07-30-2025
At Purdue’s Daniels School of Business, we often explore where innovation meets sustainability. But in practice, progress rarely comes in perfect packages. It requires context-aware trade-offs and solutions that are as pragmatic as they are visionary.
A clear example of this balancing act is emerging in Sierra Leone with Infinitum Energy Group (IEG), a client of mine at Impact Pathways. IEG develops renewable energy projects, including Waste-to-Energy (WtE) projects in countries like Sierra Leone, where unmanaged waste and energy shortages are everyday realities.
WtE is often criticized, with some pointing to its emissions profile or questioning whether it aligns with a vision of zero waste and circular economies. However, the alternative of doing nothing is worse. Although WtE may raise issues from a purely environmentalist lens, it can catalyze transformation in fragmented systems. With properly run facilities, most concerns can be mitigated.
In Freetown, IEG is working with government and private partners to transform a fragmented waste sector into a coordinated, market-driven system. IEG’s facility acts as a market off-taker, creating incentives for waste collection, reducing harmful dumping, enabling plastics recycling and supplying baseload electricity to homes and businesses. It also generates jobs across the waste and energy value chains.
This isn’t about choosing between sustainability and profitability. It’s about recognizing that perfect sustainability without practicality isn’t sustainable at all. Our challenge as future leaders is to navigate these trade-offs — building systems that are scalable, context-sensitive and capable of evolving toward a more sustainable future.
Daniels School alumnus Kyle Newell (BA CLA’05, BS ECON’05, MBA’08) is a seasoned leader with more than two decades of experience in developing sustainable business solutions globally. He currently serves as the Global Impact Ventures Lead at Impact Pathways, where he drives strategic initiatives that help scale transformative solutions for people and the planet. He has also worked with ARIST, a consortium of U.S. universities, including Purdue, that is partnering with African universities to help build the commercialization process.
