Walking the Talk on Education for Sustainable Development: The Value of Circular Economy Education in the Age of Complexity

Abstract In the wake of contemporary societal grand challenges, the circular economy has emerged as a plausible vision towards a more responsible, resilient and prosperous future. Embraced by several national and supranational policies and espoused by incumbents and innovators in the business context, circular economy thinking has also made inroads in the academic literature. Scholars from across disciplinary fields have contributed to a lively and vibrant research community. However, while education is amongst the systemic conditions enabling the transition towards the circular economy and higher education plays a pivotal role as a global stakeholder, the burgeoning circular economy literature has remained almost silent on how to integrate circular economy into higher education, on its benefits and implications. Based on a course experience in higher education, this article proposes a pedagogical approach for introducing the next generation of business leaders to circular economy thinking and its relevance for flourishing within planetary boundaries. The benefits of this proposal are twofold. From an operational viewpoint, drawing on the i5 Principles for Responsible Management Education Playbook, an open access resource specifically designed for transforming business education and developing more responsible leaders, this article enriches the emerging literature at the intersection between education, the circular economy and the socio-ecological approach to management education and scholarship. From a conceptual viewpoint, it shows that this approach to circular economy teaching is in line with recent calls from higher education scholarship to promote an ecological and imaginative vision of higher education.