IOM3 contributes to National Engineering Policy Centre’s report on critical materials

The report advises the UK government on how to improve economic security.

IOM3 is proud to announce that CEO Colin Church FIMMM CEnv and Head of Policy Rachel Stonehouse MIMMM have contributed to a significant report from the National Engineering Policy Centre’s Working Group on Materials and Net Zero, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This collaboration highlights the importance of an integrated materials strategy for the UK, aimed at supporting the existing Net Zero Strategy and enhancing economic security.

Understanding critical materials

The report addresses the urgent need for action regarding critical materials identified by the UK government, including lithium (essential for batteries) and magnesium, used in steel alloys. The UK relies heavily on these materials, which are often sourced globally. Additional critical materials highlighted in the report include indium, cobalt, niobium, and rare earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium. The extraction of these materials often involves extensive processes due to their low concentration in the earth's crust.

Recommendations for a sustainable future

To address the challenges posed by critical material scarcity, the report proposes several measures, including:

• Infrastructure and technology planning: considering material requirements during upstream planning
• Design and design skills: minimise or eliminate the need for critical materials through design changes and ensure the skills and cultures to enable this
• Circular economy: recovering, reusing and recycling materials where they are used

The report presents key recommendations for the UK government, including:

• Implement a cross-sector UK materials strategy
• Establish materials flows and forecasts through a centralised National Materials Data Hub
• Halve the UK’s overall material footprint
• Deliver transformation of UK skills, education and training to embed sustainable practices and emphasise resource efficiency
• Include critical material demand reduction in transport and digital infrastructure planning and energy policy
• Expand ecodesign regulations to include material efficiency and design for durability and disassembly
• Invest in recycling capacity to provide domestic sources of critical materials
• Support and accelerate innovation that reduces critical material use

IOM3 commitment to collaboration and sustainability

Colin Church says, 'In our report, we call for an overall material strategy; and one of the sets of tools that we've identified as being key to managing materials more sustainability, is design considered material use. This means we are designing infrastructure and designing products, designing them to contain less material so that we need less new material to get the same level of service. We also must make sure we have skills in the education system, skills for engineers, skills for designers, making sure that people can understand what these critical materials are, and worry about the critical materials, how they're going in, how they're coming out.'

This report represents a meaningful contribution to developing a sustainable materials strategy in the UK and underscores our commitment to working with other institutions and organisations in the materials sector to promote effective practices and solutions.