On Monday, 10th of December, Stefan Blachfellner, Managing Director of the BCSSS, was invited to attend the first follow-up event by the Austrian Umweltdachverband (UWD, Environmental Umbrella Organisation) and the Europen Environment Bureau (EEB): Presentation and discussion of the 8th European Environmental Program Action Paper.

The 8UAP Action Paper is the result of a project by the Environmental Umbrella Organization and the EEB in Brussels on the environmental monitoring of Austria’s EU Presidency in the second half of 2018. The discussion took place in an exclusive circle and, in exchange with the authors, enabled the participants to find out more about the background of the paper and actively contribute to the final elaboration of the paper.

In the workshop participants became familiar with an approach of systems thinking in practice introduced by Patrick ten Brink, EU Policy Director of the EEB, identify interactions between clusters of issues, identify systemic lock-ins in material, infrastructure, systems (e.g. supply chains, agri-industrial food systems), economic paradigms and incentives, habits, norms and attitudes, and the need for system change by identifying leverages.

Circular Economy was again part of the agenda, not only expressed in the workshop, but also in a publication avaliable on site: “Austria on its way towards a circular economy” in the magazine of the EEB with an article by Ladeja Godina Kosir, leader of the BCSSS Circular Economy Systems Research Group, adressing “5 steps to help you lead the systemic circular change”.