Workshop ”Circular Economy as a strategy for Belarus” by Jelmer Hoogzaad

At the workshop the speaker and the participants discussed different approaches to the practical application of the concept of a circular economy in Belarus. Special attention was paid to the implementation of its potential in the context of regional development. Jelmer Hoogzaad presented the metabolic analysis and circular economy opportunities scan in the CIS region. It describes and visualizes circular economy opportunities in Almaty (Republic of Kazakhstan).

About speaker:

Jelmer Hoogzaad, Founder of Shifting Paradigms. Jelmer is one of the authors of the annual Global Circularity Gap Report, which concluded that the world is only 9% circular. His background lies in climate policy development and due diligence services to support investments, mergers and acquisitions of large portfolios of greenhouse gas mitigation assets, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. In the past, Jelmer has assisted various European, African and Central Asian governments with designing fair and effective incentives for the private sector to further improve their resource and carbon efficiency.

Jelmer Hoogzaad assists organizations ranging from start-ups to heavy industry and local to national governments with taking position and acting on the transition to a circular and low-carbon economy. This starts with mapping and visualizing the material flows and stocks which companies or jurisdictions are part of. Data visualizations foster a dialogue between stakeholders, which brings existing circular economy initiatives and further viable opportunities to the surface. In the final phase parties are convened based on their complementarity and ability to develop concrete pilots.