Circular Economy

This programme offers a comprehensive look at the circular economy, combining perspectives and practical tools to help you understand how circularity works in various contexts.

The circular economy is a systemic model that addresses global sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and the overconsumption of natural resources. It also serves as a strategic framework for minimising waste and emissions by closing and narrowing material and energy loops, thereby maintaining products, materials, and resources at their highest utility and value for as long as possible. 

Closely aligned with sustainability science, the curriculum also introduces key concepts for advancing societal change toward strong sustainability, such as planetary boundaries, just transitions, sufficiency, and ecological economics.

The programme is well-suited for people with a full-time job. Most of the content is available online, and in-person instruction is offered during intensive periods. However, participation in the programme requires occasional in-person attendance at the Lahti campus.

You will learn to

• design innovative solutions that replace goods with services, extend product life cycles, and enable sharing-based business models;
• evaluate environmental and social impacts using tools such as life cycle assessment;
• apply systems thinking and related theories to understand the dynamics of societal changes on different scales;
• identify systemic barriers and leverage points for transformative change;
• develop and critically assess sustainable business models that generate long-term value within planetary boundaries.