WCEF2025 Accelerator Sessions
The World Circular Economy Forum 2025 will take over São Paulo, Brazil from 13 to 16 May, gathering pioneers of the circular economy to the tropics to share their visions and solutions.
WCEF2025 will delve into the advantages of circular solutions and facilitate targeted discussions around business, governance, finance, innovation, people and education – the key enablers that drive the circular transition.
This year we will be participating in WCEF25 in 3 accelerating sessions:
WCEF2025 Accelerator Session 1: From ideas to impact - how accelerator programs foster innovation
Organizers: PREVENT Waste Alliance, GIZ, Yunus Environment Hub & BambuUp
Time: Friday 16 May 2025 at 7:30-9:00 (São Paulo time UTC-3)/ 12:30 – 14:00 (Berlin time UTC +1)
Overview:
Accelerator programmes around the world are supporting innovative solutions on the ground. This session will present practical lessons from two accelerator programmes: Innovate2PREVENT at the global level and Towards Zero Waste in Viet Nam. These programmes support innovators in plastics, e-waste, organic waste and digitalisation to develop and scale their circular business approaches.
In this WCEF2025 Accelerator Session, a range of innovators will share their solutions, real-world challenges, actionable insights and needs to scale. Together with members of the PREVENT Waste Alliance, the innovators will engage with you to co-create strategies for impactful circular solutions in four breakout sessions focussing on:
- Reuse, refurbishment and repair of e-waste
- Upstream solutions to plastic pollution
- Digital solutions for a circular economy
- Valorising agricultural waste
Join this online event to discover transformative solutions for a circular economy and directly engage with innovators to gain actionable insights, and co-create strategies for scaling circular business models in your own context!
Speakers – coming soon
Registration link: WCEF2025 Accelerator Session: From ideas to impact – how accelerator programmes foster innovation – Prevent Waste Alliance
This event is an accelerator session at the World Circular Economy Forum 2025 (wcef2025.com)
WCEF2025 Accelerator Session 2: Why aren’t return and refill models everywhere?
Organizers: Yunus Environment Hub & Algramo
Time: Friday 16 May 2025 at 9:00-10:30 (São Paulo time UTC-3)/ 14:00 – 15:30 (Berlin time UTC +1)
Overview:
Return and refill models reduce waste, conserve resources, and lower environmental impact by minimizing the need for single-use products and packaging, while promoting a circular economy. However, while many benefits exist, crucial challenges are yet to be overcome, including policies that support and hinder these models, financial sustainability, barriers to scale, and shifting consumer adoption away from the convenience-driven single use mindset.
This interactive panel brings together diverse stakeholders including leading reuse companies from different geographies, policy makers and behavior experts to discuss core challenges related to refill and return models. We’ll move from barriers to solutions by shifting the second half of the conversation to effective strategies that ensure practicality and drive scalability.
By showcasing best practices from different geographical and social contexts, we aim to uncover insights into scaling this circular model, and better understanding where localization is required.
We will close out with a sneak-peak into a soon-to-be-launched opensource platform in partnership with the Chilean reuse leader Algramo. The platform will support the scale of return and refill models by providing free step-by-step guides and a self-diagnosis tool to help you get started.
Speakers – coming soon
José Manuel Moller, CEO, Algramo
Moderator: Julie Chrysler, Director – Circular Economy & Social Impact, Yunus Environment Hub
Registration link: Why aren’t return and refill models everywhere?
This event is an accelerator session at the World Circular Economy Forum 2025 (wcef2025.com)
WCEF2025 accelerator session 3: Advancing a Just Transition through Circular Procurement
Organizer: Yunus Environment Hub
Time: Friday 16 May at 10:30-12:00 (São Paulo time UTC-3) / 15:30 – 17:00 (Berlin time UTC +1)
Overview:
Circular impact procurement has the power to scale climate action while creating economic, social, and environmental impact. So why aren’t all companies sourcing from circular social businesses as part of their supply chains today?
Systemic challenges such as procurement readiness gaps and lack of visibility for circular social businesses hinder progress. Social businesses in the circular economy face challenges in connecting with potential buyers, particularly in the B2B sector, due to issues such as limited awareness, concerns from procurers about meeting quality, quantity, and procurement requirements and lack of platforms
This interactive panel will dive into these challenges in depth, while showcasing examples of successful partnerships that have integrated SBs into procurement processes from Germany and the Global South. Key questions explored include: How can circular procurement drive a just transition globally? What role do governments and businesses play in supporting SBs through procurement?
Participants will be invited to take an active role through live polling and even roll up their sleeves in a mini-design workshop to ideate solutions for integrating SBs into procurement processes.
Speakers: coming soon
Moderator: Kiara Sweeney, Program Director, Yunus Environment Hub
Registration link: Advancing a Just Transition through Circular Procurement
This event is an accelerator session at the World Circular Economy Forum 2025 (wcef2025.com)