This half-day tutorial will provide the basics of the circular economy, from theory to action, from guiding principles to case studies spanning products, business models and system-level innovations. Much of the work in the circular economy to date has centered on deep analysis of the broader economic opportunity. This session will help translate the theory into practical opportunities for colleagues working in various functions within an organization and value chain.

Just because you can reuse something, doesn’t mean you should. As industry moves towards a circular world in which materials will ideally be used over and over, ensuring that recycled materials don’t adversely affect human health becomes ever more important. This session will illustrate key material health considerations when thinking about moving to a circular product design, reframing the material health challenge as an opportunity for successful circular design.

This session features a regulator, utility and customer from the same service area in Michigan to talk about how they worked together on green tariffs, rate design to integrate more renewables, and electric vehicle infrastructure. Experts will offer insights into how companies can navigate complex dynamics and think through the systems needed to bring more clean energy to the grid. 

Systems mapping is increasingly being used to understand the dynamics of any system – human, organizational, technical etc. Methodologies such as Waste Flow Mapping, Value Stream Mapping, Eco-Mapping can help identify and analyze opportunities for material efficiencies and waste reduction. But a whole systems approach examines a broader set of loops, including human and organizational dynamics that can either help or hinder change through ongoing reinforcement. This session will examine examples of whole system mapping and illustrate how applying this technique can help managers understand flows within an organization and unlock value from using these flows appropriately.

Our complex transportation networks and supply chains need to highlight circular manufacturing and principles in order to reduce emissions and meet sustainability goals. This session surveys programs addressing closed-loop, zero-emission fuel use, vehicle tire circular systems, auto remanufacturing and electric vehicle battery material recycling and reuse.

There was little fanfare when Congress passed a carbon removal tax credit in 2018 — so little that many people still don’t know the credit exists. Some U.S. state governments also have created incentives for carbon removal. And with climate change set to play a more prominent role in the 2020 elections, other legislative initiatives will likely follow. Hear from experts who will explain how the existing credit and future changes will impact your company.

There's a whole array of strategies that companies can deploy to encourage electric and more sustainable transportation to, from and around corporate campuses, including employee electric vehicle purchasing, on-campus EV charging, e-shuttle bus use, on-campus mobility options and better last mile solutions. This session will provide insights into the programs that are available to your company and the incentives you can tap into.

The first autonomous vehicle projects — both slow-moving shuttles on campuses and more widely deployed robotaxis — have been launched, and companies and city leaders are beginning to learn valuable lessons from these early programs. This session will explain the most important takeaways that organizations need to know as they investigate autonomous vehicle technology.

There’s a lot of talk right now about the “emerging” carbon economy, but in some sectors the carbon economy is well underway. This session will introduce you to the first-mover firms that are selling and using carbon-negative textiles and advanced materials made from greenhouse gases. Speakers will explain the environmental benefits of the new materials and the potential end uses, including in clothing, packaging and furniture.

Reducing the billions of dollars of food waste lost every year is a priority for every step in the food and ag supply chain. Not only will it help ensure adequate food for a growing population, but there is money to be made. Internet of things (IoT) devices such as sensors on products, distribution points, trucks and trains have helped gather data that can be used to reduce and even eliminate waste. IoT analytics are advancing quickly, with new technologies designed to bring improvements to food processing, packaging, distribution and retail. This session will review some of the new IoT technologies and how companies are using them.

We must deploy technologies that suck carbon from the air if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. Doing so would create a huge new industry: one recent study estimated that products worth an estimated $5 trillion could be manufactured from CO2. This discussion will survey the ecosystem of opportunities in chemicals, materials and infrastructure that will emerge from the growth of this new sector.

Natural gas is becoming the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. energy sector. This session takes a realistic — but urgent — look at addressing those emissions, and at market-ready solutions for these hard-to-reach emission sources, including renewable thermal energy technologies, where and how to use renewable natural gas, and how to decarbonize industry, including the steel and concrete sectors.

As plastics take over our sees and overflow our landfills, we need a completely new approach to this material.  We can’t continue to use plastic in the way that we have, but eliminating it altogether makes no sense either. The vision of a New Plastic Economy includes tenets such as eliminating all unnecessary plastic packaging, reducing single use packaging, ensuring all plastic packaging can be reusable, recyclable or compostable – not just in theory but in practice, and keeping hazardous chemicals out. This session will explore what achieving a New Plastic Economy looks like in practice and how companies and organizations are partnering to make it a reality. 

There has been plenty written about the importance of regenerative agriculture for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Technologies and practices have improved, but adoption is not occurring at scale. Hurdles for farmers on the ground include the lack of capital and information, as well as the lack of understanding of how the approach can increase profits. Some of these challenges can be addressed by emerging business models that bring third-party players into the frame – similar to how we scaled energy efficiency. Let’s chat about the innovative business approaches that can create regeneration at scale.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served. 

The public outcry over plastics presents an unprecedented opportunity to create game-changing solutions that cease use of the material, but we cannot stop there. A system change that solves for plastics alone will not create a viable platform for a truly circular economy, and unintended consequences may result from a short-term focus on a single material category. Yet the momentum around plastic waste provides an entry point to address the broader question of how to build a circular economy for all consumer packaging. Join Sarah Dearman from The Recycling Partnership to explore the realities of creating a circular system for packaging in the U.S.

Every country has its unique natural conditions which may not be optimized for best use today. How can we leverage this opportunity by improving maturity of services to be delivered from places where the natural conditions are the best — reducing natural ecosystem disruption and extraneous energy use? Join us to discuss ways to optimize regional resources, including in the data center industry. We will also talk about how data can be stored in locations where natural conditions are optimal for cooling, power is renewable, and where cost is optimal for these services.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served.

Across the world, for green industries, government incentives can be the ultimate behavior change-maker to attract consumers. Many of these government incentives have been developed in cooperation with the industry and the government, like the Norwegian government’s support of the growth of EV and the power-intensive data center industry. At lunch, we will explore and discuss the ways to incentivize government agencies to develop incentives for green behavior like tax cuts, investments, and specialized program.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served.

The way that we have planned, funded and implemented mobility projects since the advent of the automobile has resulted in inequities, literally built into our communities. Emerging mobility creates an opportunity and an imperative to shift our methods and address past harms, improve future outcomes, and ensure that mobility decisions create positive impacts on cities. This roundtable will consider the opportunities, challenges and methods to ensure the shifting mobility landscape creates more equitable outcomes.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up  – participation is first-come, first-served. 

Exciting headlines say that autonomous vehicles will transform the transportation industry in the coming years — but are we ready? The buzz about self-driving cars and fleets can ignore some key questions that must be answered first. Join us to find out: What role will autonomous vehicles play in the overall transportation ecosystem? How can cities prepare for an autonomous future, and what work needs to be done in order to move the needle forward to ensure a balanced transportation system? 

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up  – participation is first-come, first-served.

Efficiency-based routing has long been a prevailing operational strategy in the trucking industry. As companies with over-the-road business models consider the transition to electrification, the lack of national or robust multi-state charging infrastructure will be a considerable barrier to adoption. Join us to discuss: Is it possible for these companies to develop over-the-road charging strategies without sacrificing routing efficiencies or breaking the bank? How can companies work together to mitigate gaps in over-the-road charging availability in the near term?

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served. 

“Industry” makes up a sizable part of the emissions pie chart, but the term is a catch-all. Over lunch, we’ll dive deep into the challenges in reducing those emissions across plants, factories and processes. We will discuss how industry decarbonization is unique relative to other sectors, and how this varies by types of industrial businesses. Furthermore, we will explore: What is the state of play for solutions to zero out emissions in industry, and the outlook for meeting science-based targets?

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

You might be surprised to learn that community solar is the fastest-growing segment of the solar industry today. But the incentives and timing mean that residents are interested and adopting faster than ever before. It’s also presenting a major opportunity for companies to get more involved in the space. Learn more about how leading businesses are benefiting from community solar programs at this roundtable lunch.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

Big data has enabled car-sharing programs, two-day deliveries, and curated music stations. It also has the potential to majorly transform homes and buildings. We’ll go into specifics about which data sources, when combined with more data and analytics, could create intelligent buildings that tell us how to make buildings last longer and improve the quality for whomever’s inside.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

If deployed widely, CO2 emissions harvested from the atmosphere could actually lower atmospheric carbon concentrations. While still a niche part of the carbon conversation, the technology — direct air capture — is quickly becoming commercial. Join us for lunch to discuss: How should the technology be effectively explained to the public? How can the stored CO2 be quantified? What policy levers exist to expand this technology and give businesses credit for their reductions achieved?

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served.

Every company has its own unique duty cycle, operating environment, climate goals and culture. This diversity paired with the comparative strengths of each potential energy solution results in a complex transition from basically one fuel to potentially multiple fuels with broad implications. In the clean energy transition, it can be confusing. But there are benchmarks and guidances out there to help us answer: How do we choose? Join us to learn some best practices for unique businesses and diverse sectors.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

What's the role of advanced recycling technologies in keeping materials circulating through our economy and creating a circular economy for plastics?

There’s been a growing buzz around chemical recycling and the promise of new technologies that can fix the broken recycling system. However, the technologies, terminology and applications can be confusing and are not widely understood. This session will explore the chemical recycling landscape: the transformational technologies that turn waste plastics back into new materials, decrease reliance on fossil fuels and curb the flow of plastics into marine environments.

Part one of this two-part breakout will unpack the basics of chemical recycling, explore the landscape of technologies and discuss applications and opportunities to unleash this emerging opportunity.

In this session attendees will learn what it takes to plan, build and operate high demand charging infrastructure that will not only create cleaner, livable cities, but is scalable, sustainable and profitable. Join technology innovators as they discuss how e-mobility models are changing the way we move within cities, and the practical realities of creating a new economy around this effort – built on a foundation of open-standards, powered by renewable energy sources, dynamically optimized and reinforced by the grid – and paving the way for the imminent electric transportation wave.

Many of the materials traditionally used across industries find their way to landfills. But innovations in materials are enabling us to make products that don’t have this end in sight. Across industries, material science has become a real hotspot for circularity. Some materials have inherently circular characteristics, whether because they biodegrade easily or can be recovered and reused or recycled. Innovations span from the disassembly of electronics for precious metals, to the use of innovative fabrics like banana leaves in apparel, to ensuring chemicals are made from products that biodegrade easily and harmlessly. What will it take to utilize these new materials at scale? Speakers from across industries provide insights.

Hear from clean energy leader Google and software company VMWare about selecting where, when and what renewables to meet energy needs and goals. This discussion will include lessons learned from over a decade in clean energy procurement to help you develop a goal and identify and pursue assets to achieve your objectives.

A new generation of startups is commercializing technologies that transform waste greenhouse gases into fuels, chemicals, materials...even animal feed. This session will open with an overview of the startup landscape from carbon economy investors, followed by a chance to meet both the investors and entrepreneurs from startups working on some of the most significant new technologies.

What's the role of advanced recycling technologies in keeping materials circulating through our economy and creating a circular economy for plastics? 

There’s been a growing buzz around chemical recycling and the promise of new technologies that can fix the broken recycling system. However, the technologies, terminology and applications can be confusing and are not widely understood. This session will explore the chemical recycling landscape: the transformational technologies that turn waste plastics back into new materials, decrease reliance on fossil fuels and curb the flow of plastics into marine environments. 

Part two of this two-part breakout will explore the chemical recycling market opportunity, look at where chemical recycling is going and how to finance and scale this emerging market to meet the growing demand for recycled content. 

As the first mainstream electric vehicles age, companies are beginning to explore circular systems for moving batteries from EVs to stationary storage systems to recycling. Though it's still early days for these supply chains, big battery and automakers, investors and materials suppliers are investigating the best ways to design and implement these systems.

In addition to corporate venture capital, there are many strategic ways that early-stage companies and larger enterprises are delivering value to each other. This session will showcase the main ways both new and established companies are delivering value to their counterparts, from the viewpoint of a corporate representative, B-B entrepreneur, and professional investor.

The construction industry emits billions of tons of carbon dioxide annually, and the world’s total floor space is forecast to double over the next 40 years. But this sector could help reverse global warming via a new generation of carbon-negative building materials. Construction industry insiders will introduce you to concrete that contains captured carbon and a new generation of wooden buildings that rise to 10 stories or more.

The backlash against planned obsolescence has begun, and products makers of all types — from consumer electronics to industrial equipment — are waking up to a new world of design and service. Advocates of the “Right to Repair” movement are demanding that manufacturers prioritize the development of better maintenance paths for their products, through modular designs and broader availability of components that make repair simpler for the DIY set — and that extend product lives in the process. Policymakers are paying attention: as of early 2019, 20 states including California and Minnesota are actively considering legislation. What does this mean for makers of stuff? How does this philosophy play into circular models of production? This roll-up-your sleeves session will feature a hands on disassembly demonstration, as well as a discussion between one of the outspoken voices in the “Right to Repair” movement as well as the perspective of an electronics OEM on the implications for product design, the availability of repair components, intellectual property and more.

Startups and big tech companies are focused on building machine learning systems that can make transportation systems operate more efficiently, cleanly and with less congestion. Investors also see big opportunity. This session will offer a taste of how AI can help solve transportation problems including accelerating the adoption and smart charging of electric vehicles, and making urban mobility more efficient.

By 2050, two thirds of the world will live in cities. However, urban centres designed for the linear economy are grappling with the effects of the current take-make-waste economy. 

But circularity isn't just about materials management. As major engines for economic growth and job creation, cities are also looking to the circular economy agenda to unlock economic, environmental, and social benefits. This session will explore how city leaders are using the transition to a circular economy to rethink material flows, create jobs for their communities, providing safe and affordable places to live and improving how people and goods move throughout the city.

Deep decarbonization targets are growing, as states, utilities and companies aim to reach 100% clean energy. Achieving these targets will require a massive mobilization of capital and the deployment of both existing and new technologies. Our experts discuss how corporations are helping finance the clean energy revolution through instruments like bonds, corporate venture capital funds and direct equity investments.

The world’s farms and forests have the potential to draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but monitoring the progress of land-based sequestration projects can be challenging. Hear from the technologists behind the new software tools that are making it possible to track, in real-time, the carbon being removed by even hard-to-monitor locations such as remote forests and large farms. If you’re using land-based offsets to reduce emissions, or thinking about doing so, this session will explain how the new tools can increase confidence in your investment.

Product take-back programs are commonplace at retailers keen to have customers walk their used printers and sweaters back into the store. Manufacturers commonly offer mail-in programs, and even cosmetics brands have begun accepting empty packaging for discounts on the next purchase. But all this is very old fashioned, and oftentimes the path of used items is not circular, or even sustainable. Digitizing take-back and reverse logistics — including the tracking of goods, maintaining an inventory of materials, managing pick-up and optimizing end-markets has huge potential to accelerate circularity. This session will examine efforts to modernize take-back back and reverse logistics and forge stronger links in a circular supply chain.