THE SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH IN THE MATERIALS ENGINEERING FIELD

Increasing resource efficiency and reducing waste generation are two key challenges that must be addressed to progress towards sustainability. In this regard, different approaches can be shown to students to highlight the importance of minimizing the environmental impacts associated to materials engineering. For instance, the valorization of waste to extract raw materials, the use of eco-design to reduce the amount of material and energy used to fabricate products, and the manufacture of biodegradable products to facilitate the treatment after disposal are some of the strategies that the students of the Master and PhD Program in Renewable Materials Engineering must put into practice when studying the subject of Biocomposites. In this context, the links between education and research, as well as the cooperation between university and industry are key points in order to advance towards the education and research for sustainability. Furthermore, the study and research on environmentally friendly materials, renewable and biodegradable materials, could offer significant business opportunities in the near future and, thus, the creation of spin-offs and start-ups, since these materials could replace or, at least, reduce the use of the non-renewable and non-biodegradable materials used nowadays. In this regard, making students and researchers embrace the concept of sustainability is an issue of great relevance. Scientific, technical and economical aspects are not the only ones that engineers must take into account when novel products are designed, the assessment of the environmental impacts associated to products and processes is of vital importance to integrate the sustainability aspect into engineering studies and researches. In this context, the aim of this work is to show how MSc and PhD students can be educated for sustainability in the materials engineering field, also considering the benefits of university-industry cooperation in this area.