About

Circularity is an established concept in the public debate, and yet, it remains a broad notion that needs a clear definition. Especially as current actions aiming at achieving circularity can be overly focused on phony effects and contribute to cementing policy and infrastructure that fail to pave the way towards true sustainability.

At this event, hosted by Brunel University London, University of Southern Denmark, Politecnico di Milano and Wageningen University & Research, you will get to hear more from the four academics behind the publication of the paper “Keep circularity meaningful, inclusive and practical: a view into the plastics value chain”.

Using beverage packaging as a case study, we then invite you to take part in a facilitated discussion with industry, policymakers and academia to critically assess the principles of circularity that should guide decision-making towards the most sustainable outcome.

Hosted By

A MESSAGE ON CIRCULARITY

To get a flavour of the discussion, watch here a video where the 4 academics explain the ideas behind their paper on "Keep circularity meaningful, practical and inclusive: a view into the plastis value chain"

AGENDA

15:00
Welcome by the moderator

15:05 – 15:30
Insights from the academic paper: "Keep circularity meaningful, inclusive and practical: a view into the plastics value chain"

Ciprian Cimpan, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark
Eggo Ulphard Thoden van Velzen, Senior Researcher, Wageningen University & Research
Eleni Iacovidou, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, Brunel University London
Lucia Rigamonti, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano

15:30 - 16:00
Perspectives on Circularity

Reaction by Academia:
Monia Niero, Associate Professor at the Sustainability and Climate Interdisciplinary Center, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies

Reaction by Industry:
Arnaud Mittelette, Public Affairs Manager, Sources ALMA

Reaction from Policy:
Davide Tonini, Scientific Policy Officer, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

16:00 – 16:55
Open Discussion

This will be an interactive session with all participants. In addition to posting messages and raising questions in the chat, participants may request to intervene in the meeting with their microphone and camera.

16:55 – 17:00
Conclusions

Speakers

Ciprian Cimpan

Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark

Eggo Ulphard Thoden van Velzen

Senior Researcher, Wageningen University & Research

Eleni Iacovidou

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, Brunel University London

Lucia Rigamonti

Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano

Arnaud Mittelette

Public Affairs Manager, Sources ALMA

Davide Tonini

Scientific Policy Officer, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

Monia Niero

Associate Professor at the Sustainability and Climate Interdisciplinary Center, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies

Monia Niero is associate professor at the Sustainability and Climate Interdisciplinary Center at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, where she deals with issues related to sustainability, with particular reference to environmental sustainability. Her research interests range from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products, processes and systems to the development of decision support tools for the implementation of circular economy strategies at product and system level. Before joining Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in 2023, she worked from 2018 to 2022 as associate professor at Aalborg University, Department of Planning in Copenhagen (DK) where she gained teaching experience according to the teaching model based on Problem Based Learning (PBL) and research experience on sociotechnical approaches. From 2013 to 2018 she worked as a postdoc researcher at the Technical University of Denmark (DK), Department of Management, Division for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA), where she was involved in research projects on LCA and circular economy. During the PhD period in Industrial Engineering, obtained in 2013 at the University of Padua, she carried out a research period of 6 months at the Department of Environmental Science of Aarhus University (DK). She is co-author of numerous scientific publications published in international journals and has participated as a speaker, also as invited speaker, at numerous international conferences in the field of life cycle management