Rethinking Materials for a Resource-Constrained World: Pathways to Sustainable and Equitable Infrastructure

Materials - particularly infrastructure materials - account for a substantial share of global energy use, mineral extraction, and anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Yet they remain essential for the built environment that underpins meeting quality of life needs, and demand for them is expected to grow. Addressing their climate impacts therefore requires approaches that consider interactions across value chains, engineering design, environmental systems, and societal factors, including disproportionate burdens on vulnerable communities. There is an urgent need for quantitative frameworks that can guide the discovery and deployment of materials capable of meeting sustainability targets while also addressing inequities linked to climate burdens as well as resource extraction, processing methods, and disposal. Our work advances this goal through integrated experimental and modeling efforts used to evaluate alternative materials, identify drivers of localized environmental impacts, and develop strategies to reduce resource scarcity and, to the extent possible, reverse environmental damage, including through carbon dioxide removal. This research also examines trade-offs among competing system demands - such as energy and materials production - while ensuring necessary materials performance and durability under varied environmental conditions. Factors such as regional resource availability, local and application-specific performance requirements, and production methods yield spatiotemporal variation in potentially viable mitigation methods. This presentation will highlight key findings from our work and outline critical directions for future research.

Speaker: Sabbie Miller, UC Berkeley

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