Summer School on Circular Economy for Sustainable Manufacturing: A Case Study and Lessons Learned

Abstract

The Circular Economy Action Plan is the main building block of the European Green Deal, Europe's new agenda for sustainable growth. Businesses need new technologies, new methods and new industrial organization either to create new businesses or to transform their products, processes and business models. They also need new talents to innovate, create businesses and new jobs, and transform society into a more sustainable one. Circular economy has grown significantly in recent years as a topic taught in engineering curricula. The purpose of this paper is to present the design, implementation and evaluation of a summer school program dedicated to the development, transformation and implementation of circular economy systems and new business models in manufacturing. The program was designed in collaboration with three university partners during a European project and relied on contributions from industrial companies, including start-ups and innovative companies. At the end, some lessons are drawn in order to show the main added value based on the evaluation of this summer school and to identify recommendations for the design and implementation of similar summer schools.