Syllabus for Circular Economy: an Introduction
1. Episode-by-episode overview of the course
2. Grading and assessment
3. Discussion Forum Guidelines
4. Resources and readings for you
1. An episode-by-episode overview of the course
Episode 1: What is the Circular Economy?
What is wrong with our current Linear Economy? What benefits can a Circular Economy bring? You explore the roots of the Circular Economy together with experts in the fields of industrial ecology, cradle to cradle and biomimicry.
Episode 2: Business Value in a Circular Economy
Through closed-loop supply chains and reverse logistics, new opportunities for business are created. This episode explores value creation and new business models in a Circular Economy.
Episode 3: Longer Lasting Products
The smaller the loop, the greater the profitability of the system. Learn how to look at product life extension through the eyes of designers and entrepreneurs. Join us in our repair café.
Episode 4: Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing enables companies to recapture value at a product or component level. It is currently being rediscovered as a promising business opportunity. You explore the topic together with researchers and entrepreneurs.
Episode 5: Waste equals Food
This episode discusses how we can take inspiration from nature when redesigning the way we deal with waste. We present a fascinating circular case study. Can you identify opportunities for change in your own area?
Episode 6: Thinking in Systems
The shift from linear to circular should not be underestimated. In this episode, we discuss the extent and duration of the transition and we look at how sustainable the Circular Economy really is.
Episode 7: Full Circle
This is the week where you take your final exam.
2. Grading and assessment
Each episode has a similar structure and grading policy. The non-graded contributions, such as your contributions to the discussion forum, are optional. Participation in the discussions does, however, give you a much greater and deeper learning experience. It allows you to share your ideas with the other course participants.
Grading
In total, you can obtain 100 points. To pass you need an overall score of at least 60% of the total number of points that can be earned (60/100).
For the assignments, we make use of self-assessment. Self-assessment involves you assigning the grade you think your assignment deserves, based on the grading criteria and benchmark answers provided. In the course, we explain how to grade yourself and how to reflect on these grades. Episode 3 contains two assignments, one is worth 5 and the other is a peer-assessment worth 10 points.
Your final grade in the course depends on whether you have uploaded and assessed assignments and how well you performed on the quizzes and the final exam.
3. Discussion Forum Guidelines
An important part of the learning happens on the discussion forums. The forum is all about sharing your ideas with peers and inviting them to give feedback. We stimulate a positive, constructive atmosphere. Please pay attention to the guidelines provided below to make this course a pleasant experience for everyone!
- Be respectful. Please, show respect to your fellow participants. We encourage debate and discussion but only when this is done in a polite and respectful manner. We do not tolerate rude behaviour and condescending or abusive words. Instances will be reported and removed.
- Be constructive in your feedback. Learning in an online community is about interacting with each other. When commenting or providing feedback on the work of others, be constructive and whenever possible provide suggestions for improvement.
- Be sensitive to your peers’ background and culture. This is a global forum with participants from around the world. This means that your fellow participants may come from very diverse cultures and backgrounds. Please be sensitive to this when discussing your own work or results of others.
- Post appropriate content. Content that violates the Terms of Service is not permitted. You may not post inappropriate (eg. pornographic) or copyrighted content, advertise or promote outside products or organizations, or spam the forums with repeat content.
More details are available in our downloadable Forum Guidelines.
Collaboration Guidelines
Here we present some guidelines for successful collaboration during this DelftX course. They will assist you and your peers in truly grasping the course material, whilst still being able to help each other out.
We as course staff will actively remove posts and responses in the discussion forum, which we feel are inappropriate (literally giving answers, rather than giving tips). Repeated violation of the guidelines may result in your progress in the course being erased and/or your account being deactivated. (Please remember that the edX Honor code also applies outside of edx.org)
Here we go:
1. It is OK to discuss the general approach to solving a problem.
2. It is OK to work with others to come up with the general steps for a solution
3. It is OK to give/receive hints when you or someone else is stuck.
4. It is not OK to receive the details of a solution, these you should work out yourself.
5. It is not OK to simply copy someone else’s solution / let your solution be copied.
6. It is not OK to plug your numbers in someone else’s formula to get an answer.
7. It is not OK to consult a step-by-step solution to a problem when the deadline has not passed yet.
8. It is not OK to share/receive the answers to an assignment before its deadline.
9. It is OK to let someone help you one step further in a solution, provided that you have given it a wholehearted attempt and are stuck for some time.
And most important!
10. After you have collaborated with others to find a solution, you should be able to solve a similar problem by yourself the next time
4 . Resources and Readings
This reading guide contains the source material for most of the courseware in this MOOC on the Circular Economy: An Introduction. Some of the books, reports and journal papers in this reading guide are freely available, while others might require an institutional subscription.
All of these materials are optional, for your background reading.
Episode 1: What is the Circular Economy?
Webster, Ken. The Circular Economy; A Wealth of Flows. Ellen MacArthur Foundation Publishing, 2017 (now in its 2nd edition). https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/the-circular-economy-a-wealth-of-flows-2nd-edition
Towards The Circular Economy Vol. 1: An Economic And Business Rationale For An Accelerated Transition. Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 2013. Free download
Episode 2: Business Value in a Circular Economy
Koppius, Otto, Öznur Özdemir-Akyildirim, and Erwin van der Laan, Business Value from Closed-Loop Supply Chains, 2014, Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt, vol. 3,
Tukker, Arnold. Eight Types of Product-Service System: Eight Ways to Sustainability? Experiences from Suspronet. Business Strategy and the Environment, 13, 2004. p. 246–260 Available
Episode 3: Longer Lasting Products
Bakker, Conny, Marcel den Hollander, Ed van Hinte and Yvo Zijlstra. Products that Last; Product Design for Circular Business Models. TU Delft Library, 2014. More information: https://www.bispublishers.com/products-that-last.html
Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe. Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. 2015. Free download
A series of articles from The Guardian on The Circular Economy.
Episode 4:
Nasr, Nabil and Michael Thurston. Remanufacturing: A Key Enabler to Sustainable Product Systems. Proceedings of the 13th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, p 15-18, 2006. Available from http://www.mech.kuleuven.be/lce2006/key4.pdf
Graedel, T.E., E.M.Harper, N.T. Nassar, and Barbara Reck, 2013. On the materials basis of modern society. PNAS, pp.1–6. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1312752110
Peck, David, Prabhu Kandachar and Erik Tempelman. Critical materials from a product design perspective. Journal of materials and design, Vol. 65, p 147 – 159. 2015. Available through http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2014.08.042
Episode 5: Waste = Food
Benyus, Janine, Biomimicry; Innovation Inspired by Nature. Perennial, 2002. Braungart, Michael and William McDonough, Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way
Episode 6: Thinking in Systems
United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, International Resource Panel Work on Global Metal Flows. This is a set of four reports:
- Metal Stocks in Society (2010)
- Recycling Rates of Metals (2011)
- Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure (2013)
- Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles (2013)
You can freely download these at