Building resilience: resource security and the role of the circular economy

In association with the CBI

Monday, 12 December 2011
CBI conference centre, CentrePoint, London

with:

Vince Cable MP, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills
Janez Potočnik, European commissioner for the environment
Neil Bentley, deputy director-general, CBI
Caroline Spelman MP, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs

Global demand for resources could treble in the next forty years, but access to resources is becoming more difficult as energy costs rise, resource-exporting countries impose restrictions and climate change impacts bite.

A long term strategy for resource security will involve significant changes to all sectors of the UK economy. A more circular economy, that rewards the stewardship of valuable resources, could help protect the economy from future shocks and uncertainties, reduce the environmental impacts of supply chains - from primary resource extraction to end-of-life - and open up new business opportunities.

This major Green Alliance conference, in association with the CBI, was a timely forum to discuss and debate the risks and opportunities of navigating this new landscape. Over 170 people from business, the policy community, civil society and academia came and debated how to build a framework for action that puts resource resilience at the heart of the green economy.

Green Alliance will produce a short report in the new year setting out key themes of the day, and how we propose to take these forward.

Programme, speeches and presentations, videos and pictures

Download final programme (170 KB PDF)

Links to speeches and presentations:

Opening session: resource security and the role of the circular economy

Neil Bentley, CBI, speech 
Janez Potočnik, DG Environment, European Commission speech
Vince Cable MP, BIS, speech

Session two: a new policy and business framework for resource security

Caroline Spelman MP, Defra, speech
Christian Hagelueken, Umicore Precious Metals, presentation 
Ramon Arratia, Interface, presentation 
Keith Riley, Veolia, presentation 

Session three: navigating the resource security landscape - risks, opportunities and new business models

Liz Goodwin, WRAP, speech
Tracey Rawling-Church, Kycoera, presentation and speech 
Andrew Jenkins, Boots, presentation 
Martyn Seal, Pepsico, presentation 

Concluding session: business and political governance for resource security

Jamie Butterworth, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, presentation  (981 KB PDF)
Sangwon Suh, UNEP International Resource Panel, presentation  (882 KB PDF)

A video of each session can be watched here.

View pictures from the conference:

Further information and related links

Green Alliance's work on resource security:   
Dustin Benton, dbenton@green-alliance.org.uk

This conference is part of a programme of work supported by the Designing Out Waste consortium
Green Alliance's Designing Out Waste theme
Reinventing the wheel: a circular economy for resource security