Certificate
Upon completion of the course participants will receive a completion certificate
Introduction to the Circular Economy and Sustainable Lifestyle Courses
The EU SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Advocacy Component (RPAC), implemented by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), is designed to strengthen the dialogue at regional, sub-regional and
national policies on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), contributing to green growth and
reduction of poverty in Asian countries.
Designed and implemented in partnership with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) this course includes
knowledge and case studies on SCP and Circular Economy (CE), consolidated from the wide range of experts
from Asia and Europe that have been involved in activities, workshops, policy dialogues and fora organised
by RPAC throughout the SWITCH-Asia programme.
Our definition of Sustainable Consumption and Productionis “doing more and better with less”
(UNEP). It is also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource
efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
A circular economy entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite
resources and is based on three principles: design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials at
their highest value and in use, and regenerate natural systems. Circular economy is therefore
recognised as a key element to promote SCP.
Main objectives of this course are to shift mindsets of young professionals to mainstream CE and SCP into
their policies, decisions and actions, as well as enhancing their understanding and knowledge of the
issues at stake and expanding networks of practitioners in Asia.
Participants will benefit from the direct expertise of those who design policy for achieving resource
efficiency and its subsequent development, climate and environmental conservation. Practical solutions are
also showcased to enhance behaviour changes for a transition towards SCP, particularly during COVID-19.
Take Course
Why Take This Course
Who is this programme for?
Mid-level policymakers & practitioners from private sector, academia & advocacy groups, enthusiasts
Platform Assessment & Duration
Online and selfpaced modules of 30 minutes each through AIT Share elearning platform
Assessment
Built-in self-assessments within each module to improve selflearning
Themes
Course Themes
Eco-design
Product as a Service
Green Supply Chain
Sharing Platforms
Green Recycling & Recovery
Extended Product Life & Product Use
Courses
Free Available Courses
Circular Economy
NEW | 2022
Regional Policy Dialogue on Mobilizing Finance for SCP and SDG12
Financing for SCP needs to be bolstered through enablers or levers, some of which are effective policy and regulatory framework, governance, technological innovations, reporting and monitoring mechanisms, capacity building and outreach, market efficiencies, and innovations in business models. RPAC in partnership with the TERI School of Advanced Studies (SAS) and Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) organized a regional policy dialogue based on the concept of mobilizing finance for SDG-12. The dialogue discussed the imperatives of financing SCP and SDG-12, highlighted the key trends, get first-hand insights from financing organizations and academic institutes, emphasize the key barriers to garner private investments into the sector, and focused on the role of enablers to address the challenges.
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Circular Economy
NEW | 2022
Unlock the Challenges of The Eco-Design Implementation for SMEs
In recent decades, Asia has experienced remarkable growth and development. Asia is progressively achieving the role of global growth and is rapidly establishing itself as a worldwide industrial and information technology hub. As the sub-region, today is a fast growing base for the manufacture of various kinds of products, there is a clear need to enhance the capacities of SMEs in South and Southeast Asia for environmentally friendly production by applying an eco-design approach. Consequently, to encourage the SMEs in making the transition towards green and sustainable production, different supporting measures under the policy and economic perspectives are needed to unlock the limitation and enhance this application of eco design for SMEs.
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Sustainable Lifestyles
NEW | 2022
Regional Dialogue: Promoting Sustainable Food Consumption and the Shift to Healthy Diets in Asia through Farm to Fork Concept
More than 100 countries will transform their national food systems to drive progress against the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Sustainable food systems and healthy nontoxic foods are also linked to the human rights for the enjoyment of a safe environment. In Asia, the increasing food consumption poses an immense challenge for the global food system. The culture of shifting to more sustainable food consumption patterns would greatly contribute to food systems transition in the context of Asia. This online course is designed based on the concept of Farm-to-Fork to promote sustainable food consumption and lifestyles.
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Sustainable Lifestyles
2021
A Sub-Regional Dialogue: Promoting Sustainable Food Consumption in Southeast and Northeast Asia through Farm-to-Fork Concept
More than 100 countries will transform their national food systems to drive progress against the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Sustainable food systems and healthy nontoxic foods are also linked to the human rights for the enjoyment of a safe environment. In Asia, the increasing food consumption poses an immense challenge for the global food system. The culture of shifting to more sustainable food consumption patterns would greatly contribute to food systems transition in the context of Asia. This online course is designed based on the concept of Farm-to-Fork to promote sustainable food consumption and lifestyles.
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Circular Economy
2021
Regional Dialogue to promote the uptake of Eco-design approaches to green the SMEs in Asia
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Asia play an important role in driving the economy, employment, and innovation, which makes them one of the core engines of transition to green growth. Eco-design is a proactive approach in designing products and services that use minimum resources and energy and have minimum negative environmental and social impacts throughout their life cycles while meeting the users’ needs of functionality and quality. This course will provide exchange of knowledge and good practices in the region that will deep dive on implementation challenges and benefits of adopting/instilling eco-design thinking for the key sectors in Asia. The course will also tackle different perspectives on enabling factors/solutions that influence/support SMEs to incorporate eco-design approaches in their businesses.
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Circular Economy
2020
Regional Dialogue on Circular Cities
Rapid urbanization, climate change, waste pollutions are some of the challenges cities all over the world are facing. Cities need to be smart and sustainable in order to thrive in the 21st century, even pre- and post-pandemic. This course will showcase new models for circular economy creating sustainable cities for the benefit of the society. Case studies will also be presented on how some cities in Mongolia, Malaysia, and Finland tackled the issues and they are now considered the best examples of circular cities.
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Circular Economy
2020
Innovations and Startups for Circular Economy
Innovation starts with an idea of how you can solve one problem and see if your solution makes sense. Startup is when you make that idea into a product or service and you go to your target market and sell it. Our world is facing unprecedented challenges that need to be addressed and to find solutions. Circular Economy is considered to be the best alternative to the current linear economy that we have been practicing. It is important to embed the fundamental ideas behind CE to the current and future innovators and startups. This course will provide case studies of how to start a ‘green’ startup from scratch and the benefits it will bring to the society as a whole.
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Circular Economy
2020
Regional Dialogue on Plastic Waste Management
Plastic, a very useful material has been getting a bad rap since we see plastic wastes everywhere like in ocean, along the road, inside the belly of a whale. Plastic pollution is a major concern due to its effects on the environment, animals, and humans, for instance, marine plastics and food contamination. This course will provide information on the plastic life-cycle and how to tackle the problems at each stage. Some case studies and business models will be presented to manage plastic waste using circular economy as a tool.
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Circular Economy
2020
Contextualizing the Circular Economy for Action
Circular Economy is beyond an academic concept. The world needs to move towards a circular economy if we want to preserve our natural resources and stop polluting our environment. In this course, we will explore the dimensions of a circular economy to deeply understand the concept, as well as go through some case studies to learn how to overcome the challenges we face using circular economy as the base tool.
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Sustainable Lifestyles
2020
Regional Dialogue Focusing on Food
Food is one of the most important links for achieving Sustainable Lifestyle. How can food let you have a sustainable lifestyle? Where does our food come from, how is it processed? How many single-use plastics are used for the meal and is it hygienic? This course will explain what is happening in our food chain and how it is going to be changed. We will also learn how to practice sustainable lifestyle by what and how we eat.
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Sustainable Lifestyles
2020
Regional Dialogue Focusing on Tourism
Tourism is one of the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic. As we now live in the new normal, tourism sector needs to build back better to ensure that travel industry integrates social and environmental efforts to be sustainable and thrive even when a new pandemic hit the planet. This course will focus on how Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) can be an effective tool to plan for the tourism sector.
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Sustainable Lifestyles
2020
Regional Dialogue Focusing on Packaging
Packaging is another important topic that is both related to plastic and food. We use packaging all the time, be it the food container that we use for takeout or the whether we buy soda can or water in a glass bottle, even our shampoo has packaging. This course will take us through the different types of packaging and why we use certain types over the others. We will also learn how we can integrate sustainability in the packaging industry.
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