Course syllabus

Course-PM

ENM021 Applied industrial ecology sp4 VT21 (7.5 hp)

The course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment

Contact details

Ulrika Lundqvist is the examiner and main teacher of the course:

E-mail: ulrika.lundqvist@chalmers.se, Phone: 031-772 3281

OBS: Continuous information about the course will be published in the "announcements".

Course purpose and content

The aim of the course is that students should gain knowledge and skills about some analytical tools and methods applied in Industrial Ecology to support them to assess critical aspects of sustainability, focus on environmental impacts and resource constraints, and to suggest measures towards sustainable development. The focus is on technical systems and life cycles of resources and products. 

The course includes:

• the field of Industrial Ecology;
• a set of analytical tools and methods applied in Industrial Ecology that apply a systems perspective to analyse and suggest measures for societal and industrial activities and their impact on nature: material flow analysis, indicators, technology assessment;
• students’ presentations of the industrial metabolism of a set of materials from a sustainability perspective;
• students’ presentations of the results of technology assessments of a set of technologies (products) from a sustainability perspective

Schedule

You can find a detailed schedule in the document "course description and schedule" in the modules (and in the files).

Course literature

You can find information about the literature in the document "course description and schedule" and you can find all the literature in the "files".

Course design

The course includes two larger projects that are performed in groups of students. The groups are formed by the students. The course includes lectures and literature that work as a base and support for both the projects and the exam. The teacher gives supervision and feedback for the projects. The students write a planning report for each project. The students have a presentation and write a “work report” for each project. Each student write an individual reflection about the results and methodologies. The descriptions of the projects can be found in the document "course description and schedule".

Learning objectives

After the course, you should be able to:

• describe the field of Industrial Ecology and explain different parts of the concept;
• apply the tools and methods included in the course;
• describe and explain the steps in the procedures or methodologies of the tools and methods included in the course;
• describe and explain the main characteristics of the tools and methods included in the course (such as: purpose, intended users, system boundaries, dimensions);
• choose relevant tools and methods for different purposes;
• describe and explain strengths and weaknesses (possibilities and limitations) of the tools and methods included in the course;
• describe which and explain how methodological choices and assumptions can have important influence on the results produced by the tools and methods included in the course;
• explain, identify and assess critical aspects of sustainability for technical systems and life cycles of resources and products,
• focus on environmental impacts and resource constraints;
• make an evaluation of potential ethical consequences for technical systems and life cycles of resources and products, based on knowledge about ethics theory; make simple models of technical systems and life cycles of resources and products;
• critically and independently be able to identify and formulate complex problems in relation to sustainable development;
• simulate, predict and evaluate behaviour and events, also with limited or incomplete information;
• describe the industrial metabolism for a set of materials from a sustainability perspective;
• describe the results of technology assessments for a set of technologies (products) from a sustainability perspective;
• clearly and unambiguously present (orally) conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these.

Examination

The course is divided into two parts: 1) projects 4.5 credits, and 2) written exam 3.0 credits. The grading for the whole course is: 3, 4 or 5 and is based on the performance in both these parts. OBS: Due to the corona pandemic, the written exam has been changed to an individual oral exam. Please find more information in the document "course description and schedule".