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.
LM
Hard work and some tough reading material, not an easy option to pass, but a good introduction to metals sustainability and recycling.
GD
I feel like the course is a bit complex for beginner level - it could be simplified.
IM
As a Professor of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, I find this course very useful in presenting new ideas for sustainable systems of metals production and use. The lecturers are very good.
ES
Loved the Dutch approach to design and sustainability!
AP
Great content, great professor. Worth the effort. Looking forward to learning more and be more engaged about the metals challenge and the circular economy
CP
Comprehensive course covering a lot of topics related to circular economies and specifics related to metals and mining.
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The course is very well presented and extremely interesting for a wide range of people regardless of their profession. I personally have learned a lot and would (and did) recommend the course to everyone interested in the metals sector.
Excellent introduction to metals from the perspective of circular economy and a close connection to the sustainable development goals. Very pedagogical with interesting recommended reads.
Offers a new view, realistic, about circular economy and potencial ways to effectively develop sustainable pathways,
This course is really hard to pass especially for the evaluation on ONLY PEER-REVIEW assignment. My challenges are there is nobody will give a grade and it is too take a long time after we submitted. I think your course can modify the methods of assessment, because waiting for a long time to be graded it is very boring.
Thank you
I highly recommend this course to anyone who is looking to become a Sustainability expert and wants to be an agent of change in his company, society and planet.
Excelent course, the materials go a bit more indepth then some of the other circular courses. There is also a bounty of extra learning materials provided.
Hard work and some tough reading material, not an easy option to pass, but a good introduction to metals sustainability and recycling.
Comprehensive course covering a lot of topics related to circular economies and specifics related to metals and mining.
Loved the Dutch approach to design and sustainability!
A very good introductory course on the circular economy of metals for students a researchers. With ever-increasing job opportunities that relate to this field, it is a great opportunity to take the course and expand the chances of employment and career development. The course can help researchers get lots of ideas for research proposal writing on the sustainable development of materials, an area that is of interest to many funding agencies. It provides a general overview of how a circular economy of metals can result in sustainable development, the knowledge all of us need.
This course explored and elaborated my understanding of circular economy in the context of metals. supply and demand flow. The course content has a multidisciplinary approach; it can be understood both from a scientific, social and economic perspective. The course is relevant and up-to-date exploring a dynamics of related themes and concepts such as the sustainable development goals, climate change, environmental impact, demand and supply, material criticality. The facilitators are also experienced and apt for the course being members of the International Resource Panel.
Many thanks to all the organisers of this MOOC - it was a very interesting path through the metals' challenge, which is closely related to the climate change and sustainable development. This course provides a deep insight to the problem, covering technical, economic and social sides of the question.
Excellent course, it gives you insights on the challenges and way forward on the metal industry. Lectures are well organized and the lecturers are very knowledgable. All reading materials complement all the learning experience, which includes peer review, quizzes, and amazing videos. Well done!
I identified a discrepancy in the lecture content regarding the amount mentioned by the instructor. In the fifth week, the lecture of Circular Economy for Aluminium (Part 2) for the video At minute 4:12 it was mentioned that the instructor said 135 million was written 150 million.
Un curso excelente que deja claros los retos que enfrenta el ser humano si desea seguir teniendo una vida confortable a largo plazo, específicamente en lo que concierne a los metales, que son, como cualquier otro recurso, finitos.
As a Professor of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, I find this course very useful in presenting new ideas for sustainable systems of metals production and use. The lecturers are very good.
Excellent course with great professors, well structured. I learned a lot of new knowledge around metals circularité, to be applied as well as in my personal life as professionally!
Great content, great professor. Worth the effort. Looking forward to learning more and be more engaged about the metals challenge and the circular economy
me gusto mucho, apmlia el conocimiento y nos da a conocer la realiad de la importancia de este, cambia mucho a manera de ver las cosas y pensar
I love the course as it gives a deep knowledge of the metals challenge that we currently face and how to address the criticality of metals