Sustainability

The Materials Innovation and Growth Team report makes reference to the importance of sustainability. The three key dimensions of sustainability that the report focused on were:

• energy efficiency, production, use and low carbon emission
• minimising waste generation, and maximising recycling and reuse
• product design for sustainability (eco-design)

Some of the key requirements quoted were:

"There is a need for better understanding of the impact of materials and products throughout their lifecycle..."

"The materials design and user community should make greater use of life-cycle and design for life concepts, supported by access to data for materials..."

"Whole lifetime predictive modelling, cradle to grave, is important for the development of new materials as well is to sustainability, recycling and reuse."

The group will attempt to address some of these issues for the materials sector as well as identifying the drivers towards sustainable materials and barriers to their adoption, and what can we do with each of our stakeholders to enhance the drivers and reduce the barriers?

Contacts: