The workshop provides a practice-oriented introduction to sustainable business model development. Using patterns of digital platform models, participants explore what innovation means and how ideas become viable, market-ready offerings. With methods such as the SPDS – Smart Platform Design Sprint and SPEC – Smart Platform Experiment Cycle, participants identify and apply platform business model patterns. The workshop combines theory and practice and offers a structured entry into sustainable digital platform business model innovation.
Learning Objectives

• Understand key elements of sustainable digital platform business models like FLIX Bus
• Define innovation and pathways to market readiness
• Apply SPDS – Smart Platform Design Sprint and SPEC – Smart Platform Experiment Cycle methods

The rising CO2 concentration caused by industrialization and increasing living standards presents complex challenges for engineers. Technological progress alone is often not enough to reduce CO2 emissions and ensure sustainable development. In our workshop we examine how engineers can contribute to solving global issues such as energy supply and climate protection while critically questioning whether they are part of the solution - or part of the problem. It reflects on the responsibility of engineering disciplines and discusses why existing technical solutions have not always been successfully implemented.

Attention: Interactive workshop, please bring Laptops or Tablets

Technology

Technological development plays a central role in the implementation of circular economy concepts, from recycling processes and modular product design to repairability and digital systems for tracking product-specific data. But how can new technologies help to keep products and resources in circulation for longer? Which technical solutions facilitate reuse, repair and recycling in practice? Where are the limits of technological solutions? What negative effects can technological progress have on a circular economy? 

Economy

The circular economy requires us to rethink existing economic and business models. Rather than focusing purely on sales, services such as sharing and subscription models are becoming more important. How are value chains changing as take-back, repair and reconditioning structures become more important? How can economic success be measured differently when key performance indicators are no longer based on unit sales, but on service life, utilisation and reparability?

Politics & Society

The implementation of a circular economy is also a political and social challenge. Necessary solutions often fail due to a lack of incentives, inadequate legal frameworks and existing infrastructures, or entrenched habits. What role do political decision-makers and civil society initiatives play in overcoming these hurdles? What barriers arise from rebound effects, where efficiency gains lead to even higher consumption? How do global inequalities and power relations affect the feasibility of the circular economy, and who bears responsibility when seemingly circular processes—such as electronics recycling—are shifted to countries in the Global South at the expense of social and environmental standards?

This interactive workshop introduces participants to rebound effects in the Circular Economy. Circular Economy Rebound Effects occur when efforts to save resources unintentionally lead to higher overall consumption. We will start by exploring common resource efficiency strategies and their intended benefits, then examine why these improvements do not automatically reduce environmental impacts.

By the end of the session, participants will:

• be aware of common circular economy rebound dynamics and their scale,
• understand rebound effects as outcomes of systemic interactions and be able to describe the causal mechanisms behind them,
• gain first insights into strategies to prevent or mitigate these effects.

• Wednesday, 25 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm
• Thursday, 26 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm
   

• Learn what the circular economy is and explore real examples of circular solutions across different industries
• Hear from innovative perspectives and approaches on circular economy
• Apply the circular economy principles to your own business idea and real-world case studies through a hands-on activity and practical tools

• Wednesday, 25 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm
• Thursday, 26 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm

In this workshop, participants will critically engage with the transformation towards a circular economy.

The session centers on how questions of justice are currently addressed in the circular economy debate and explores why equity is vital to this transition. It fosters an understanding of the Just Transition concept and includes case studies of global supply chains, enabling students to develop their own approach towards a just circular economy.

• Wednesday, 25 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm

Technology

Technological development plays a central role in the implementation of circular economy concepts, from recycling processes and modular product design to repairability and digital systems for tracking product-specific data. But how can new technologies help to keep products and resources in circulation for longer? Which technical solutions facilitate reuse, repair and recycling in practice? Where are the limits of technological solutions? What negative effects can technological progress have on a circular economy? 

Economy

The circular economy requires us to rethink existing economic and business models. Rather than focusing purely on sales, services such as sharing and subscription models are becoming more important. How are value chains changing as take-back, repair and reconditioning structures become more important? How can economic success be measured differently when key performance indicators are no longer based on unit sales, but on service life, utilisation and reparability?

Politics & Society

The implementation of a circular economy is also a political and social challenge. Necessary solutions often fail due to a lack of incentives, inadequate legal frameworks and existing infrastructures, or entrenched habits. What role do political decision-makers and civil society initiatives play in overcoming these hurdles? What barriers arise from rebound effects, where efficiency gains lead to even higher consumption? How do global inequalities and power relations affect the feasibility of the circular economy, and who bears responsibility when seemingly circular processes—such as electronics recycling—are shifted to countries in the Global South at the expense of social and environmental standards?

This interactive workshop introduces participants to rebound effects in the Circular Economy. Circular Economy Rebound Effects occur when efforts to save resources unintentionally lead to higher overall consumption. We will start by exploring common resource efficiency strategies and their intended benefits, then examine why these improvements do not automatically reduce environmental impacts.

By the end of the session, participants will:

• be aware of common circular economy rebound dynamics and their scale,
• understand rebound effects as outcomes of systemic interactions and be able to describe the causal mechanisms behind them,
• gain first insights into strategies to prevent or mitigate these effects.

• Wednesday, 25 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm
• Thursday, 26 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm

• Learn what the circular economy is and explore real examples of circular solutions across different industries
• Hear from innovative perspectives and approaches on circular economy
• Apply the circular economy principles to your own business idea and real-world case studies through a hands-on activity and practical tools

• Wednesday, 25 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm
• Thursday, 26 March 2026, 8:45 am - 12:45 pm