Tapping the Urban Mine: Incentivizing & Scaling Critical Material Supply Chains

  • Event

(In partnership with the Circular Supply Chain Coalition & Cooley Law Firm) 

Location and Time: Cooley Law Firm – 55 Hudson Yards, New York, NY | Wednesday, September 23, 12:00 – 5:00 PM (on-site cocktail reception from 4:00 – 5:00 PM

Session Description

Critical materials are the key ingredient in everything the world needs to survive and thrive, yet are finite in supply. While governments and corporations are racing to secure material procured from mining, these valuable assets are sitting on our shelves, in our landfills, and in our warehouses waiting to be procured.  

The transition to a circular economy presents a powerful opportunity to rethink how we recover and reuse the critical materials embedded in the products we use every day. Post-use electronics from consumers and enterprises are an exponentially growing source of valuable materials, but capturing that value requires better information, smarter decision making, and real capabilities across the supply chain. 

This interactive session will explore how data, AI, policy, and industry innovation can help determine the highest-value pathways for products and materials as they enter the recovery system—from reuse, repair, and remanufacturing to component harvesting and material recycling. Led by members of the Circular Supply Chain Coalition, the half-day session will provide key insight into urban mining—innovations in AI and data acquisition, context on how smart data can support critical material procurement and industrial decarbonization underpinned by a robust enabling environment.  

Bringing together leaders from government and policy, automotive and technology, logistics providers, AI-enabled data platforms, recyclers, and investors, the session will examine how collective action across the reverse supply chain can be intentional, activated through data, innovation, market alignment, and enabling policy.  

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Key Participant Learning Outcomes

  • Gain perspective on the global state of critical materials and economic opportunity to invest in and scale urban mining.
  • Get a practical understanding on the barriers and opportunities that exist in establishing a critical mineral remanufacturing network across United States, Mexico, and The European Union.
  • Capture key learnings on how policy and procurement can accelerate a critical material reuse transition.
  • Gain insights on the economic opportunities investing and enabling the reverse supply chain to scale. 

Agenda

12:00 – 1:45 PM – Act 1: The Current State & Global Vision for Accelerating Local Critical Material Procurement

12:00 – 12:10: The Opportunity: The CSCC & Enabling Local Critical Material Procurement 

12:10 – 12:35: Fireside Chat:  The Interconnectivity between Renewable Energy and Urban Mining 

12:35 – 1:15: Buyer Consortium: Risk Mitigation, Local Procurement, & Competitive Advantage 

  • Corporate Snapshot: Supply chain security, tariffs, and productivity 
  • Policy pathways & incentives to scale and transform local supply chains 
  • Panelists: Kinnar Ghiya ( TRANE Technologies, Brandon Tidwell (FedEx), Jordan Taylor Sloan (WSP)

1:15 – 1:45: Automotive Spotlight: Industry Innovation in Urban Mining 

  • Global perspectives on new innovations in urban mining   
  • Urban mining as an industrial decarbonization lever 
  • Panelists: Rafael Vazquez (Cummins), Kellan Mahoney (SP for the Environment) 

1:45 – 2:50 PM – Act 2: Unlocking the Reverse Supply Chain: Data, Neural Networks, & Economies of Scale

1:45 – 2:20: The Hidden Data Opportunity

2:20 – 2:50: Urban Mining Innovation Snapshots

2:50 – 4:00 PM – Act 3: The Urban Mining Policy, Innovation, & Investment Nexus

2:50 – 3:25: Transatlantic Snapshot: Subsidies, Incentives, and Geopolitics

  • Critical materials and the geopolitical opportunity to unlock a profitable reuse enabling environment globally
  • Comparing and contrasting the industrial decarbonization enabling environments in the US and Europe 
  • Panelists: Kirsten Dunlop (Climate KIC), Phil Brown (Circularise) 

15:25 – 16:00: Urban Mining as an Economic Growth Engine: Innovation, Capital, and Scale

  • Not if, but when: The strategic priority to invest in urban mining as an emerging industry
  • Hidden capital markets: Family offices, impact investors, and donor advised funds 
  • Lina Constantivici (Innovation 4.4), Mona Dajani (Cooley LP), Cecilia Martinez (Bezos Earth Fund) 

4:00 – 5:00 PM: Cocktail Reception & Conversation

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