Academic institutions have a key role to play in providing leadership and support for the built environment sector through educational provision and applied research. This section provides resources for educators who wish to upskill and embed circular economy principles across the curriculum.
The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) ‘Routes to Circularity’ 2022 webinar series covered the following topics: ‘Biological Materials and Circular Products’ ‘Sheep Wool Insulation’ ‘Material Reuse: Marketplace and Construction Waste’ ‘Material Passports and Zero Waste Sites’ ‘Circular Building Toolkit’ ‘Material Reuse in Ireland and Pre-Demolition Audits’ All videos can be found on the IGBC Vimeo
Zero Waste Scotland have produced a suite of circular economy bitesize resources on waste, energy, recycling, and litter. https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/content/circular-economy-bitesize-resources
SITRA in Finland collaborated with other 50 schools, universities, educational organisations, and companies to develop a suite of resources for circular economy teaching for all levels of education. https://www.sitra.fi/en/projects/circular-economy-teaching-levels-education/
The Circular Classroom is an interactive educational toolkit for educators and students who wish to integrate circular thinking into the classroom.
The Circulab Academy offers a free 3-hour ‘Teach the Circular Economy’ course.
The BLOOM School Box is a collection of bioeconomy related teaching resources, which educators can use to introduce the concept of bioeconomy in their classrooms as a trigger to raise student interest in science subjects and their awareness of important societal challenges.
The Ellen McArthur Foundation provides a suite of learning and educational resources including workshop activities, circular design guide videos, lesson plans etc. https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/resources/education-and-learning/teaching-resources
The Circular Built Environment Hub at TU Delft have developed a suite of educational resources for circularity through the Circular Impulse Initiative https://www.tudelft.nl/bk/onderzoek/onderzoeksthemas/circular-built-environment/educational-resources-for-circularity The ‘Circularity for Educators’ module contains educational resources in the form of videos, images, diagrams, and additional related resources. https://www.tudelft.nl/bk/onderzoek/onderzoeksthemas/circular-built-environment/educational-resources-for-circularity/circularity-for-educators The ‘Educators for Circularity’ platform provides opportunities to connect with colleagues to
The Rediscovery Centre provides a variety of exciting and interactive workshops that are based on hands-on enquiry and experiential learning. Our programme of education workshops ranges from environmental subjects such as waste, energy, global citizenship, and biodiversity to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). https://www.rediscoverycentre.ie/education/
Digital Deconstruction (DDC) is an innovated Interreg Northwest Europe project, which aims to develop an innovative digital decision support system, integrating various digital tools (3D scanning, Building Information Modelling, a digital materials and buildings database, blockchain technology) to define the most sustainable and economical deconstruction and reuse strategy for building. https://www.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/digital-deconstruction/#tab-1
The Circular EcoBIM project aims to create a set of BIM based tools to enable a circular construction model. The three tools that are proposed will help architects and building managers to improve the environmental performance and increase the amount of reused, recovered and recycled construction materials.
WOOL2LOOP provides new smart demolition and sorting technologies combined with a novel analysis method for mineral wool waste that enables separating the material based on its suitability for alkali-activation. Geopolymer technology makes it possible to use mineral wool waste as a valuable resource for new ceramic or concrete-type products as pioneered by University of Oulu,
