Presentation by Christopher Sorensen, CEO of Greenlab, an international research facility on clean energy.

The transition to sustainable production is both challenging and rewarding. It involves green energy, energy and resource efficiency and a change of mindset to a more circular economy. Where do you start and how do you map and insert a business in the local socio-economic system? Greenlab is a remarkable example of a public-private venture, grounded in research, that develops a sustainable, scalable industrial system. GreenLab is an R&D platform and accelerator for circular economy solutions. In the short time since the establishment, GreenLab has created a funding-, R&D- and innovation platform in cooperation with internationally renowned academic, non-profit and private institutions such as the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Aarhus University, Imperial College, MIT, Velux Foundations and more. The results are driving development of a solution for the circular economy, by achieving maximum value out of natural resources. This requires interdisciplinary cooperation on a global scale.

“Facility as a Service” and SymbiosisNet™ is a new approach that addresses the challenge of inserting sustainability in local socio-economic systems, by facilitating the upstream and downstream of the production cycle. Greenlab has developed such a model and implemented it with success as a sustainable industrial park which adapts to local resources. It builds on a symbiotic energy exchange infrastructure which efficiently supplies and manages the park’s energy flows – in all forms, such as power, heat, and electrofuels – and optimizes resources across sectors in a unique interplay with national infrastructure.

In this talk, Christopher Sorensen, CEO of Greenlab, presents what has been achieved in Denmark, and discusses why the model is replicable, and how it can be transferred to other coutries and local communities, in order to contribute to a “just” green transition.

With a background as an industrial engineer, Christopher Sorensen has led large clean energy initiatives such as the development of the sustainable city of Masdar in UAE. He is a Danish Government Climate Partnership Advisor and a UN Industrial Development Organization Global Expert. Today, he is the CEO of Greenlab: A green and circular industrial park, and technology catalyst, and an international research facility, where the future solutions for the green transition are developed with a focus on contributing with maximum socio-economic benefit.”