What is the best way forward for soil protection in the EU? How can we improve EU policies to secure the delivery of soil ecosystem services? These questions were the focus of the final policy conference of the RECARE project which took place on 27 September 2018 in Brussels. More than 100 participants from 21 countries participated in the conference.

The conference "Impacts of the circular economy transition in Europe" took place in Brussels on 5 September 2018, organised as part of the CIRCULAR IMPACTS project. Around 150 people attended the event, including officials from the European Commission, national ministries, the public sector, industry, and NGOs. Ecologic Institute, as project lead, and the CIRCULAR IMPACTS project partners presented their findings on the impacts of moving towards a more circular economy in Europe, one that uses resources efficiently and maintains the economic value of materials. In addition to discussing their insights regarding the policy frameworks necessary for fostering a resource-efficient economy, team members presented evidence on the impacts and potential benefits of moving towards circular-economy approaches in three sectors: electric-vehicle batteries, car sharing, and building materials.

On 26 June 2018, the International Symposium on Energy Efficiency will bring together leaders from all over the globe as part of the EFEX project to talk about the ways in which energy efficiency has proven to be not only a tool for meeting environmental and sustainability goals and commitments but also an opportunity to increase participation and prosperity in all segments of society. Registration for the conference is open, and you can still get in at the discounted early bird rate. You'll find further information including registration details on the symposium's website.

This conference looked into the innovative bio-based products sector. It presented key insights on the environmental impacts, investment potential and innovative aspects of selected bio-based products.

This final conference will introduce results of four BONUS projects ending in 2018. Novel approaches for managing nutrients, as well as governance approaches for the Baltic Sea region will be presented for discussion. Ecologic Institute will present research results of the BONUS project Soils2Sea. All scientists and stakeholders with a vested interest in sustainable ecosystem-based governance in the Baltic Sea region are invited to join the conference.

At the kick kick-off event for its six thematic working groups, the dialogue forum "Business Mitigates Climate Change" of around 200 leading German companies discussed how they could increase their climate change mitigation efforts and move forward on the way to a low carbon economy. Ecologic Institute organised the conference together with Ernst & Young and Wuppertal Institut.

Over a period of three years the BioSTEP project developed participation tools to involve the public in the development of the European bioeconomy. Different types of participation were sought. During the final conference on 22 February 2018 in Brussels, the participation formats and their possible impact as well as the BioSTEP research recommendations will be presented and discussed. Registrations are possible until 15 February 2018.

On 13 December 2017 the China Emissions Exchange and the European Commission hosted a conference in Shenzhen on emissions trading in China and the EU. The conference was organized by Ecologic Institute. The event brought together experts from the world's largest emissions trading scheme, the EU ETS, and China's future major emissions trading scheme. The conference took stock of what emissions trading in the EU and China have achieved so far and what lessons can be drawn from it. Moreover, the event dealt with how emissions trading can contribute to mastering future climate policy challenges. The presentation slides are available online.

With a big conference in Berlin on the 17 and 18 Oktober 2017, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) launched its new comprehensive research programme "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions." In this research programme, 18 research projects with around 100 partners from science, industry, associations and municipalities are exploring the following questions: What is the extent of plastic pollution globally, what are its causes and its effects? For the kickoff, representatives from all collaborative projects met in the "Umweltforum" in Berlin to present the individual projects, identify common challenges and develop cross-cutting themes for an exchange across consortia.

<p>The international "SustEcon Conference – The contribution of a sustainable economy to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" took place on 25 and 26 September 2017 at the Freie Universität in Berlin. It was organised by the project NaWiKo, which coordinates 30 projects doing research on various topics linked to make the economy more sustainable.</p>&#13;

<p>On 30 June 2017, the Federal Environment Minister Dr. Barbara Hendricks kicked off the Dialogue Forum "Wirtschaft macht Klimaschutz" ("Business Mitigates Climate Protection"). More than 130 participants from companies from all economic sectors met to discuss the development of joint strategies and practical implementation measures for enabling climate protection. The Federal Environment Minister's speech, as well as presentations and photos from the conference are available online.</p>&#13;&#13;

<p>On 29 June 2017 Ecologic Institute, together with the multEE consortium and the Energy Community Secretariat, held their final conference at the Sofitel in Vienna. The event served as an interactive forum for exchange and joint learning. A lively participatory approach was adopted to summarize and review all of the project's achievements and impacts to date, while paving the way for future cooperation. The presentation slides are available for download.</p>&#13;

In 2050 nine billion people will live on Earth. Already now with only seven billion people to feed, the distribution of resources is unequal and the global food system is not sustainable. With the World Food Convention, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel organized an international high level event on 22 June 2017 in Berlin. 500 participants from policy, industry, diplomacy, NGOs as well as science and academia discussed the most pressing issues of global food production and distribution. The Ecologic Institute was a partner of the World Food Convention. Ecologic Institute's Senior Fellow Stephanie Wunder spoke in the panel "Human Eating Behaviour".

REFRESH Food Waste 2017 brought together diverse stakeholder groups from across Europe working on food waste.&#13;

<p>The conference was in line with the thematic approach of the Forum, but took also into account the need for professional development. The conference focused on presenting and discussing current research and development projects from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.</p>&#13;&#13;