Challenge 1

We’re already experiencing climate change, biodiversity loss, and the pollution of natural ecosystems at levels beyond the planet’s capacity to cope, and unsustainable consumption and production are the root causes [Reference: Global Footprint Network]. In addition, distribution of resource consumption is not equitable. We’d need the resources of 5 Earths to support us if we all lived like the average American and many countries need significantly more resources than their own country can provide; for example Japan needs almost 8 Japans to meet its residents' needs [Reference: Earth Overshoot Day].

To date, suggesting that people should live restricted lives by reducing their ecological footprint has not resulted in the scale of change that is needed to address the problem. Instead a reframing is required and engineering has a key role to play. How can we support people to increase their resource security rather than their resource demand; keeping them safer, healthier, and wealthier as a result? Can we use more sustainable alternatives that have a smaller ecological footprint, or that are regenerative, restoring ecosystems back to a thriving state? And how can we be more sustainable with our use of the resources we have?

Perhaps the greatest opportunity comes in reconsidering the underlying model for material use. Resource and material flows predominantly follow linear models, e.g. “take-make-waste”. We extract (“take”) resources from the Earth, convert them (“make”) into infrastructure, products and systems, and when they’ve achieved their purpose, broken beyond repair, or come to the end of their design life we consider them as waste with no further purpose (“waste”), often discarding them into a hole in the ground (landfill). Then we extract new resources to start the process all over again [Reference: Ellen MacArthur Foundation article].

Yet the resources originally extracted are still present in the waste with the potential to continue their useful life, especially if smarter design principles were adopted from the outset. This is the basis of the circular economy, where resources retain their value through the implementation of reuse, redesign, repair, remanufacture and recycling, avoiding waste and reducing the pressure on new resource extraction. Only 7 per cent of the world’s material flows are currently circular, highlighting an enormous innovation opportunity to tackle the remaining 93 per cent [Reference: Circle Economy 2023 Circularity Gap Report]. Digital technologies are already taking the lead in enabling transparency, traceability, lifecycle data and circular business models, [Reference: One Planet Network article] but the scale of the challenge is huge.

Engineers can improve our access to the earth’s resources on land and water. All of these require physical and digital infrastructure that can safeguard our planet. It is important that all engineers take an integrated approach to ensure sustainable development so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Key issues

Responsible resource consumption and production is challenged by a number of issues. This list is not exhaustive and we encourage you to explore further.

Rapid increases in resource consumption and waste production:

• More than two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated every year. If packed into standard shipping containers and placed end-to-end, this waste would wrap around the Earth’s equator 25 times, or further than traveling to the moon and back [Reference: UNEP report Global Waste Management Outlook 2024].
• Increases in per capita consumption is driving increases in material consumption more than population growth. [Reference: 2025 UN SDG Report]
• Electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream, and only a fraction is disposed of responsibly. Only 22.3 per cent was documented as having been formally collected and treated in an environmentally sound manner in 2022 [Reference: 2025 UN SDG Report].
• Plastic production is expected to double over the next 20 years, yet currently the equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute [Reference: UNEP report Global Waste Management Outlook 2024].
• Concrete is the world’s most consumed manufactured substance (and second only to water in terms of all resource use). The cement industry is the third-largest industrial energy consumer and represents about 7% of total global carbon emissions ranking it as a top contributor to climate change. [Reference: International Energy Agency Technology Roadmap for the Cement Industry]
• Increased use of AI is driving surges in energy, water and resource consumption of data centres around the world. Electricity demand from data centres is set to more than double by 2030, largely driven by AI use. In 2030, the US economy is set to consume more electricity for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined (e.g. aluminium, steel, cement, chemicals) [Reference: IEA report *Energy and AI*]

Unsustainable resource extraction methods:

• Without improvements, many existing resource extraction methods contribute significantly to environmental damage. Mining and metals comprise the world’s most carbon-intensive sectors, estimates suggest that steel and aluminium are responsible for 11% and 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions respectively [Reference: UNEP Report]. Mining contributes to habitat and biodiversity loss, and directly threatens many of the world’s most vulnerable species. Freshwater is a key part of many mining practices, contributing to overextraction and the pollution of freshwater resources. Waste from mining activities presents a long term risk if not dealt with effectively from leaks, dam failures, soil contamination and groundwater poisoning.

Poor waste management:

• Some two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated annually. Globally, 70% of all waste ends up in some type of landfill (of which open dumping accounts for about 33%, 25% in unspecified landfill, 4% in controlled landfill, and 8% is disposed of in sanitary landfills with gas collection systems), 19% is recycled or composted, and 11% is incinerated. Landfills, especially open dumps, pose serious environmental and public health hazards, mainly from toxic gases emitted from decaying waste. Leaching also causes substantial pollution of soils and groundwater [Reference: World Bank Global Snapshot of waste management 2021].

The circularity gap:

• Only 7 per cent of the world’s material flows are currently ‘circular’ (e.g. reused or recycled rather than virgin) [Reference: Circle Economy 2023 Circularity Gap Report].
• Recycling is the most common form of ‘circularity’ used, but it does not always return a material to its original quality. In many cases recycling creates a downgraded material which is less useful and does not displace the need to extract virgin resources for the original product.
• Composite materials create complex challenges for the reuse and repurposing of the resources used to create them.
• There is no widely adopted global standard for tracking materials across life cycles creating barriers to repair, resale, recycling and incentive systems.
• Provision of transparent and tamper proof record logs for sustainability claims and compliance is challenging, e.g to comply with new regulations such as the EU Digital Product Passport frameworks.