21-25 September 2020, Oslo Innovation Week kicks off.
What is normally a week filled to the brim with events with participants from all over the world, will this year be arranged as a TV broadcast from a professional studio. The opening day this year, Monday 21 September, is devoted in its entirety to the theme of Circular Economy.
ICT Norway is the responsible partner for three events/live broadcasts this day - sent from gamle Deichmanske hovedbibliotek. In this event we discuss how to use the advantages of digitalization to become circular. Norsirk is a part of two events this day.
Sign up to attend here: https://konf.co/event/Iv3QX7m7/oslo-innovation-week-2020
On March 11th this year European Commission adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan - one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal. This action plan highlights how large digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, are data, blockchain and artificial intelligence, will not just accelerate circularity, but also dematerialization of our economy and make Europe less dependent on primary materials.
With increased access and use of internet and data traffic, the rise of smart cities, automation of society and the IoT revolution, the demand for electronics is sky high. In the age of digitalization, the fastest growing waste stream in the world emerges, a stream that reached over 50 million tonnes a year - the UN has called it «the tsunami of e-waste».
But - for the first time in history, we have the technology to tag and trace metals all the way from raw material to final product using blockchain. This technology opens up the possibility of making demands on sustainability for suppliers in all parts of a product's value chain. Several major global initiatives have recently been launched and this year, the EU launched «The Circular Electronics Initiative - to have longer product lifetimes, and improve the collection and treatment of waste».
We have gathered Norway's foremost experts for a conversation about what challenges, technologies and opportunities digitalization and the IT-sector are facing now.
Speakers:
- Inger Sethov, Executive Vice President for Communications & Public Relations, Norsk Hydro: Better materials for a circular economy. Recycled aluminium leads the path to sustainable development in a way that few other materials can match.
- Guro Husby, Head of Communications Norsirk, Norways' Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) partner handling all aspects of products disposal responsibility for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), batteries and packaging.
- Elisabeth Nissen Eide, Sustainability Director at Atea: What role does the IT industry play in the circular economy? Atea has been named the industry leader for sustainability in the technology sector by the Nordic region's largest brand survey on sustainability, Sustainable Brand Index B2B in 2019.
- Nina Wilhelmsen, Nordic Channel & Ecosystem Leader, IBM: Blockchain’s design supports two main uses for the Circular Economy – proving product origins and incentivising positive behavioural change.
- Anine Dedekam, Leader Restarters Norway: Norwegians are at the top of Europe when it comes to the use and disposal of electronics. By working practically and locally, spreading joy and mastery related to repair, we want to change people's relationship to electronics, how we appreciate and take care of it.