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To ensure the sustainable development of our planet, we need to consider the implications of the materials we use on the ecosystem and society. This Focus discusses strategies to assess the life-cycle environmental impact of materials and make the production of key commodities more sustainable.
By considering the environmental impact of materials through their whole life cycle, materials scientists can help develop more sustainable alternatives.
Concerns about the planet's health call for a careful evaluation of the environmental impact of materials choices. Life-cycle assessment is a tool that can help identify sustainable materials pathways by considering the burdens of materials both during production and as a product.
Paulo J. M. Monteiro, Sabbie A. Miller and Arpad Horvath provide an overview of the challenges and accomplishments in reducing the environmental burden of concrete production.
Xiuyan Li and K. Lu discuss a strategy, alternative to alloying, to tailor the mechanical properties of metals. By engineering defects, metals with bespoke performance might be obtained while reducing the materials' compositional complexity.