Circular Bioeconomy Systems

Join a CBS Working Group

How can you be a part of this important initiative? Stay up-to-date with news and conversation by joining the mailing list.

We also invite you to join one of the the three working groups. Review their charges, below, to find the group that best fits your interests, then contact the group lead for more information.

Task Force Leader: Jim Jones

Working Group 1
Contact: Joe Sagues
Create messaging materials and documents (including PowerPoint presentations) with succinct information to educate, engage, and recruit ASABE members, students, and leaders of public-private sectors who will contribute to the CBS initiative to build a more circular bioeconomy.

Working Group 2
Contact: Sue Nokes
Develop engaging activities and mechanisms within ASABE that advance CBS and for building circular bioeconomy systems

Working Group 3
Contact: Brahm Verma
Draft a plan, by considering inputs of a stakeholder engagement group, for connecting and bringing together professional societies into an alliance that includes collaborative mechanisms (activities, programs, projects and services) and features to develop convergent science and engineering knowledge to transform systems that underpin a new circular bioeconomy.

Introduction to Circular Bioeconomy Systems

Learn about the initiative, and about the principles behind circular bioeconomy systems.

Slide presentation: Download PDF or Request .ppt file
Webinar:

Stay Informed with Online Lecture Series

Presentations shown here were featured in the 2023 ASABE Member Hour webinar series. A new series focusing on circularity is planned for 2023.

The Circular Bioeconomy: 2022 Webinars

Thursday, September 16
James W. Jones, PhD, and Sue E. Nokes, PhD, PE
An Introduction to Circular Economies in Agriculture
Watch • Slide Deck • Backgroud Paper by Basso, et al.

Thursday, September 30
Ebenezer Miezah Kwofie, PhD
When Circularity Becomes Central to Our Global Food Security Agenda
Watch

Thursday, October 14
William (Joe) Sagues, PhD
Coupling Circularity with Carbon Negativity
Watch

Thursday, October 28
Stephanie Herbstritt, PhD Student
Waste to Worth: A Case Study of the Renewable Natural Gas Circular Economy in Pennsylvania
Watch

Tuesday, November 9
Keith Kline and Mike Levy, CLE
Circular Economy Standards Initiatives in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO TC323): Status, Issues, Opportunities
Watch

Thursday, December 2
Ernie Shea, Kellie Blair, and Bryan Sievers
Farm Scale Circular Systems
Watch

Thursday, December 9, 2 pm
Allison Thomson
Circularity Ag Value Chain and the Environment
Learn more

NAE Focus on Complex Unifiable Systems

ASABE Fellows James Jones, R. Paul Singh, Sue Nokes, and Brahm Verma, as well as ASABE member Bruno Basso, are among the presenters and moderators for the Virtual Forum on Complex Food and Agricultural Systems: Engineering for Sustainability and Resilience, hosted by the National Academy of Engineering.

The forum will review characteristics and challenges of existing systems and the need for various engineering disciplines to converge to lead the transformation of current mostly linear food and agriculture into circular and resilient systems. The forum will also explore needed progress and investment in education, R&D, modeling and analytics, public-private collaboration, and other dimensions.

The forum will take place September 9, from 11 am to 4 pm (eastern time). Registration is free.

ASABE is proud to be a major sponsor for this event.

#ASABE21 Mini-Symposium on Circular Economies

Keynote Presentations

Panel Presentation: Building a Coalition

Panel Presentation: Current Activities for Transforming to Circular Systems

Save the Date!

Join us at the 2023 ASABE Annual International Meeting for CBS Day.

About the Initiative

Our Mission

Advance education, professional development, and innovations for developing sustainable circular bioeconomy systems

Our Vision

A healthy planet driven by vibrant, sustainable circular bioeconomy systems producing plentiful food, feed, forest products, and renewable resources

Our Goals

• Lead stakeholders across the bioeconomy value chain to adopt and implement the principles of circularity

• Engage the ASABE community around the cross-cutting concepts and solutions of the circular bioeconomy

• Connect to other societies and stakeholders for greater impact

• Transform the bioeconomy through new initiatives and projects in research and practice toward increased circularity

In 2019, under President Sue Nokes, ASABE hosted keynote speaker Joel Makower at the Society's annual international meeting. Makower’s presentation, “From Here to Sustainability,” spurred vigorous follow-on conversations among ASABE members regarding our food and agricultural systems, the need to transform to circularity, and the essential expertise agricultural and biological engineers bring to the process.

From those conversations emerged an initiative being led by ASABE Fellows Jim Jones and Brahm Verma that is growing within and beyond ASABE. A mini-symposium at the 2021 Annual International Meeting, ongoing webinars, and other events have followed. See below for recordings of past events, recent news, and other announcements.

Resource - March/April 2021
Special Issue on Transforming Food and Agriculture to Circular Systems