• 1) Map the different concepts of circularity and summarize the different strands and schools of thought of circular economy
• 2) Exemplify how concepts of circularity relate and translate into sustainability strategies and vice versa
• 3) Explain how impacts of circular initiatives are measured and assessed across scales
• 4) Evaluate the risks and rewards of partnerships for circular strategies

An Introduction to Circular Economy

Recycling seems easy to understand. Things are not thrown away, but reused in various ways to reduce our resource use and carbon footprint. Yet, recently news reported that a global brand opted to incinerate “lost love garments" collected for recycling, indicating that costs are high and margins low in the circular economy. However, for decision makers in our current global economic, political and business environments, achieving and delivering on circularity is a top priority. What drives this top priority is the imperative to shift from our unsustainablelinear economy, where things are produced from virgin materials and then thrown away, to a sustainablecirculareconomy. But what is the circular economy? How does it work and how sustainable is it? The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to these questions through a number of instructive teaching cases. 

You will learn the basic principles of the circular economy (the 3Rs of Reuse/Reduce/Recycle) and about the markets, strategies and governance arrangements, which enable their operation. The course is based on a number of iconic and less well-known cases from Pandora Brilliance to a maritime cluster in Reykjavik (Sjávarklasans) and from Copenhagen Cartel to BMW’s Circular Concept Car. The course aims to develop a broader holistic understanding of circularity across different industries and at the same time equip you with the specific tools to assess and measure circularity, design and craft circular strategies for various organizations and/or to provide you with entrepreneurial knowledge of circular business models to launch your own circular start-up.

Ordinary 6 weeks course

Preliminary assignment: The Nordic-9 pre-course is foundational for the summer university and identical for all bachelor courses. Students will receive an invitation with all details by the end of May. The assignment has two parts. 1.) online lectures and tutorials that student can access at their own time and 2.) one synchronous workshop which will be offered both online and in-person at several dates and times before the official start of the summer university courses. Sign-up is first come first serve. All students are expected to complete this assignment before classes begin.

We reserve the right to cancel the course if we do not get enough applications. This will be communicated on  https://www.cbs.dk/uddannelse/international-summer-university-programme-isup/courses-and-exams in start March.

Preliminary literature:

1. Roberta De Angelis (2018) Business Models in the Circular Economy: Concepts, Examples and Theory. Palgrave.
2. Mika Sillanpää & Chaker Ncibi (2019) The Circular Economy: Case Studies about the Transition from the Linear Economy. Academic Press, London.
3. Catherine Weetman (2020) A Circular Economy Handbook for Business and Supply Chains
4. Terry Tudor & Cleber Dutra (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Waste, Resources and the Circular Economy. Routledge, London.
5. Brandao, Lazarevic & Finnverden (2020) Handbook of the Circular Economy. Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham, UK.
6. E. Worrell and Reuter Waltham editors (2014) Handbook of Recycling: State-of-the-art for practitioners, analysts, and scientists. MA, USA, Elsevier. Takes a very material-centric and product-centric approach to circularity, but is nevertheless a solid reference.
7. Teaching cases drawn from Harvard Business Review and other journals