The Industrial Ecology approach for assessing the Sustainability of the Energy Transition
Introduction to the sustainability series
This MOOC is part of the series on “Sustainability”, which is one of the world’s major challenges of today and tomorrow and requires multidisciplinary competences. The series provides technical knowledge on a variety of topics, such as sustainable building, energy transition, water management and food waste prevention.
Discover all the MOOCs of the “Sustainability” series on Pok4Professionals.
If you are a PoliMI student or staff member you have to log in using your Person Code. This is the only way to prove your participation in this course for official recognition.
Course description
The aim of this MOOC is to provide a holistic but quantitative and multi-dimensional perspective on the energy transition underway today. Especially when dealing with cross sectoral linkages and circular economy, the instruments made available by the Industrial Ecology can represent a great support to researchers and practitioners and can be used to better inform policy makers. For instance, it was already recognised that the extension and evolution of the monetary input-output analysis can provide sound scientific methodology to evaluate the impact of different sustainability policies and strategies at national, regional or interregional level.
Simplified and real-life case studies will be treated with dedicated pieces of software as hands-on sessions for the attendants who will be able to master the open-source code MARIO and use it within their professional activity.
Total workload of the course: 6 hours
This MOOC is provided by Politecnico di Milano.
Information about fees and access to materials
The course is delivered in online mode and is available free of charge.
Course materials will remain available to all enrolled users after the end of the current edition, so they can return to content later. The current course edition will be followed by a new one just after its end.
Learning schedule
The course is structured in 3 weeks:
- Week 1 – Energy within sustainable development
- Week 2 – The approach of industrial ecology
- Week 3 – Hands on module on industrial ecology (with tutorial)
Prerequisites
To complete this course is required MS Excel proficiency and Python language basic knowledge.
Activities
Over and above consulting the content, in the form of videos and other web-based resources, you will have the opportunity to discuss course topics and to share ideas with your peers in the Forum of this MOOC.
Assessment
The final grade for the course is based on results from your responses to the quizzes you will find at the end of each week (weekly quizzes). You will successfully complete the course if you reach 60% (or more) of the total score by the end of the edition. The course’s total score will be calculated by averaging the scores of the assessed quizzes for each individual week.
Certificate of Accomplishment
The Certificate of Accomplishment will be released to anyone who successfully completed the course by achieving at least 60% of the total score in the assessed quizzes. You will be able to download the Certificate of Accomplishment directly from the website.
Once you have successfully passed the course, you can request the Certificate of Accomplishment without waiting for the end of the edition.
The Certificate of Accomplishment does not confer any academic credit, grade or degree.
European Qualifications Framework Level
EQF Level 6
Thematic area (ISCED-F classification)
0713 Electricity and energy
Discussion forum
The forum of this MOOC is freely accessible and participation is not guided; you can use it to compare yourself with other participants, or to discuss course contents with them.
Contact details
If you have any enquiries about the course or if you need technical assistance please contact pok@polimi.it. For further information, see FAQ page.
Course Faculty
Matteo Vincenzo Rocco
Matteo V. Rocco is Assistant Professor at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano (Italy), working in the Sustainable Energy System Analysis and Modelling group (SESAM, https://sesam.polimi.it/). Previous positions include: Senior Associate Researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) from 2018 to 2020, Assistant Professor (RTD-A) at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) from 2017 to 2019, post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) from 2015 to 2016, Visiting Researcher at Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE) in Zaragoza, Spain in year 2013. Dr. Rocco serves as professor for the PhD course of “Resource Planning and Management within Sustainable Development”, in the Energy and Nuclear Technology Science (STEN) program, Politecnico di Milano. Research activities of Dr. Rocco are focused on the development of integrated and multi-scale energy models capable to define future development scenarios at the nation-wide scale and by assessing the related Life Cycle impacts. Dr. Rocco received the following awards: “Wassily Leontief Memorial Prize”, received from the International Input-Output Association (IIOA) for the best paper presented at the 27th International Input-Output Conference (Glasgow, Scotland, 2019) and “Premio Giovani Ricercatori LCA”, received from the Rete Italiana LCA for the best paper presented at the fifth scientific congress of the Rete Italiana LCA (Ravenna, Italy, 2016).
Nicolò Golinucci
Nicolò Golinucci is a PhD candidate in the SESAM group, Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano. He is concluding his PhD on the role of Industrial Ecology methodologies in the analysis of CO2 emission reduction mechanisms, proposing an innovative individual and consumption-based approach. Nicolò works on energy modelling and meso-economic analysis by also writing open-source software in Python. He worked as a researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and has experience in digital transformation and IT integration applied to the energy sector.
Lorenzo Rinaldi
Lorenzo Rinaldi is a Doctoral Researcher at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy. His research focuses on the integration of energy and economic models and on critical raw materials and geopolitical implications assessment. Within this field he collaborated with Italian energy companies to perform impact evaluation of renewables-oriented and decarbonization scenarios. He developed or contributed to several open-source energy modelling tools, covering energy demand simulation and bottom-up energy optimization models. He is the co-developer of an open-source framework for comprehensive input-output analysis (MARIO). As far as teaching experience, Lorenzo is active as scientific tutor and lectures facilitator for two Master of Science (MSc) courses within the Energy Engineering track of the Department of Energy at Politecnico di Milano and he is regularly co-supervisor of MSc theses.
Francesco Tonini
Francesco Tonini is a Doctoral Researcher at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy. His research activity focuses on integrated impact assessment of electrification strategies in developing countries. Within this field he collaborates with Italian energy companies to perform ex-ante impact assessment of large scale community investments. He developed a direct experience about Africa collaborating with an Italian NGO active in the rural context of Tanzania in providing access to electricity and modern facilities to local communities. As far as teaching experience, Francesco is active as scientific tutor and lectures facilitator for several specializing master course organized by private companies in partnership with the Department of Energy at Politecnico di Milano. His research activity is awarded by the Enel Foundation Fellowship for PhD studies aimed to identify crossroads between advanced technologies. His Master Thesis with the title “System Dynamics modelling for long-term energy demand forecast in rural areas” is awarded with the Altero Matteoli memorial price because of its relevance toward the care about common good.
This course is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License except where otherwise specified.
