The ESM congratulates the two teams who won in the SusCritMOOC business idea competition. At the end of our co-developed MOOC, the participants could submit a business idea proposal that would make critical raw materials management more sustainable. Both teams won 500€ price money together with an 1 hour consultation hour that was held this week on zoom. These sessions were held to help them progress with their projects and connect with experts in their field. More information about this initiative and the MOOC can be found on the suscritmat website: www.suscritmat.eu

The first run of our massive open online course “Critical raw materials: managing resources for a sustainable future” was launched on 13th October and went over 7 weeks. As part of the MOOC, there is a business idea competition open for everyone that has an idea about how critical raw materials can be managed more sustainably. The submitted ideas will go through a review process by the experts from the course and the three best ideas will win 500€ and an exclusive expert consultation hour. The competition is open until end of this year, 31st of December. More information about it and the submission instructions can be found on the […]

At the European Commission’s Raw Materials Week 2021, IRTC-Business held a workshop on “How companies improve critical raw materials circularity”. The workshop aimed at showing good practice examples of business strategies that enable a more circular use of critical raw materials. The examples ranged from the recycling of hard disk drives, chemical catalysts and solar panels to repairable consumer electronics and circular business models for turbine blades and traction batteries. Furthermore, ongoing and upcoming relevance of the topic for sectors such as telecommunication, finance and data science were presented and discussed. Speakers included representatives from Hitachi Group, Umicore, Rolls Royce, First Solar, Fairphone, Carester, KPN and KPMG, as well as […]

On August 20th, ESM celebrated its 70th anniversary in Morges on Lake Geneva. The board of trustees, employees, former board members and invited guests met to review the past 70 years. The celebration included lectures and discussions about the past, but also current topics of the foundation and was rounded off with a joint aperitif and dinner. The short report in German with some impressions of the event can be read here.

This year’s World Resources Forum (WRF 2021), co-hosted by the Ghanaian Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, will run under the theme of “A Green Deal for Sustainable Resources”, with a focus on three main topic streams: primary resources, secondary resources and circular economy. The conference takes place on October 12-14, in an innovative hybrid format: three days of online sessions and two small-scale in-person events in Switzerland (October 13th) and Ghana (October 14th). The opening speeches will be given by Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Ghana’s Environment Minister, and Ms. Simonetta Sommaruga, Swiss Federal Councillor. There will be an in-person Swiss […]