IEG: Here are the 2019 Ecomondo “Beacon Conferences”

It will be the “Beacon Conferences”, that outline the main slant of the scientific contents of Ecomondo 2019, the most important expo in the Euro Mediterranean area dedicated to the circular economy, being held at Rimini expo centre from November 5th to 8th, organized by Italian Exhibition Group. A program, drawn up by the Scientific Committee chaired by Professor Fabio Fava, which will set the pace for the expo days and around which the other events will be held.

Fabio Fava explains, “The process leading to the circular economy is being defined and adopted on the various continents, but it is necessary to maintain a long-term outlook that only a place for meeting and networking like Ecomondo can ensure: side by side, the event hosts contents of research and innovation, regulations and policy, and top grade international industrial experiences are presented, along with real opportunities for financing.”

Industry 4.0: Solutions and Financial Instruments
Industry 4.0 to optimize the management and use of waste is the beacon event of 6th November. The conference will highlight innovative solutions and public and private financial instruments which contribute to speeding up the implementation of the technology enabling to increase the sector’s efficiency, flexibility and economic and financial sustainability. On this topic, the analysis of products’ life cycles is of key importance and, thanks to the possibility of tracing their individual processing, via networks of sensors that transmit data to be processed and shared in clouds, it is possible to optimize them, favouring an integrated approach to the flow of material along the chains for managing and exploiting waste.

The Great Resource represented by the Mediterranean Sea
On the same day, 6th November, another beacon event is Structuring Italian Blue Growth: BLUEMED meets BIG. The blue economy of the European Union is continually growing, currently has a value of 658 billion euros of turnover and provides 4 million jobs (The EU Blue Economy Report 2019). The international conference focuses on the Mediterranean Sea and will propose the vision, mission and state of the art of the initiatives under way in the area, along with the main challenges awaiting the marine economy in that zone. Research and innovation are fundamental for the development of all sectors, whether established or emerging and to ensure their social-economic and environmental sustainability interventions and programs must be integrated, but above all the strategic vision that the event wants to transmit must be strengthened.

There will also be a focus on the Mediterranean at the event on 7th November, to talk about the BLUEMED R&I initiative with the pilot project Plastic-free for a healthy Mediterranean Sea and the undertaking of the 12 countries of the area that have decided to join forces to face the international question of plastic litter together, in order to mobilize the key players of the value chain of each country of the Mediterranean in a joint, complementary and therefore more effective manner.

We are Med: challenge for a sustainable Mediterranean on 8th November will end the cycle of beacon events dedicated to “mare nostrum”, to illustrate the program of transnational cooperation INTERREG MED 2014-2020 which involves the public national and regional institutions of 12 countries examining the need to strengthen the governance instruments in strategic fields for the Mediterranean (tourism, marine surveillance, environment and innovation).

Space will also be dedicated to the projects that share a process aimed at communicating the results achieved and boosting the capitalization of these results.
The Economy involving water and sea will characterize November 7th with the conference dedicated to circular BLUE economy for sustainable integrated growth, based on knowledge in line with the priorities of Italy’s participation in the Summit Les Deux Rives in June 2019 in Marseilles, an initiative born to relaunch the cooperation between the northern and southern shores of the western Mediterranean.

The European programs for bioeconomy and circular economy will be the key players on 8th November. The exploitation of urban wastewater and the organic fraction of waste, as well as the vast range of agri-food by-products, is a priority for the flagship biorefineries. But other “resources” are arriving, such as CO2, construction waste, plastic waste, used oil, WEEE etc., for which dedicated exploitation plants are being realized. The conference will illustrate the main results of the European projects under way in the frontier contexts of the circular economy.

Toward the Circular Economy

Everything dedicated to the circular economy, on 6th November, Circular economy: the 21st-century economic paradigm to redefine growth and development. Italy is the European country with the highest circularity index: 103 points, ahead of the United Kingdom (90) and Germany with 88 point (Source: Circular Economy Network). The paradigm that decouples growth from consumption of resources requires a long-term outlook and large investments. The conference will focus attention on instruments, processes and financial models useful for facilitating the replanning of the industrial ecosystem in line with the paradigm of circular economy.

Circular economy also on 7th November, with the report of the first objectives achieved by the Italian platform for circular economy (ICESP ) set up in 2018. ICESP promotes knowledge on national circular economy by means of a process for spreading Italian excellence and the Italian way of “doing” circular economy. On 7th November, space will be dedicated to The future of the design of sustainable packaging. Heading to a permanent observatory on packaging innovation. A real revolution is under way in the packaging world, including design, logistic processes, new raw materials and energy saving. The conference will try to map current practices and imagine the future of various situations, in response to the legislative guidelines and the changes in the ecosystem under way at global level.

Also on 7th November, Ecomondo will dedicate a beacon event to the LIFE project, set up in 1992 by the European Union and which to date has financed over 4500 projects in the environment, nature and climate change sectors. By means of these projects, the LIFE program has facilitated the adoption of innovative environmental solutions and generated best practices for sustainable development. The LIFE program will be presented along with its opportunities for financing, in particular in support of environmental solutions with a perspective suited to the market.

A real investment forum, on 7th November, will look at start-ups and the need to stimulate financers of innovative projects in the energy, climate and food sectors. Ecomondo intends offering a showcase for the meeting between supply and demand, creating opportunities of visibility for a selection of start-ups, facilitating meetings with an international panel of corporate investors attending the Rimini event.

The complete continually updated program: https://en.ecomondo.com.

Source: Italian Exhibition Group S.P.A