Resource Efficiency
We only have one planet. We face materials supply challenges but also opportunities in; eco-design; dematerialisation; sustainable material substitutes; reuse of products; and the recovery of recyclates. The Environmental Sustainability KTN is giving particular focus to the following key priorities in Resource Efficiency and Waste and Pollution Management.
Integrated Product Policy
Eco-design: Going beyond product design to consider product-services and entire systems: planet, profit, and people.
Design for Process Efficiency: We are interested in furthering new design concepts which increase material and/or energy efficiency during or after operational lifetime. Remanufacturing for instance restores end of life products to new condition and is distinct from recycling, which destroys the product to recover materials for use in different products.
LCA thinking: We are interested in moving the agenda for industry beyond compliance and management into full life cycle thinking. For example – product lightweighting: lightweight or rightweight? Less material consumption is broadly a Good Thing but sometimes a more substantial design can mean less negative environmental impacts across the whole product life cycle.
End of Life Material Management
We engage with projects dealing with specific material considerations, for example mixed plastic waste, and high value, low value mixed metals, and with novel instrumentation for mixed material separation and monitoring.
Resource Constraints
Materials Security: Access to raw materials is essential for a sustainable economy. Material security issues include limited availability, price increases and dependence on a limited number of sometimes politically unstable sources.
Management of Waste at Source
Topics include micro and community scale domestic waste treatment; and On-site treatment technologies for industrial waste.
Market Sector Supply Chain Integration
We are particularly interested in addressing the challenges of the Retail & Leisure; Food; Construction; and Electronics sectors.
Environmental Measurement
We are engaging with advances in rapid measurement tools and in environmental monitoring and forensics.
Carbon Sequestration and Storage
Sequestration is one important strategy in the fight to overcome the consequences of excessive greenhouse gas emissions. We are particularly interested in biogenic and geological aspects of CSS.
In Situ Land Remediation
Rising hazardous landfill prices and reduced capacity mean that traditional ‘dig & dumping’ of contaminated land is not as attractive as it once was. Alternative in-situ remediation technologies are consequently coming to the fore.