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Sustainable Materials Without the Hot Air
Book

Sustainable Materials Without the Hot Air

Making Buildings, Vehicles and Products Efficiently and with Less New Material

Julian M. Allwood and Jonathan M. Cullen
UIT Cambridge, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This unusual book on halting global climate change addresses increased “material efficiency” and the recycling, reuse and extended use of “steel, cement, plastic, paper and aluminum” in industrial production. Engineers – including Cambridge professor Julian Allwood and Cambridge lecturer Jonathan Cullen – worked with their associates to produce this clever, entertaining, wide-ranging treatise on applying common sense to manufacturing and industry to prevent environmental degradation and to attempt to slow global warming. getAbstract recommends their original, implementable solutions to those who employ, make or shape materials and to those who influence these processes, including policy makers, risk managers, standards experts, investors, materials buyers and entrepreneurs.

Summary

Massive Harmful Emissions

Production of “just five materials” – steel, cement, plastic, paper, aluminum – “accounts for 55% of industrial emissions.” Yet, manufacturers have improved their production processes to increase energy. These processes pollute less in 2015 than at any earlier time. Yet, by 2055 humankind will probably need twice as much of these manufactured products as they do today.

A tremendous volume of materials production continues worldwide. Even though these industries largely cleaned up their energy efficiency, they still contribute mightily to global climate change. They must decide what to do to make their processes less polluting, but their work requires expending energy: “Many of the specific options for efficiency in producing metals are about heat, either using less of it, or capturing waste heat and reusing it.”

The next frontier, after manufacturing methods, is producing fewer materials, making them lighter and using them longer. These changes can occur only if people find new ways – through recycling, reuse, extended use and other innovations – to make more efficient use of materials.

“Material Efficiency”

The...

About the Authors

Julian Allwood, PhD, is a professor at the University of Cambridge, where Jonathan Cullen, PhD, is a lecturer. Mark Carruth, Daniel Cooper, Martin McBrien, Rachel Milford, Muiris Moynihan and Alexandra Patel are associates in the Low Carbon Materials Processing group, part of the WellMet2050 project to find ways to cut global carbon emissions from the production of steel and aluminum goods.

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