Circular Economy certificate: Christian Adler - Digital twin

Buying a product often only takes a click."But if we think about return, reuse and recycling, we are twenty years behind," says Christian Adler. The computer scientist is one of the founders of the start-up "LoopID". The aim of the company is to make circular business models user-friendly and and economically profitable. The founders have developed an app that provides a digital product twin with all relevant information on material properties and recyclability, for example. "The recycling of products is becoming increasingly relevant. We help manufacturers and brands of physical products to successfully manage the transformation from a linear to a circular economy successfully. The longer a product is used and the more people use it, the better it is for the environment," explains Christian Adler.

Before founding the company, the computer scientist worked in a management consultancy. However, he has been interested in the circular economy for a long time: "Sustainability is a hobbyhorse of mine. My family pays attention to a sustainable way of life. It has to do with our value system," explains Christian Adler. He developed the app with two partners and looked around for further training on the topic of "circular economy": His wife was already enrolled in the Leuphana Professional School on the certificate programme "Sustainable Reporting & Accounting“.

Christian Adler saw how she benefited from the training programme and applied to the Professional School himself. The computer scientist has now completed the certificate: "The study programme enabled me to acquire the necessary knowledge in a very short time. The content was excellently curated and I gained insights into current fields of research. The programme is very application-oriented. Therefore I was able to bring in topics from our start-up. The feedback was very helpful," reports Christian Adler. During the six-month programme, the founder was also able to get to know many experts in the field of sustainability management and build up a network: "The circular economy community is still small, but it's growing."

The "Circular Economy" certificate introduces the basic strategies, concepts and instruments for designing circular products and services and to successfully implement them in new business models. Together with experts from science and practice, students develop a sustainable business strategy that consistently takes circularity into business strategy. It is one of five part-time online certificates offered by the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) on current topics in Sustainability Management from Sustainability Reporting & Accounting, Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Decarbonisation Management and Sustainability Management in Sport.