that do not,” she says. “In 2021, the U.S. and E.U. pledged to negotiate trade agreements for steel and aluminum that consider the carbon intensity of these commodities.”

Portland, Oregon-based Radius Recycling is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of recycled metals in North America, with facilities in 25 states, Puerto Rico and western Canada.

Several other people with influence in or who are active in the recycling sector also made the list, including William McDonough, a United States-based architect and chief executive of McDonough Innovation. McDonough co-authored the 2002 book “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,” which helped lead to the Oakland, California-based Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

Honoree Matti Lehmus, CEO and president of Finland-based Neste Corp., cites the company’s use of conversion technology that uses discarded fats, oil and grease (FOG) to produce aviation fuel and other products as a climate-friendly endeavor. “Neste’s NEXBTL technology allows us to turn a wide variety of renewable fats and oils into other premium-quality renewable products, such as fuels for road transport and feedstock for polymers and chemicals production,” Lehmus says.

Jesper Brodin of Sweden-based Ikea says in his comments to Time, “Circularity needs to happen for us to be able to reuse waste and create new from old. With funding in circularity, we will have more sustainable production and consumption, which is an area that fundamentally needs to transform for us to reach a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.”

Also honored by Time in the “Catalysts“ category is Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of California-based As You Sow. That investor activist group has engaged in campaigns to urge companies including Amazon and McDonalds to invest more time and money in recycling activities or in design-for-recycling efforts.

Fugure says in her remarks to Time, “Individual investors have the power to create change. Company boards are accountable to shareholders who can vote or move their money into companies that drive sustainable and long-term value.”

The full 2023 TIME100 Climate List can be found here.