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Circular Economy and Climate Change Institute

The EU, is promoting a new economic model that will preserve the scarce resources of our planet and will protect its climate and environment. As a result, Circular Economy has become of increasing importance. The significance of circular economy is also recognized by the UN and can aid the implementation of the SDGs.

The Circular Clima Institute will promote circular and sustainable practices, climate and environmental diplomacy and will strive to mainstreaming circular economy in all policy areas.

The goal of the Institute is the adaptation of local governments, regions, municipalities, private entities and other stakeholders to the new economic model.

The vision is to offer technical assistance, capacity & institutional building, promotional activities focusing on environmental innovation and good practices in Blue & Green Growth, to promote innovative actions, environmental consultancy, project management on EU co-financed and private financed projects, environmental legal recommendations, legal representation and assistance to all environmental related matters in cases of environmental breaches, sanctions or penalties.

Honorary President: George Kremlis,

Special advisor to the Greek Prime Minister on environment and Circular Economy. Honorary Director in the European Commission (EC), in charge of circular economy issues on behalf of DGENV. National coordinator for the EEC internal market (1990-1992), Head of the EEC Committee under the Greek Prime Minister (1993), Secretary General for European Affairs in the Ministry of National Economy (1993), Head of the Legal Unit DG ENV (1995-2004). Head of the “Legal affairs and Governance” Unit (2004-2005). Head of the Unit "Cohesion Policy and Environmental Impact assessments” (2005-2013) Head of the "Mainstreaming and Environmental Assessments" Unit (2013-2018) Member of the Board of the Espoo Convention, and elected Chair of the upcoming MOPs in 2019 and 2020.

Managing Director: Ioannis Mardikis, Circular Economy Business expert.

Head Communication Officer of the Interreg-MED Green Growth Community (horizontal project), Project Manager in the Interreg-MED Electromobility project “EnerNETMob”, Communication Manager in BLUEfasma & BlueDeal, Interreg-MED projects. Responsible for 3 major events under the auspices of the European Commission related to “Circular Economy and insularity-Circle”. General Manager of an environmental company, Envireco SA.

 

Board Members:

1. Dr. Helmut Morsi, Sustainable Mobility Expert

Experienced in the public and private sector, Dr. Morsi has worked about a decade in research labs of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Bonn and Munich) and EURATOM (JET Joint Undertaking, UK) on space sciences (radio-astronomy), energy (thermo-nuclear fusion) and diagnostics engineering in general. Advisor to the Director of “European Mobility Network” (since 2005).

2. Mr. Gaetano Zarlenga, Business Management Expert.

Graduate of Business Management, and PhD in “Economics, Finance and Business Management” at Sapienza University. Director of CUEIM, University Consortium for Industrial and Managerial Economics. Project Manager for national and international projects concerning technological innovation in the field of Renewable Energy, Green Growth, Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development.

3. Dr. Tudor Chiuariu, Legal Expert

Holds a PhD “magna cum laude” in Law, lectures on Administrative Law, Public Procurement and Arbitration in University “Titu Maiorescu” Bucharest. Former Minister of Justice, former Member of Parliament and former Senior Advisor to the Prime-Minister of Romania.

4. Prof. Dr. Alexandros Papachatzis

Professor in Horticultura at the University of Thessaly and Director of the Laboratory of “Horticulture and Soil Resources, HORTLAB”. Director of the Environmental Protection Division of the “Technological Research Centre” of Thessaly (since 2011). Project Coordinator, Scientific Director and Researcher in European and National Research projects, (such as LIFE+, “Adapt2change” and Interreg “MED Greenhouses”).

5. Prof. Athanasios Kalogeras, Expert on Electrical & Computer engineering

Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece. Research Director at the Industrial Systems Institute of the Athena Research and Innovation Center (since 2001). Athanasios Kalogeras has 25 years of experience in the implementation, management and coordination of European and national funded projects, and has been involved in over 45 projects with roles ranging from member of the project team, technical manager, project manager, and project coordinator. Member of the Board of Directors of the ATHENA Research and Innovation Center (2015-2017),  member of the Scientific Council of the Industrial Systems Institute (since 2012),  member of the Governing Committee of Athena RC Researchers Association (since 2012), member of the Board of Directors of Agrofood Western Greece (since 2019).

6. Prof. Eleonora Nikolova Tankova, Expert on International Economics

Dean of the “International Economics and Administration” Faculty at Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar”.

Responsible for the MSc Degree on Circular Economy in the University of Varna.

7. Prof. Yorgos Stephanedes, Expert on Urban Mobility and Energy Efficiency on Buildings.

Specialist in Transportation and Traffic Theory, and Transport Telematics. Professor, and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Minnesota. Responsible for over 40 contracts in the areas of Transport and Traffic Theory, Artificial intelligence in transportation, Transport Modelling, Traffic Control Theory and Applications, Economic Evaluation of Transport Infrastructure, and Impact Analysis funded by the U.S. Government, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Department of Energy, Office of University Research of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Minnesota Department of Transportation and California Department of Transportation.

More than 70 Universities and experts from the Academia, Research Institutes, NGOs, Local Governments act towards the circular transformation of EU economies and prevention of climate change.

 

Recent Activities

1) 1st online debate "Covid-19 and climate change: A tale of twο crises"  May 11th 2020, in the framework of the Conference "Circle the MED Forum".

2) 2nd online debate "Cleaner Energy and climate neutrality: new avenues to consider" June 19th 2020, in the framework of the Conference "Circle the MED Forum".

3) 3rd online debate "Resilient food supply chains lessons learned" July 21st 2020,  in the framework of the conference "Circle the MED Forum".

4) 4th online debate “Mediterranean and Blue Growth: How to plan a Sustainable Blue Economy?” October 7th 2020, in the framework of the Conference "Circle the MED Forum".