On 6 March 2020, Harvard University organized its inaugural symposium on Circular Economy (HCES). Dr. Giorgos Demetriou, Director of the CERC (Circular Economy Research Center) at École des Ponts Business School was featured prominently on the list of speakers gathered from all around the world to discuss innovative solutions to our planet’s resource consumption and overpopulation crisis. This is a great milestone for the CERC, created only three years ago! We’d like to invite the École des Ponts Business School community to join the school’s efforts to promote Circular Economy and conduct research that serves the business world and the planet.

With the global population now standing at 7.8 billion people and global resources gradually depleting, one of the key challenges of our time is to find smarter, more sustainable modes of production and consumption. To further this cause, the HCES Symposium has brought together leading actors from the private sector as well as academics and policymakers. Their goal was to learn about and discuss tech-driven alternatives to the “take-make-waste” economic model – in order to replace it with a sustainable “make-use-enrich” model. World leaders and thinkers found themselves gathered in the same building to shape the economy of tomorrow and invent a brighter future for us all.

Dr.Giorgos Dimitriou presented the lDEAL-CITIES project, an EU Horizon 2020 funded project aiming to make Smart Cities a widespread reality. The IDEAL-CITIES project will optimize the well-being of the inhabitants of tomorrow’s Smart Cities by using data-driven solutions and the Internet of Things to create smarter, safer cities. Based on the Circular Economy approach and models, this research develops new ways to use and re-use products, helps reduce waste and enhances efficiency, all with the same amount of raw materials and energy. Key focus areas of the IDEAL CITIES project include providing more effective responses to crime and other emergencies, optimizing the use and recycling of resources, and holding participatory censuses. Tomorrow’s Smart Cities will be greener, happier places to live.

This is just one of the latest achievements of the CERC, founded at École des Ponts Business School by Dr. Giorgos Demetriou. We are also very proud to see the European Union take an interest in Giorgos’ research paper on Circular Economy and the Internet of Things. Co-authored with six other researchers from Greece, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Poland and Belgium, the article has been featured on the EU’s CORDIS research-sharing platform and published in six languages to inspire the academic community globally.

Here are some concrete ways to demonstrate your support to the transition to a Circular Economy, learn more about the CERC and encourage our researchers :

• Make a donation (Please indicate “CERC donation” as the purpose of the payment)
• Visit the CERC’s website
• Follow the CERC on Facebook

If you’d like to contact the CERC and help Dr. Giorgos Demetriou and his team gain even more global exposure, please contact Vlatka Katusic Cuentas.