European Circular Economy Forum

Ellen van Bueren and Els Leclercq discussed their ideas about circular cities at the European Circular Economy Forum in Kiev (Ukraine) on 4 October.

The Forum brought together leading experts in circular economy and industry pioneers from the European Union and Eastern Europe. The programme consisted of four panel sessions: 

• Circular Cities
• Circular Fashion
• Circularity in Agri & Food
• Advanced Waste Management Technologies and Logistics

Ellen van Bueren and Els Leclercq participated in the panel discussion on circular cities. 

Ellen van Bueren, professor of Urban Development Management, gave a keynote speech on circular cities. She discussed how cities, more particularly Dutch and North-western European cities, formulate and implement their circular city ambitions.  Els Leclercq, researcher at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, talked about specific circular urban projects in the Netherlands.  

The following day, Leclercq conducted a workshop on circular design for the participants in the Circular Economy Hackathon in Kiev. Teams of circular business start-ups worked on solutions relating to the following topics:

• product lifecycle extension
• products as a service
• the sharing economy
• renewability of materials and resources
• materials and solutions to substitute plastics
• resource efficiency and processing
• circular design. 

“The hackathon showed what enormous innovation potential there is, ranging from low-tech to high-tech solutions, for preventing waste and promoting reuse,“ – Ellen van Bueren, member of the jury panel.