CEMS2120 Material Flow Management (4 cr)

Principles of industrial ecology and systems thinking: stocks and flows, feedback loops and behaviours of complex systems. Concepts and terminology related to the assessment of material / energy flows. Different methods used to analyse material flows and their environmental and sustainability impacts.

Connection to UN Sustainable development goals

By increasing understanding and offering tools for material flow management, this course supports specifically UN Sustainable Development Goals 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and 12 Responsible Production and Consumption, as well as Goals 3 Good Health and Well-being, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, 13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water, and 15 Life on Land. Material flow management encourages companies to adopt sustainable practices and promotes sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. Environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, significantly reducing their release to air, water and soil, minimizes their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

On successful completion of the course, the students will be able to:

• recognise that all economic activities cause environmental interventions, which turn into various environmental impacts
• identify the material and energy flows related to an organisation’s products and services
• apply life cycle approaches on evaluating and managing the environmental and sustainability impacts resulting from provisioning products and services
• explain the importance and recognize the potential weaknesses of life cycle thinking
  
• evaluate the suitability of different tools and methods to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of products and services