Important news!
Given the limitations and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing committee has decided to transform the in-person conference into an interactive virtual event .
Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Conference 2020
November 30 - December 3, 2020 | Freiburg, Germany
Hosted by the Chair of Societal Transition and Circular Economy | University of Freiburg
Determining the implications of circular economy initiatives on the environment and human wellbeing is essential for successful policy development and monitoring. While technical and business aspects of circular economy initiatives receive growing attention, perspectives on power struggles, socioecological justice and trade-offs in implementation are underdeveloped.
This conference calls for contributions from all disciplines that critically explore prospects, potentials, and limitations of circular economy initiatives for social justice and environmental sustainability .
Strategies and business models proposed under the label of a circular economy are numberless. Many of them are proposed with the aim to ‘disrupt’ existing markets and business practice and create an entirely new economic system. What is disrupted, how, by whom, and with what consequences is often under-theorized and under-researched. Similarly, the contribution of individual strategies and business models to ecological conservation and social justice as well as their fit to specific political, economic or cultural contexts is often uncertain. To achieve the circular economy’s mission of keeping us within planetary boundaries, we need a substantial knowledge base for gauging different strategies’ and business models’ ‘disruptive’ potential with respect to social and ecological goals
This conference aims to open the current circular economy debates more towards critical engagement with the socio-political realities that circular economy efforts face and the multi-faceted effects of implementation. Ultimately, the conference seeks to provide policy and practice with the critical insights needed to achieve socio-ecologically sustainable outcomes.
Conference topics
Keynote speakers
Prof. Julia Leventon
Human Dimensions of Global Change in CzechGlobe, the Czech Academy of Sciences
Julia Leventon is head of the department of Human Dimensions of Global Change in CzechGlobe, the Czech Academy of Sciences. Julia’s work focusses on sustainability transformations, seeking to understand how we can fundamentally transform systems. Specifically, she asks how we govern systems, and rethink governance systems to acheive sustainability. Recent projects include the successful Leverage Points project, which builds on Donella Meadows' framework of places to intervene in systems. Julia's research has a focus on place-based research, to understand the social, political and physical issues that drive sustainability problems. Much of the work done is transdisciplinary, meaning that it engages with people and stakeholders to implement problem-focused, solution oriented research; learning with and for the participants.
Damien Giurco is Professor of Resource Futures and Deputy Director (Engagement) of the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. His research with government and industry spans the waste, water, energy and minerals sectors and is focused on materials use and responsible prosperity in a circular economy.
Damien has presented and published widely and is Editor-in-chief for the journal Resources. He serves on the Circular Economy Expert Working Group for the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and is currently Theme Leader for Battery Supply Chain Integrity within the Cooperative Research Centre for Future Battery Industries.
Mélanie Haupt is Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich and part of the Ecological Systems Design group since 2012. She has a master in Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich which she completed with a ETH-medal awarded master thesis written at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia. She then wrote her PhD thesis on environmental assessment of resource and energy recovery in waste management systems in the Ecological Systems Design Group at ETH Zurich. Her current research foci include indicators for a circular economy, the creation of clean resource cycles on the case of plastic recycling and the definition and creation of a sustainable circular economy.
Important dates
- Call for abstracts: November 2019
- Abstract re-submission deadline (for already accepted abstracts): October 15, 2020
- Acceptance notification: February 29, 2020
- Registration period (listeners): March 15, 2020 - November 29, 2020 | Registration fee : free of charge
- Conference dates: November 30 - December 3, 2020
JProf. Dr. Sina Leipold
University of Freiburg
Chair of Societal Transition and Circular Economy
Tennenbacher Str. 4
D- 79106 Freiburg
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