Circular Summer School Padova 2023

From Monday, 17th of July until Saturday, 22nd of July Tondo took part in the Circular Summer School Padova 2023, a main activity of the CLOCKS Project, co-founded by EIT Raw Materials (founded by EIT – European Union), under the patronage of the University of Padua.


The aim of the summer school was to establish innovative high-educational initiatives in the field of circular economy. In doing so, they strive to connect the PhD students with the companies and their representatives.


Their offer consisted in a series of courses, whose program can be found on their website, and a Hackathon, that has been entirely organized by Tondo Lab and focused mainly on three topics:


The first topic has been circular textiles and fashion, with the challenge presented by Albini: the textile and fashion industry is responsible for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, therefore contributing to climate change. The EU has defined it as the fourth most environmentally sensitive consumption category. Nowadays, many initiatives are working on reducing this huge impact: but it’s clear that the sector needs more circular ideas to make a clear substantial change.


The second topic has been sustainable food systems, with the challenge presented by Barilla: today, modern food systems need to address many challenges, such as food management and security, sustainable agricultural techniques, food waste generation, and many more. Facing them with innovative circular solutions could lead to a substantial reduction of damage to the environment and the human ecosystem.


Finally, the third topic will be electronic waste, with the challenge presented by Umicore: annually, every person generates around 7 kg of e-waste. This means that, in recent years, we have generated about 50 million metric tons of e-waste worldwide. It’s crucial to be more and more aware of the fact that our future will be increasingly based on technology: therefore, we need to start thinking of new circular approaches for the management of e-waste.


At the end of the week, the teams presented their pitch in front of the jury composed of members of the companies who, through an evaluation form, expressed their preference considering eight evaluation areas: circularity, innovation, relevance, social and environmental impact, economic sustainability, completeness and clarity of the pitch deck, and team composition.


The winning teams, one from each challenge, later presented their brilliant ideas in front of the hackathon audience.


For the Albini challenge, the ALBINI 41 team won with a project that wanted to produce water filters from the textile for internal use and selling to other companies, thus covering the textile waste.


For the Barilla challenge, the ReSAUCE team was the winner: they proposed a sustainable Hydrothermal Extraction Plant: it will treat mix sauce bio-waste, producing biogas, char, and bio-constituents.


Finally, the team CirCo won the Umicore challenge with a social startup that aims to create a strong connection with the communities in order to offer concrete solutions to the waste of electronic devices.


Here (https://clocksproject.eu/) you can find more information about the project and here (https://clocksproject.eu/join/join-sumer-school-padova-2023/) specifically on the hackathon.

Emma Salioni

WIth a degree in Digital content management for media, enterprises and cultural heritage, Emma Salioni has always had a strong interest in sustainability and circularity. After a period of time spent workin in The Netherlands, she started working with Tondo managing social media and communication, as well as supporting the organization of hackathons and events.

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