Climate change, environmental pollution, resource scarcity are the contemporary challenges that call for urgent transition towards circular economy and sustainable development. Industrial Eco-Efficiency (IEE) drives this transition through decoupling economic growth from environmental impact and resource consumption. This course is designed to provide students with concepts and instruments necessary for understanding and analysing industrial practices in terms of their environmental performance. The emphasis is given to the systemic perspective in examination of IEE approaches at company and industrial system levels.

The course fits into the overall program curriculum pursuing some of the defined general learning goals. In particular, the course contributes to the development of the following capabilities:

• Understand context, functions, processes in a business and industrial environment and the impact of those factors on business performance.
• Identify trends, technologies and key methodologies related to industrial eco-efficiency.
• Design solutions applying a scientific and engineering approach (Analysis, Learning, Reasoning, and Modelling capability deriving from a solid and rigorous multidisciplinary background) to face problems and opportunities in a business and industrial environment.

A student that has successfully attended the course is expected to:

• Understand the role of industrial eco-efficiency in enabling the transition towards sustainable development and circular economy
• Know and explain eco-efficiency approaches and their limitations at company and industrial system levels
• Identify and apply appropriate instruments for analyzing environmental impact of industrial operations
• Critically analyse industrial practices and identify opportunities for reducing negative environmental impact

• Basics of industrial eco-efficiency: resource scarcity, material efficiency, industrial ecology, sustainable development, circular economy
• Eco-efficiency at the company level: green product design, sustainable manufacturing, product/material end-of-life management: reuse, remanufacturing, recycling
• Eco-efficiency at the industrial system level: green supply chain management, reverse and closed-loop supply chain management, industrial symbiosis
• Eco-efficiency analysis instruments: environmental management system, material flow analysis, life cycle assessment, environmental key performance indicators.

The course is organised in lectures (traditional and flipped classroom formats), discussion of case studies, in-class exercises, “In The Loop” gaming session, and project work.

This course does not require any specific prior knowledge of the topic.

The evaluation of the course is based on the implementation of a group project and an oral exam.
Group project: examination of industrial practices through application of the course materials (concepts, frameworks, analytical methods).
Oral exam: demonstration of knowledge of the course materials through discussion of concepts and instruments, highlighting their interconnections and limitations.

Composition of the final grade: 40% group project, 60% oral exam.