On November 26, starting at 2 p.m., the Auditorium of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto, will host the conference “Regenerating the future: strategies for circular cities and industries.”

Organized by ASWP, together with the Serralves Foundation, the meeting brings together experts and guests, who will address the importance of regeneration, one of the fundamental principles of the circular economy. On the table will be questions such as the challenges, but also the solutions that already exist and how they can be expanded within cities and industries. You can register here.

Circular economy: the path to a sustainable future

There are practically 25 years left to reach the middle of the 21st century and the forecasts are not very encouraging. By 2050, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that the loss of biodiversity and forest ecosystems will cost between 2 billion and 5 billion euros per year. Furthermore, according to the United Nations (UN), around 68% of the world’s population will live in cities, leading to resource shortages and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

These challenges reinforce the need to decarbonize cities and industries and make them more circular. Rising population and growing tourism require increasingly smarter and more sustainable cities, while industries need to find ways to decouple economic growth from rising carbon emissions and overuse of resources.

And the answer to these problems may lie in the circular economy. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the circular economy can reduce global CO2 emissions from key industrial materials by 40% by 2050, equivalent to 3.7 billion tons, enough to reach almost half of the carbon neutrality goal.

The transition from a linear economy to a circular economy foresees that the extraction of resources will be replaced by their regeneration and the construction of natural capital. Therefore, regenerative strategies play an essential role in allowing materials and products to be kept in use for as long as possible in the economy, reducing waste and returning resources to the soil, preserving biodiversity.

And this is precisely what will be discussed at the ASWP/Serralves 2024 Conference: how regeneration can help modern societies transition towards a more sustainable and circular model, with a view to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

ASWP: promoting the circular economy in Portugal for nine years

Created in 2015, the Smart Waste Portugal Association is a non-profit association, which aims to promote the circular economy in the different value chains, through education, innovation, collaboration and the creation of new businesses.

With more than 150 members, ASWP fosters cooperation between various entities, public and private, national and international, standing out as a catalyst for circularity in the Portuguese business ecosystem, promoting business opportunities and guaranteeing regenerative practices.

Always with the aim of promoting the circular economy, for the last nine years, the Association has been developing and promoting various initiatives, such as the Portuguese Pact for Plastics, the Vidro+ Platform or Young Smart Waste Professionals. In addition, it also stimulates work groups, in which interested parties of the value chain develop topics related to the circular economy.

ASWP also regularly organizes and participates in conferences, workshops and webinars on circular economy, which seek to promote good practices and initiatives in various sectors. It also has a library area on its website, where it brings together studies, reports, plans and contributions to the circular economy, prepared by the Association itself or by partners.

The ASWP/Serralves 2024 Conference has Observador as a media partner and will be presented by Nelson Ferreira, host from Radio Observador. If you are interested in knowing more about regeneration and the circular economy, you still have time to sign up by filling out the form available online. The future is in the hands of all of us.