Roundtable

Strengthening Industry: Circularity for Competitive and Resilient Business?

1:40 - 2:40PM | 24 June 2025

2:50 - 3:50PM | 24 June 2025

4:30 - 5:30PM | 24 June 2025

 

Context

In light of growing geopolitical tensions, raw material scarcity, and evolving European sustainability regulation, circularity is emerging as a strategic lever for European industry. It is no longer just an environmental ambition—it is a response to a triple crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and escalating waste.

Circular strategies help cut emissions, preserve ecosystems, and decouple growth from resource use—essential steps to stay within planetary boundaries. At the same time, circularity opens a new frontier for business model innovation, cost efficiency, and market differentiation.

It is key to ensuring industrial resilience, resource security, and long-term competitiveness in Europe’s transition to a sustainable economy.

 

SPEAKERS

Pieter van Os, Programme Manager International, CIRCO (Netherlands)

Who should attend

  • Sustainability and Innovation Directors from manufacturing, tech, retail, and resource-intensive industries

  • Supply Chain & Procurement Leaders exploring resilience and material strategies

  • Public Affairs / EU Policy Managers working on Green Deal compliance and industrial policy

  • Circular economy specialists, startups, or digital solution providers

 

Why Circularity? – The Strategic Imperative for Europe

1. From Scarcity to Security: Strategic Autonomy through Resource Resilience

Europe is heavily import-dependent for critical raw materials (CRM) vital for green and digital transitions. Circular economy strategies—reuse, remanufacturing, recycling—reduce reliance on fragile global supply chains. As outlined in the Draghi Report and mirrored in EU industrial strategy, circularity strengthens Europe’s sovereignty.

 

2. From Waste to Value: Business Innovation for Competitive Advantage

Circularity is a driver of new business models (e.g. product-as-a-service, secondary markets, industrial symbiosis). It reduces cost volatility, enhances customer retention, and opens up premium markets—especially when paired with digitalisation. It enables firms to move beyond compliance and use sustainability as a lever for margin, market, and mission.

 

3. From Linear to Legitimate: Regulatory Compliance with Purpose

CSRD, Ecodesign, and the forthcoming Substantiation of Green Claims directive push companies to rethink value chains. Circular economy provides a coherent narrative and strategy to meet multiple compliance targets (climate, materiality, biodiversity). It’s a systemic solution that aligns environmental performance with regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

 

4. From Fragmentation to Collaboration: System Change Requires System Thinking

Circular transformation cannot happen in silos—it requires new forms of collaboration across value chains, sectors, and institutions. It’s a test case for Europe’s ability to align industrial policy, innovation ecosystems, and social fairness (Just Transition).

 
 

objective of roundtable

The Future Lab at the Sustainable Industry Summit will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, and sustainability experts to co-develop actionable strategies that unlock business value through sustainability. Participants will explore how corporate sustainability efforts can enhance competitiveness, drive innovation, and shape market incentives that reward responsible business practices.

 
 

Structure: Three Strategic Rounds

Round 1: Policy, Regulation, and Strategic Autonomy

  • Turning CSRD and Ecodesign into Market Leverage

  • The Role of EU Incentives in Enabling Circular & Resilient Economies

  • Supply Chain Resilience through Circularity

Round 2: Innovation, Business Models & Value Creation

  • Mitigating Price and Supply Risks with Circular Innovation

  • Digital Meets Circular

  • “Longer Use” Strategies for Competitiveness

  • Closing the Loop: From Raw Materials to Secondary Markets

Round 3: Collaboration & Ecosystem Transformation

  • Cross-Sectoral Partnerships for Circular Innovation

  • Creating Incentives Across the Value Chain

  • Raising Circularity on the Strategic Agenda

 

KEY LEARNING POINTS

Participants will:

  • Understand how EU regulation (CSRD, Ecodesign, CRM Act) can be leveraged to build competitive circular business models.

  • Identify how circular innovation can reduce supply risks and create new value propositions.

  • Discover how digitalisation and circularity can reinforce each other in accelerating transformation.

  • Learn about enablers for multi-stakeholder collaboration across value chains and sectors.

  • Gain insights on the infrastructure, incentives, and partnerships needed to close material loops in Europe.

 

About the Host

Pieter van Os, Programme Manager International, CIRCO (Netherlands)

Pieter van Os leads the international activities of CIRCO “creating business through circular design”. A Dutch design programme with activities and learnings in 20 countries worldwide that empowers manufacturing industries to embed circular design into business strategy and product development. Through trainings based on design knowledge and tools, CIRCO has facilitated thousands of companies in sectors such as capital goods, consumer products, construction, and packaging to move from awareness to action and innovation.

At the European Sustainable Industry Summit, Pieter will facilitate the circularity roundtables, sharing lessons learned from industrial practice, design-based innovation, and the cross-sectoral collaborations needed to accelerate Europe’s circular transition. His expertise lies in bridging design, policy, and business transformation—ensuring that circularity becomes a strategic tool for competitiveness, resilience, and sustainable growth.

Contact

Lead Facilitator: Pieter van Os, Expert in Circular Design & Transition, Circo.nl

Peter Horsten | Senior Manager, CSR Europe | ph@csreurope.org