Circular Economy: Sustainable Materials Management

This free online, self-paced, course can be found on the Coursera MOOC platform with sessions running continuously from November 2018 onward. The course looks at where important materials in products we use every day come from and how these materials can be used more efficiently, longer, and in closed loops. The Circular Economy doesn’t happen on its own but is the result of choices and strategies by suppliers, designers, businesses, policymakers and all of us as consumers. In addition to providing many cases of and strategies for managing materials for sustainability, the course also teaches skills and tools for analyzing circular business models and promotes development of entrepreneurial ideas for the transition to a Circular Economy.

This course, supported by the EIT Raw Materials Academy, features short lectures from expert researchers from several EU universities and institutes and interviews with practitioners from around Europe as they explain core elements and challenges in the transition to a circular economy over the course of 5 modules:

Module 1: Materials. This module explores where materials come from, and builds a rationale for why society needs more circularity.

Module 2: Circular Business Models. In this module circular business models are explored in-depth and a range of ways for business to create economic and social value are discussed.

Module 3: Circular Design, Innovation and Assessment. This module presents topics like functional materials and eco-design as well as methods to assess environmental impacts.

Module 4: Policies and Networks. This module explores the role of governments and networks and how policies and sharing best practices can enable the circular economy.

Module 5: Circular Societies. This module examines new norms, forms of engagement, social systems, and institutions, needed by the circular economy and how we, as individuals, can help society become more circular.