Sustainability and materials

Welcome to the course Sustainability & Materials. 

In this class, we will explore together sustainability implications around:

• How we produce, use, and discard of materials and products, emphasizing different material classes
• Emerging and disruptive technologies

This is a rapidly evolving field. In popular culture, sustainability discourse can be riddled with fear and anxiety. Here, we equip ourselves with scientific literacy and a problem-solving mindset. 

Some topics that I hope to touch upon with you (in no particular order):

• What is this buzz word "sustainability" all about?
• Planetary boundaries - my favorites: climate change and novel entities
• Value chains, life cycles - understanding where our products come from and where they go once we are done with them.
• Linear vs circular models
• How do we measure circularity? Impact?
• Green chemistry
• Plastics - an increasingly complicated subject
• Scarce and conflict materials
• Recycling across material classes - where are we really?
• Biodegradability
• Disruptive technologies
• The carbon market
• Textiles
• Food, food waste
• Water

From the  diversity of the above list, you may have correctly gotten the impression that this is a sort of survey course. We touch on many topics and current events. It's a starting point for you - you are encouraged to dive deep on your own time and through the course exercises on topics that resonate with you. The subject is ever-changing and evolving, and so is the course. 

Evaluation:

2 pts: Clickbait assignment (individual)

2 pts: Midterm

2 pts: Final group project

Key evaluation dates:

Mar 22: Course "clickbait" assignment is due before midnight (upload to Feb 26 Moodle, which also describes the assignment)

April 9: Midterm 9:15-11:15

Last 2 weeks of class: Group presentations; please note that you will be required to both present your project and evaluate the presentations of other groups, so please be sure that you will attend the entire session the week that your presentation is scheduled. 

Guest activities

This year, we have one guest activity which aims to assist you in developing good practical skills for team working and will be applied directly to your group project in this class. To make it more practical, you will be working in your final project group for this activity. It is therefore recommended that all members of the group attend the session.

• April 16 - Two part sustainability activity run by Valentina Rossi (Teaching advisor, EPFL); 1st part on sustainability skills in team work (approx. 60 min), where students assume different engineering roles to negotiate the most sustainable materials for the design of a wind turbine, using colored LEGO to represent the different options; 2nd part on divergent and convergent thinking (approx. 45-60 min), focusing on the quality of ideas and the quality of decisions, applying them directly to students’ projects. Students experience multiple strategies for generating creative, diverse ideas and for criteria-based, collaborative decision making. Please note - the 1st part of this activity will have a group assignment, to be handed in (See Moodle for the week). 

These guest lectures are designed to give you key insight from industry and academia, delivered directly from experts.

• Mar 26: 10-11 AM - Dr. Edoardo Chiarrotti of the Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center will teach us about carbon and biodiversity credits linked to resource use. (in person)

• April 2: 9-10 AM - Prof. Wolfram Brück of HES-Vallais, will share his research on bio-based materials (virtual; broadcast in classroom)

• April 30: 10-11 AM - Padraig Murphy of Logitech, will share the engineering concept design for sustainability (virtual; broadcast in classroom)

In this introductory lecture, I will introduce myself and course TA's. I will provide a general outline of the course itself, expectations, and evaluation. We will then begin to explore the topic of planetary boundaries as a starting point for our discussions.

Wolfram will lecture from 9-10, via Zoom. Tiffany will lecture from 10-11.

Midterm is set for 2 hours, from 9:15-11:15.
Good luck and please don't forget your camipro!

This activity will run from 9:15-11:15 and includes an exercise. 

What is our university doing? Anna will give us an overview of sustainability actions at EPFL. Tiffany will lecture the 2nd hour.

Elmira Imani is Glencore’s Group Responsible Sourcing Manager. In her role, she leads the implementation of the company's responsible sourcing programme for metals and minerals across the Group. Elmira has been with Glencore for over 10 years and is an admitted Australian lawyer. She holds an LLB from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Criminology with a minor in Human Resources from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Marco Billia joined Glencore's Group environment team in 2024. As an expert in environmental and engineering geology, he is responsible for developing Glencore’s environmental knowledge management and strategic implementation of GIS systems across the group. Marco holds a PhD for the University of Otago, New Zealand and a Master of Science in Earth Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.