François-Michel Lambert is a Member of Parliament, having been elected in the 10th constituency of the Bouches-du-Rhône (Southern France).

He is a member of the Sustainable Development and Country Planning Commission at the National Assembly, and also holds the position of president of the France-Cuba Friendship group at the National Assembly.

He is founding president of the Institute for Circular Economy, a multi-stakeholder association composed of 200 members, companies, communities, NGOs and schools that defines and implements a transformation of our economic model to emerge from a society of waste and move towards the development of an economy focused on the preservation and efficient use of resources. The Institute has become the French reference and the main partner of the public authorities.

Mr Lambert received the Marianne d'Or award for sustainable development for his proactive action to bring about a shift towards a circular economy.

The Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management is an international network of cities and regions sharing the aim of promoting a sustainable resource management, through prevention at source, reuse and recycling, and accelerating the transition towards a circular economy on their territories and beyond. The network currently counts about 100 members, mainly local and regional authorities as well as national networks of local authorities representing around 1100 municipalities. ACR+ is directly represented in 23 countries of the European Union, and the network can also rely on members in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan

Francesco LEMBO is Managing Director at ACR+, overseeing programs and projects, and ensuring that strategic plans and realistic objectives are in place and monitored. His key duties include fundraising, marketing, community and stakeholders’ outreach. He has over ten years of experience in supporting public administrations, SMEs, employers' associations, NGOs and universities in the design and management of international programs on lifelong learning and sustainable development. He has been advocating for the active involvement of citizens in the development of local and EU policies and the dissemination of inclusive educational models, also designing training programs focused on sustainable development and social inclusion. He wrote about inclusive pedagogy and recognition of prior learnings, and circular economy education. He has a Bachelor in contemporary history, and then followed MA studies in Lifelong Learning Sciences.

Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl is a social entrepreneur working to evolve standards to influence food sovereignty and agroecology. She is a board member of UnternehmensGrün, the German Federal Association of Green Economy and currently holds the seat of Vice President on the board of Ecopreneur, the European Federation of Sustainable Business, who's purpose is to set a course towards sustainable economic policies on the European level to support the economic and societal transformation across Europe and beyond.  

Commercially, Lyss founded BlyssChocolate.com, CACAO.Academy, and ChangeMaker.Land. 

Agata Meysner is a youth activist and the director of Generation Climate Europe (GCE). She holds an LLB in European Law from Maastricht University and is currently pursuing an MSc in Public Policy from University College London specialising in the circular economy and resource efficiency. Ms Meysner previously worked at the European Environmental Bureau, where she focused on the implementation of the SDGs by and in the EU.

Generation Climate Europe is the largest coalition of youth-led networks at the European level, pushing for stronger action from the EU on climate and environmental issues. GCE brings together 460 national organisations across 47 countries in Europe. It is guided by the voices of 20 million young Europeans. GCE's mission is to create a platform for the youth to advocate for a just and green transition in Europe. 

The circular economy is one of the key thematic areas for GCE, encompassing various issues such as textiles, digitalisation, energy and food systems.
 

At Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), Theresa Mörsen works as Waste & Resources Policy Officer and acts within the EU institutional bubble advocating for more ambitious legislation on waste prevention and resource consumption. She covers areas such as textiles, food waste and organic material, along with the broader field of municipal waste. Before joining ZWE, she worked as regulatory affairs manager in the private sector monitoring EU environmental policies, especially on electrical appliances. She also has experience working in the German and European parliaments.

Zero Waste Europe is the European network of communities, local leaders, experts and change agents working towards the elimination of waste in our society. ZWE advocates for sustainable systems and the redesign of our relationship with resources to accelerate a just transition towards zero waste for the benefit of people and the planet.

ZWE is also part of the Rethink Plastic alliance, an alliance of +10 European NGOs working with European policy makers to design and deliver policy solutions to tackle plastic pollution.

Neva Nahtigal is the Director of RREUSE. In addition to day-to-day management, she is involved in the organisation’s strategic development and leads its policy team. Neva worked internationally as a policy, research and communications consultant specialising in social and economic justice, sustainability and human rights. She then spent six years in the international office of a global civil society network focusing on improving working conditions in the garment industry before joining RREUSE in May 2023. She holds Masters degrees in Media Studies and Public Policy.

RREUSE is an international network representing social enterprises active in the field of re-use, repair and recycling. Drawing on the first-hand experience of its members, RREUSE's mission is to ensure that policies, innovative partnerships and the sharing of best practices promote and develop the role of social enterprises in the circular economy. RREUSE's vision for Europe is built around circular activities that foster social value and create locally inclusive jobs whilst supporting vulnerable individuals. 

RREUSE has 31 members across 29 European countries and the USA.

Oana Neagu is Director of the General Affairs team at Copa Cogeca. The team covers topics related to the circular and bio-economy, the environment and climate change, research and innovation, food waste, etc. Oana is an agricultural engineer and has a Master’s degree in business administration. She previously worked at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture as a policy officer, in charge of managing market measures. Prior to joining the Commission in 2006, she was the adviser on European integration at the Ministry of Agriculture in Romania, and was involved in preparing Romania’s accession to the European Union.

She is a member of the management committee of the multi-stakeholder platform on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU and actively involved in various expert groups on the bioeconomy, forestry and rural development.

Copa and Cogeca are the united voice of farmers and agri-cooperatives in the EU. Together, they ensure that EU agriculture is sustainable, innovative and competitive, guaranteeing food security for half a billion people throughout Europe. Copa represents over 23 million farmers and their families whilst Cogeca represents the interests of 22 000 agricultural cooperatives. They have 66 member organisations from the EU Member States. Copa and Cogeca are among the founding members of the European Bioeconomy Alliance.

Dorthe Nielsen, policy director at EUROCITIES, is responsible for the overall coordination and delivery of outcomes of the policy work in EUROCITIES. She focuses on sustainable urban mobility and green and smarter cities. She is also in charge of governance-related matters, including the urban agenda for the EU and creative citizenship. She previously worked for the Greater London Authority (EU office) and at the Secretariat General of the European Commission. She holds a Masters degree from the College of Europe (BE) in European politics and a Masters degree in public administration from the University of Roskilde (DK). A Danish national, she is fluent in English and French.

EUROCITIES is the leading network of more than 140 major European cities, working together to improve the quality of urban life. It strives for a Europe where cities are genuine partners with the EU to create a better future. It puts individuals at the heart of developments to achieve inclusive, prosperous and healthy cities with future-fit local governments. It works to connect EU and local policy developments in areas such as climate, environment, mobility, economic development, social affairs, culture, digital transformation and urban development. The circular economy cuts across all those areas of work.

Founded in 2015, the Circular Economy Coalition for Europe is a platform of scientists and universities in the fields of resource management, waste management and anthropogenic metabolism. Working to support the transformation of the EU to an effective and efficient circular economy, the experts provide the European institutions, national decision-makers, businesses and the interested public with facts and data based on scientific methods and evidence.

At the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Jean-Pierre is the policy officer responsible for Product Policy and Circular Economy.

The EEB is Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ organisations with around 140 organisations in more than 30 countries. Jean-Pierre has a Master's degree in Environmental Policy from Humboldt University Berlin and in Geography from the University of Oxford.

Prior to joining the EEB, Jean-Pierre worked for four years at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in Brussels, as part of their Green Economy programme where he specialised in plastics, market-based instruments and economic indicators. At IEEP, he published a number of reports on a range of environmental issues for the European Commission, the European Parliament, UN Environment and the OECD.