About Us

Focus and aim

 

The ERSCP Society seeks to fostering dialogue among different stakeholders (e.g. from industry, government, educational institutions, NGOs) to work on new ideas of Sustainable Consumption and Production in order to promote a transition to sustainable societies. ERSCP aims to bring together stakeholders from Europe and guests from throughout the world and organises Roundtable Conferences and other meetings hosted by different countries. Roundtables aim to combine research sessions with interactive sessions and workshops designed to provide optimal opportunities to exchange knowledge and experience, develop new project-ideas and new networks, to find new co-operation partners and to establish new collaborations.

ERSCP started as a network around a series of conferences in the mid 1990s. The ERSCP society was officially established in 2012. The start-up and early preparations were conducted by Arnold Tukker (Leiden University), Jaco Quist and Renee Wever (both from Delft University of Technology).   The first Roundtable was organised back in 1994 in Graz, Austria. Until 2002 the series of conferences were known as the European Roundtable for Cleaner Production (ERCP). At the 8th conference in Cork, Ireland, it was decided to rename the conference into the European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP). A list of all Roundtables can be found here. For a long time, the conferences were organised in an informal way, which was possible because organisers of a particular ERSCP Conference closely collaborated with the organisers of the previous and next Roundtables. In addition, conferences were embedded in the PREPARE network. During the preparations for the ERSCP-EMSU 2010 Conference in Delft, a need for a more permanent structure emerged. At a meeting of key persons in the ERSCP network it was decided to investigate the feasibility of a ERSCP Society. In a special session at the ERSCP 2012 in Bregenz/ Austria, it was decided to move forward with this initiative under the condition that it would be a democratic society and that a core group of persons strongly involved in ERSCP conferences and the PREPARE network would be informed and consulted regularly.