Materials in a Sustainable Society

In this course we discuss the role of materials in the society focused on circularity and sustainable development.

We will examine the trends in material consumption and production and the concept of material and resource criticality and how it impacts environment, economy and material selection strategies.

We will discuss legislation guiding the use and development of materials and learn to incorporate multiple viewpoints when dealing with materials selection challenges.

The course is split in several blocks covering materials lifecycles, modern legislation and strategies for material selection. We extensively focus on analyzing eco-data, fact finding and analysis of complex material use scenarios.

Throughout the course the students deliver two group presentations, hand in one written report on the tutorial eco-audit case and provide feedback to their peers.

IMPORTANT: The course is given to the broad audience and does not cover materials science in depth.