Jan Thomas
Odegard

Integrating circularity into emerging value chains while balancing local needs, economic feasibility and long-term sustainability.

Jan Thomas Odegard is Sustainability and Development Strategist at Natural State and Nordic Circular Hotspot. He also coordinates the Center for Climate Resilient Development (CRED) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

His work focuses on integrating circular approaches into new and existing value chains, particularly supply-and-demand dynamics and the regulatory and financial barriers that can prevent implementation. At Natural State and CRED–NMBU, he works with market, legislative and on-the-ground stakeholders to develop locally relevant, economically feasible and sustainable solutions.

Having followed Norwegian sustainability politics and practice for decades, Jan Thomas offers insight into the thinking behind initiatives such as Norway’s EV transition while maintaining a critical view of their circularity.

Electric vehicles and renewable-energy technologies carry their own sustainability challenges, particularly the end-of-life treatment of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. This dimension has often been omitted during design and implementation, creating significant waste problems. Africa can avoid repeating these mistakes by embedding circular thinking early in its EV transition.

Jan Thomas holds a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Oslo, focused on how emerging markets can harness technological advances. He later worked as a university researcher, for UNIDO in Africa, and led and established several organisations. At the Nordic–Africa EV Summit, he brings a Nordic circularity perspective to African e-mobility value chains.