First arena umbrella theme: circular economy

INSA Toulouse organised its first Local Partnership Arena on the 4th of November 2021 on the INSA Campus of Toulouse. The theme of this arena was circular economy.

Several subcategories were identified:

• Sustainable supply: take into account the environmental and societal impacts of the resources used; from extraction to utilization
• Eco conception: take into account environmental impacts throughout the entire life-cycle of a product and integrate them into its design.
• Industrial and territorial ecology: mutualize and rationalize the flows of materials, energy, water, infrastructures, services and goods between different economic actors.
• Functional economy: use a service instead of buying a product
• Responsible consumption: take into account societal and environmental impacts of a product, during its life-cycle, in purchasing choices.
• Extend the life-cycle of products though repairing and/or purchasing second hand.
• Improve the prevention, management and recycling of waste.

This wide-ranging theme covers many specialties, thus engaging all the participants of the arena.

70 learners, teachers, researchers, companies and public sector representatives, NGOs and regional embedded ecosystems representatives participated in this event and got a unique opportunity to:

•  Engage in societal issues and make a real impact on society
• Meet and collaborate with new people to launch exciting collaborative projects
• Co-create concrete challenges in business and civil society areas with a large international community of researchers and students
• Pave the way for solving multi-disciplinary challenges in entrepreneurial, innovative ways and provide personalised learning and network opportunities.

 Based on previous experiences shared by Linköping university, this one-day event fostered and supported innovative thinking corresponding to the SDG11 and over 35 potential challenges ideas were developed. “How to generalize the reuse of water in collective housing?” or “the Environmental impact assessment of public services” were among the ideas of challenges brought up from the discussions.

Check what the participants said about the event: 

As mentioned by Bertrand Raquet, President of the INSA Group and Director of INSA Toulouse "We are convinced that this initiative will lead to a strong commitment from all stakeholders, with the desire to co-build projects that take into account societal issues".

From a company representative “This is an opportunity to meet our ecosystem in a different context.” 

From a non-profit organisation “A very enriching day with a great diversity of stakeholders that allows us to come up with rich, multidisciplinary challenges with high stakes for the company and/or the community as well as possible related collaborations.”

From a teacher “meet up, diversity, openness, getting out of one's microcosm, collective and collaborative work”

From a student “This event represents for me an opportunity to meet several associations and companies, but also an opportunity to show my place as a student and to create challenges that can have a real impact in society.”

From a local authority representative “participative, constructive and original challenge”

From a moderator “Very good organization, an involving subject, real participation and interest of all the stakeholders for the subject, the place left to the students in the co-creation, and the place they were able to take, their pleasure to work together and in an interdisciplinary way, material for the students who will work to solve the challenges, the concrete aspect that it represents for them”