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Basque Circular Summit 2025, the largest conference on the circular economy in southern Europe, confirms leading speakers with almost all the places already taken up
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- Brenda Chaves, Janez Potocnik, Helena Viñes and Mónica Chao are some of the highlights of the programme for the Basque Circular Summit 2025, organised by Ihobe
- Europe’s Clean Industrial Deal and the new associated legislation, critical raw materials, digital product passport, sustainable finances, greenwashing, the role of consumers, ecodesign regulation, and calculating the circularity of an organisation are some of the areas that will be addressed at the summit
- The Basque Circular Summit 2025 will host an exhibition with over a hundred circular solutions and a score of stands
- The Basque Circular BEST award ceremony will be held on 3 April
The southern Europe’s largest conference on the circular economy, the Basque Circular Summit 2025 (BCS2025), organised by Ihobe, the Basque Government’s environmental management agency and to be held at Euskalduna Bilbao on 2, 3 and 4 April, is now almost full. Top-tier speakers of the Brenda Chaves, Janez Potocnik, Helena Viñes and Mónica Chao will be among the hundreds of industrial and environmental professionals and experts who will gather together to analyse the ramifications of the transition to a circular model.
These four speakers will consider – from different perspectives – key issues that directly affect the future of the circular economy. Brenda Chaves is a journalist and researcher specialising in sustainability, consumer affairs and culture, the author of several books on consumer awareness, and a contributor to The Guardian and El País newspapers and the Carne Cruda programme. Janez Potočnikis is Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel. Among other roles, he is a partner at SYSTEMIQ and advisor to thought-leading institutions such as the European Forest Institute. He was formerly European Commissioner for the Environment. Helena Viñes is an economist, member of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, Chair of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, and member of UN expert groups and the European Investment Bank. Mónica Chao is an expert on business sustainability, founder of WAS (Women, Action and Sustainability), with executive experience at NH Hotel Group, IKEA and MAPFRE, and lectures at business schools such as ESADE and IE.
More than a conference
The conference is structured into three key areas (FORUM, EXPO and VILLAGE) to provide an immersive and comprehensive experience in all aspects of the circular economy to the delegates.
The Basque Circular FORUM is a meeting point for experts and leading figures in the circular economy to present and discuss the main trends in integrating sustainability in business activity. Accordingly, the plenary sessions on the first day of the BCS2025 will focus on the advances in European regulatory and legislative development in the sphere of the circular economy. Thus, the new directives and regulations that are transforming the main activity sectors will be discussed.
The impact of the ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ will also be analysed; it has been recently published by the European Commission and will drive sustainability in the European business fabric. Additionally, different parallel sessions will cover areas such as packaging design and recycling; sustainable solutions in the textile industry; critical raw materials, the construction materials sector; the implementation and benefits of the digital product passport; and the right to repair.
The role of financial entities as drivers of a more circular economy in Europe will be the subject of one of the plenary sessions of the second day of the summit. A secondary plenary session will address role of consumers in the circular economy and how to change their consumption patterns. The parallel sessions will focus on issues such as greenwashing, and the key role of supramunicipal or local authorities given their powers in areas including waste, energy, mobility and urban planning.
The new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) – mandatory from 2025 – will also be analysed. This directive significantly extends the scope of the sustainability reporting obligations for a greater number of companies, including large corporations and medium-sized enterprises, and establishes new standards to disseminate different environmental, social and governance indicators (ESG).
On the last day, the spotlight in the plenary session will be on driving the implementation of clean technologies with tax instruments such as the Basque List of Clean Technologies – the work of Ihobe, EVE and SPRI – which provides companies based in the Basque Company with a tax deduction of 30% of the investment cost of the equipment on their corporation tax liability. The application of artificial intelligence combined with the circular economy as a driver for change; ecoinnovation in material efficiency; the presentation of circular business models, and the unveiling of the Climate&Circularity calculator, will round off the wide range of content covered at the event.
Circularity award
Apart from the papers and panels, the conference will have an EXPO, an exhibition area with over a hundred circular solutions (products and services) implemented in the market; they will be able to opt to compete for the ‘Basque Circular BEST’ Award in four categories: product, service, business model and startup with the most circular solution.
Finally, the Basque Circular Summit will have a VILLAGE space for networking. This space will be made up of public organizations, business associations, the education sector, as well as social entities, where they can learn about and share existing capabilities in the circular economy and establish support networks.
The Basque Circular Summit 2025 is on the official programme of the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), promoted by the internationally renowned Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund.
Registration is already open and access to all sessions of the Basque Circular Summit 2025 is free of charge with limited capacity. People can register for the whole event or by days at www.basquecircularcummit.eus.
More information and media accreditation at the Press Room.
