The third Nordic Circular Summit took place in Stockholm on the 22 – 24 November. Nordic Circular Summit is the biggest circular event in the Nordics, and it gathers an international audience to discuss circular opportunities and challenges in the Nordic region. More than 170 speakers across a wide range of Circular Economy topics participated and Nordic Innovation co-hosted more than 36 events together with Nordic Circular Hotspot.
“We hope that this Summit will lead to much more circular integration in the Nordics with new Nordic projects on circular economy and that this will lead us towards the Nordic vision of being the most integrated and sustainable region in the world by 2030”, says Marthe Haugland, Senior Innovation Advisor at Nordic Innovation.
The Summit also revealed that the Nordics are not as circular as we might think we are.
“The Nordics are perceived as very sustainable, but we still overconsume. We are at the top when it comes to consumption and the bottom when it comes to circularity. We have an obligation to act”
Marthe Haugland, Senior Advisor, Nordic Innovation.
Regulation is key: Circular Economy is not price competitive
Day one covered the topic The New Nordics: Learning from crisis and discussed opportunities arriving during crisis times. What can we learn from the covid crisis, Ukraine-Russia crisis and climate crisis? And how can we use circular economy to build more resilient societies in the Nordic region for the future?
Andrea Liverani, Lead Specialist in Sustainable Development at The World Bank Group, discussed the role of public policies in the circular transition and argued that regulation plays a key role. He highlighted the lack of price competitiveness within circular economy in comparison with linear economy as a main challenge for the circular transition.
“We need to realize that linearity is still price competitive. Primary materials are still cheaper than secondary materials. However, this price competitiveness is not done by nature. It’s by design. It’s because linear economies have evolved through a set of policies that have favored extraction and consumption”,
Andrea Liverani, Lead Specialist in Sustainable Development, The World Bank Group
Launch of the Nordic Circular Economy Playbook
Together with Accenture and Sitra, Nordic Innovation launched the Nordic Circular Economy Playbook 2.0: Transform and Scale. The playbook complements the Circular Economy Playbook and is tailored manufacturing companies. It is also based on the learning outcomes from the Nordic circular business model workshops which have engaged around 200 companies across the Nordics since 2018. The new playbook includes the newest legislation, knowledge and updated tools for the circular transition.
Go to the Nordic Circular Economy Playbook 2.0: Transform and Scale
“With this new playbook we provide Nordic manufacturing companies with a concrete tool which is easy to access and to use. This way we hope that bigger companies will start their circular transformation. Startups are important, but we need bigger companies to become circular and drive the transition. That is the reason why we have targeted manufacturing companies”
Marthe Haugland, Senior Advisor, Nordic Innovation
In the Nordic Circular Economy Playbook 2.0 companies will start the circular transition by identifying waste points in their own value chain.
Financing Circularity: need for policy action and public/private risk taking
Day two looked at the State of transition in the Nordics and asked the question – where are we now?
We got a view into current actions and projects in the Nordics by Inger Johanne Wiese from the Nordic Working Group for Circular Economy. The discussion revealed that there is not a lot being done on the legislative side and that legislative action takes time. There is a clear need to speed up actions also in the Nordics.
Nordic Innovation turned the spotlight on financing with the event: Financing Circular Business Models. The session discussed opportunities and challenges in the financing of circular business models from different business sides, including perspectives from venture capital and large corporate banking.
“The transition to circular economy is gradually moving forward, and the financing part is absolutely key to investors, organizations and companies. I am therefore really happy to see a session with four dedicated speakers in the panel representing different financial parts of the circular business ecosystem”
Peter Munch-Madsen, Senior Advisor at Nordic Innovation.
Tomas Zimmermann, Head of Sustainable Finance Transformation at Swedbank, discussed how to fertilize the ground for circular economy. He argued that more policy action is needed to give certainty to companies and investors that circularity is here to stay and highlighted EU’s Green Deal as an example of a circular economy action plan. He also argued that to facilitate a larger inflow of financing to circular economy, state and government actors need to share the risk taking with private actors.
The Future of Circularity: “we have a lot of work ahead of us”
Day three focused on The future regenerative market and asked the question: are we ready to build the next generation economy with circular principles?
Nordic Innovation took part in the session: Circular Tools – Sustaining Natural Value, which turned the spotlight on concrete business tools for the circular transition. The panel discussed strongholds and complementariness between the tools and businesses got an opportunity to dig into the toolbox and get a better understanding of what tools are most suitable for their business.
After three days with insightful discussions, presentations and learning, Managing Director from Nordic Innovation, Svein Berg, closed the Nordic Circular Summit 2022:
“The Nordic Circular Summit 2022 revealed that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. But we have also seen that we have the knowledge and understanding of what is needed to be done to accelerate the circular transition in the Nordics. We would like to thank our partner, Nordic Circular Hotspot, for taking the lead in organizing such a successful event”
Svein Berg, Managing Director, Nordic Innovation.
We look forward to seeing you all in Reykjavik 2023.
