Applied Circular Economics

This course equips students with the concepts, tools, and skills needed to participate in the transition to a circular economy across diverse sectors and domains. A circular economy aims to decouple economic value creation from the extraction of finite resources and the generation of waste, toxicity, and pollution, while restoring natural capital. In contrast to today's dominant take-make-waste linear model—which destroys value, depletes stocks, and degrades living systems—the circular economy offers the potential for stronger economic and ecological performance. The transition to a circular economy is driven by the ecological and physical limits of our planet and by growing resource scarcity, which contributes to geopolitical instability and fragile supply chains. Without accelerating this transition, meeting the Paris Agreement targets will be out of reach. At the same time, circularity opens significant opportunities; it is projected to support global economic growth, create an estimated 95 million new jobs worldwide, and strengthen economic resilience. The European Union, China, and many other economies have adopted ambitious circular economy strategies; in the United States, a majority of chief executives report plans to move toward circular models. This course challenges not only what students think about sustainability, but how they think. Students learn to reason in terms of systems and material flows and to adopt a mindset of radical collaboration. We explore opportunities ranging from biomass management to industrial symbiosis; examine circularity in sectors such as food, electronics, and plastics; and consider the role of related fields including biomimicry and permaculture. We also analyze innovative business models—such as servitization and dematerialization—in which products are redesigned to enable repair, upgrading, refurbishment, remanufacture, and cradle-to-cradle life cycles.