Around 65 people filled the City of Gosnells Civic Centre for Switch Your Thinking’s Circular Futures Forum: a full day of presentations and activities focused on circular economy and sustainable procurement in local government.
This year’s forum attracted representatives from 19 local governments across WA in the room, including a delegation from as far away as the Shire of Esperance, proving that circular economy thinking is very much a state-wide conversation, not just one relevant to metropolitan local governments. Also attending on the day were a great mix of entrepreneurs and business owners already doing the work of building a more circular WA.
South East Regional Energy Group Chair and City of Armadale Mayor, Ruth Butterfield, kicked things off with a warm welcome for attendees, before our Coordinator Kerry Wilson set the scene for the day ahead. Sharka Hornakova (Donut Waste) took on MC duties for the whole day, keeping things moving and the energy up from start to finish.
A full day of learning
Providing knowledge and inspiration on the day were a broad range of speakers and facilitators who provided insights on how local governments can engage in the circular economy and improve their sustainable procurement practices, whilst also giving attendees a glimpse of what to expect over the coming years in this space.
Rebecca Brown and Conor MacGill from WALGA opened the morning with a look at how local government can advocate for circularity, followed by Amanda Branley (The Procurement Coach) on embedding sustainability into every procurement decision. Adrienna Zsakay (Circular Economy Asia) shared findings from her analysis of circular economy activity across WA, and Wayde Clews (PalletON) talked us through closing the loop on timber pallets. Sharka Hornakova (Donut Waste) rounded out the morning session with local solutions and global lessons from the circular economy world.
After lunch, Josh Hopkins (Open Corridor) shared evidence-based tools for building circular cities, setting up the day’s centrepiece: a panel discussion on Better Together: Building a Local Circular Economy. Moderated by Sharka, the panel brought together Adrienna Zsakay, Samuel Thomas (Sam’s Spares), Mia Pitassi (Skipping Stones Refillery), Amanda Branley and Wayde Clews (Soft Landing), and it quickly became one of the highlights of the day, with a genuinely lively exchange of ideas across government and business.
Ceri Price from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation then gave us a general outlook on WA’s new waste strategy and what it is likely to mean for local government, before we closed the day on our feet, literally, with an interactive workshop from Joni Sercombe (Good Together). Joni had the whole room talking and brainstorming as we worked through finding practical “opportunity loops” in our own organisations, a perfect way to end a big day.
Walking the talk
It would not be a circular economy event if we did not practise what we preach. Catering on the day was vegetarian and waste was kept to a minimum. The small amount of organic waste we did generate was composted by Donut Waste.
The feedback so far
Feedback received from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, with the event being hailed as a great success.
The strong turnout from local governments, both large and small, tells us there is a real and growing appetite in WA local government for practical, collaborative approaches to circularity and sustainable procurement.
A big thank you to everyone who joined us in Gosnells and to every one of our speakers and panelists for making it such a valuable day. A special thank you to Sharka Hornakova, who MC’ed the event and worked closely with the Switch Your Thinking team to bring it all together, from drawing on her own network to help line up an outstanding group of speakers, right through to keeping the day running smoothly and engagingly from welcome to wrap-up.
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