Sustainable Engineering Design

Offered By: Delft University of Technology via edX

Course Description

Overview

This 2-course program enables industrial design engineers to take their first steps in designing for a circular economy.

In the first course, you will explore the basic concepts of the circular economy and their implementation from various perspectives: how businesses can create value by reusing and recycling products; how designers can come up with amazingly clever solutions; and how to apply systems thinking to the transition to the circular economy.

The second course is more practical. You will learn more about strategies in circular product design (including reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling) and how to integrate lifecycle design both into your daily work and your organization’s vision. You will also receive tips and tricks to design accordingly and learn how to make better decision for current and future products designs.

If you are looking for ways to upskill yourself and become a designer who not only creates great designs but contributes to the environment through sustainable engineering design – this is the program for you!

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Circular Economy: An Introduction

Ready to make a difference? Learn how to contribute to a sustainable economic system by implementing novel business and design approaches!

Course 2: Engineering Design for a Circular Economy

Discover and develop sustainable design and engineering methods to improve the reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling of products for a circular economy.

Courses

4 reviews
7 weeks, 3-6 hours a week, 3-6 hours a week
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Our global society is not sustainable. We all know about the challenges we’re facing: waste, climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity. At the same time, we want to sustain our economies and offer opportunities for a growing world population. This course is about providing solutions we really believe in: a Circular Economy.

In this course we explore the Circular Economy: how businesses can create value by reusing and recycling products, how designers can come up with amazingly clever solutions, and how you can contribute to make the Circular Economy happen.

You will learn to re-think the economic system you’re experiencing every day, and act upon it. Be a leader in this major paradigm shift! Shape a more circular future together with our global network.

The course is led by TU Delft and co-created with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability.
0 reviews
6 weeks, 3-4 hours a week, 3-4 hours a week
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Products and equipment all around us are made of materials: look around you and you will see phones, computers, cars, and buildings. We face challenges in securing the supply of materials and the impact this has on the planet. Innovative product design can help us find solutions to these challenges. This course will explore new ways of designing products.

The design of products is an important aspect of a circular economy. The circular economy approach addresses material supply challenges by keeping materials in use much longer and eventually returning materials for new use. The principle is that waste must be minimized. Products will be designed to last longer. They will be easier to Reuse, Repair, and Remanufacture. The product will eventually be broken down and Recycled. This is Design for R and is the focus of this course.

Experts from leading European universities and research organizations will explain the latest strategies in product design. Current design approaches lead to waste, loss of value and loss of resources. You will learn about the innovative ways in which companies are creating value, whilst securing their supply chains, by integrating Design for R.

This course is suitable for all learners who have an interest in product design, innovative engineering, new business activity, entrepreneurship, sustainability, circular economy and everyone who thinks that the current way we do things today needs a radical rethink.

Taught by

Erwin van der Laan, Ester van der Voet, Ken Webster, Conny Bakker, David Peck, Anna-Karin Jönbrink, Armin Lohrengel, Max Prumbohm and Juan Azcarate-Aguerre