This year's kick-off event focused on the circular economy in the chemical industry. Dr. Wulf Klöckner presented Covestro's sustainability strategy with the core elements of renewable energy, recycling and alternative raw materials and identified collaboration with academic research as a key to success. Dr. Lisa Weigand from the Mitsubishi Chemical Group began with a more general look at the role of the chemical industry in the circular economy before presenting her company's approaches and priorities. An important topic in both presentations was the difficulty of recycling composite materials and the associated need to design products from the outset in such a way that recycling of the individual components is planned for and made possible.

The second meeting focused on the circular economy as a new business model. Lilith Lauk and Sebastian Köhne presented the sustainability strategies of the companies Henkel and Schüco. As packaging made from recycled material often has less appealing shapes and colors and is therefore less attractive to consumers, Henkel has developed the so-called sleeve, a thin film that can be attractively printed and wrapped around packaging to be recycled. In the past, sorting plants were unable to separate the sleeve, but this is now possible thanks to changes in the composition and Henkel's cooperation with sorting plant operators. Sebastian Köhne explained how Schüco aims to reduce emissions to net zero by 2040 through more efficient design, recycling and the use of more sustainable materials and services. Of particular interest was the idea of a QR code on every new window frame, which refers to all the important data for service and recycling in the Internet of Frames (IoF).

In the third session, Dr. Salvatore Lachina from BIOWEG and Marcel Kunz and Dr. Jannik Fleiter from Triple Solar presented the two start-up companies. BIOWEG uses microbially produced cellulose to produce microplastic alternatives, primarily for the cosmetics industry, as well as seed coatings for agricultural cultivation. The starting material here is waste streams from the food industry. To ensure sustainability, local substrate sources, scaling processes and the CO2 footprint are taken into account. Triple Solar produces PVT, a completely new combination of photovoltaics and heat exchangers in the same module, which are manufactured entirely in Europe. All three made it clear how relevant political decisions are for the success or failure of young and small companies in the sustainable circular economy. Bans, subsidies and laws have major positive and negative effects on technical developments, financing and implementation.

The next focus was on construction. Vanja Schneider from Moringa presented the concept of an ecologically and socially sustainable cradle-to-cradle building that the company is building in Hamburg's Hafen-City. Only materials that pose no risk to health are used here, most of which are recycled. All building components are flexibly interchangeable, which is a challenge given the very different life cycles. The building houses e.g. a daycare center and publicly subsidized housing. Stephan Gawlitza from Gablok presented an innovative shell construction system with building elements that function like clamping blocks, which enables cost-effective and fast construction. Thanks to the unmixed components, the building blocks can be completely recycled.

Social innovations in the circular economy were the focus of the June 3 session. Johannes Kern and Linda Lingenauber presented how their company RecyCoal supports farmers in Senegal, Rwanda and Tanzania in producing their own biochar. The correct application of this charcoal on the fields improves the soil properties and therefore also the yields. In addition, biochar stores CO₂ in the soil in the long term. Income is generated through the sale of CO₂ savings certificates, which are divided equally between the farmers and RecyCoal. Lina Helgers presented the Aachen Circular Food Chain project, which brings together people from agriculture, the food trade, gastronomy and the food industry in workshops to jointly develop approaches for implementing a circular economy, such as strengthening the regional marketing of agricultural products or the use of residual streams.

The sixth session initially focused on sustainability in mobility. Klaus Ruhland presented Mercedes' approach to reducing emissions along the entire value chain. These include the use of renewable energies, the use of recycled materials and a product design that plans for the recycling of individual components from the outset. Lennart Nübel from Remondis then reported on concepts for waste recycling and impressively demonstrated how the efficient recovery of raw materials from waste helps to reduce primary energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and raw material consumption. However, this requires the separation of organic waste, recyclable materials and residual waste, where there is still considerable potential for improvement.

Policy and capital for the circular economy was the topic of the last lecture. Florian Klein from MWIKE NRW spoke about the opportunities for state policy to steer the transformation to a circular economy. As examples, he mentioned the introduction of a digital product passport, the anchoring of the topic of the circular economy in the curricula of schools and universities, the targeted demand from the public sector for sustainable products and the establishment of funding programs, consulting and transfer facilities. State policy is limited here, for example, by the freedom of research and teaching or the decision-making authority of other public actors. Jan Schliewert presented the almost fifty years of cross-border municipal cooperation in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Since 2021, it is possible to apply for cross-border projects on current societal challenges as part of the Interreg A-VI program, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The circular economy is one of the topics addressed.