NiCE Online Seminar #1:
Big Points for Sustainable Consumption and Circular Lifestyles
30 May 2024
Don't eat strawberries in winter, mix your own deodorant cream, or use eco-detergent - there are plenty of tips for a more sustainable and circular lifestyle. But what really matters? The concept of the Big Points of sustainable consumption helps to identify those measures that are particularly important for effective environmental and climate protection. And we show how this concept can also be applied to climate protection in cities.
Speaker:
- Dr. Laura Spengler, Department of Sustainable Consumer Structures at the German Environment Agency
NiCE Online Seminar #2:
The role of urban, university and school living labs in promoting circularity
30 September 2024
The key aspect of forming circular economy citizenship is to inspire consumers to have a renewed notion of wellbeing. A growing number of circular businesses and offers help conscious consumers to meet their needs, but awareness raising and education are needed to target a wider range of people. Challenging that, Living Labs (LLs) provide real benefits for engaging different stakeholder groups. How do LLs contribute to the promotion of circular lifestyles? What are the characteristics and operational mechanisms behind them in various organisational settings? How can LLs create sustainable values? In the online seminar, we introduce the role of urban, university and school living labs in promoting circularity.
Speakers:
- Carolina Innella, Research scientist, ENEA, Italy
- Waqas Mazhar, PhD-candidate, BME, Hungary
- Alessandra Bonoli, Full Professor of Raw Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy
NiCE Online Seminar #3:
Bringing circularity closer to people – the experience from Graz and Warsaw
4 December 2024
This online seminar explores how we can empower residents of European cities to adopt more circular living practices. We’ll delve into initiatives successfully implemented in Austria and Poland:
- We will learn how Warsaw residents are creating a sustainable food system within their apartment block. The SmartFood project showcased how social and technological innovation, coupled with citizen collaboration, can lead to urban food production and healthier eating habits. We will discover how Graz fosters a culture of sharing and community responsibility.
- We will explore initiatives that provide residents with tools to share resources and take an active role in shaping their neighbourhoods, as well as how to practically tackle climate issues and bring them closer to people.
Speakers:
- Łukasz Gontar, RIC Pro-Akademia, Poland
- Franziska Schruth, StadtLABOR, Austria
NiCE Online Seminar #4:
Circular Lifestyles, E-commerce and city centres, are they compatible?
3 April 2025
This online seminar focused on the intersection of sustainable consumption, e-commerce, and urban revitalization. Our expert guest, Jan Christian Polanía Giese from adelphi, provided valuable insights into why both physical and online retail will continue to coexist and shared ideas on making e-commerce more ecological.
Additionally, we delved into practical experiences: First, we explored the NiCE pilot projects in Germany and Czechia. In Germany, NiCE is collaborating with Zukunftshaus in Würzburg to test an eco-friendly bicycle delivery service for rental items. In Czechia, NiCE is working with SILO in Jihlava and the Reuse Federation to examine how artificial intelligence can help optimize the operations of a reuse center. We were then inspired by further real-world success stories: the story of Opravárna, an online network for repair shops, and the platform Platoyo, an online marketplace that connects local supply with digital demand while helping to launch the Online City Wuppertal project.
Speakers:
- Jan Christian Polanía Giese, adelphi, Germany
- Zdeněk Ondrák, SILO, Jihlava, Czech Republic
- Matthias Pieper, Zukunftshaus Würzburg, Germany
- Roman Heimbold, Platoyo, Germany
- Jan Charvát, Opravárna, Czech Republic
NiCE Online Seminar #5:
Urban Regeneration with Circular Economy Principles
5 June 2025
In this online seminar, experts discuss how cities can accelerate the transition to a circular economy through innovation, reuse systems, and awareness-raising activities. Cities play a vital role in enabling circularity — with their dense concentration of resources, talent, capital, and data, they serve as powerful hubs for implementing circular business models. These include sharing platforms, reuse and product-as-a-service systems, and educational or awareness initiatives.
Speakers:
- Al Araj Ahmad Fathi Mohammad - PhD student, BME Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainability, Hungary
- Mariann Szabó - Deputy Head of Department, Assistant Professor, BME Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainability, Hungary
NiCE Online Seminar #6:
Building community around multifunctional resource centres
10 September 2025
Learn how the NiCE pilot in Brzeg Dolny, Poland provides a framework that can be documented and shared with other communities, showing how unused commercial spaces can be transformed into multifunctional centres that support the circular economy. The session also features a presentation from Ptuj, Slovenia, where the CPU Reuse Centre demonstrates how sustainability and social innovation can be combined in practice. Examples of activities such as workshops, events, discussion groups and local initiatives serve as case studies that can inspire replication in other locations.
Speakers:
- Katarzyna Korczak, RIC Pro-Akademia, Poland
- Marinka Vovk, CPU Reuse centre, Slovenia
Project NiCE is supported by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund
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