Sustainability, environmental and social challenges

How can you get all the minerals and critical raw materials you need, and at the same time do it in a sustainable way that takes into account the environment, nature and climate?

Mineral extraction involves large land use and creates pollution in the form of noise, greenhouse gases, vibrations, dust, chemicals and surplus materials that need to be disposed of with the resulting optimization and logistics challenges. This results in environmental impacts that cannot be avoided, but you can work towards minimizing the negative impacts by implementing circular and sustainable solutions.

There is a need for research in many areas going forward, including knowledge of mineral activities and local acceptance, consideration of local and indigenous populations, land management, etc.

SINTEF offers a “complete” competence environment within environmental, economic and sustainability analyses (such as LCA, S-LCA, material flow analysis and value chain economic models), societal demand for minerals and circular economy solutions, new environmentally friendly technologies as well as social and ethical assessments.