Circular Economy has become a major buzzword in sustainability science and policy. In the forest sector as well as in other commodity sectors, recycling, re-using and remanufacturing are seen as a way to reduce consumption and conserve ecosystems. Scholars, policy-makers, civil society and the private sector place considerable hopes in this concept for transforming our economy to a sustainable state.

Can this concept really help to change the pathway of our economies and societies? New research suggests that current policy debates and monitoring tools for a circular economy in the EU may rather move us around in circles than conserve ecosystems. Come and decide for yourselves as Sina Leipold from the University of Freiburg (Germany) discusses this new research.

The talk is aimed at a general audience and will not assume technical knowledge.

About the speaker

Sina Leipold is an assistant professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where she heads a transdisciplinary research group that aims to identify policy and business strategies of a “circular economy” that create positive environmental impacts and to understand whether and how decision makers are able to promote them.

Her expertise includes discourse analysis theories and methods (qualitative and quantitative), natural resource policies in the EU and internationally (specifically related to wood), and the circular bio-economy. She trained in Social Science (FLACSO Argentina, JNU New Delhi & University of Freiburg). After two years in Austria (BOKU Vienna), she conducted her doctoral research in the US (Yale) and Germany (University of Freiburg).

Her latest research includes work on stakeholder opinions, strategies and indicators for a circular economy, accountability in transnational supply chains, as well as environmental policy discourses.

When she is not clinging to a laptop, she enjoys nature in jogging shoes, on a mountain bike or in a wetsuit.