There are moments when you think: this should not stay locked inside reports, advice or boardrooms. This belongs in education, in the basic knowledge of a next generation. For New Economy, material impact was one of those topics.
Material impact is the environmental and social impact of a material across its whole life cycle: extraction, production, use and end of life. New Economy has worked for years on making products, buildings, areas and supply chains more sustainable. The same blind spot kept surfacing: material choice was still often viewed through a narrow lens. Is it strong enough? Is it affordable? Is it recyclable?
But a material that is recyclable is not automatically good for the environment. Some materials cause high CO₂ emissions because production is extremely energy-intensive. Others carry risks around scarcity, supply security, price volatility or origin in vulnerable supply chains. And sometimes a material can have positive impact, for example because it stores CO₂ or contributes to biodiversity. That was exactly why New Economy offered additional pages for Binas.
The next generation should learn to weigh trade-offs earlier
Material choices largely determine the impact of products, buildings and infrastructure. Yet many people only learn how big that impact is late in their education or career. New Economy believed this should happen earlier. Not only once someone becomes an architect, designer, buyer, policymaker, engineer or developer, but already at school, in the phase where young people learn how the world fits together physically, biologically and chemically.
That is why New Economy offered the Binas board committee additional pages that give students insight into the impact of materials. The cover letter stated that material choice should not only be about quality and price, but also about environmental and social impact. Because the question is not only: what is something made of? It is also: what does this material cause in the world, how much climate impact does production have, which raw materials are scarce, which supply chains are vulnerable and which alternatives are more future-proof?
These are questions that belong to this era. And therefore also to the education of this era.
What New Economy submitted
New Economy submitted a set of tables, visuals and inspiring examples to make material impact accessible to students and teachers. The material covered:
Alongside these tables, New Economy submitted an example exercise. Not only asking which material insulates well technically, but also which material has the least influence on climate change, which materials are easy to recycle, and what advice you would ultimately give on material choice.
That is exactly the core: learning to weigh trade-offs. Not maximising a single property, but understanding that real sustainability always has several dimensions at once: technology, climate, health, scarcity, supply chains and future value.
From knowledge to practical judgement
For New Economy, this is exactly what regenerative strategy is about: translating complex systems knowledge into practical choices. Not only warning that materials have impact, but showing how that impact can be compared. Not only talking about circularity, but giving students tools to ask better questions. Not only abstract sustainability goals, but concrete tables, examples and exercises that someone can work with tomorrow.
Because the students using Binas today are the designers, researchers, builders, entrepreneurs and decision-makers of tomorrow. They will make choices about homes, bridges, batteries, electronics, infrastructure, food chains, machines, packaging and products still to be invented. It helps enormously if they learn early that material choice is not neutral.
Every material choice tells a story about energy, raw materials, landscape, labour, emissions, biodiversity and future use. That is why New Economy submitted these additional pages. Because better materials start with better questions.
Frequently asked questions
Material impact is the environmental and social impact of raw materials and materials across their whole life cycle, including CO₂ emissions, scarcity, recyclability, chain risks, health and biodiversity.
Recyclability says something about the phase after use, but not automatically about energy-intensive production, scarcity, origin, emissions or effects on environment and health. A recyclable material can still cause high CO₂ emissions.
In 2021, New Economy submitted additional pages, tables, visualisations and an example exercise about material impact, including periodic tables on scarcity, recycling and LCA impact of metals, so that students learn to weigh several dimensions at once.