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In 2015, the ESM has hosted workshops at the WRF in Davos for the third time in series. A workshop and an industry summit on Tuesday, October 13, discussed strategies to identify the influence of “critical materials” on European innovative products, monitor their life cycle, and possibilities to reduce critical materials by better design, substitution and recycling opportunities. Regulations and environmental friendly solutions for the use over the whole value chain and possibilities to ensure a responsible sourcing will be another topic. At the expert debate on criticality assessment in the afternoon, specialists addressed different concepts of criticality and their applicability.
At the ESM events, amongst others supply and quality risks due to critical metals under economical and ecological aspects will be discussed. Strategies to allow more insight in the critical materials flow from raw material also towards recycled products are needed. The “Circular flow economics” model may be used to depict the critical materials in the whole market system and value chain. Also needed are data management of information about such materials at the various stages of a product for a better monitoring of the value, and improvement of production design for a more efficiently use of such materials would be desirable.
Program Tuesday, October 13
(click on titles to download presentation slides)
Workshop: Handling critical materials – resource strategies, value chains and their impact
Morning Session: Workshop, Part 1
Chair: Margarethe Hofmann, ESM/MatSearch
| Time | Invited Speaker | Topic |
| 8:00–8:15 | Dr. Bruno Walser President ESM | Welcome |
| Keynote talk | ||
| 8:15–8:50 | Prof. Tom Graedel Yale University | „Defining and determining criticality“ |
| Product Life Cycles | ||
| 8:50–9:20 | Dr. Hans-Jörg Althaus Lifecycle Consulting Althaus | „Critical elements and their impact on a circular flow economy“ |
| 9:20–9:50 | Dr. James Goddin Granta Design | „Critical, conflict and strategic materials risks“ |
Noon Session: Workshop, Part 2
Chair: Christian Hagelüken, ESM/Umicore
| Strategies and perspectives | ||
| 12:30-13:00 | Karsten Schischke Fraunhofer IZM | „Product design for the efficient use of critical materials: the case of mobile information technology devices“ |
| 13:00-13:30 | Prof. Gerhard Sextl Fraunhofer IWKS and University of Würzburg | „Critical elements – strategies and advanced technologies for closed material loops“ |
| 13:30-14:00 | Willem Bulthuis Business Angel and Digitization Advisor | „Mobilising industry to act on material criticality – how other domains can inspire concrete actions“ |
| 14:00-14:20 | Final Discussion |
Afternoon Session: Expert debate on “What is materials criticality and how can it be assessed”
Moderation: Alessandra Hool, ESM / MatSearch
| Time | Invited Speaker / Participants | Topic |
| 16:30 | Alessandra Hool ESM / MatSearch | Introduction |
| Keynote talk | ||
| 16:40 | Prof. Dr. Jo Dewulf European Commission DG JRC | „EU methodology for criticality assessment“ |
| Plenary Discussion | ||
| 17:00 |
| |
| 19:00 | WRF Gala Dinner |