Forty-Eight Years Asking A Better Question
The acknowledgment is the credential.
For nearly five decades, Ken Alston has worked at the intersection of business, sustainability, product stewardship, circular economy, and organizational change.
Today, he helps leaders answer a question that has become increasingly difficult to ignore:
How can a business continue creating value without consuming the conditions its future depends upon?
The answer is not another sustainability report.
It is not another target.
And it is rarely another roadmap.
It begins with understanding the assumptions that shape the decisions businesses make every day.
A Career Inside The Sustainability Movement
Ken’s professional journey spans three distinct chapters.
SC Johnson
Ken joined SC Johnson in 1979 and spent more than twenty years with the company, ultimately serving as Director of Global Product Responsibilities Worldwide.
During that period, environmental responsibility was evolving from a compliance issue into a strategic business consideration.
The work included product reformulation, packaging redesign, supply-chain initiatives, and the early questions of how businesses can balance economic success with broader responsibilities.
Cradle to Cradle and Circular Design
Ken later spent seventeen years working alongside William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart, co-authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.
During this period he helped launch major initiatives including the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, while participating in some of the most influential circular design and product innovation projects of the era.
The work demonstrated what was possible when organizations began thinking differently about materials, products, and systems.
It also revealed something else.
Even successful sustainability initiatives often struggled to change the deeper logic governing how businesses operate.
Circularity Edge
The third chapter led to the creation of Circularity Edge.
Over the last decade, Ken has continued to study why organizations with genuine commitment, capable people, and substantial investment often struggle to achieve the outcomes they seek.
That work produced a series of proprietary frameworks including:
- Design Like Nature™
- Tactical Tetrahedron™
- Sustainable Circularity™
- Belief Gap Map™
Together, these frameworks help leaders examine not only what decisions are being made, but the assumptions that make those decisions seem reasonable in the first place.
Why Circularity Edge Exists
Most sustainability efforts focus on actions.
Circularity Edge focuses on the thinking that produces those actions.
Organizations rarely fail because they lack good intentions.
More often, they struggle because they continue making decisions from assumptions that no longer fit the realities they face.
The purpose of Circularity Edge is to help leaders identify those assumptions, improve decision quality, and build organizations capable of creating enduring value.
The Work Today
Ken works directly with:
- CEOs and founders
- Owners and family business leaders
- Board members
- Senior executives
- Sustainability and innovation leaders
Engagements range from private strategy sessions and executive advisory work to organizational recalibration initiatives based on Design Like Nature™ and Sustainable Circularity™ principles.
Every engagement is delivered personally by Ken.
No junior consultants.
No outsourced analysis.
No generic sustainability playbook.
Author, Speaker, Advisor
Ken is the author of the forthcoming book:
Our Common Future Now
The book explores why many sustainability efforts reach a ceiling, the operating beliefs that contribute to that pattern, and what leaders can do differently.
Publication is planned for September 2026, coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of Our Common Future, the landmark report that helped define modern sustainability.
Ken is also host of the Circularity Catalyst podcast and a sought-after keynote speaker on sustainable business, circular economy, and leadership.
The Question Behind The Practice
The work of Circularity Edge is ultimately built around a simple question:
What are you trying to sustain, and for how long?
The answer shapes every other decision.