Seeing crises as opportunities and acting on them – this applies today more than ever!

ICEC implemented for the first time as a “hybrid” event on 28.10.2020
More than 250 online registrations from all over the world
At the same time, guests were also present on site, in compliance with strict corona protection measures

“Extraordinary conditions call for extraordinary actions.” Prof. Dr. Peter Heck’s statement referred to the new format in which the now eleventh continuation of the annual conference was presented. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the managing director of the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS) decided that the conference must also be available digitally for the first time. At the same time, Prof. Heck’s introductory words spanned the arc to his later presentation on innovative concepts for the protection of nature, the environment and the climate. The global megatrends, such as increasing global warming, environmental catastrophes, demographic changes, etc., are now massively forcing us to think in new forms and structures. The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Stefan Diemer, who, as Vice-President of Trier University of Applied Sciences, conveyed the greetings and wishes of the university management. On behalf of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Wolfgang Eberle then conveyed greetings from the co-organiser in the form of a video message.

“The challenge is: we need new recycling management models; material flow management concepts; zero emissions thinking as a leading principle,” stated Prof. Heck in his subsequent presentation. The IfaS Institute has been committed to precisely this rethinking for almost 20 years and initiates projects worldwide that demonstrate that this sustainable approach can not only be practically implemented and resource-saving, but can also be extremely profitable for the respective company, the respective region – after all, the world. In his lecture, Prof. Heck opened a real beacon of practical examples, which were ignited by IfaS employees all over the world. For example in the areas of biomass use, photovoltaics, wind power and recycling. What they all have in common is the identification and exploitation of potential on site; the interplay, the interlocking, a cycle of processes and procedures and the generation of added value at various levels. Over the course of the conference day, several live broadcasts were made to various German cities as well as international countries such as the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Namibia, Morocco and Tonga.

More than 250 interested parties followed the presentations online at their locations worldwide. Despite the strict hygiene rules, some guests opted for the direct on-site experience.

Thus, all wishes could be fulfilled in the best possible way. Furthermore, there was the possibility to attend the event via livestream on the IfaS Facebook page.

Interested parties who wish to view the stream after the event can finally download it from the conference website. The detailed programme and further information can also be found there.

The International Conference on Life-Cycle Management is an event organised by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS) and the Ministry of Environment, Energy, Food and Forestry of Rhineland-Palatinate (MUEEF) with the support of Ecoliance Rheinland-Pfalz e.V. and the INTERREG project GREATER GREEN.

On the following day, 29.10.2020, the international networking meeting of the project “Global Sustainable Communities in Saarland” took place, where the exchange of experiences from the development of international city cooperation and the current development and implementation of concrete projects for the implementation of the so-called SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals – were presented. In the context of a virtual workshop round, a global dialogue was launched, among other things, in order to initiate possibilities for the development of municipal project partnerships.

Contribution picture:

Presentation Prof. Dr. Peter Heck, managing director of the IfaS (picture)