A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism
- Offered byCoursera
A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism at Coursera Overview
Duration | 41 hours |
Total fee | Free |
Mode of learning | Online |
Difficulty level | Beginner |
Official Website | Explore Free Course  |
Credential | Certificate |
A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism at Coursera Highlights
- Shareable Certificate Earn a Certificate upon completion
- 100% online Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
- Flexible deadlines Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
- Beginner Level
- Approx. 41 hours to complete
- English Subtitles: English
A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism at Coursera Course details
- Metals are present everywhere around us and are one of the major materials upon which our economies are built. Economic development is deeply coupled with the use of metals. During the 20th century, the variety of metal applications in society grew rapidly. In addition to mass applications such as steel in buildings and aluminium in planes, more and more different metals are in use for innovative technologies such as the use of the speciality metal indium in LCD screens.
- A lot of metals will be needed in the future. It will not be easy to provide them. In particular in emerging economies, but also in industrialised countries, the demand for metals is increasing rapidly. Mining and production activities expand, and with that also the environmental consequences of metal production.
- In this course, we will explore those consequences and we will also explore options to move towards a more sustainable system of metals production and use. We will focus especially on the options to reach a circular economy for metals: keeping metals in use for a very long time, to avoid having to mine new ones.
- This course is based on the reports of the Global Metals Flows Group of the International Resource Panel that is part of UN Environment. An important aspect that will come back each week, are the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs. Those are ambitious goals to measure our progress towards a more sustainable world. We will use the SDGs as a touching stone for the assessment of the metals challenge, as well as the solutions we present in this course to solve that challenge.
A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism at Coursera Curriculum
Introduction
Introduction to the Course
How to succeed in your online class?
Introduction to SDGs: Dr. Janez Poto?nik
Introduction to UNEP International Resource Panel: Dr. Patrice Christmann
Meet the Instructor & the Team
Leiden University: Facts & Figures
Community Guidelines
What is your learning path?
The World Bank: The 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals
The Lazy Person's Guide to Saving the World
Introduction to Metals in Society
The Periodic Table of Elements
Insights from the Life-Cycle of Metals by Prof. dr. Thomas E. Graedel
Life-Cycles of Selected Metals (Part 1)
Life-Cycles of Selected Metals (Part 2)
Metals in the 20th Century
Summary of Metals in Society
Life-Cycle Impact of Rare Earth Elements
Suggested Readings and Materials
Test your knowledge
Metals Challenge
Introduction to Metals Challenge
Future Demand and Supply
Scarcity and Depletion
Impacts of Metal Use
Criticality of Metals
Summary of Metals Challenge
Energy for Metals
Metals for Energy
Criticality of Metals by Thomas E. Graedel (Part 1)
Criticality of Metals by Thomas E. Graedel (Part 2)
Criticality of Metals by Thomas E. Graedel (Part 3)
Future Demand and Supply (Additional Material)
Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles: International Resource Panel's Report
Criticality of Metals
Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way
Suggested Readings and Materials
Test your knowledge
Dynamics of Metal Systems
Introduction to Dynamics of Metal Systems
Stocks of Metal in Society by Thomas E. Graedel
Distinguishing between Stocks and Flows by Thomas E. Graedel
Stock Dynamics and Modelling
Summary of Dynamics of Metal Systems
Metal Stocks in Society: The International Resource Panel's Report
Urban Mines of Copper: Size and Potential for Recycling in the EU
Suggested Readings and Materials
Test your knowledge
Solutions to the Metals Challenge
Introduction to Solution to the Metals Challenge
Possible Solutions
Recycling Rates for Metals by Thomas E. Graedel
Materials Design for Recycling by Erik Offerman (Part 1)
Materials Design for Recycling by Erik Offerman (Part 2)
Product Design by Conny Bakker
Remanufacturing
Summary of Solutions to the Metals Challenge
Product-centric Recycling to Increase Recycling Rates by Markus Reuter (Part 1)
Product-centric Recycling to Increase Recycling Rates by Markus Reuter (Part 2)
Elements, materials, products, elements. Animation by Ruben Huele
Recycling Rates of Metals: The International Resource Panel's Report
Metal Recycling: The International Resource Panel's Report
Suggested Readings and Materials
Test your knowledge
Circular Economy as an Overarching Solution
Introduction to Circular Economy as an Overarching Solution
The Circular Economy
Climbing the Materials Ladder
Circular Economy for Aluminium (Part 1)
Circular Economy for Aluminium (Part 2)
Summary of Circular Economy as an Overarching Solution
Product Design in a Circular Economy Development of a Typology of Key Concepts and Terms
Suggested Readings and Materials
From Linear to Circular Economy: PSS conducting the transition
Opportunities for a circular economy
Test your knowledge
Look into the Future
Introduction to Look into the Future
Scenarios for Resource Use
Scenarios of Metal Demand and Supply and Related Environmental Impacts
The Metals Challenge and the Sustainable Development Goals
Summary of Look into the Future
Scenarios for Resource Use (Additional Material)
People and the Earth
Suggested Readings and Materials
Test your knowledge
Final Exam
Other courses offered by Coursera
Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?
Energy and EnvironmentEnvironmentSustainable livingA Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism