The thematic workshops we organise aim to launch new challenges with civil society in order to identify new projects to implement at a federal level in the coming years. They will result in the drafting of a long-term shared vision proposal and will also confirm the federal authorities' wish to continue the objective of making Belgium a pioneer in the circular economy.

  • Workshop No 1: Changing the business model - "Product as a service" - 15 October 2018

The current context allows the existence of a "linear business model" in which enterprises do not take account of the entire life cycle of the products they release on the market. This model causes an enormous waste of resources as much by manufacturers as by consumers. Making manufacturers responsible for the use of their products and changing the business model to a functional service model will, ultimately, help to improve the effectiveness of products (eco-design, maintenance and repair) and, therefore, the optimum management of resources. 

The federal government is working on these issues, in particular by encourage certain enterprises to reconsider their business model making them change from supplying products to supplying services. 

The aim of this workshop is to identify the processes that aim to encourage such changes in the business model as well as the policy measures they require.

Isabelle Delannoy and Manu Vollens will be present to debate this issue.

 

  • Workshop No 2: Understanding and encouraging the transition - 16 October 2018

The transition to a circular economy is part of a vast and complex social movement. Such a transition requires technological innovations but, above all, changes in behaviour on a collective as well as an individual level. 

How to define a common dream? How to encourage and speed up such changes? How to combat inertia? Which roles for the different players?

The aim of this workshop will be to answer these questions and identify the measures that a priority for implementing responses.

These responses will be presented by Derk Loorbach and Luc Schuiten.

 

  • Workshop No 3: Integrating the challenge of critical material - 19 October 2018

The use of critical material is necessary for the development of renewable energies and digital technologies. However, this use has an environmental, economic, social and geopolitical cost that makes this energy and digital transition unsustainable.

Furthermore, the recycling of products that contain this material is currently complicated and requires further thinking about the design of these products and their life cycle. 

The aim of this workshop will be to envisage the different ways of reconciling the challenge of the necessary energy transition with those of an effective and clean management of the critical material required for this transition and identify the measures to be set up.  

This debate will be chaired by  Giovanni De Santi, Bernard Mazijn and Guillaume Pitron.

 

  • Workshop No 4: Joining forces in order to advance - 22 November 2018

The objective of this workshop is to share, through three concrete field experiences, a number of methods and practices of consultation and governance that make it possible to overcome traditional divisions. The final objective is to identify "best practices" and draw a modus operandi from them to move forward in proposing concrete and shared objectives and measures in the area of the circular economy, taking into account the constraints of the Belgian federal context.

The three experiments will be shared by Raphaël Guastavi of ADEME and Tanguy Van Loqueren of the “G32” citizen movement.

Then there will be confronted with the critical and innovative ideas or two “inspired challengers”: Michel de Kemmeter and Luc de Brabandere