The syllabus is also available as PDF in Modules on Canvas.

Circular economy (TEK680) is a 7.5 credit course given in study period 1 by the division of Environmental Systems Analysis (ESA) at Chalmers University of Technology.

Location

The majority of the course is given on campus as non-recorded live lectures without online availability with the exception of some exercises and two guest lectures online in Zoom (see schedule and links on course page in Canvas).

Contact details

Examiner: Associate professor Maria Ljunggren, maria.ljunggren@chalmers.se
Course secretaries: Adeline Jerome, adeline.jerome @chalmers.se, Ana Carolina Bertassini, anacarol@chalmers.se

Teaching staff:
Adeline Jerome (AJ), Environmental Systems Analysis, adeline.jerome@chalmers.se
Ana Carolina Bertassini (ACB), Environmental Systems Analysis, anacarol@chalmers.se
Erik Sundin (ES), Manufacturing Engineering, Linköping University, erik.sundin@liu.se
Henrikke Baumann (HB), Environmental Systems Analysis, henrikke.baumann@chalmers.se
Maria Ljunggren (ML), Environmental Systems Analysis, maria.ljunggren@chalmers.se
Mudit Chordia (MC), Environmental Systems Analysis, mudit@chalmers.se
Oskar Rexfeldt (OR), Design & Human Factors, rex@chalmers.se

Guest lecturers:
Gustav Hedström (GH), Houdini Sportswear; Evalena Blomqvist (EB), Godsinlösen GIAB; Sara Davidsson (SD), Stena Recycling; Fabrice Mathieux (FM), Joint Research Centre, European Commission.

Aim

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the potential benefits as well as the drawbacks of a more resource-efficient and circular economy. Departing from that current and projected societal use of natural resources causes several different problems, the course investigates different circular strategies and critically examines their potential to mitigate these problems. Drawing from multiple disciplines, including sustainability sciences, engineering and management, students gain knowledge on visions for and underlying theory of a circular economy as well as on systemic methods and tools for examining resource use and designing and appraising circular solutions.

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Describe historic and future projections of natural resource use and associated societal problems
• Describe different visions and motives for a circular economy.
• Account for and define circular economy and circular strategies, their potential benefits and limitations to mitigate societal material resource problems.
• Account for actors, their options, drivers and barriers for adopting circular strategies.
• Select and use methods and tools to examine, design and assess material resource use and circular strategies.
• Account for criticism against the circular economy and examine its relevance in a given context.
• Contribute to a multi-person project in which circular solutions are designed and assessed.
• Communicate orally and in writing the knowledge and skills acquired.

Content

A more circular economy is advocated as an essential contribution to a more sustainable, low carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy. Strategies to use less, longer and again over the full life cycle - from design and production to use, reuse, repair, remanufacturing, repurposing and recycling - are suggested to maintain the value of products and materials for as long as possible. This potentially creates new opportunities and challenges for consumers, businesses, authorities and governments.

The course aims for students to develop a broad understanding of why society’s current and projected material resource use is problematic and how and to what extent such problems could be mitigated by a more circular economy. The course does not focus on any particular resources, product groups or materials nor sectors or actors, but uses theoretical and real-world examples to illustrate concepts, theory and methods. It is organized in four themes:

1. Material resource systems (Material systems) presents current and projected use of natural resources and materials in society as rationales for changing society’s natural resource and material use.

2. Circular strategies, methods and tools (Circular strategies) defines and explains circular strategies, such as use extension, reuse, repair, remanufacturing, repurposing and recycling. It also selects and applies systems-based methods and tools for examining, designing and assessing circular strategies and combinations thereof.

3. Actors in circular economy (Actors) deals with drivers and barriers to adopt circular strategies as well as common differences in perspectives on and criticism against the circular economy.

4. Circular case study (Case study) allows students to apply and synthesize the knowledge gained by examining, designing and assessing self-selected products in a group project.

Note that this is not a course in economics. Instead, “economy” refers to “judicious use of resources” as in the original meaning of the term.

Organisation

The course is comprised by a series of lectures given by lecturers from various disciplines and by invited guests from business and authorities. There are several stand-alone exercises as well as shorter ones integrated in the lectures. A larger project is conducted in multi-person groups formed by the teachers. Attendance at certain compulsory activities is required to pass the course. The majority of lectures, exercises, project supervision and final project seminars (compulsory) will be held on campus as non-recorded live lectures without online availability. Some exercises and invited lectures and will be held online (see schedule).

Communication

The communication outside schedule will mainly be conducted through Canvas. Announcements from teachers will be made through Canvas. For contacting the teachers, use the e-mailing function in Canvas. Questions that are of more general interest can be asked in Discussions in Canvas. There is a mobile app for Canvas.

Literature

The literature is a collection of scientific articles and reports available electronically at Chalmers library, through google scholar or at the course website. All lecture slides (including guests) are part of the course requirements. No purchased material is included.

Examination and compulsory elements

The examination comprises of an individual written exam and written and oral presentation of the group project. The final course grade is determined by the exam and the group project, with a maximum of 60 credits to the exam and 40 credits to the project. The maximum summarized credits are 100, based on which the final course grade is set. Requirements for final course grades 3/4/5 are 60/70/85 credits. Details on the project grading are presented in the document Project instructions (will be made available in Canvas).

The following activities are compulsory: all project hand ins, attendance at one of the project seminars (October 21) and individual assessment of project group peers (see separate document Project instructions). All compulsory activities must be attended or completed before the course can be passed.

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability. Students are encouraged to contact the examiner early in the course to inform about such special reasons.

Schedule 

Day	Date	Time*	Location	Theme	Teacher	Literature
Study week 1
Monday	Sept 2	8-10	HA3	Introduction	ML
		10-12	HA3	Circular strategies: overview	ML	1-5
Wednesday	Sept 4	10-12	EF	Material systems: resource use	ML	6
		13-14	HC1	Material systems: scarcity, criticality, environmental impacts	ML	6-8
		14-16	HC1	Material systems: exercise mapping resource use	ML, AJ, ACB
		16-17	HC1	Project: introduction	ML, AJ, ACB
Study week 2
Monday	Sep 9	8-9	HA3	Material systems: Exercise scarcity	ML	6-7
		9-11	HA3	Actors: overview and exercise	ML	9
		11-12	HA3/Zoom	Guest: Houdini Sportswear (circular outdoor company)	GH, ML
Wednesday	Sep 11	10-12	EF	Circular strategies: focus recycling	ML	10-11
		13-14	HC1	Project: further instructions	ML
		14-15	HC1	Guest: Godsinlösen (reuse/repair SME)	ELB, ML
		15-17	EL41,42	Project: supervision	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
Study week 3
Monday	Sep 16	8-10	ED	Circular strategies: focus remanufacturing	ES, ML	12
		10-12	ED	Circular strategies: design for CE	ML
Wednesday	Sep 18	10-12	ED	Actors: Users	OR	13
		13-15	HC1	Actors: Exercise Consumer journey I	OR, ML, AJ, ACB, MC
		15-17	EL41,42	Project: Peer pitch (15-16), Supervision (16-17)	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
Study week 4
Monday	Sep 23	8-12	HA3	Circular strategies: methods incl. exercise	ML	14-15
		17.00		Project: hand in of pitch and plan
Wednesday	Sep 25	10-12	HC1	Actors: Exercise Consumer journey II	OR, ML
		13-15	HC1	Circular strategies: methods	ML, AJ, ACB, MC	5
		15-17	EL41,42	Project: Supervision	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
Study week 5
Monday	Sep 30	8-10	HA3	Free for project work
		10-11	HA3	Actors: Business	HB
		11-12	HA3	Guest: Stena recycling (recycling company)	SD
Wednesday	Oct 2	10-12	HC1	Actors: Circular business models	ACB	16-17
		13-15	HC1	Actors: Exercise Circular business models	ACB, ML, AJ, MC
		15-17	EL41,42	Project: Supervision	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
Study week 6
Monday	Oct 7	8-12	EA	Actors: public policy makers	ML	18-19
Wednesday	Oct 9	10-11	HC1	Actors: public policy makers	ML	18-19
		11-12	HC1/Zoom	Guest: European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (scientific policy support)	FM, ML
		13-15	HC1	Actors: exercise Circular economy narratives	ML, AJ, ACB, MC	20
		15-17	EL41,42	Project: Supervision	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
Study week 7
Monday	Oct 14	8-10	EL41	Project: Supervision	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
		10-12	EL41	Actors: exercise Circular economy criticism	ML, AJ, ACB, MC	21
Wednesday	Oct 16	17.00		Project: Hand in of project report
Study week 8
Monday	Oct 21	8-12	HA3	Project: final seminars I-IV	ML, AJ, ACB, MC
		17.00		Project: Hand in of peer assessment of report
Wednesday	Oct 23	10-12	HC1	Course summary	ML
Friday	Oct 25	17.00		Project: Hand in of final project report and individual assessment of group peers
	Oct 28	14-18		Original exam
	Jan 7	14-18		Make-up exam 1
	Aug 20	14-18		Make-up exam 2

* NB Morning lectures start on the hour, afternoon lectures 15 minutes past, all are 45 minutes.

TimeEdit

Teachers: Adeline Jerome (AJ), Ana Carolina Bertassini (AB), Erik Sundin (ES), Henrikke Baumann (HB), Maria Ljunggren (ML), Mudit Chordia (MC), Oskar Rexfelt (OR)

Guest lecturers: Gustav Hedström (GH) Houdini sportswear, Eva-Lena Blomqvist (EB) Godsinlösen, Sara Davidsson (SD) Stena Recycling, Fabrice Mathieux (FM) European Commission’s Joint research Centre

Course literature 

Note: Numbering refers to first time introduced in lectures, see schedule. NOTE page numbers

1. Benton, D., Hazel, J. and Hill, J. (2014) The guide to the circular economy. Capturing value and managing material risk, New York: Routledge, NOTE pp 17-74. (Chalmers lib.)
2. OECD (2019). Business models for the circular economy: Opportunities and challenges for policy. OECD Publishing. NOTE pp 13-22. (online)
3. Kirchherr, J., Yang, N. H. N., Schulze-Spüntrup, F., Heerink, M. J., & Hartley, K. (2023). Conceptualizing the Circular Economy (Revisited): An Analysis of 221 Definitions. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 194, 107001, NOTE exclude Table 5. (Chalmers lib.)
4. Blomsma, F., & Brennan, G. (2017). The emergence of circular economy: A new framing around prolonging resource productivity. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3), NOTE pp 606-610. (Chalmers lib.)
5.  Böckin, D., Willskytt, S., André, H., Tillman, A.M. and Söderman, M.L., 2020. How product characteristics can guide measures for resource efficiency—A synthesis of assessment studies. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 154, p.104582. (Chalmers lib.)
6. IRP (2019). Global Resources Outlook 2019: Natural Resources for the Future We Want. Implications for business leaders. International Resource Panel. United Nations Environment Programme. Nairobi, Kenya. NOTE pp 17-25 and 32-39. (Canvas)
7. Meskers, C., Worrell, E., & Reuter, M. A. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of Recycling: State-of-the-art for Practitioners, Analysts, and Scientists. NOTE chapter 36 pp 559-567. (Chalmers lib)
8. Helbig, C., Schrijvers, D., & Hool, A. (2021). Selecting and prioritizing material resources by criticality assessments. One Earth, 4(3), 339-345. (Chalmers lib)
9. Acatech/Circular Economy Initiative. (2020). Circular Business Models: Overcoming Barriers, Unleashing Potentials-Executive Summary and Recommendations. NOTE Section 3.1 pp 19-22. (online)
10. Meskers, C., Worrell, E., & Reuter, M. A. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of Recycling: State-of-the-art for Practitioners, Analysts, and Scientists. NOTE chapter 1 pp 3-13. (Chalmers lib)
11. Graedel, T. E., Allwood, J., Birat, J. P., Buchert, M., Hagelüken, C., Reck, B. K., Sibley, S. F. & Sonnemann, G. (2011). What do we know about metal recycling rates?. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 15(3), 355-366. (Chalmers lib.)
12. Sundin E. and Bras B. (2005) Making Functional Sales Environmentally and Economically Beneficial through Product Remanufacturing. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 13, Issue 9, pp 913-925. (Chalmers lib.)
13. Selvefors, A., Rexfelt, O., Renström, S., & Strömberg, H. (2019). Use to use – A user perspective on product circularity. Journal of Cleaner Production, 223, 1014-1028. (Chalmers lib)
14. Meskers, C., Worrell, E., & Reuter, M. A. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of Recycling: State-of-the-art for Practitioners, Analysts, and Scientists. NOTE chapter 3 pp 27-44. (Chalmers lib)
15. Jerome, A., Helander, H., Ljunggren, M. and Janssen, M., 2022. Mapping and testing circular economy product-level indicators: a critical review. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 178, p.106080-106093. (Chalmers lib.)
16. OECD (2019). Business models for the circular economy: Opportunities and challenges for policy. OECD Publishing. NOTE chapters 2-3. (online)
17. Acatech/Circular Economy Initiative. (2020). Circular Business Models: Overcoming Barriers, Unleashing Potentials-Executive Summary and Recommendations. NOTE chapters 3-4. (online)
18. Acatech/Circular Economy Initiative. (2020). Circular Business Models: Overcoming Barriers, Unleashing Potentials-Executive Summary and Recommendations. NOTE sections 7.1-7.2 pp 59-65. (online)
19. European Commission (2020) Communication from the Commission to the European parliament, the Council and European Economic and social Committee and the Committee of the regions. A new Circular Economy Action Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe. COM/2020/98 final (Canvas)
20. Leipold, S., Petit‐Boix, A., Luo, A., Helander, H., Simoens, M., Ashton, W.S., Babbitt, C.W., Bala, A., Bening, C.R., Birkved, M. and Blomsma, F., 2023. Lessons, narratives, and research directions for a sustainable circular economy. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 27(1), NOTE Sections 1, 3, 4. (Chalmers lib.)
21. Corvellec, H., Stowell, A.F. and Johansson, N., 2022. Critiques of the circular economy. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 26(2), pp.421-432 (Chalmers lib.)