Teaching Circular Economy: Overcoming the Challenge of Green-washing

Abstract

This chapter will introduce circular economy (CE) and cradle-to-cradle (C2C) models of sustainable production. It will reflect on the key blockages to a meaningful sustainable production and how these could be overcome, particu-larly in the context of business education. The case study of the course for bachelor's students within International Business and Management Studies (IBMS) and at the University College in the Netherlands will be discussed. These case studies will illustrate the opportunities as well as potential pitfalls of the closed-loop production models. The results of case studies' analysis show that there was a mismatch between expectations of the sponsor companies and those of students on the one hand and a mismatch between theory and practice on the other hand. Helpful directions for future research and teaching practice are outlined.