the first step in creating a circular agenda … bring together holistic & innovative experts

The need to transition to a circular economy, both quickly and effectively on a global scale, has never been more pressing. At the front of this need sits a revolutionary transition for businesses… with the potential for exciting opportunities and inspiring innovation! This year’s Festival of Circular Economy once again brings together inspirational voices, circular economy experts and business change makers from around the world to create a hotbed of collaborative ideas to drive action.

We need to drive progress… theory is important, but we want action!

Introducing The Circular setlist Group

To add in overview about group members here …

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is the global leader of Climate & Energy at WWF and interim chair of the IUCN Climate Crisis Commission.

He has more than 35 years of experience in environmental law and policy. He served as Minister of the Environment of Peru (2011 to 2016) and President of the Twentieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP20 in 2014. Pulgar-Vidal was the Executive Director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, an influential institution in Latin America. He has a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he is a professor, and has completed studies for a master’s degree in Business Law at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. He is a board member of Forest Trends, Amazon Conservation Association, Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, CARE-Peru and the Science Based Targets initiative and a member of the Assembly of the World Wide Fund for Nature – Colombia.

He is also member of the Steering Committees of F20 and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative as well as a member of the Aspen Institute Management and Leadership Advisory Group, the IUCN International Committee for the Nature Based Solutions Global Standard and the advisory board of the Centre for Multilateral Negotiations – CEMUNE. He has recently been appointed as the chairman of the newly created IUCN Climate Crisis Commission as well as Champion for the Action Agenda for Nature as part of the Convention of Biological Diversity, in an effort to develop the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. He has been invited to serve on the US Advisory Committee on Foreign and Voluntary Aid. He is the chairman of the evaluation council of the French sovereign Green Bonds. As an active member of different groups aimed at achieving strong outcomes as a part of the formal climate talks and the non-party stakeholders’ agenda, he is an Ambassador for the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience campaigns.

He has been recognized with the Légion d´Honneur by the French Government, the Grand Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Cross of the Civil Order of Environmental Merit of the Spanish Government, the Order of Merit for distinguished Services of the Peruvian Government and the Shackleton Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his contribution to the Paris Agreement and has been inducted into the Earth Hall of Fame of Kyoto.

Location: South America

Dr. David Greenfield

David is Vice President of Circular Economy Institute (CEI), Junior Vice President of the CIWM, founder of SOENECS and Co-founder of etsaW and Tech-Takeback.

David has been a volunteer for the CEC and CEI for 5 years and has run over 50 face to face networking events, including the CEC London, Tour of Circular Businesses on the Circle Line and spoken at over 25 international events for CEC and CEI, including Reuters, Rotary and PWC.
In September 2021, David was appointed as visiting Professor of Circular Economy at the University of Brighton to lecture and work with academics to incorporate circular economy into the curriculum.

In his substantial role, David is managing director and founder of SOENECS (SOcial, ENvironmental & EConomic Solutions), a research and innovation practice. SOENECS provide strategic research, advice, training, solutions, chairing and facilitation on the topics of circular economy, environmental auditing, waste & resource management. David is also the Co-founder and MD Tech-Takeback Ltd.

Location: UK

Maya de Souza

Maya de Souza is currently a consultant working mainly with CSTEP, India, a climate and environment think tank. She is developing a new programme of activity on circular economy and the bioeconomy, focused on integrating these approaches into corporate and governmental climate and environmental action.

Until July 2023, Maya was BITC’s Circular Economy Director, leading the organisation’s work with member companies on adopting circular economy solutions to achieve Net Zero. Prior to that she led Defra’s Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy team. She developed a cross-cutting policy programme (England Waste Prevention Programme), worked with BEIS to integrate circularity/resource efficiency into the Net Zero agenda, spearheaded the government’s work on ecodesign and labelling in this field, and led sectoral work on textiles and construction.
She is a public policy expert and a lawyer by training.

Location: India

Mark Shayler

Mark works on sustainability, company purpose and coaches businesses and individuals.

Mark helps big companies think like small ones and small companies think like big ones. He works on innovation of products, services and business models; he works on sustainability and company purpose; and he coaches businesses and individuals. He has saved his clients in excess of £140 million per annum through environmental improvements, has increased sales of products by 8000% by introducing circular economy business models and trained over 2000 people in sustainability.

He has worked for Nike, SC Johnson, Schweppes, Papa Johns, Heinz, Patagonia, Sportsshoes, Interface, Coca-Cola, Seedlip, Unilever, Hotpoint, Samsung, John Lewis, Fenwick, Teapigs, Bacardi, Diageo, Mars, Thorntons, 3M, Amazon, Panasonic and hundreds of funky little businesses like Propercorn, Teapigs, Hiut Denim, and Ugly Drinks. He was a lead for the RSA Great Recovery programme of Circular Economy and was once the Head of Environment for ASDA.

He is a Founding Partner of the Do Lectures and author of two books Do Disrupt, change the status quo or become it and Do Present, how to give a talk and be heard. He is a coach, workshop facilitator and Qi gong teacher. Mark is also part of the reasons to be cheerful team, which he co-founded in in 2020.

Location: UK

Philip Mossop

To follow soon …

Location: UK

Deanna Zhang

To follow soon …

Location: UK

George Strickland

To follow soon …George is a business executive with a 20-year corporate career in the building industry, working with a multi-national manufacturer where he employed his LEED professional status in sustainably designed commercial buildings. After that he has spent the last 10 years active as an entrepreneur in the CE sector, a circular business advisor at a local Business Innovation Centre, an Ambassador with the CE Institute and CE Club leader in Toronto where he lives.

Location: Canada

Dr. Adam Read

Adam is a member of the Suez UK Management Team with responsibility for external affairs, communications and sustainability. He has been with Suez for 6 years after a successful career in academia, local government and environmental consultancy spanning over 30 years, whilst his PhD focussed on UK waste policy failures, and numerous academic and trade publications on a diverse range of issues from waste prevention and the circular economy, to behaviour change, policy implementation, recycling contamination and technology failures.

Adam is also the Chair of the ESA Resource Strategy & Policy working group, where the sector’s critical thinking about potential policy impacts happen. He is a former CIWM president and during his tenure he championed the green skills demands of a sector transitioning to a circular economy, leading to him sitting on the UK Governments Green Jobs Delivery Group on behalf of the resources & waste sector. Adam sits on numerous industry technical working groups, including CIWM’s Policy & Innovation Forum, BITC’s circular economy think tank and the Circular Economy Task Force (managed by the Green Alliance) and enjoys nothing more than mentoring the resource managers of the future. He is a CIWM Trustee, member of CIWM’s Policy & Innovation Forum and was recently voted the 7th most influential person in the Resource Hot 100 and one of the 10 most important people in the Environment Sector.

For the last 6 years he has led the company’s work with UK Government on the development of the new Resources & Waste Strategy and associated consultations around EPR, DRS, Plastic Tax and consistent collections, hosting numerous workshops, webinars and conferences on behalf of CIWM and other industry bodies to discuss the policy proposals and develop consensus and feedback to the relevant Government departments. He has also been working closely with numerous leading brands assessing the impact of policy reforms on their businesses and looking at new and innovative packaging design, harvesting options and new business models, all part of the move towards a more circular materials economy.

Location: UK

Tim Walker

I am currently the Chief Executive of the arc21 local authority partnership in Northern Ireland, a role I have held since 2019. Prior to that, I headed up waste management at Belfast City Council for two decades.

I sit on the Board of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and am the Senior Vice President for the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and will be taking on the role from June 2024. I am also a Visiting Research Fellow with Queen’s University Belfast looking at the Circular Economy, a member of the DEFRA Advisory Committee on Packaging (UK) and I sat on the Department for Economy’s Circular Economy Coalition (NI). I have several professional and academic qualifications and regularly return from walks with his pockets full of rubbish.

In terms of a professional summary, I have worked at chief officer level for years and have a proven track record in environmental and social impact, including many years’ experience of strategic and operational management.

Location: UK

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festival content themes

A global movement

Theme: Bridging the global north and south to drive best practice, collaboration and entrepreneurial innovation

Global growth stage (virtual day 1)

Bridging the global north and south to drive best practice, collaboration and entrepreneurial innovation is key in achieving global sustainability goals. The aim of this stage is to enable conversations across regions for CE innovators, entrepreneurs, policy makers and supply chain professionals who need to collaborate to optimise value chain opportunities. Topics include … global policies | production & supply chains | collaboration opportunities | skills & training

Business strategy & action!

Theme: Discussing CE-led models, frameworks and action plans for businesses to adapt and implement sustainable practices

Business agility & the UK’s circular economy stage (in-person day 2)

A day in-person with a focus on cross-sector collaboration opportunities and the UK’s circular economy journey – this stage covers what needs to be considered from a business perspective by delving into CE led frameworks, action plans, supply chains, and the green economy.

Featuring practical conversations helping to drive CE implementation, this day is designed to bring together those already operating in the circular economy, and businesses who need to adopt CE action plans to foster relationships and create implementation opportunities, including decision makers and budget holders such as CEO’s and startup founders, strategy and innovation officers, and heads of circular economy and supply chains. Topics include … business models | supply chains & frameworks | CE action plans | green economy & degrowth

Revolutionising design

Theme: Understanding the critical role of design and redefining what this means for businesses in a circular economy

Design in action stage (virtual day 1)

We know that the design phase within a circular cycle is still proving to be a big roadblock for the redevelopment of products. The design stage will host key roles that work within this area of the circular economy including design consultants, product & packaging specialists and materials experts, to unpick and create solutions to move beyond the current barriers within CE led design. Running through the different phases of the design cycle, the stage is aimed at brands/ corporates that need to adopt CE led practices like alternative materials for products, and CE startups/ solution providers looking to stake their space in this area. Topics include … critical role of design | design to minimise waste | alternative materials | traceability & measuring impact

Leading the change

Theme: Showcasing the best examples of CE at different scales to inspire global change

Business change makers stage (virtual day 3)

Rounding off the FOCE agenda, this stage highlights examples of circularity at different scales to spark inspiration for others to implement change. This stage is aimed at ambitious SME’s who are looking to scale up their CE businesses, and those who are on a corporate scale wanting to implement CE practices including sustainability, environmental and innovation officers, founders and decision makers. Topics include … scaling the circular economy | showcasing innovation | driving change | regeneration

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agenda available soon … click register to be the first to HEAR about it!