Teaching circular economy: Discussing limitations and opportunities of teaching about sustainable production

Abstract

One of the essential drivers of sustainable change for the circular economy is natural resource scarcity. The key development in the area of sustainable production and consumption that seeks to limit or even, ideally, stop continuous extraction of natural resources, is the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) framework. The C2C framework is based on the book Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough first published in 2002. The circular economy also poses threats to conventional business and production as in its ideal form, circular production should not mean churning out even more supposedly 'circular', 'sustainable', or 'green' products but fully re-using materials. The products need to be made not only to last but to have, at least ideally, all reusable parts. This is no easy task. Overt optimism of some of the circular economy promoters, such as The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, needs to be tempered with realism and realization for the potential for greenwashing. Even more problematically, the concept of the circular economy is intended to align sustainability with economic growth – just as an equally problematic concept of sustainable development (and the associated education for sustainable development or ESD) does. While the European Union states that the circular economy will "foster sustainable economic growth", critical scholars have noted that without radical degrowth in the economy (and population) circular economy is nothing but a new word for greenwashing. This paper will discuss how to teach students to think critically and pragmatically about the challenges and opportunities of the circular economy.