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VERGE Circular

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019

8:30am to 12:00pm

Foundations of the Circular Economy

Tutorial

Grand Ballroom Salon F

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.

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Safe and Circular: Integrating Material Health Into Circularity

Breakout

Uptown Room

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.

Growing a Circular System for Food

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

The linear food system is ripe for disruption. Between vast amounts of water and land used for food, deforestation caused by clearing land for crops, and heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers, waste free, regenerative and circular alternatives have a lot to offer. In a circular world, food production will improve rather than degrade the environment. Circular food systems are beginning to address this with the goal of protecting biodiversity and human health. For example, regenerative agriculture uses farming practices like intercropping and no tilling to enrich and regenerate the soil. Food companies are turning the byproducts of food production into the primary ingredients of new delicious products. And materials innovators are working to reduce waste created by the packaging our food is served in. This session will explore the potential for a circuar food system, and feature promising solutions being brought to market in the food industry.

The Emergence of Circular Transportation

Breakout

OCC 201

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.

The Missing Link: Digitizing Circular Supply Chains

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

Blockchain, artificial intelligence and wireless sensors are poised to become the foundation of the new suite of services needed to power circular supply chains. For example, the notion of a digital ID that would capture product information such as its location or material composition may prove fundamental as companies transition to PaaS models. Product information is also critical to both original equipment manufacturers and recyclers as companies put in place reverse logistics systems. But these systems needn’t stop at physical products. Digitally collecting information about things like the state of farmland my enhance our ability to calculate carbon offsets and a host of other applications that make digital solutions appealing for both natural and manufactured products.

This session will take a broader look at the opportunity to digitize supply chains in a way that enhances circularity, reduces resource use and positions a whole new view of the resources at our disposal.

Whole Systems Mapping: Understanding Flows and Unlocking Value

Workshop

Junior Ballroom 1

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.

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019

8:30am to 9:30am

The Internet of Food Waste

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

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.

Keeping IT in Play: Maximizing Lifetime Value and Longevity of Assets

Breakout

Uptown Room

The material value of the e-waste discarded globally each year adds up to $62.5 billion — more than the GDP of most countries — according to the United Nations. Infrastructure growth is massive, and yet often “out of sight” as it shifts increasingly to the cloud. The potential of this rapid growth is both very positive, and at the same time on a dangerous trajectory, both in the area of e-waste and in GHG/ GWP. This breakout will explore a more circular approach to IT and e-waste management. Whether your company is decommissioning a data center, upgrading IT assets or managing other streams of e-waste that have reached the end of their usable life, learn how to unlock value, mitigate data security risks and maximize asset lifecycles.

Plastics and the Circular Economy

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

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.

Circularity in the Built Environment

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 1

Buildings are the largest source of GHG emissions in cities. Beyond their energy footprints, they can be standing reservoirs of materials – or giant structures of waste. Innovations in architecture, materials science, energy usage and water usage are all enhancing circularity in the built environment. This session will bring together the perspectives of architects and materials experts to share recent innovations that enhance cost and material efficiencies in the built environment.

12:00pm

Food Waste Summit (RSVP Required)

Working Session

Skyline

The VERGE 19 Food Waste Summit is a half-day, invitation-only working session focused on accelerating the technologies, partnerships and business models that are dramatically reducing or eliminating food waste. The Summit will convene more than 100 people, including leaders from corporate and institutional foodservice operations, technology solution providers, commodity suppliers, food recovery organizations, and others from across the food and waste value chain.

Refer to our Food Waste Summit page for more information and to request an invitation.

12:15pm to 1:15pm

Roundtable Lunch: Closing the Loop for Wind, Solar and Storage Systems

Lunch

10th Street

Early-generation wind, solar, and battery storage systems are already reaching the end of their useful lives, leaving us with the possibility of millions of metric tons of waste heading to landfills over the next 20 years. However, there are ways we can collect, process and reintroduce these materials back into supply-chains at current or even higher values. Further, it’s imperative that we design next-generation renewable systems for up-gradeability, perpetual useful life and built-in circularity. Join us to discuss how we can address these renewable energy production material end-of-life challenges at our roundtable.

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.

Roundtable Lunch: Where Does Water Fit in the Circular Economy?

Lunch

10th Street

Water powers all economies, and the nascent circular economy offers an opportunity to ensure that the resource is used more efficiently, safely and equitable. Join us to learn how the circular economy can improve water resources and create demand for new innovation. We will also be exploring the timely questions: Can carbon solutions also address water challenges? Are we still prioritizing the water-energy-food nexus? What can corporations, public officials, NGOs and entrepreneurs doing to change the landscape for water solutions? Join us for an engaging discussion about water's role within the VERGE 19 agenda and stated priorities.

1:15pm to 2:15pm

Breaking Down Chemical Recycling, Part 1: Understanding the Technology

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

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.

Digitizing Circular Water Systems Part 1: Understanding the Ecosystem & Engaging your Value Chain

Breakout

Uptown Room

Water is one of the planet’s precious resources. Its continuous flows from liquid to solid to gas and our ability to use and reuse it make it inherently circular. It is fundamental to human health and to virtually every industry ranging from agriculture to manufacturing. It is used for cleaning, cooling, processing, powering, washing, irrigating and the list goes on. Advancements in technology are enabling better monitoring of water cycles across human and industrial processes, which makes water systems much more efficient. Digital planning and monitoring systems accelerate water’s cyclical nature, making it easier to use wastewater from one process to power another. This session will illustrate how the digitization of water systems can leverage technology to increase water efficiency and re-use, modeling the impacts of water scarcity and providing the data for effective water management.

Exploring Advanced Materials & Green Chemistry

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

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.

1:15pm to 3:30pm

Collaborating Towards Circularity: Tools, Tactics and Teamwork

Workshop

Junior Ballroom 1

Join this two-hour breakout workshop to participate in live, team-based exercises with other conference attendees to hone the skills, awareness and mindset that it will take to collaborate towards circularity and create transformative change for a circular economy. In addition to technology and business model innovation, shifting policies and supply chains, building infrastructure and rethinking material flows, moving from linear to circular systems will require collaboration across functions, industries and competitive boundaries.

Through simulation and experiential learning, we will explore tools for strengthening the interpersonal relationships critical to building a circular economy where waste is minimized and Interconnectedness is maximized. Learn how to apply the technical knowledge gained throughout the conference through first-hand experiences and skill-building simulations. Regardless of where you sit along the value chain — whether you are a business leader, entrepreneur, policymaker, technologist or other circular economy stakeholder — this session will tap into your own restorative and regenerative potential and deep dive into tactics of how best to engage with a wide range of stakeholders.

2:30pm to 3:30pm

Breaking Down Chemical Recycling, Part 2: Scaling the Market

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

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

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.

Digitizing Circular Water Systems Part 2: Tools & Technologies

Breakout

Uptown Room

The Business Case for Circularity

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

Circular business models may be a better use of resources, but how do they impact the bottom line? McKinsey has estimated that in Europe alone, the circular economy to generate net economic benefit of €1.8 trillion by 2030. This comes from developing new opportunities such as Product as a Service (PaaS), switching to recycled and biodegradeable materials, recovering and repairing parts or materials to reduce total input costs, switching to organic rather than chemical inputs, etc. This session will go under the hood on how several companies calculated the business advantages of shifting to a circular model and the cost saving, business growth and other results their efforts have produced.

The Second Life of EV Batteries

Breakout

OCC 210/11

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.

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Extending Product Life and the ‘Right to Repair’ Movement

Workshop

Junior Ballroom 2/3

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.

Remanufacturing: Tapping the Opportunity

Breakout

Uptown Room

Remanufacturing offers companies the ability to extend the life of products and keep materials at their highest and best use for longer. But it's easier said than done. Companies must recover, disassemble and repair components for resale, while maintaining performance, quality and specifications. Remanufacturing is a significant opportunity in the circular economy space, and one that is largely untapped. Hear from industry experts on how to approach remanufacturing for your company, including a discussion of new business models, design, recovery, aftermarket solutions and consumer engagement.

Designing a Circular City

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

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.

Circular Operating Systems: Digital Infrastructure for New Models

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 1

As the circular economy gains traction we navigate not only how to design new products and services, but also what enabling infrastructure needs to be in place for these new systems to work and scale. From clothing to electronics, food, transportation, and more; Most of the tools that we need to unlock a circular future exist, the question is how we will use them. This breakout will explore the enabling infrastructure required to underpin circular models.

Thursday, October 24th, 2019

8:30am to 9:30am

A Measure of Success: How to Act and Adapt to Metrics

Breakout

Whether it's at the product, business or systems level, new circular economy metrics are a useful tool to quantify and understand impact. But measuring circularity is just the start. This session will help you move beyond measuring to action. Learn how to act and adapt once you've quantified circularity, and adapt your product or business design to move closer to closing the loop.

Two Steps Back: Technology, Take-Back and Reverse Logistics

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 4

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.

Making Composting Work: Stakeholders, Technologies and Financing

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

Maxed-out landfills have led a number of US cities to launch municipal urban composting programs. Dozens of additional cities have composting infrastructure at smaller scale. The benefit of composting is that it has the potential to divert a significant percentage of waste from landfill and reduce methane from landfills. Applying compost to agricultural land is extremely effective way to revitalize soil, that among other things, sequesters carbon from the atmosphere into the future. Scaling composting infrastructure in cities can be challenging however, faced by issues like low user rates and financing. San Francisco has led the way among municipalities, but big innovations in other urban centers are increasingly making composting the new norm.

1:30pm to 2:30pm

Fixing the Broken Recycling System

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

A quarter of our waste gets recycled and yet the system is broken in so many ways. First, it's a business which (like many) doesn’t price in externalities and as a result, the economics often don’t align with municipal objectives. How many times have we heard of a city trashing items that were too expensive to recycle? Even though reducing waste should count squarely as a public policy goal, there is little federal guidance, and the need for more recycling often outweighs profits. China’s decision to stop recycling much of our waste sent the industry into a crisis that its has still not emerged from. Consumers are still confused about how to recycle, recycling is rarely considered during product design, and mostly, we haven’t cracked the profit model. Innovations in financing, policy and municipal contracts offer hope for fixing the system.

A Menu of Innovations for Food Rescue

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 1

The increased awareness of the food waste problem has attracted a growing number of innovators, from community to corporate scale, to tackle this thorny challenge, plus a slew of technologies to bolster existing food recovery efforts. Hear from companies that have navigated the financial, legal and supply-chain challenges to divert food from landfill and help a wide range of organizations reduce food waste and their carbon footprint.

3:00pm to 4:00pm

PaaS or Fail? Exploring Circular Business Models

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 1

From lighting fixtures to furniture to clothing and accessories, more companies are exploring models for providing products-as-a-service (PaaS) through such arrangements as rental or leasing, pay-per-use and subscriptions that redefine the concept of ownership. What does it take to design and manufacture products that can be “sold” in this manner? What’s the best pricing and financial models? How will this change expectations and create new opportunities for service and maintenance? Early adopters provide insights.

Artificial Intelligence and the Circular Economy

Breakout

Junior Ballroom 2/3

Artificial Intelligence is accelerating our ability to quickly handle vast amounts of data and learn faster from this information, making it a valuable tool to help accelerate and scale the transition to a circular economy. Machine learning can help speed up the development of new products and materials. The use of real-time data can enhance product utilization rates as well as inform systems of reverse logistics. In sectors such as food and electronics, AI is helping to design out waste and bringing savings along with it. Similar opportunities exist across sectors and functions.

In this breakout, hear stories from across a product lifecycle — design, manufacturing, use, and end of life — about companies that are putting AI to use in their circular journey and reveal some of the outcomes they have achieved.

The Purpose of Corporations

Breakout

Grand Ballroom Salon A,B

Corporate America has more power than ever, and with that comes a rising movement for it to better serve employees, communities and the environment. This session features experts from leading companies about the importance of making clean energy and climate front and center to ensure a happy workforce, ethical sourcing practices, and relevance in a quickly-changing world.