Materiology: Towards sustainability

A long-term priority of our activities is to contribute to the fight against climate change by educating the general and professional public. With this optic in mind, we decided to develop a new educational method in the field of material education with a focus on sustainability. In terms of materials, the environmental impact is significant. To start with, up to 80% of the resulting emissions can be influenced, according to the New Circular Economy Action Plan, initiated by the European Commission. It is therefore important to focus on the design and development phase when considering sustainability in product development. Our target group, made up of architects, designers, creative professionals and managers, is faced with the difficult question of choosing the most sustainable options for their projects. The aim of our project was to create a course that would focus on environmental sustainability in industry - practice, with a focus on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as it is currently the most effective method for calculating the environmental impact of a product. This motivated us to delve deeper into the topic of LCA with our French partner (EG Conseil) and to further apply this knowledge in our approach to material education.

The main objective was to disseminate information on sustainability and climate change through a new methodology focusing on materials, sustainability and LCA. Through it we were able to raise and will continue to raise awareness of environmental sustainability and LCA in the field of materials and materials science. While the topic of sustainability is important to our target group, it is also a very complex issue that requires a deeper understanding of the various factors involved. While ESG and product managers may be familiar with the LCA methodology, it is not well known in the rest of our target group, which consists of architects, designers and creative professionals working in small and medium-sized enterprises. Our desired outcome was to create a methodology that combines theoretical and practical knowledge of general sustainability, an introduction to LCA calculations and examples from practice. Finally, in order to reach as large a target group as possible, we decided to use digital learning methods through webinars, surveys and online quizzes. Another goal was for us and our partner to exchange knowledge and know-how in the field of LCA and materials.