Chris Oestereich
Systems thinker. Circular economy advocate. Writer, lecturer, and TEDx speaker working at the intersection of sustainability, social innovation, and community change.
“Matters will not improve of their own accord.”
The Big Picture
I help communities and organizations shift toward the circular economy — designing programs, facilitating workshops, and building the networks and knowledge needed to move from a linear to a circular model.
Before launching Linear to Circular and Morph Bags, I served as Zero Waste Manager at SuperValu, where I oversaw zero waste programs across seven grocery chains — including Save-A-Lot — with over 1,400 stores and a full supply chain including multiple distribution centers. Achieving 90%+ landfill avoidance targets across that estate, with significant cultural and operational variance across the United States, required systems thinking and differentiated implementation at scale. That experience underpins everything I do now.
My work spans several interconnected efforts. Through Linear to Circular, I work with firms to analyze their waste streams and design programs that create financial and environmental benefits. Through Morph Bags, I’m building a social enterprise that turns post-industrial waste into high-quality products made by skilled hands in St. Louis and Bangkok. And through CircularSTL, which I co-chair, I’m helping build the coalition, policy groundwork, and community infrastructure needed to make St. Louis a genuinely circular city.
I’m also a writer and the publisher of the Wicked Problems Collaborative, a lecturer at Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies in Bangkok — where I’ve taught systems thinking, social innovation, and social enterprise for over a decade — and a former Global Ambassador of The RSA.
If you’d like to talk about speaking, consulting, workshops, or any of the above, please get in touch.
Humanity’s Choice: Paradigm Shift or Bust
I gave a talk at TEDx Chiang Mai a few years ago that shared a scary event I lived through that forced me to take a step back and take stock of my life as I asked the audience to do the same with our collective circumstances.
TEDx Chiang Mai — November 2021
What I Do
It’s all connected. Each of these efforts addresses a different dimension of the same challenge: how do we build systems that work for people and planet?
Morph Bags
Carried by Purpose
Morph rescues post-industrial materials from becoming waste and transforms them into high-quality bags and accessories for daily use — made by skilled hands in St. Louis and Bangkok. Morph is a social enterprise at heart, committed to circular economy principles and the dignified livelihoods of our collaborators.
Visit Morph Bags → morphbags.com
Linear to Circular
Helping People, Planet & Business
Linear to Circular (L2C) helps firms analyze their waste streams, design programs tailored to create financial and environmental benefits, and implement circular economy strategies. L2C also designs and facilitates workshops and training, and has deep experience translating research into actionable insights through case studies and articles for relevant audiences.
• Visit Linear to Circular → lineartocircular.com
Selected Writing
Free Inquiry
On the Threat of AI
• The Mechanical Elephant in the Room
THINK Magazine
THINK 12: Navigating the AI TerraiN
• What’s to Gain from AI?
THINK 11: The Art, Science and Good News of Ageing
• Rethinking Retirement: Navigating Ageing Societies Amidst Accelerating Change
THINK 10: Reorganizing the Future of Work
• The Pandemic, Work, and Universal Basic Income
THINK 8: East Meets West in the Pandemic
• Observing Disintegration
THINK 6: The Necessity of Circularity
• The Circular Economy is Not Optional
THINK 2: The Evolving Nature of Labor
• Will Robots Do Our Work?
The RSA
On the Problem of Growth
• All we are saying is give degrowth a chance (with Sam Bliss)
On the Plastic Problem
• Digging into plastic waste in Thailand
• Socioeconomic Factors of Plastic Waste Collection in Thailand and Beyond
• Gaps and Benefits in Thailand’s Informal Waste Collection System
Serving Others
• What Does it Mean to be Human-Centered?
Circular Design Lab
• Fostering Communities for Bottom-Up Change
• Planting a Seed of Community
The Future of Work
• Put Your Dreams Away for Now?
Our Treatment of Refugees
• The Humble Abode Games
Supporting Social Innovations
• Fostering a Social Innovation Community
The Week
• Boris Johnson has Britain Barreling toward a Disastrous No-Deal Brexit
• The U.K. has 2 Very Bad Choices for the Next Prime Minister
• Boris is Unfit
• Brexit is a Huge Mistake. It’s Not Too Late to Stop It
openDemocracy
Our Broken Economic System
• Pandemic Capitalism
World Health Network
End Coronavirus
Sustainable Brands
Harvard Business Review
Salt Magazine
Social Space
Salt Magazine
The Nation
Bangkok Post
SDG Helpdesk (UNDP)
World Health Network
Towards Recentering Public Health
• Pretending It’s Over Amplifies the Pandemic
End Coronavirus
• Living through COVID-19 in Australia
• The UK Government is Enabling COVID-19
• Taking a Step Back
Sustainable Brands
On the Role of Sustainability Leaders
• Why It’s Time to Reframe the Role of Sustainability Leaders
Advocacy, Purpose, and Engagement
• How to Find Lasting Motivation and Engagement at Work
• Can a Tuktuk Ride Change the World?
Impact Assessment
• How Do We Assess Impact (and Why Should We)?
Inclusive Business
• Is It About Cutting Out the Middleman?
Changing Business From Within
• Unleash the Radical Intrapreneurs!
• Are You a Radical Intrapreneur?
Harvard Business Review
The Circular Economy is Good Business
• Don’t Let Regulation Turn Your Business into a Rube Goldberg Machine
Salt Magazine
Challenging Your Beliefs
• How to Create a Healthier Planet: Be Willing to Be Wrong
On Driverless Cars
• Why Every Decision We Now Make Will Shape the Future
Avoiding Corporate Calcification
• It’s Time to Reframe Corporate Sustainability
• Disrupt the Corporate Immune System
• Pump up the Jazz…Because Orchestral Business Won’t Survive
Social Space
Questioning Tech
• Is It Time To Curb The Tech Bandwagon?
Re-envisioning Schools
• Can We Rethink Education for an Inclusive Future?
The Nation
The Sufficiency Economy
• Let’s Honor the Late King by Committing to the Sufficiency Economy
Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
Plastic Waste
• Tackling Our Plastic Waste Woes
SDG Helpdesk (UNDP)
SDG Helpdesk (UNDP)
Green Growth
• Edible Garden City (Singapore)
• The Picha Project (Malaysia)
• Zero Baht Shop (Thailand)