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by Andrew H. Dent, Ph.D.
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The fast-moving and ever-evolving field of sustainability can be confusing and tough to navigate without knowledge of the latest ideas and materials. Our recently published 2010 Material Technology Report, Sustainable Design: Materials & Methodologies Driving Innovation, provides information and insight into a range of current topics that can help you develop better, more sustainable products, cut waste, decrease your costs, and ultimately reduce your impact on the environment. Here, Dr. Andrew Dent, VP Library & Materials Research, gives a sneak peek into the materials, ideas, and trends we think you need to know about now.
The last 5 years has witnessed a revolution in the way in which we see objects. What were once simple decisions about whether something was ‘well-designed’, useful, or beautiful, now have another dimension; is it sustainable? And through this five-year period, the way in which we approach that word, the way we ‘see’ sustainability has changed also. It has ranged wildly from fad to fad, as designers and manufacturers learn about (and fight against) whatever the latest version of “green” is. We have had the bamboo era, with bikes, fabrics, computer casings, plates, and even a phone. There was the PLA era, where we wanted everything to be made from that wonderful corn-based plastic. We have avoided PVC, even when, in some cases it is the better, lower-impact choice. But we have learned a lot. Yes, we have made mistakes, but there has been much experimentation and we have had to do this quickly, much quicker than any other materials revolution so far. We believe we are now at a point where we know how to design sustainably—to avoid the mistakes, lower our impact and make better products. It is of course, obvious now that one type of material selection for all objects was never going to offer the ultimate solution.
Each new design needs to approach the problem with the same goal in mind, using different materials to get there. The goal? Lower environmental impact using non-toxic materials that require a minimum amount of energy and water to produce, can be recycled completely or composted, and are part of a closed loop system, preferably controlled by the manufacturer so that they get back their own materials.
Given that we know all this, why then is it so damned hard to achieve?
Because almost every bit of progress that has come before it—all those years of brainy chemists, materials scientists, engineers and designers improving stuff—has been sending us in the other direction, away from good sustainable design. Late 20th and early 21st century consumerism is a high-speed train going in exactly the opposite direction of sustainability. No wonder it’s hard. That said, in the time in which we have seen the sustainable design revolution occur, we have also seen the great speed of change of innovation and of our willingness to adopt change. We, as consumers, as producers, as designers all see that change is needed, and are open to it. I believe that truly radical changes in the design and production of objects to create more sustainable versions is possible, and we both now know how to do it, and more excitingly, we have a customer base who wants it and knows why they want it.
There are a number of areas that we believe are going to be of importance in the coming few years. On the issue of raw materials, there are a certain minerals and materials that we are going to have to treat more carefully due to their imminent shortage such as rare earths and some of the metals such as copper and indium. We are going to need to think about better recycling and possible substitution of other metals in their place. As an antidote to our runaway consumption of many materials, the idea of Take Back programs are gaining ground – procedures that ensure the intelligent recycling of products to ensure good reclamation of materials by the manufacturers themselves. We believe that there will be a changing in the approach to photovoltaics over this timeframe, due in part to the difference in opinion over its usefulness between countries like china who are aggressively pushing forward with more PV, and Germany, who is becoming disillusioned with a low return on investment in the technology over the last 10 years of innovation driven development. There is also likely to be a consensus gained over the biodegradability/compostability debate, with many recyclers complaining about addition of biodegration additives to plastics contaminating their saleable recycled packaging plastics. Where and how these additives are included to ensure safe and effective removal of packaging when either discarded in the street or landfilled is a matter of intense debate and as yet there is no ‘perfect’ solution. Biomimicry is continuing to excite designers and scientists alike, but there is now a better understanding of its limitations in terms of total solutions for problems. Because nature’s solutions work within a relatively small and well defined ecosystem these solutions rarely transfer well to our needs that are often in conditions much more varied than what nature offers (greater temperature or humidity range, longer lifetimes etc.). Knowledge of this limitation however, is enabling scientists to utilize biomimcry within controlled limits to give some less far ranging, but equally important results.
 We believe that the next few years will show a change in the way that sustainability is talked about, going from vague, unverifiable statements to being based upon numbers, more specifically Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). LCA offers a way to quantify your claims, and also enables the producer to see ‘hotspots’ in terms of sustainability problems as part of their production chain. These numbers include carbon footprint, energy usage as well as water consumption, material usage and transport choices. We have also seen the successful launching of some web based tools for LCA such as Sustainable Minds and Compass, that allow producers and more specifically the design teams within those companies to make lower impact choices during the design and concept phase, even giving quantifiable answers to those questions of material and production choice.
Despite these numerous areas where we are seeing significant changes in the way that consumers and manufacturers are approaching sustainable production, it is likely that in order to fundamentally change our impact on this planet, we are going to need some huge game changers that turn our view of sustainability upside down. Two examples come to mind. The first is the current initiative by Walmart to provide quantified sustainability data on EVERY product it sells to give consumers a choice in their shopping. The second is the attempt by the kingdom of Abu Dhabi to create a carbon neutral city using the latest in sustainable construction. Both are projects on a massive scale that will show if it is possible to change the mindset of the American consumer and our worldwide dependence on oil for fuel.
For more information on our 2010 Material Technology Reports or to purchase, please contact Maider Irastorza at 212-842-1056 / mirastorza@materialconnexion.com. Visit MaterialConneXion.com/reports to learn more, as well as to read an excerpt from our other 2010 report, Advances in Materials for Consumer Products.
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