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

  • Cooley Law Firm 55 Hudson Yards New York, New York, 10001 United States (map)

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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.

Panelists

  • Cooley

  • Pyxera Global

  • FedEx

  • Cummins Inc

  • New Mexico Environmental Department

  • Anthesis

  • Buckstop

  • CarbonSig

  • Circularise

  • Circularity Consulting

  • Climate KIC

  • Layer IQ

  • Supplier Partnership for the Environment

  • And many more!

Agenda

12:00 – 13:45: 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

  • Session introduction

12:10 – 12:35: Spotlight: New Mexico: An Enabling Environment for Urban Mining: Candid Conversation with Secretary of Environment James Kenney

  • Sovereign Wealth Fund, Data Centers, and Rulemaking: Unlocking urban mining as an economic development and environmental stewardship opportunity  

  • Rocky Mountain/Southwest Regional Highlights

12:35 – 13:15: 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

13:15 – 13:45:  Automotive Spotlight: Industry Innovation in Urban Mining‍ ‍

  • Global perspectives on new innovations in urban mining 

  • Urban mining as an industrial decarbonization lever

13:45 – 15:00: ACT 2: Unlocking the Reverse Supply Chain: Data, Neural Networks, & Economies of Scale

13:45 – 14:20: Ecosystem Operators: The Hidden Data Opportunity

  • Credit Capture: environmental, carbon, and social credits via urban mining

  • Data and competitive advantage

14:20 – 14:50: Fireside Chat: Jigar Shah

  • Global perspectives on industrial decarbonisation

  • Urban Mining as an industrial decarbonization lever

14:50 – 16:00: Act 3: The Urban Mining Policy, Innovation, & Investment Nexus

14:50 – 15:25: 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

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

16:00 – 17:00: Cocktail Reception & Conversation‍ ‍

Register Today!