Agenda
LOCATION: The 2024 European Forum will be located at Dow Silicones Belgium Srl, Rue Jules Bordet, Parc Industriel Zone C, 7180 in Seneffe.
The meeting will be held in the inspirationstudio building.
Wednesday, June 12
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3:00 PM – 6:00 PM |
TOUR: EXPLORING DOW'S SENEFFE FACILITIES |
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6:00 PM – 9:00 PM |
REGISTRATION & WELCOME RECEPTION |
Thursday, June 13
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8:30 AM – 9:00 AM |
LIGHT BREAKFAST & REFRESHMENTS |
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9:00 AM – 9:40 AM |
WELCOME REMARKS AND AUDIENCE Q&A PRESENTERS:
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9:40 AM – 10:10 AM |
NETWORKING BREAK |
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10:10 AM – 12:00 PM |
SESSION 1 – Practicable Innovation in the Advancement of Safer and Sustainable Chemistry There is a plethora of innovative technologies, projects and initiatives in the space of sustainable chemistry in the EU and beyond. Yet, despite much progress, safer and sustainable chemistry is not widely mainstream. It is important to assess what has worked and hasn't when it comes to innovation and commercialization of safer and sustainable chemistries as well as how to overcome barriers for the future. This panel will further be divided into four specific breakout sessions and will cover the following sub-topics:
MODERATOR: Jenny MacKellar, Program Director, Change Chemistry MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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12:00 PM – 1:00 PM |
LUNCH |
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1:00 PM – 2:50 PM |
SESSION 2 – How to Leverage Advocacy to Drive the Growth and Mainstreaming of Safer and Sustainable Chemistry? Advocacy is an essential part of advancing safer and more sustainable chemistries. There have been an increasing number of policy pressures on chemicals of concern both in the European Union, in the US at state and federal levels and internationally in the past 3-4 years. In the US, more and more states are introducing policies that ban the use of chemicals of concern in certain consumer products as well as PFAS as a class, and in the EU proposals related to the Green Deal, the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) and other related pieces of legislation are expected to significantly reform how chemicals are regulated. However, while early, it is unclear how current policy initiatives will incentivize development and adoption of sustainable chemistry. This session aims to explore lessons and current policy opportunities for advancing safer and sustainable chemistry through advocacy in the EU and US. It will also explore ways of building stronger advocacy around safer and sustainable chemistry in the future. MODERATOR: Asli Tamer Vestlund, European Program Lead, Change Chemistry MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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2:50 PM – 3:10 PM |
NETWORKING BREAK |
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3:10 PM – 5:00 PM |
SESSION 3 – Driving Real Change Together: How can Industry & NGOs Collaborate Between Themselves to Drive Safer and Sustainable Chemistry Policies? Effective collaboration across the value chains and with the wider community of stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations are fundamental if we want to change chemistry. Many actors play key roles in this transition. And while they may not be aligned on every aspect of policy or specific actions, it is critical to have honest conversations to identify areas of alignment and collaboration to achieve mutual goals. This panel will explore collaboration challenges and opportunities to collectively secure effective, practicable policies that incentivize sustainable chemistry. It will explore additional stakeholders that could be important coalition members in driving sustainable chemistry's commercialization and scale. MODERATOR: Benjamin Nummert, Senior Manager, Industry Affairs, Henkel Adhesives MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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6:00 PM – 9:00 PM |
EVENING RECEPTION |
Friday, June 14
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6:30 - 7:00 AM |
Jog with Joel Tickner Join Change Chemistry's Executive Director Joel Tickner for a 3-mile run around Van der Valk Hotel Nivelles neighborhood. Location: Van der Valk Hotel Nivelles - Sud Hotel Lobby |
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8:30 AM – 9:00 AM |
LIGHT BREAKFAST & REFRESHMENTS |
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9:00 AM – 9:30 AM |
KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND AUDIENCE Q&A PRESENTERS: Sonja Jost, CEO and Co-Founder, DUDE CHEM and DexLeChem GmbH |
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9:30 AM – 10:40 AM |
SESSION 4 – Towards 2030 UN Goals: Finance Sector sees Competitive Growth and Opportunity in the Transition to Safer, Sustainable Chemistries The Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC), adopted by the ICCM5 in Bonn in 2023, provides a vision for a planet free of harm from chemicals and waste, for a safe, healthy and sustainable future – where industry and private sectors are strategic actors to foster innovation, move towards sustainable business models and drive change. Safer and sustainable chemistries are a key part of this equation and organizations such as Change Chemistry and their collaborative ecosystem are important for leveraging the commitments set out in the GFC. This session discusses how the value chain can best engage the finance sector for achieving these ICCM5 goals. MODERATOR: Alexandra McPherson, Director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), Clean Production Action MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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10:40 AM – 11:00 AM |
NETWORKING BREAK |
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11:00 AM – 12:50 PM |
SESSION 5 – The Role of AI and Big Data in Advancing Towards Safer and Sustainable Chemistry: Challenges & Opportunities Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to guide sustainable chemistry research, evaluation and development of solutions is a relatively new field. AI has successfully been used in areas such as bioinformatics and drug discovery but is yet to be used to its full potential in sustainable chemistry, for example in designing new molecules or addressing data gaps. This session explores the current state of advancements in this new field and discusses the main challenges and opportunities present to accelerate its wider adoption in the chemical value chains. MODERATOR: Rui Resendes, Director of Partnerships & Business Development, Change Chemistry MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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12:50 PM – 1:50 PM |
LUNCH |
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1:50 PM – 3:40 PM |
SESSION 6 – The Journey Towards Net-Zero: What is Needed for the Transition and What is the Role of Sustainable Chemistry in Driving Defossilisation While the goal of net zero is well accepted, there have been differences in opinion on the pathways to achieve climate neutrality goals. The recent Antwerp Declaration highlights some of the concerns from industry about achieving global competitiveness while meeting net zero goals. Others raise concerns that some of the pathways to Net Zero either include “false solutions” that are insufficient or threaten to shift risks, do not adequately address health and toxicity of chemicals and materials, and do not include a long enough innovation horizon to rethink chemicals and materials and are inconsistent with the goals of sustainable chemistry. This panel looks at the multi-layered challenges of meeting sometime conflicting climate, zero pollution, and circularity, among other sustainability goals and what a pathway forward to attempts to co-optimize objectives or creates a long-term pathway towards better could look like. MODERATOR: Rafael Cayuela, Corporate Chief Economist, EMEAI Chief Strategy Officer & Chair EU Sustainability Leadership Team, Dow MODERATOR SUPPORT: Aude Bechu, Postdoc in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark PRESENTERS:
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3:40 PM – 4:00 PM |
CLOSING REMARKS – A Recap and Discussion on Next Steps PRESENTERS:
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