Future of the Circular Economy, Nottingham, 21 Oct 2015

Afternoon Workshop (1.30 pm – 4 pm): Nottingham Conference Centre

 

The RSA Teardown/design-up Workshop

The Great Recovery's trademark workshop.

 

This is a thoroughly interesting and exciting workshop; a hands on activity that will engage people with the challenges and opportunities of the circular economy in practice through the design methodology tool of teardown. Taking everyday products we will guide participants through the deconstruction process, mapping out material sources and supply chains as we go. Using our Four Design Models for Circularity and Business Canvas we will then look at the options for redesign and will start to consider prototyping new products or services that fit within a circular system.

 

Spaces are limited for this workshop, it will be a first come, first served basis.

 

Evening Seminar (4.30 pm - 7.45 pm): Nottingham Conference Centre

 

Keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart.

 

For decades, Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart has pioneered the Cradle to Cradle design concept. He co-authored (with William McDonough) the bestselling book of the same name, and has lectured at universities in Europe, America and Asia. His expertise has been published in numerous international magazines and journals. He has worked with several scientific institutes and companies across a range of industries, and has developed tools for designing eco-effective products, business systems and intelligent materials pooling. Prof. Dr. Braungart will talk about Cradle to Cradle: Building blocks of the Circular Economy, our capability to think circular and create high-quality alternatives which are beneficial for humans and nature. In such a circular economy which is based on Cradle to Cradle methods and philosophy, material flows, products and buildings/cities support the relationship between ecological systems.

 

Sophie Thomas from The RSA (Royal Society for The Encouragements of Arts).

Disruptive design and the circular economy: The Great Recovery is run by the RSA and supported by Innovate UK. They work with designers to policy makers, waste managers to academics to investigate the challenges of waste and the opportunities of a circular economy through the lens of design. Sophie will discuss the findings of this research and their collaboration with Fab Lab London.

 

Professor Tim Cooper, Product Design, NTU.

Professor Tim Cooper will talk briefly on the EU's Circular Economy package.

 

Naomi Braithwaite, NTU Research Fellow.

Naomi is a Research Fellow on the CIE-MAP (Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products) project which is committed to finding opportunities for changing consumption of goods and services and thus reducing industrial energy use. Naomi's talk will draw from current research that has been exploring the potential for optimizing product lifetimes within a circular economy.

 

Networking and complimentary refreshments/nibbles will be served from 7.15 pm

 

To book your place please specify if you would like to attend the afternoon workshop, evening seminar or both. Email us. 

 

This event is funded by D2N2.