Everyone knows the ‘why’ of circular transition, but the ‘how’ is less straightforward. Cities are hubs of large and complex flows of people, money, energy and materials, and their circularity is affected by a range of stakeholders, both directly and indirectly.
REFLOW is an EU Horizon 2020 innovation action that has been running since 2019, with the aim to develop solutions that enable the transition of European cities towards circular and regenerative practices. The project will come to an end in May 2022, after three years of intense work across Europe on finding and developing scalable solutions for six material streams: textile, plastic, wood, food, energy and wastewater heat.
The consortium of 28 partner organisations has made sure that the solutions are not a top-down implementation of the predefined vision of CE, consider the diverse needs of all relevant stakeholders in the transition, that the business solutions follow the principles of just and effective governance, and that the social benefits of the transition are prioritised.
For the two last days of March 2022, REFLOW would like to invite you to our final event where they will share what they have developed and learned, and more importantly, how the work can continue to make an impact going forward and how other actors and project can take up the torch.
Day 1 – Wednesday March 30:
Circular and Regenerative Transitions need diverse stakeholder interaction and collaboration
The transition to circular and regenerative cities requires a systemic shift that will be possible only if steered by public-private-people (& planet) collaboration. On Day 1, we zoom in on the different roles and responsibilities of research, industry, the FabLab movement, politics and citizens, while highlighting how these actors can and need to work together. The day will be fully digital. The sessions can be watched either separately, or from start to finish to understand the bigger picture.
Day 2 – Thursday March 31:
The project’s results, learnings, and impacts and how to implement and scale circular solutions
REFLOW has worked with a range of fields and developed solutions for six distinct materials. On Day 2, you will learn about the approaches used and get familiar with the solutions developed in REFLOW. This includes material flow analysis and urban metabolism, the role and importance of technology and how to evaluate the social aspect. The concrete solutions will be presented and discussed, including how they have used these approaches in the development and implementation of the solutions and how the solutions can be scaled to a national and European level.
