Working Towards a Zero Waste World: Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing

Join us for Working Towards a Zero Waste World, a targeted virtual workshop series to address the next big questions in waste, recycling, and manufacturing. Each workshop will provide a forum to discuss common problems and brainstorm approaches to overcoming them across fields—including non-degradable plastics and other artificial compounds in the environment, high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and emissions from all sectors, and the need to develop sustainable, zero waste manufacturing practices and materials with low environmental impact. The series brings together academic researchers, industry leaders, and federal agencies to consider these problems from multiple angles. Co-hosted by the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, Energy & Sustainable Technologies Lab, and the College of Engineering. SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS & MANUFACTURING (November 22, 11:30 am - 1 pm) Material conversion from source to useful products often has tremendous detrimental environmental implications in terms of energy demands, greenhouse gas emissions, and other toxic waste releases. This workshop will highlight and discuss how the transition to a cleaner, greener, and sustainable future requires understanding the relationship between materials selection, processing and manufacturing options, product design and its use, and various end-of-life strategies while improving economic, social, and environmental capitals. Speakers and Topics: Toni Marechaux, Lead Analyst, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), US Department of Energy Implications for the electrification of metals processing Benjamin Sovacool, Director, Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability Industrial decarbonization through a sociotechnical lens Tatiana Vakhitova, Sustainability Lead, Ansys Academic Program Ansys Granta software for material selection and sustainable product design Facilitated by Uday Pal and Joerg Werner (BU College of Engineering). Location: Zoom