Collaboration in the Alps/Adria region is vital for the Circular breakthrough!
On the 5th of February, the first conference dedicated to the circular economy and collaboration between Austria and Slovenia took place in Škocjan, organized by the Slovenian Business Association (SGZ) in Celovec in partnership with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, SPIRIT and BABEG. The conference was part of the Connect SME Plus Interreg project. The event was attended by more than 160 participants from Slovenia and Austria, and after lunch about 50 pre-arranged business talks took place.
The even was opened by SGZ President Benjamin Wakounig, Minister without portfolio for Slovenian diaspora Peter Jožef Česnik and WK President Jürgen Mandl, who stressed that the Alpine-Adriatic region should be positioned in the long term as a separate EU macro-region with adequate funding options. Mandl stressed to have already spoken about this with the EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn.
The keynote speaker Ladeja Godina Košir, Chair of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, Founder & Director of Circular Change emphasized, among other things, that for businesses to make the most of of the opportunity offered by the transition to circular economy it is necessary to embrace change, collaborate, innovate, prosper and co-create.
In the content part of the program, speakers from successful companies from Slovenia and Austria presented their circular models:
AquafilSLO Ltd.: Edi Kraus, Managing Director and Member of the Board of AquafilSLO
Hirsch Servo AG: Ing. Alexander Doskocil
Gojer GmbH: Oscar Preinig, Director
Kruschitz GmbH: Dr. Witschnigg Andreas, Head of Research and Development
Skaza Plastics: Ph.D. Branka Viltužnik, Head of Research and Innovation
AfB mildtätige und gemeinnützige GmbH: Heribert Brumnik
Rifuzl Ltd.: Primoz Cigler, Owner
We concluded the content section with a roundtable moderated by Ladeja Godina Košir with guests:B.Sc.-Ing. Olga Voglauer - Member of the Austrian Parliament, Greens
Dr. Peter Hasslacher - Director of Advantage Austria Ljubljana
DI Harald Tschabuschnig - Head of the Department of Environment, Energy and Environmental Protection at the Carinthian Regional Government
Dr. Dragica Marinic - National Coordinator of SRIP-Circular Economy.
The panelists agreed that the key to success is DIALOGUE and COOPERATION.