History

In 2017 retired executives from Walmart, Williams’ Capital Group and Ingram Micro founded the Panel Technology Project because they recognised that climate change demands an immediate, urgent response.

With abundant experience in global retail and finance arena, they understood the massive positive environmental effect that ‘greening’ supply chains will have on global carbon emissions.

The result of this initiative is PANELTECH.US, a bio-solutions company that aims to substantially reduce supply chain carbon emission by repurposing waste to enable Consumer + Corporate Social Responsibility.

Using innovations in materials science, PANELTECH.US partners with local communities, value chains, retailers, and governments to create zero-waste circular economies wherever we can. In this way we use our influence to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What our history means in practice today.

It means we are well equipped to take mountains of waste — plastic, agricultural, and aquacultural — that already exist on earth and with local partners, use our technology to turn that waste into usable, sustainably-sourced raw materials that are used to manufacture products that we all consume. And we know how to get these products into global supply chains.

Vision

A world in which plastic and agricultural waste pollution are eradicated through massive greening of global supply chains in ways that ensure UN Sustainable Development Goals are met.

Mission Statement

We will use our technology to improve local and global environmental health wherever we can by:

  • Removing waste sustainably from the environment and in the process reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
  • Enabling producers and consumers to make responsible choices; and
  • Integrating our products in global value chains and distribution channels.

strategy

Consumer and Corporate Social Responsibility

The cornerstone of our strategy is to harness the full potential of Consumer + Corporate Social Responsibility or what we call C+CSR.

To change a complex system requires that all parts of the system. In a world of choice, it is  impossible to change all the parts without making it easier for all actors in the system to change too. To do this we must enable rather than produce.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)’s Global Supply Chain Report shows that supply chain emissions are 11.4 times higher than operational emissions. While both must be eliminated, our expertise and network  equips us well to make it possible for the entire value chain to make  responsible choices. Not only consumers. Not only retailers. Not only manufacturers. But all of us.

Our technology takes existing waste out of the environment and turns it into affordable biodegradable raw materials. Manufacturers buy these materials to produce sustainable products that enter global supply chains and enable consumers in turn to buy and use affordable sustainable products.

In simple terms, we make it easy for farmers, citizens, manufacturers, and consumers to make responsible choices.

This strategy supports our further goals: to fight for environmental justice and create circular waste economies.

Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice

Thousands of communities sit forgotten at the foot of mountains of plastic trash and agricultural waste. They have no way to dispose of this waste other than to burn it, turning the air toxic, with greenhouse gas emissions.

Through our partnerships, we partner  groups in these communities with our innovations in materials science that turn waste — from agriculture, marine culture, and plastics — into practical, usable materials that are affordable and biodegradable.

We take a negative – waste and pollution – and we make a positive by creating value for the communities most affected, and for society at large.

 

Circular Economy

The circular economy that develops from our technology must do three things:

  • Design waste and pollution out of the economy

It does this by using discarded plastic waste and agricultural waste that would otherwise be burned to make durable, sustainable raw materials that can be used in environmentally friendly manufacturing.

  • Keep products and materials in use

It does this by producing durable raw materials that have a longer than normal lifespan, but that are also biodegradable, leaving no trace when they reach end of life.

  • Regenerate natural systems.

Removing waste from any environment allows faster regeneration of soil compared with the alternatives of plastic degradation in the soil or toxic smoke through burning.

Not only that but our technology creates employment, cleans the environment, and enables manufacturers and consumers to make responsible choices.

That means we capture the unrecognised value of waste — both agricultural and plastic — by transforming them into products that simultaneously reduce pollution, are sustainable, and create local employment. This is green upcycling.

Case Study

A community is besieged by air pollution and is a dumping ground for plastic waste. They burn their agricultural waste. And their plastic waste leeches into their soil. It slowly poisons both  their and nearby community groundwater.

PANELTECH sets up our waste to green technology in this community in partnership with a municipal body or entrepreneur. As waste from this environment is fed into our facility and processed, it is able to: –

  • Reduce green gas emissions caused by burning agricultural waste
  • Reduce soil pollution caused by plastic waste breakdown
  • Spur entrepreneurship and increase employment
  • Create zero-waste raw materials that manufacturers buy and use to make environmentally clean products
  • Give consumers an opportunity to buy products that have cleaned rather than damaged the environment.

How does it do this?

  • Entrepreneurs and municipal organisations house and operate our innovative technology in a local facility.
  • Farmers sell their agricultural waste to the facility rather than burn it, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
  • People collect and deliver to the facility plastic waste that pollutes their immediate environment, which creates employment.
  • The technology operated by PANELTECH.US with local partners combines the waste to make zero-waste, sustainable, and biodegradable raw materials.
  • Manufacturers buy these raw materials to make sustainable products that are clean, sustainable, biodegradable, and have not damaged the environment. They sell them into global supply chains.
  • Global supply chains take in clean, environmentally friendly products and distribute them around the world; and
  • Consumers buy these clean products in good conscience at an affordable price.