Conference-2019 ‘Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy’
The final reporting conference ‘Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy’ took place on December 4th, 2019, and was organized by the RECP Centre team in a somewhat different 2-panel format. This year it became an integral part of the second Ukrainian Industrial Week in Ukraine. Kateryna Romanova, the communication and advocacy expert of RECP in Ukraine, moderated the first panel, while the RECP Centre Director Andrii Vorfolomeiv took professional guidance over the second panel.
It has become a good tradition for over years to offer Nicolas Guigas, Deputy Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine deliver a welcoming address. Branko Dunjić, UNIDO Chief Technical Advisor of the UNIDO Project, was also honored to warmly greet the participants and the guests of the conference. In his speech, Nicolas Guigas emphasized that rational and optimized consumption of resources and energy and that it will help Ukrainian companies attract foreign investments and enter European markets. He also marked positive trends and progress taking place in the RECP Center development in Ukraine, showed confidence in the Centre’s potential in achieving a sufficient level of sustainability by the end of 2020. Branko Dunjić assured all the participants and the team that RECP Centre should no way question its own future and prosperity as the need for its services in Ukraine is constantly growing.
Andrii Boiarunets presented at the conference the Industrial Policy Department at the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade in Agriculture of Ukraine. He was honored to open the first panel discussion “Industrial resource efficiency: components, benefits, experience”. In his address he emphasized not only on resource efficiency as a focal issue of the relevant Ministerial Department, but also the topic of waste management in Ukraine as well, which is, to his opinion has been a challenge for Ukraine for years already. “To address this challenge, Ukraine has adopted a National Waste Management Strategy until 2030’, he reported. The Strategy undertakes some systemic approaches, like proper waste management policy in place at both national and regional levels, and reducing waste generation by scaling-up waste recycling and reuse.
The RECP Centre Director Andrii Vorfolomeiev picked up the panel discussion marathon and built his presentation “Resource Efficiency: Benefits for Ukrainian Enterprises” mainly on the outcomes of the Centre by current year-end. Fifteen information events were organized for industrial companies, state institutions and universities, with total 332 participants and 126 women including. 4 publications, one covering gender issues and 2 manuals on RECP concept for engineering and woodworking sectors, respectively are also a part of the cumulative results. The Centre’s technical experts published 3 articles on RECP in international journals. With regard to the Centre’s UNIDO project outcomes, namely identifying resource saving potential, the cumulative data for 2013-2019 are as follows: 165 industrial energy audits done; 12,000 t materials, 180 MWh of energy; 2`028,000 t of water – all these give potential resource savings equivalent to EUR 9`500,000. Andrii Vorofolomeiev also made an announcement of the new project in 2019. Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Centre has become the executor of the project component ‘Circular Economy and New Growth Opportunities’ within funded by the European Union EU4Environment regional programme. The component ‘Circular Economy and New Growth Opportunities’ covers three items, namely, RECP, circular economy and waste management, SMGP.
Tamara Burenko joined the panel discussion and informed the participants on behalf of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine she has been working for. She is in charge of Strategic Development Department within the Agency. Her keynote was short but essential, “Energy efficiency is the driver for resource efficiency”.
Svitlana Chebotariova, the advisor to GIZ project “Energy efficiency in companies” marked conscientious work of the RECP Centre technical team in project achievements, namely in the implementation of energy audits in the sector dubbed “non-metal building materials”.
Another panelist Sergii Porovskii represented the UNIDO/GEF UKR IEE Project “Introduction of Energy Management System Standard in Ukrainian Industry” and actually was the last speaker in the first panel. He focused on financial tools that help implement energy efficiency policy in Ukraine and stressed on why the UNIDO’s RECP experience is so much important for the national industry.
This year the conference participants were offered an option to directly address the panelists with questions in written form.
The second panel “Circular Economy and New Opportunities for Enterprises” was organized with other panelists, namely: Cesar Barahona, UNIDO International Technical Advisor, Branko Dunjić, UNIDO Chief Technical Advisor of the UNIDO Project, Tetiana Tevkun, a lawyer representing the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine, Ivan Omelchuk, regional RECP Centre coordinator in East region, Oleksii Panteleiev, BIOC project commercial director.
Principles and approaches of the circular economy and its implementation were the keynotes of the first speaker Cesar Barahona, while Branko Dunjić highlighted ChL business model and case studies in Europe. Tetiana Tevkun as being dealing with waste management issues in the target Ministry, informed of the juridical aspects in waste management policy of Ukraine. The Centre’s regional coordinator Ivan Omelchuk shared some best cases of circular economy approaches implementation in the national industry. Oleksii Panteleiev informed about his company, bioplastic production and its benefits for the environment.
Andrii Vorfolomeiev summarized the conference, thanked to the panelists and the attendees and invited everyone for a team photo.
The conference was carried out within the framework of UNIDO Project “Promoting the Adaptation and Adoption of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production through the Establishment and Operation of a Cleaner Production Centre in Ukraine”.