Course summary

An interdisciplinary degree with the Edinburgh Futures Institute Engaging with a ‘circular economy’ means moving away from a wasteful, linear economic model where resources are extracted, manufactured, used, and discarded. A circular economy strives to design out waste, with products and materials kept in use for as long as possible at a high value. Beyond the need for design and system innovations, a circular economy also means investigating how to change the way we consume and use goods and services, both locally and globally. On this interdisciplinary programme, you will have the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge of circular economy in order to support communities, businesses, and policymakers to create a more sustainable and equitable future. The circular economy is an opportunity for inventive thinking, researching, and acting on urgent global challenges such as the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and unequitable resource use. The core courses will focus on both practical and theoretical approaches to:

• the fundamentals of a circular economy

• designing for a circular economy

• the circular economy from a business perspective

• the evolving field of circular economy

• responsiveness to the climate and environmental crisis

• core data skills

• data ethics

• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope using perspectives from across disciplines

• creative and analytic approaches to knowledge