In times of increasing material scarcity, businesses and economies could strengthen their resilience and safeguard their future by adopting circular approaches. The ninth non-profit World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF2025), taking place 13–16 May in São Paulo, Brazil, gathers reformers of economies to share the world’s best circular solutions.
SÃO PAULO / HELSINKI – The growing global demand for access to critical raw materials is one of the challenges that this year’s World Circular Economy Forum is seeking to answer.
The forum will showcase the potential of innovative circular solutions to meet our resource needs, driving sustainable growth and society’s green transition. Thousands of experts and high-level decision makers will gather to explore cutting-edge approaches and best practices that can help improve economic growth and sustainability.
“By widely adopting circular economy solutions, businesses and governments can drive the systemic shift towards more sustainable and resilient economies. Crucially, circularity reduces the dependence on virgin raw materials, helping to prevent resource colonialism – a growing threat where the exploitation of natural resources risks repeating old patterns of inequality,” says Kari Herlevi, Director of the Circular Economy Programme at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, the initiator of the World Circular Economy Forum.
Improving resource productivity in order to boost competitiveness will be discussed widely in the forum. From 1970 to 2024, global labour productivity grew by almost 3.5 times, but resource productivity increased by less than 1.5 times, shows the recent study by Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel, commissioned by Sitra. Unlocking the potential of circularity presents a range of opportunities for new and existing businesses, including the resource recovery business model.
“The transition opens up new opportunities for the financial sector,” says Josué Gomes da Silva, president of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), co-host of the WCEF2025. “For example, Brazil has enormous potential to explore this economic model which can generate new businesses, investments and revenue.”
As the world prepares for the next COP30 climate negotiations this autumn, also in Brazil, the WCEF2025 will mark an important milestone. The circular economy expert community is encouraging conference participants to focus on developing circularity as a means of achieving a climate-friendly, nature-friendly, sustainable consumption-based world.
Dialogues with presidents, executives and scientists
The event will feature numerous dialogues between leading circular economy experts, including:
- André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, COP30 President
- Susana Muhamad, Former CBD COP16 President, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia
- Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland (2000-2012)
- Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President, the European Investment Bank
- Luiz Gabriel Todt de Azevedo, Managing Director, the International Development Bank Invest
- Izabella Teixeira, Co-Chair, UN’s International Resource Panel (IRP)
- Anis Nassar, Resource Circularity Lead, World Economic Forum
- Eduardo Möller Ferlauto, Executive Director of the Lojas Renner Institute, Lojas Renner S.A.
- Tarcisio Soares, International & Strategy Manager, Airbus
- Mari Granström, CEO, Origin by Ocean
- Severino Lima, President, International Alliance of Waste Pickers
Thousands of participants, 120+ sessions
The WCEF, an initiative of Finland and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, is a truly global platform accelerating the circular economy. It is expected that this year’s edition of the WCEF will gather around 10,000 participants, including business leaders, policymakers and scientists from all over the world, participating in-person and online. The event is organised jointly by Sitra and FIESP (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), CNI (Brazilian National Confederation of Industry), SENAI and SENAI-SP (Brazilian National Industrial Learning Service and its São Paulo office), in close collaboration with over 150 international partner organisations.
The event’s comprehensive programme encompasses 4 plenary sessions that address cross-cutting themes of the circular economy and 12 parallel sessions which are divided into four tracks: nature, materials, people and business, all guided by the most recent scientific evidence. Additionally, 2 extra sessions will launch this year’s Circularity Gap Report and screen a documentary on waste pickers. There will also be seven studios on various continents, an expo area and side events in the weeks surrounding the forum.
Following the main forum, 102 accelerator sessions organised by WCEF collaborators bridge the forum’s themes with the daily work needed for a circular transition. These sessions give an opportunity for deeper audience engagement and allow deep dives into specific topics. Some examples of sessions’ titles include:
- Circular resilience: Community cohesion for a regenerative future
- Maximising the mining sector’s contribution to the energy transition
- Practical guidance to access circular financing
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – Challenges and opportunities in the LAC region and beyond
- Corporate accountability: How are the world’s biggest companies managing the plastic transition?
- EU-LAC Global Gateway – Building circular economy value chains
