Introduction to Circular Economy

David Peck serves as an Associate Professor at TU Delft's Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, where he specializes in Climate Design & Sustainability, Circular Built Environment, and Critical Materials. After transitioning from the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering in 2016, he has established himself as a pioneer in sustainable resource management and circular economy. His research portfolio spans 21st-century sustainability challenges, critical raw materials, and circular business models, while leading major EU projects including Pop-Machina, ProSUM, and CRM Innonet

Ester van der Voet obtained her MSc in Biology in 1982 from Leiden University. She began her career at the Centre of Energy Conservation, evaluating the environmental impacts of energy scenarios. Since 1984, she has worked at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University, specializing in Industrial Ecology. Her research encompasses risk assessment, life-cycle assessment, indicator development, material flow accounting, and particularly substance flow analysis, in which she earned her PhD in 1996. Currently, her research focuses on resource efficiency, the impacts of resource use, and resource scarcity. As an Associate Professor, she has initiated two MSc programs in Industrial Ecology: one in collaboration with Delft University of Technology and another as part of an international Erasmus Mundus program involving universities from Austria, Sweden, Japan, Thailand, and the USA. Additionally, she is a member of the UNEP International Resource Panel and has edited the third report of the Global Metal Flows working group.

Conny Bakker serves as Professor of Design Methodology for Sustainability and Circular Economy at TU Delft's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, where she combines research, teaching, and practical application to advance circular economy principles in product design. Her research portfolio focuses on developing innovative design methods for circular and sustainable product-service systems, particularly emphasizing products with multiple lifecycles through strategies including life-extension, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. As coordinator of several courses in Sustainable Design and Circular Product Design, she explores the crucial relationships between consumer behavior, sustainability, and design while leading the Design for the Circular Economy master class that helps professionals implement circular principles in their work. Her influence extends beyond academia through practical frameworks and methodologies that help businesses transition from linear to circular economy models, with particular attention to user-centered sustainable design that fosters lasting relationships between users and products. Through her work, she continues to shape the field of sustainable design by developing practical tools and approaches that bridge the gap between theoretical circular economy principles and their real-world implementation, while maintaining focus on both environmental impact and economic viability.

Ken Webster has established himself as a leading voice in circular economy innovation and sustainability education. From 2010 to 2018, he served as Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, where he played a crucial role in shaping circular economy thinking and implementation. Currently, he holds positions as a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter Centre for the Circular Economy and serves as a guest researcher at Linköping University in Sweden. His influential works include "The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows" and "Sense and Sustainability," which explore the connections between systems thinking, economic opportunity, and the transition to a circular economy. As an Honorary Teaching Fellow at the University of Bradford's School of Management, he contributes significantly to their MBA Enterprise, Innovation and the Circular Economy program. His expertise spans systems thinking, design, and the effective framing of the circular economy narrative, with particular focus on understanding the relationships between open and closed circular economy loops and the interaction between large and small-scale economic systems.

Erwin van der Laan served as Associate Professor of Logistics and Operations Management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where he made significant contributions to closed loop supply chain management research and education. His work focused on value creation through optimizing operations management processes, particularly in closed loop supply chains. As Scientific Director of the closed loop supply chain center at RSM, he led research initiatives while teaching dedicated courses in the MSc Supply Chain Management program at RSM and the MSc Industrial Ecology program jointly offered by Leiden University and TU Delft. His research impact was substantial, with over 5,500 citations to his work, establishing him as a leading authority in humanitarian logistics and supply chain optimization. His notable contributions included groundbreaking research on demand forecasting and order planning for humanitarian logistics, particularly through his work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), helping to transform their supply chain management practices. Sadly, van der Laan has since passed away, but his legacy continues through his influential work in supply chain management and logistics optimization.