On October 8, SEED Executive Director Dr. Arab Hoballah spoke at the GreenCo Summit 2021. The summit focused on green initiatives in the Indian industry and brought experts in the field of circular economy together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in fostering and promoting sustainable models to attain the transition towards a circular economy.  

Dr. Arab Hoballah discussed the topic “Eco-inclusive entrepreneurship to fasten net-zero transition” at the session “Net Zero Water & Waste: Avoid & Reduce”. During the session, he commented – “Most of the time when we want to make a change in the environment, we target complex and large enterprises. While doing so, we struggle to proceed further as it is difficult to make changes in large corporations. Whereas, targeting the small issues of smaller enterprises will better enable us to make a difference.” Arab emphasized the importance of targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and understanding their challenges in transitioning towards a circular economy. He highlighted access to finance, access to technology, lack of skill, and regulatory framework as some of the barriers for the SMEs to incorporate circular economy. Arab also discussed SEED’s role in supporting the eco-inclusive enterprises. In this regard, he commented, “At SEED, we are working with the SMEs to improve their access to the market and develop their capacity by understanding their challenges and supporting the policy development by integrating the needs of SMEs”. 

Furthermore, SEED India has also presented at the session “MSMEs Fostering Circular Economy: Role of Policies”. The session elaborated and discussed challenges faced by circular economy enterprises in India, and addressed potential solutions, followed by peer presentations of outcomes.

Watch the session and Arab Hoballah’s speech (starting from 43.00) here.