Circular City Week 2020: Ready for a Circular City Season?
With 4000+ registered attendees, 50+ events, 85+ contributing organizations and 100+ speakers, the engagement in Circular City Week New York 2020 has almost doubled since the festival was held for the first time in 2019. The Circular City Week has once again established itself as a North-American beacon of the circular economy movement and succeeded in bringing together organizations across industries and sectors with a growing interest in the circular agenda.
This year, the Circular City Week event calendar was again filled with exciting discussions, interactive workshops, engaging debates, impactful announcements and many more promising activities. Due to the progressive development of COVID-19, Circular City Week undertook a range of changes and out of an abundance of caution, many events were cancelled, postponed or transitioned into virtual meetings. As a result, Circular City Week continues to be a platform for advancing circularity throughout spring 2020 – simply a Circular City Season.
​
Building Momentum toward a More Circular Economy
Circular economy is what is needed to move forward towards sustainable economic growth now and in the future. While the stepping-stones towards are more circular economy are many and diverse, it is clear that the transition will require partnerships across sectors and the input of different disciplines, as well as the development of market mechanisms backed up by political regulations and sound policy-making. The possibility to optimize resource productivity and consumption via the development of a circular economy offers tremendous untapped potential, not only in terms of economic growth but also in terms of the planet.
​
“Circular City Week provides everyone a platform for knowledge sharing, whether you approach circular economy from a design perspective, an environmental awareness standpoint, as a growth agenda, or as a means to rethinking consumerism”
Tone Søndergaard, Founding Director, Circular City Week.
​
The transformative potential of a circularity model is not specific to a single sector, but can be linked to everything from digitization and the sharing economy, to the food industry and the built environment. It is about designing out waste, creating new business models, increase reuse and recycling, and creating resource efficient economies.
​
​
Circular City Season Coming Up
The importance and impact of Circular City Week is unquestionable and the organizer’s aim and desire to build momentum toward a more circular economy remains. The organizers, pioneer partners and event hosts invites all to join the Circular City Season. Throughout the next months, a variety of Circular City Week events will be conducted but is subjected to the progression of COVID-19. Sign up to the Circular City Week newsletter to receive news and updates on postponed events, workshops and happenings in the upcoming Circular Season.
​
​
Pioneer Partners
This year’s Circular City Week was only made possible due to the enormous support from event hosts and partners. This year, the interest from local and global organizations has once again, exceeded the expectations of the organizers of Circular City Week New York, Danish Cleantech Hub. The organizers would like to express their sincere appreciation and take the opportunity to thank this year’s Circular City Week pioneer partners: Arup, NYSERDA, ING and Freshfields.
​
Circular City Week New York will return to New York again in the spring of 2021.
​
Keep in touch! Subscribe to the Circular City Week newsletter and get the latest news, updates and invitations delivered directly to your inbox.
