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Nolan’s Notes: Getting Real About Sustainability

As we gathered content for this issue of SMT007 Magazine, I kept reflecting on my early 1980s college history class on World War II. I had been surprised to find that my textbook was written by a physicist from the Manhattan Project and concluded with a chapter devoted to a physics thought experiment. The author had done some mathematical estimating (as physicists do) to determine that 20th century man was heating up the planet at such a rate that it would become a world crisis. As I recall, he factored in CO2 emissions and the amount of heat released into the atmosphere per household, coming from even simple activities like cooking and hot showers. It was thought provoking.

My point here is not to take a stand on climate change. Rather, it’s to note that a physicist’s musings 40 years ago have generally become mainstream in the sense of overall sustainability. Of course, responding to climate change is just a small part of what encompasses sustainability. We generally agree nowadays that our world is a closed system containing finite resources. The 19th-century idea of “manifest destiny,” though the thought lingers, is no longer valid.

Let’s use copper as an example. Building out the global EV charging network will cause an exponential requirement of copper. Wood Mackenzie estimates that by 2030, there will be 20 million charging stations operating globally, consuming 250% more copper than in 2019¹. USGS estimates that the global copper supply is enough to meet EV demand, but we know the demand for copper goes way beyond EVs. In fact, “electric vehicles require two and a half times as much copper as an internal combustion engine vehicle,” and “copper demand will double to 50,000,000 metric tons annually by 2035, more than all the copper consumed in the world between 1900 and 2021.”²

It seems that we now have a pretty good set of data to tell us just how much copper (or lithium, silver, or molybdenum) is available before we’ve pulled it from all the accessible parts of the Earth’s crust. These resources—especially the non-renewable ones—simply must be used again. Early environmentalists called it recycling; now the professional term is “circular economy.”

Thinking and acting sustainably touches virtually every aspect of our lives, from what we do personally to how we conduct business: Don’t use something unless you have to, design products that minimize raw materials, and reclaim the materials once you’re done with them—these are the new maxims for us all. We don’t need to be misers; we just need to be smarter about our usage.

So, how do we get started? In this issue, we take on that challenge. We asked several organizations either in the industry, or tangential to it, and as was expected, the responses lined up closely with their mission statements. Each organization is a narrow slice of knowledge, resources, tools, or connection. We found that these narrow slices suggest a larger picture, the hint of a continuum that—while not in place yet—will undoubtedly emerge, especially if we all work together to define the pieces.

We also found enthusiasm, awareness, and action in the content. Kelly Scanlon, IPC’s lead sustainability strategist, for example, has jumped straight into the deep end, but admits there’s still much to be defined—it just depends on who you ask and what they need, she says. There’s no one right answer to the sustainability question. Sometimes, getting started begins by asking, “Where are we now?” iNEMI’s Mark Schaffer shares his organization’s estimator tools, which shed some light on how effective you are with your resources, and allows you to practice some what-if scenarios.

We also introduce you to Pamela Brody-Heine of the Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN), who shares her work to make manufacturing spaces environmentally friendly and safe. Additionally, NextFlex’s Art Wall contributes an article on the sustainability potential in additive processes, and Kyzen’s Tom Forsythe talks with us about cleaning and sustainability.

Our columnists this month—Michael Ford, Ron Lasky, and Mike Konrad—likewise discuss topics that, whether directly or indirectly, touch on sustainability.

Sustainability is happening, so how do you embrace it? How do you stay far enough ahead that you don't get swept to the side? The more we can work together to create better tools for estimation, and the more circular we make our processes, the better we will be.

References:

1. “Copper: Powering up the electric vehicle,” Aug. 13, 2019, Wood Mackenzie.
2. “Copper, the Critical Material for Transportation Electrification,” by James Anderton, Feb. 6, 2023, engineering.com.

This column originally appears in the June 2023 issue of SMT007 Magazine.