News and events published on the EcoAP Community Platform

• New event: Financing the Circular Economy
• New discussion topic on the forum Environmental policy and regulation
• New event: Mid-term conference on the Environmental Footprint pilot phase
• New event: High-Level Conference of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials & Horizon 2020 Brokerage Event on Raw Materials

Paul Ekins is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. He is a leading voice in the United Kingdom on sustainability, having been an advisor to governments, parliaments, the European Commission, the United Nations, regulatory agencies and companies. Professor Ekins answered questions on the potential for the circular economy, what is needed to create a framework for it, and what needs to be done to ensure that resource efficiency contributes to overall environmental sustainability.

France’s Circular Economy Institute (Institut de l'économie circulaire) recognised a raft of companies, individuals and public authorities that are in the vanguard of the circular economy in an awards ceremony in Paris in mid-September. It is the second year awards have been given out to initiatives that the Circular Economy Institute considers to offer the potential to promote significant change in the move to more circular modes of production and consumption.

Multinational steel-making giant ArcelorMittal is experimenting with a process to turn an industrial byproduct from its operations into ethanol that can be used in transport fuel. The initiative, which will be rolled-out by the company at its steel plant in Ghent, Belgium, could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by replacing transport fuel that is derived from oil.