PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH – LET’S GO CIRCULAR

Martel CEO, Dr Monique Calisti joined top circular economy researchers, practitioners and policy makers at the World Circular Economy Forum. This third annual event, organised by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, was held in Helsinki, 3-5 June, 2019.

A clear and drastic change in the way worldwide growth is steered requires cooperation and global leadership – because not all countries can be self-sufficient in circularity. Advanced concepts and solutions for governments, industries, businesses and citizens to transition toward circular and more sustainable approaches were presented.

Major efforts towards conceptualizing a Circular Economy at the European level were reaffirmed in Helsinki, headed by the European Union, as underlined by Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for the Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affair, at the opening of the WCEF 2019.

Monique outlined the relevance of this burgeoning global movement for Martel: “For us, participating in the World Circular Economy Forum, 2019 underscores our determination to develop, manage and promote digital innovation to benefit the environment and society in general.

“At Martel we are devoted to better understanding and promoting the specific business, financial, societal and environmental advantages that circular approaches can have when sharing and (re)using resources, from knowledge to computational approaches, from data, hardware and code, across organisations and market boundaries.

“We are committed to be the change we want to see in the world and are transforming our organisation into a more sustainable company. The first step is recognizing where and how we can reduce our environmental impact through the choice of materials we use in our everyday business, including IT devices and office supplies, also in the giveaways we design and produce for our partners and projects. Not least we are looking to reduce air travel and choose more eco-friendly transportation means and event locations, whenever possible.

“Our biggest challenge and greatest opportunity is to ensure we stimulate, inform and engage our employees, customers and partners throughout our various research, innovation and communication activities to shift towards a more sustainable behaviour, not only at a personal/private level, but also at a business level. We can afford to be highly ambitious, because digitisation offers great potential for reuse and sharing. After all, what comes around, goes around!”