Panel discussion - "A world without waste - how can this become a reality?"

Dr. Matthias Buchert studied in Darmstadt (Technical University) and holds a PhD in chemistry. Since 1992 he is working at Öko-Institut and since 1998 he is in charge as head of the Resources & Transport Division. Matthias Buchert is an expert in resource and energy efficiency, circular economy, recycling, LCA, material flow analysis and scenario techniques. Within the last 25 years he worked in projects for e.g. statistical offices, the EC, the German Ministry of Environ­ment, UNEP, Defra (UK), Umicore, Holcim, VW and many other institutions and companies.

Michael Braungart is professor at the Leuphana University Lüneburg and founder of EPEA, Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency in Hamburg (Germany), ‘The cradle of Cradle to Cradle’. He is also co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia and founder of the Hamburger Environmental Institute (HUI). For decades, Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart has pioneered the Cradle to Cradle design concept. He has worked with a number of organizations and companies across a range of industries, and has developed tools for designing eco-effective products, business systems and intelligent materials pooling. In 2019 Michael Braungart was awarded the Goldene Blume von Rheydt (Golden Flower of Rheydt), the oldest environmental protection award in Germany, for his work.

Dr Christian Hagelüken heads Umicore's EU Government Affairs department. From 2003-2011 he was responsible for business development and marketing at Umicore Precious Metals Refining. Prior to 2003, he held various management positions in the Precious Metals Division of Degussa AG.
Christian Hagelüken represents Umicore in policy initiatives, associations, expert groups and research collaborations, including the EU Raw Materials Initiative, the BDI Raw Materials Committee as well as the Circular Economy Initiative Germany coordinated by acatech, where he has taken over the leadership of the working group "Mobile Electricity Storage". He is the author of numerous specialist publications and conference papers with a focus on recycling, sustainable resource management and the circular economy of (precious) metals.
Christian Hagelüken studied mining and industrial engineering at RWTH Aachen University, where he received his doctorate in 1991.

Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner studied Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr-University Bochum. After finishing his Diploma in 2006 he works for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Since 2017 he is Division Director, responsible for over 100 employees and a research budget of over 14 Million Euro per year. Focus topics are circular economy of polymers (fossil and biobased), development of biobased polymers and life cycle assessment. Since 2018 he is part of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence “Circular Plastics Economy” management board.

Dr. Renner is member of a number of committees such as the Circular Plastics Alliance (EU, 2019), the ACATECH Circular Economy Initiative (D, since 2020), VCI Roundtable Circular Economy (D, since 2019) and VDI Roundtable Circular Economy (D, since 2020).

He is a lecturer in the field of Business Development at the RUB and Business Development Manager for Fraunhofer UMSICHT since 2014.