9th September, 2019,14:00–15:30
Venue – Regal

Over the years, mankind has emerged as the most dominant force shaping the world’s physical, economic and social environment. This anthropocentric approach has led to the depletion and in some cases exhaustion of natural resources. With the world population moving towards the 9 billion mark, increase in demand for natural resources is inevitable.

However, the world has already reached limits of most resources, with oil reserves remaining only for the next four decades and natural gas for the next five decades. Further, the new year came in with the alarming news of Cape Town going dry, clearly a sign of climate change and resource scarcity that the world would face in the coming times.
India has traditionally been a frugal society eschewing wastefulness, reusing and recycling products, making these last beyond its intended purposes. However, with the advent of consumerism, growing purchasing power and higher standard of living, it is a challenge to sustain Indian population (which is 17% of the global population), on 2% of world’s landmass with 4% of total freshwater resources. In a world of finite resources, it is crucial to identify and innovate a new and restorative economic model for the world.

The concept of circular economy promises a way out, through improved longevity of products, waste minimization, sharing, renting, repair and reuse to maximize product value before returning it to the environment safely. Given its USD 4.5 trillion global opportunity, innovative businesses and start-ups are already venturing into this space.

The session would try to establish the business case for adopting this model by presenting economic arguments, beyond the environmental considerations and good corporate citizenship.

MODERATOR:
Mr. Shailesh Agarwal, Executive Director – BMTPC, New Delhi
SPEAKERS:

Dr. K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Vice-President,
Development Alternatives, New Delhi

Mr. Pekka Huovilla, 10YFP SBC Coordinator, Finland - Ministry of Environment

Mr. Satish Kumar, Executive Chairman –
AEEE, New Delhi