Sus­tain­able Sup­ply Chains and Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy

Course content

As we reach planetary boundaries, it is becoming increasingly clear that current supply chain operations are one of the causes of growing environmental challenges, such as the climate crisis, and societal problems, such as the divide between the global North and the global South. Sustainable supply chains have been introduced as an approach to try to mitigate or even avoid these challenges, for example by using processes that do not harm the environment or pose a health risk to employees.

However, even these efforts have often proven insufficient to address environmental and social challenges because they follow a linear production and consumption logic based on “doing less harm”. The adoption of circular supply chains has the potential to offer a paradigm shift by changing our understanding of value creation, business models and production processes. In the latter, circular supply chains treat one party’s waste as another party’s resource. In addition, the development of circular economy business models, such as product-service systems or collaborative consumption, aims to initiate a transition to more reflective consumer behavior and a changing understanding of value and value creation. This creates new challenges, but more importantly, new opportunities that will profoundly shape the business environment and that successful companies will need to embrace.

The Sustainable Supply Chains and Circular Economy course provides students with an overview of current developments in sustainability, sustainable supply chain management and circular economy. Opportunities arising from closing the loop of supply chains will be discussed. Among other things, students will gain in-depth knowledge of relevant business models, different stakeholders in a circular economy, and tools that facilitate the implementation of sustainability and circularity. Students will be able to assess their own work environment and identify potential opportunities in adopting a sustainable and circular business approach.