Thomas Van Oppens is deputy mayor for climate & sustainability, digitalisation and finance for the city of Leuven, Belgium.
Due to his economic background, Thomas has a taste for numbers and data. Circular economy is one of Thomas' passion: he sees waste as a precious raw material and wants to give it a second life as much as possible.
In the past 6 years he developed a circular strategy for Leuven together with many partners across the city. With the Materials Bank, a place where discarded building materials are reused, Leuven pioneered a new model to redistribute materials across the city.