Sustainability and Circularity in Process Industries
Explore sustainability foundations, measurement, practical improvement actions, circular economy strategies, policy enablers and implementation pathways through six interactive modules.
Sustainability: What and Why
This module introduces sustainability in industrial and organisational contexts and explains why it matters for business strategy, public policy, and everyday operational decisions. Learners will explore the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability, understand the major global and EU drivers shaping industrial change, and examine how resource use, emissions, and waste affect process industries. The module concludes with a practical scenario that helps learners connect sustainability concepts to real decisions in SMEs and industrial settings.
Measuring Sustainability: LCA, Footprints, and Reporting
This module introduces the main ways sustainability performance is measured and communicated in industrial and organisational contexts. It explains why measurement supports better decisions, introduces life cycle thinking, presents the basics of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and situates LCA alongside footprints, indicators, and reporting approaches. Learners will understand the strengths and limitations of different methods and apply this understanding in a practical scenario relevant to SMEs, policy officers, and technical professionals.
Real-World Sustainable Practices
This module focuses on practical sustainability actions that organisations can implement across operations, supply chains, and product systems. It moves from concepts and measurement toward applied improvement, showing how resource efficiency, waste prevention, cleaner production, sourcing decisions, process optimisation, and traceability can support more sustainable performance. Learners will examine how organisations translate sustainability goals into operational practice and apply these ideas in a realistic industrial scenario.
Circularity Basics: R-Strategies and Circular Thinking
This module introduces the core principles of the circular economy and explains the main strategies used to retain value in products, materials, and resources. It builds a clear bridge from general sustainability to circularity, helping learners understand how circular thinking differs from linear models of production and consumption. The module covers circular economy principles, the R-strategies, product life extension, material loops, eco-design, and circularity in process industries, while also highlighting trade-offs and the need for evidence-based evaluation.
EU Enablers: ESPR and the Digital Product Passport
This module explains how EU policy and digital tools are enabling more sustainable and circular production systems. It introduces the policy-to-practice connection between the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), and the Digital Product Passport (DPP), and shows how product data, traceability, and sustainability information can support compliance and better decision-making across value chains.
Barriers and Enablers for Circularity
This module concludes the course by examining what helps or prevents circularity from being adopted in real organisations and value chains. It focuses on the technical, economic, organisational, regulatory, and data-related factors that influence implementation, and helps learners think strategically about how organisations can move from interest in circularity to practical action. The module also highlights the role of policy, technology, collaboration, skills, business models, traceability, and evidence-based evaluation in enabling circular transition.