Whitechapel Lecture

Transforming the materials agenda for a sustainable planet: Opportunities and challenges
Speaker: Professor Mark Jolly, FIMMM, FICME, CEng, CEnv

Professor of Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing at Cranfield University

We live in a materials world. Everything we use is made from materials extracted from the planet. Yet, our current way of making and using most materials follows a linear model: take, make, and dispose. This unsustainable approach is pushing the planet’s limits—if our production and consumption behaviours remain unchanged, we would need 2.75 worlds to meet our demands. But we only have one. To secure a sustainable future, we must transition to a circular materials world, where we minimise the extraction of raw materials and maximise the reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of existing materials. Achieving this transformation requires innovations in mindsets, technologies, business models, and systems.

This lecture is part of an ongoing series of free online lectures hosted by the Worshipful Company of Founders, to promote knowledge in materials and how they affect our lives.