World Resources Forum with the theme “Closing Loops – Transitions at Work”

The World Resources Forum will take place in Antwerp (Belgium) from 24 – 27 February 2019. WRF 2019 will be organised with the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM). OVAM is the principal authority in the Flanders Region of Belgium for sustainable management of waste, materials and soils and has published its first conference announcement WRF 2019.

The conference will be organised in close cooperation with international partners such as UN Environment, the European Commission, and other partners of the international WRF network, as well as with local partners such as the City of Antwerp, local authorities, environmental companies, sector federations, civil society and universities and knowledge institutions from the Flanders region.The WRF Association has selected OVAM as host of the 2019 edition on the basis of the rich expertise that Flanders can present in the field of sustainable materials management and the transition toward the circular economy. This was announced in the closing session of last year’s WRF 2017 in Geneva.

World Resources Forum 2019 will be held in the Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp (FMCCA) in the heart of the city of Antwerp. This new conference centre is located next to the train station and at short distance from both Antwerp and Brussels airports It offers unique views to the Antwerp zoo. “Let’s meet in a room with a zoo”

Closing Loops – Transitions at Work

The general theme for the Forum is ‘Closing Loops – Transitions at Work’. With this theme, WRF 2019 wants to focus on hands-on sharing of best practices. The vision and knowledge to close cycles and to evolve towards a circular economy is often already available. A necessary and urgent next step is to now put theory and knowledge into practice,for which networking with peers and other stakeholders can be a key driver.

The conference will put the spotlight on:

• Cities and regions as laboratories for circular change
• Circular economy as enabler for climate change
• Circular bio-economy: Food and bio based materials
• Industrial transformation: the role of industry 4.0 as a technological driver for circular economy
• Non-toxic cycles
• Soil and land as valuable resources: circular economy and spatial planning
• Sustainable waste and materials management
• The role of harbours in global resource policy, and specifically on e-waste

How to Register, how to Become a Sponsor

Target groups are business leaders, policy-makers, NGOs, researchers, entrepreneurs, the media, students and “everyone with a heart for sustainability and the circular economy.” Programme planning, e.g. keynote speakers, workshops, excursions and social events has started. A call for abstracts and workshop organisers will be launched at the end of March. Plenary presentations are by invitation only. Candidate sponsors are invited to consider specific sponsoring packages.

More news about the program and registration process will soon be available on this special WRF 2019 website.

The WRF organisation team is led by WRF Project Manager María Lucía Híjar and OVAM colleagues Lieze Cloots and Jan Verheyen.