World Expo 2025 in Japan

UNSW SMaRT Centre Director Prof Veena will speak at World Expo 2025 in Japan on 19 September 2025.

In a session entitled "Achieving a circular economy", Veena will share her vision for a sustainable future, highlighting the importance of creating a circular economy and how using waste as a resource must be at the centre of our manufacturing future and innovative decarbonisation efforts, in collaboration between researchers and industry.

She will highlight that using innovations such as UNSW SMaRT Centre's recycling and MICROfactorie^TM technologies that recover valuable materials from waste and reform them into new manufacturing feedstock and products through collaborators, are central to help achieve the sustainability needed for the future.

Session website and registration

Watch the session live via YouTube.

Event hosts say:

Today, as the Earth boils over, the question is whether humanity can envision a sustainable future society on Earth, that is, a “Future Society for Our Lives” the theme of the Expo. The Japanese government is advocating the concept of a Triple Sustainability Circular and Ecological Economy, which will simultaneously achieve carbon neutrality, circular economy, and nature positivity, in order to realize sustainability.

The realization of a circular economy is a core concept for achieving sustainability, while having synergy with carbon neutrality and nature positivity. In the keynote speech, the overall picture of sustainability and the importance of the circular economy will be presented based on the concept of donut economics. 

Then, as case studies, we will report on government policies, regional developments, corporate initiatives, global collaboration through fund building, and advanced case studies of technology utilization. In the panel discussion, we will explore how to realize the Circular Economy while delving into the worldview of what the Circular Economy means.