01 Aug

Teaching Industrial Ecology: Highlights from the ISIE Singapore 2025

(From the ISIE blog)

Teaching industrial ecology is essential for educating the next generation of sustainability leaders. At the ISIE Singapore conference, members shared new ideas and developments in teaching the methods and concepts in our field. In a series of 12 lightning talks, the audience was informed about new textbooks, games, pedagogies, and more. To help ISIE members follow up with the speakers and their projects, we provide a summary here.

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20 Dec

An Introduction to Waste Management and Circular Economy

An Introduction to Waste Management and Circular Economy

After many years of work, Julia Stegemann and I published a brand new textbook on waste management. It considers waste from a life cycle perspective and a variety of disciplinary angles. It helps students to understand the drivers of waste, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of waste generation, and best practices and technologies for waste management, recycling, energy recovery and disposal. The book is published with open access, which means the PDF can be downloaded for free, or you can buy the hardcopy at a reasonable price. Please find the book here or through any major bookstore.

23 Oct

Article on China’s circular economy in Nature Climate Change

Abandoned quarry

This analysis, by a large international author team led by Lulu Song, shows that recycling can deliver substantial emission reductions, but not enough to meet climate targets. Instead, we have to radically decarbonize production and consumption or simply consume less. Whilst the article focuses on China, the same patterns are likely to be valid in other countries and globally. See here the article. See also here for a summary reflection on the findings.

Image: Astrid Westvang.

28 Apr

Beyond the Buzzwords: Circular Economy

The Beyond the Buzzwords project explains popular terms related to sustainability. The project is run by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (CITY). I worked with the project to break down the term “circular economy”. The page is now available here.

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