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Pulling together today for the circular economy of tomorrow

15 Jun 2020
All Committees
Environment
Susan Danger, CEO, AmCham EU wrote an opinion piece on the circular economy last week. Susan makes the case for Europe’s transition to a circular economy and notes that such a change is compelling for the EU's leaders, its citizens, and in many respects for businesses. According to her, potential opportunities include: 'reduced pressures on the environment, as better waste management would imply both reduced use of resources such as energy, water, land and materials, and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.
 
It would also mitigate the risks associated with the supply of raw materials, such as price volatility, availability and import dependency.' You can read the full piece here and for more details on AmCham EU’s member companies' actions towards sustainability, see our brochure ‘The Circular Economy: 15 innovative industry solutions that drive a sustainable future’
 
Susan also highlighted that the transition to a circular economy has a number of challenges namely a lack of price signals which encourage efficient resource reuse and incentivise circular business practices as well as the upfront costs of this transition, such as building up new business models and partnerships, making large R&D investment, financing and upgrading infrastructure. 
 
For an in depth discussion on the subject, you can access the audio recording of our online event on 'Reflections on Europe’s circular economy and what comes next', where we welcomed Marius Vašcega, Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commission as a guest speaker. The event was an opportunity to discuss the European Commission’s objectives with regard to the Circular Economy Action Plan.