The 18th Asia-Pacific Leadership Progremme on Sustainability and Circular Economy (APLP), hosted by UNEP – Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD), was held online from October 28 to November 5, 2022.

This forum is an important event for sustainable development capacity building in the Asia-Pacific region after the new round of cooperation renewal between Tongji University and the UNEP. The participants for the universities, research institutions, enterprises of different industries of China and Asia Pacific representatives of professional, comprehensive, widely coverage to the Asia-Pacific region in the field of China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, kazakhstan, Vietnam, India, Laos, Cambodia, and other 11 countries and regions. Expert groups from the UNEP and UN-Habitat, leading directors of Systainability Asia, and Board representatives of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation provided important support.

Prof. Lou Yongqi, Vice President of Tongji University, Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and Mr. Guan Yisong, Chief Representative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in China, delivered the opening remarks. The moderator is Professor Wang Ying, Vice President of the Collage of Environmental Science and Engineering of Tongji University and Vice President of IESD.

Spanning four days, experts detailed the sub-goals of sustainable development from four dimensions, including economy, society, environment and humanity, and interactively interpreted sustainable development with the Pyramid Sustainability model. With the help of tools like Miro, 2022 APLP including courses, case studies, panel discussions, expert interactions, and modeling practices. Participants exchanged ideas on sustainable development in depth. In the end, the participants expressed their thanks to the experts.

In the important period of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of IESD, the symposium will spread the sustainable development with a new look. Dated back to 2004, APLP is one of our flagship programme from the cooperation with UNEP. We aim to build capacity for emerging leaders from the Asia Pacific region on holistic sustainability thinking and evidence-based approaches for effective action. Up to now, over 400 emerging leaders from 45 countries and organizations have participated, and formed a dynamic APLP alumni network.