Bernd Büdding

They are the mega-topics of our time: circular economy and digitalisation. But what is the relationship between these two topics? One thing is clear: digitalisation is the only way to continuously collect valid environmental data, track products throughout their life cycle, make business models more circular and much more. Not least, the implementation of the digital product passport will turn the economic world and consumer behaviour upside down. However, digitalisation itself also has a negative impact on the environment and ties up enormous resources – think of the huge energy consumption of server farms or the approximately 210 million old smart phones that lie in German drawers according to Bitkom. In this roundtable discussion, we would like to take a closer look at these topics and present existing solutions for the challenges of the transformation to a digital circular economy. This will take place in dialogue with experts from politics, business and science.

Bernd Büdding heads the “regional innovation promotion” team at Münsterland e.V.. He also initiates and coordinates regional joint projects with the aim of bringing together organisations from the Münsterland region and jointly promoting the development of innovations in companies. The focal points of his work are, for example, technology scouting for SMEs, the organisation of regional think tanks and innovation events and the strategic regional development of the Münsterland in the field of business. Bernd Büdding is one of the editors of the publication “The Innovation Ecosystem”, which deals with the methods and instruments of regional innovation promotion. Previously, he studied communication science, economic policy and history at the University of Münster.