Kaspar has more than a decade of experience in internationalisation, mostly devoted to clusters. He is the author of “Clusters in the Circular Economy” an have previously been the vice-chair of the Sector Group for Environment at Enterprise Europe Network. Kaspar is an experience speaker with hands-on experience supporting clusters in- and outside Europe.

Rikke Dreyer, chair of the Forum on Sustainable Procurement and Chief Consultant at Ecolabelling Denmark. As chairman of the Sustainable Procurement Forum, Rikke Dreyer works to promote sustainable procurement in both public and private professional companies through knowledge sharing and networking. Rikke Dreyer has been in charge of developing and disseminating tools and methods for public purchasers on the use of eco-labels - such as the EU Ecolabel and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel - in call for tenders. Rikke Dreyer has developed Ecolabelling Denmark's toolbox for professional buyers, which can be found at ecolabel.dk. In addition, Rikke Dreyer works closely with the City of Copenhagen to push the market in a greener direction through an early and focused market engagement.

Project manager at Environmental and Energy department in City of Aalborg, Denmark. About 20 years ago she start working within the environmental area, later on it was sustainable development and for the last 4 years she is focusing on circular economy and circular procurement. She was project manager for the first and also award winner circular tender in Denmark, learning environment for the public schools.

Jana Simanovska, Dr.sc.ing., advises companies and municipalities, develops training programs, lectures and writes on chemicals management, ecodesign, green public procurement, circular economy, and reduction of chemical hazards for man and the environment. Senior expert at the Latvian Environmental Investment Fund, researcher and guest lecturer at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, chair of an NGO “Ecodesign Competence Centre”. Writer for the Latvian journal “Environmental News” and other magazines. Latvian Society of Physicians awarded her with “Person of the Year in Public Health 2015"

President of the board of the Institute of Innovation and Responsible Development where she initiated and coordinates, i.a. Polish Circular Hotspot and Circular Week projects. A doctor of agricultural sciences, an expert on sustainable socioeconomic development and circular transformation strategies, with a vast experience in international projects. She also deals with the area of public relations and communication, in which she received the Proton award for the best PR specialist in the NGO sector.

Founder-director of the Product-Life Institute devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies. He specializes in the field of  circular industrial economy, performance economy and selling goods and molecules as a service.

He is a Visiting Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey (2005- ); full member of the Club of Rome; member of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform of the European Parliament; member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Institute CRETUS, and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

He received the Doctor honoris causa honour from University of Surrey (2013) and l’Université de Montréal (2016). He was awarded Mitchell Prize in Houston, TX (1982, ‘The Product-Life Factor’)a nd First prize in the German Future's Society’s competition (Berlin 1978, ‘unemployment, occupation and profession’).

Professor Stahel is the author of ‘Jobs for Tomorrow, the Potential for substituting manpower for energy’, ‘The Performance Economy’ and recently 'The Circular Economy – a user’s guide'.

Conrad Dorer works at the German Federal Environment Agency and is dealing with sustainable consumption. His current work focuses on the promotion of sustainable design for products and services. Since 2016, he has been coordinating the EU Interreg project in the Baltic Sea region "EcoDesign Circle (4.0)", in which design centres and entrepreneurs are equipped with practical tools and knowledge in design for a circular economy

Rune Buchdal Nielsen is working with green procurement at the Environmental Protection Agency of Denmark. The agency acts as secretariat for the two initiatives Partnership for Public Green Procurement (POGI) and Forum for Sustainable Procurement (FORUM). POGI is a community of municipalities, regions and public organizations that want to promote sustainable solutions and buy green. Through the partnership, members use their procurement to pull in the same direction and drive the market towards less environmentally damaging products and solutions.

FORUM has a more flat structure and works to promote environmentally conscious and responsible procurement of goods and services among professional purchasers in both public and private companies.

Piotr Masłowski – Deputy Mayor of Rybnik since 2014. Responsible, among other things, for social policy and local development. Co-founder of the Rybnik Citizens’ Forum and Social Initiatives’ Development Centre (CRIS). In his field of interest there are: sustainable development, circular economy, food waste reducing, social economy. He initiated a number of projects run by the City of Rybnik, in the field of sustainable development and innovations: “StratKIT – Innovative strategies for public catering – sustainability toolkit across Baltic sea Region”, “ALT/BAU – Alternative Building Activation Units”, “#Deep Demonstration - #JustTransition”.

Prof. Ewa Rembiałkowska works in the Division of Organic Food of the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland.

In her research activity she deals with the sustainable diets, nutritional value of raw materials from organic and conventional production and the impact of organic food on human and animal health. She has published over 200 scientific papers in this field, 35 of them in highly scoring journals.

Prof. Rembiałkowska has been running a number of national and international research and implementation projects related to sustainable / organic food and farming. She is a member of the boards of several Polish, European and world organizations promoting this subject (FOA, FQH, OFSP, ISOFAR, ENOAT).

Doc. Renata Kazimierczak works as a researcher and lecturer at Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland, Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Department of Functional and Organic Food. She has been dealing with organic farming and organic food for over 15 years. Her main research interests focus on organic food quality and its health-related aspects. She is a member of the board of Association Forum of Organic Farming named Mieczysław Górny. Within the association’s activity she is involved in projects aimed at increasing consumers awareness in the field of organic food, as well as increasing the knowledge on the impact of GMO on environment and human & animal health. At WULS she is also involved in StratKIT, CASEE and Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership programs. 

Rita Góralska-Walczak is a food educator, researcher, and a lecturer in food and health. She has graduated from Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche (Master in Food and Health) and Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Food Innovation Program). She was awarded the scholarship called “Global Mission” to conduct scientific research in 7 countries around the world. Her exploration areas were “School cafeterias around the world”. She has also studied Italian philology at Warsaw University, English studies at IPWF in the USA, history of art in Firenze. Her entire scientific curriculum, from history through anthropology and literature, was connected to food. She has recently moved from Italy, where she was an educational director in Tenuta di Spannocchia (sustainable agriculture in Tuscany and educational center for Mediterranean diet) to Poland to work at Warsaw University of Life Sciences on StratKIT project.

Hanna Salmenperä, has worked for SYKE for 20 years within waste utilization issues. For the past few years, Salmenperä has been concentrating on national and international projects on circular economy, material efficiency, waste prevention and recycling of municipal solid waste.  She has also participated in number of national and Nordic committees on waste. Salmenperä’s expertise is in evaluation of impacts of the waste policy. Currently, she studies the transition in waste management in Finland; the expected shift from moderate recycling culture to a society that meets the ambitious European recycling targets and principals of circular economy.

Philippe is Director for Network and Members Development of ACR+, as such in charge of developing activities with ACR+ members, in particular regarding circular economy strategies and governance, as well as public procurement. Philippe is also a Senior Project Manager at ACR+, specialised in circular economy, waste prevention and recycling. He is in charge of several projects, in particular the ProCirc project on circular procurement.

Melody Van den Acker is a circular economy facilitator at Circular Flanders and regional project manager for the Interreg North Sea Region project ProCirc.

Her work focuses on circular procurement as a lever for the transition to a circular economy, such as the Flemish Green Deal on Circular Procurement.

She holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences and was trained in Corporate Responsibility for Sustainable Development..

Aija is coordinator for the Enterprise Europe Network and helps companies and organizations with partner searches, application feedback and project pool screenings for project ideas. Aija is the Vice-President of Enterprise Europe Networks Tourism and Heritage Group, which has 32 members from other EU countries and can help direct access to knowledge, partners and project opportunities for the creative, cultural and tourism players in more than 60 countries. Aija is also a member of Public Procurement Thematic Group with 49 members from almost 30 countries. Aija is also the office’s contact point for the Erasmus+ program, focusing on activities targeted at higher education institutions.

Dmytro works on Purchaser Engagement at TCO Development, the organization that provides the global sustainability certification for office IT products and network equipment – TCO Certified. He is excited about the transformation of public procurement into a more sustainable version. Dmytro is also interested in the energy sector and batteries while spending most of his free time with music and records.

Stefan works at TCO Development, the organization behind the global sustainability certification TCO Certified. The certification makes it easier to make responsible choices of IT products and drives the industry in a sustainable direction. Stefan is the responsible administrator for the certificates. His area of ​expertise regarding the requirements of TCO Certified is issues related to circular solutions.

Co-organised by the Rijkswaterstaat from the Netherlands and INNOWO from Poland

www.circularpp.eu