Partners Event – 26 June 2025
Today’s “Unlocking the Potential of Circular Economy with AI-powered Platforms” webinar drew an engaged, Europe-wide audience of city officials, business leaders and circular-economy experts. Being an official EU Green Week Partners Event, the 60-minute session mapped the systemic challenges cities face on their road to circularity and unveiled two competing digital solutions that will enter public testing.
Setting the scene: why cities need smarter tools
Opening the webinar, Bart Vilier (empirica, CircularPSP) introduced CircularPSP, a collaboration of eight pioneering European cities backed by 90+ followers. Vilier emphasised that while cities increasingly set ambitious circular-economy targets, they lack the data, guidance and capacity to act at scale. Subsequently, the concept and functionalities of the CE-solutions were being addressed, including a specialised AI collecting case (to make them searchable in local context and language), circular mission creation process and step-by-step guides to implement a circular case study.
The Suppliers: VCG.AI and CircularAI
The heart of the webinar featured concise presentations from the two suppliers:
- VCG – Martin Vogrin outlined VCG’s concept and approach and responded to audience questions.
- CircularAI – Emrah Alkaya presented CircularAI’s concept and approach and engaged participants in a live Q&A.
Voices from the field: panel insights
A lively panel, moderated by Sten Stenbeck (RISE), brought together:
- Elmar Willems – Circular Flanders, Belgium
CircularPSP thanks all speakers, panellists and the many participants whose incisive questions enriched the discussion.
