Sustainability, Engineering and the Environment

Many of us view our phones as extensions of ourselves and use the latest apps with confidence, yet know little of what makes the hardware. Join us as we engage in ‘urban mining’ and look deep inside a handset. We’ll consider the journey that some of the components key to its electronics have been on. The story they tell is rarely pretty - should we care? We’ll discuss the possibility of change and improvements, and acknowledge the pioneering work of Dutch company Fairphone.

The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement have greatly emphasised the role of the private sector in financing sustainability and development. Manogna Goparaju will speak about her PhD research that focuses on mapping sustainability policies and laws (e.g. Indian Companies Act 2013) onto private sector corporate sustainability initiatives in order to directly/indirectly finance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Awareness of our impact on the planet is at an all-time high. Increased temperatures, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and rising sea levels are part and parcel with climate change. Lucy McMahon will be speaking to us about our ‘secret weapon’ in the fight against climate change – blue forests. Salt marshes and seagrass meadows are the ‘blue forests’ that occupy our coastline here in the UK. Lucy’s talk will explore the benefits these important ecosystems, particularly salt marshes, provide us and introduce the concept of ‘blue carbon’ as a method for climate change mitigation.