Circular Entrepreneurship: Creating Sustainable Businesses

Circular Entrepreneurship: Creating Sustainable Businesses, offered by DelftX through edX and TU Delft Learning for Life, is an online course designed to help learners create a new circular business or transform an existing one by embedding circular practices into strategy and operations. The course is intended for learners who want to move beyond business as usual and build organizations that place sustainability and circularity at the core of how they create value. It covers both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, making it relevant for those launching new ventures as well as those driving change within existing organizations.

Core Content

The curriculum guides learners step by step through the process of building a circular and sustainable organization. It covers circular business planning, design thinking for strategy development, circular market identification, use of the circular business model canvas, financial management, and sustainability-oriented decision-making. TU Delft’s course page presents the course as a practical pathway for learners who want to connect circular economy principles with real business creation and transformation, rather than treating circularity as a separate theory topic.

Key Skills

Participants will develop the ability to understand circular entrepreneurship, identify opportunities for circular business creation, and apply structured tools to build more sustainable organizations. The course helps learners strengthen skills in business planning, design thinking, circular strategy, market identification, business model development, and financial decision-making. It also supports a more practical understanding of how circularity can be embedded into both new ventures and existing organizations in a way that creates long-term value.

Target Learners

This course is designed for learners from diverse backgrounds, including engineering, social sciences, design, and business. It is open to students and professionals who have an entrepreneurial mindset and a strong interest in sustainability. The course is particularly relevant for practical thinkers and problem-solvers who want to create a circular business, support a sustainable transition, or contribute to circular innovation within an organization.

Learning Format

Hosted on edX and TU Delft Learning for Life, the course is delivered in a flexible online format designed for independent learners interested in circular business creation and transformation. The learning experience is built around practical, step-by-step guidance on circular business planning, design thinking, market identification, finance, and sustainability-focused decision-making, allowing participants to progress at their own pace while developing applied understanding. Its online structure makes it suitable for both students and professionals looking to build circular entrepreneurship skills alongside other commitments.

Additional Benefits

The course offers practical value for learners who want to turn circular economy ideas into actionable business strategies. Its focus on both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship makes it useful for a wider range of learners than a startup-only course, while its emphasis on circular markets, business models, and implementation tools gives it strong applied relevance. As part of TU Delft’s broader circular economy learning ecosystem, it also provides a useful entry point into more advanced circular business and design topics.

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