Resources

Five things you should know about Mark Rossi

Five things you should know about Mark Rossi

8/14/2015 Boston Globe Blogs Press Releases

Mark Rossi’s life mission is to advance safer alternatives to toxic chemicals. In 2006, Rossi founded BizNGO, a collaboration of more than 500 business, environmental, and government leaders. After codirecting the Clean Production Action for 10 years, he cofounded the Chemical Footprint Project in 2014. The project, administered by CPA, uses a benchmark system to raise awareness about harmful chemicals. Rossi, who earned his PhD in environmental policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently spoke about his projects, safe everyday products, and why he did not complain about the record snowfall.

1. Rossi, 52, was living in New Mexico with his girlfriend, now wife, trying to get his life together when he decided to move to Massachusetts in 1987 to attend graduate school at Tufts University. His interest in chemical safety began as he worked with a professor on toxic chemicals and the life cycle of products. Rossi followed professor Ken Geiser to the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute as a researcher, and has not stopped learning from peers about improving the chemicals in products.

“I want to have a say in the products I use. It’s highly motivating to be able to change the products we use every day, to make them safer and healthier for people and the environment. My work is a way of creating an expression of what we want in our products.”

2. A self-proclaimed “pollinator” because he spreads information from business to business, and business to consumer, Rossi has knowledge that’s global. As a contributor to the UN Environmental Program, Rossi attended a conference in China in July and has attended UN meetings in Geneva. His most frequented European country is Sweden, a leader in chemical management.

“In Sweden, there is much more of a willingness to engage in conversation, be thoughtful of the chemicals they use, and what they might do to change. Here, we tend to be very polarized between companies and environmental groups. I’ve brought a willingness to listen to find common ground to BizNGO and Clean Production Action.”

Read the entire article on Boston Globe