VITO’s Post

A busy few days ahead on Europe’s #circulareconomy calendar—worth a look if you’re tracking where policy meets implementation. The CCRI hands-on online workshop from yesterday focused on “unlocking circular incentives,” a practical session for cities and regions working on delivery, procurement, budgeting and KPIs. Today, Circle the Med (19–21 May, Athens https://lnkd.in/dcxNXMU3) brings together the Interreg Euro-MED Programme community to accelerate green/blue circular solutions and territorial transition across the Mediterranean. In parallel, #SUM2026 (20–22 May, Procida) researchers and practitioners around circular economy and #urbanmining, spanning industrial processes, circular streams, enabling conditions, and biomass valorisation—useful for anyone working on materials, waste systems and secondary raw materials. Browse the full list and register via the ECESP events page: https://lnkd.in/erctZA8C

The International Conference on Green Economy Transition and Sustainable Policy Making (ICGETSPM-26) is scheduled for 3rd – 4th June 2026. The event is predicated on the belief that the systematic dissemination of research is the primary engine for disciplinary advancement. ICGETSPM-26 specifically targets the "ecosystem barriers" that often prevent cutting-edge scientific knowledge from reaching the desks of those who draft national and international policies. Details: https://lnkd.in/e3MsAbus #Register

Next week, ECIV partners from Région Normandie, Region Värmland, Region Gävleborg, Region Dalarna and ACR+ | Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management are hosting a training session at Circle the Med Forum in Athens! 🌊 🌀 Training on Regional Policies for Circular Innovation 📅 Thursday, 21 May 2026 🕒 14:00 – 15:15 Designed for Mediterranean regions, policymakers, and circular economy practitioners, the session explores how regions can move from strategy to real ecosystem-building — using ECIV as a live working example. Topics include: ✓ Regional CE strategies and Smart Specialisation (S3/S4) ✓ Mission-oriented approach and the Dancefloor Methodology ✓ Regional stories: what building a CE ecosystem looks like in practice ✓ Funding the transition: MFF 2028–2034 and ECIV cascade funding Find out more: https://lnkd.in/dps4xpnw

Meet the GREENDIGO coordinator: Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (UNIVE) In GREENDIGO, UNIVE leads the work on Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Safety and Sustainability Assessment, helping ensure that innovation is guided not only by technical performance, but also by environmental safety, risk assessment and alignment with planetary boundaries. The team brings expertise across environmental chemistry, ecology, ecotoxicology, exposure assessment and life cycle-based sustainability assessment. Their work is especially focused on challenges such as wastewater characterization, integrating risk assessment with life cycle assessment and applying absolute sustainability thinking from the early stages of technology development. UNIVE’s contribution is central to GREENDIGO’s ambition to help develop a truly safer and more sustainable future for denim dyeing. Read more about the team and their role in the project on our website: https://lnkd.in/eT2YJNwa With Elena Semenzin Marco Picone Martina Menegaldo Sarah Devecchi #SustainableTextiles #SSbD #PlanetaryBoundaries #Sustainability #Biotechnology #TextileInnovation #HorizonEurope #EICPathfinder

𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 Decarb Connect 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸. The last one I attended was in London last month, alongside Anupam Tripathy from ETIAConsult BV and Walter Scott from ETRMServices. It was a smaller event. That turned out to be its strength. The conversations weren't rushed. The agenda moved between hydrogen economics, carbon capture and storage, industrial energy transition, and the realities of financing decarbonisation at scale, and because the room was small, those topics didn't stay on stage. They continued over coffee, at the booth, in the hallway. People were thinking out loud more than presenting. I took away more than a single insight. It was more of a shift in how I understand the problem. Decarbonisation, at least for heavy industry, is no longer primarily a technology question. The technologies exist, or are close enough. The harder questions are about capital, what gets approved at investment committee, what the risk profile looks like when a pilot needs to become a repeatable deployment, and how climate exposure actually sits in the return calculations of the people funding these transitions. I hadn't expected green finance and climate investment to be such a strong thread. But it was. And it reframed a few things for me. Hamburg is a different scale — 180+ attendees, more economies represented, and from what I can see, the agenda this year goes even further into those commercial and capital questions. Less on what should happen. More on what is actually moving. Looking forward to it. If you're attending, I'd like to connect. Sprih

A new data provider joins TSOSI 🚀 Open Policy Finder aggregates open access policies from publishers worldwide, journal by journal. Based in the UK, active since 2002, and selected by SCOSS - The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services essential infrastructure in 2017. TSOSI is glad to welcome Open Policy Finder - Jisc on board! 120 worldwide research institutions have been highlighted by TSOSI: shedding light on values‑aligned investments is our primary mission.

𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. Two weeks after IFAT worldwide at Messe Muenchen, the exhibition is over. 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀. 📌Following up on leads. 📌Building trusted partnerships. 📌Turning conversations into reliable solutions. Together with Ingo Hannemann and Boris Greifeneder from German Water Partnership, Christopher Karg from Cape Environmental Management Inc and myself from MolAquaTech and Senate of Economy Europe, one message became very clear during IFAT 2026: 𝗜𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀. Because inadequate water quality is often the hidden reason behind instability, downtime, rising costsand inefficient industrial processes. When water quality improves, processes stabilize. Resources are protected. And long term economic resilience becomes possible. That benefits companies, infrastructure, and society alike. 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁. Where do you currently see the biggest hidden bottlenecks in industry and infrastructure?

In October 2026, Superuse will host the Circular Exchange Conference (CxC) in Rotterdam. This dynamic three-day event brings together a European network of pioneers in circular construction to address one central question: who connects recovered materials with the projects that need them? This missing professional link is referred to as ‘the material broker’. The conference aims to define and operationalise this role, using Rotterdam as a case study. At the end of the conference, a European Material Scout Toolkit will be launched: a publicly accessible platform for material scouts across Europe, which will subsequently be maintained by the CxC network. 🗓️ We will share more details about the program in the upcoming months, so stay tuned! Some parts of the event will be open to the public and other interested parties. A collaboration with IABR and Gemeente Rotterdam, materialnomaden gmbh and Lendager. Made possible by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.

In these days, an interesting online workshop is ongoing about new sustainable paradigms for development economics, related to a special issue of the JHDCA which is forthcoming in 2027. Tomorrow, me and my coauthor Paolo Santori, we will present our paper about the possible virtuous relationship between the The Economy of Francesco ideas and those developed within the capability approach literature. We really hope to foster new exchanges between the EoF and HDCA network. In the past, indeed, within the EoF 2024 online School, we hosted six lectures about capabilities in the onlife era, with excellent exponents of the HDCA network, Flavio Comim and Martha Nussbaum, among others (there was even Sir. Angus Deaton!). An extraordinary initiative. So, we really hope to continue this journey together. A special thanks goes to Martinetti Enrica Chiappero, President of the HDCA, for this great opportunity together with the other coeditors of this special issue of the JHDCA.

What will it take to make water innovation truly collaborative—and impactful at scale? A new initiative, ,Bridge4Water is tackling one of the biggest barriers in the water sector: fragmentation between academia and industry. Developed at Aarhus University in collaboration with Water Valley Denmark and in close alignment with EIT Water, Bridge4Water brings partners together in an open innovation model to co-create solutions for water efficiency and circularity—across industry and urban environments. The platform funds precompetitive #research where knowledge is shared openly, helping to accelerate progress on some of the most pressing water challenges. Bridge4Water is funded by the Grundfos Foundation | PDJF, reinforcing a shared commitment to advancing sustainable water solutions. Call for project proposals is currently open: 👉 Learn more: http://gfos.ly/6047BBInSN 👉 Join the community: http://gfos.ly/6048BBInS4 #proudtobegrundfos