Research aims to bring a circular revolution to industry

For Assistant Professor Jennifer Russell of the College of Natural Resources and Environment, a factory floor that rolls out some of the largest construction vehicles is an ideal test case for an economic model that reveals the value of prioritizing sustainability.

“We can go into a manufacturing facility producing heavy equipment and measure and compare the energy, emissions, waste, labor, and cost impacts of making a brand-new excavator or grader,” said Russell. “We can then compare those impacts to the impacts resulting from a remanufactured machine where older parts and components have come back to be disassembled, cleaned, tested, and integrated back into the production process.”

The results can be astonishing. According to a United Nations study that Russell co-authored, remanufacturing efforts in heavy equipment factories resulted in a 90 percent reduction in material use, a 90 percent reduction in process energy, and a 60 percent reduction in emissions and energy required for materials. For a company that makes vehicles exceeding 500 tons in gross weight, such reductions represent a significant fiscal benefit.

The transition in industry from one-directional processes of extraction, production, and waste toward a circular economic model that focuses on value retention and reuse is the central research focus for Russell.

Along with a Department of Sustainable Biomaterials colleague, Collegiate Assistant Professor Kiara Winans, Russell is blazing a new path that will merge research about natural resources and materials science with an innovative perspective incorporating environmental resources considerations with social and economic benefits. Their research reflects the university’s commitment to advancing sustainability in our community and the world.

“The college and our faculty are at the center of research aimed at providing the goods and services necessary for society,” said Paul Winistorfer, dean of the college. “Studying sustainability through a quantitative lens is necessary for society to make better decisions regarding material choices, and we need to equip our students with tools and skills to address the large sustainability challenges that society faces.”

From quantifying sustainability to a circular economy

For Russell, the task of quantifying the benefits of a circular economic model is well underway. As a co-author of “Redefining Value – The Manufacturing Revolution,” she contributed to an extensive report for the United Nations (U.N.), showing that a realignment of the manufacturing industry toward a value-retention model would successfully decrease waste while stimulating economic growth.

“My research for the U.N.’s International Research Panel was very much about quantifying the benefits of circular economy,” said Russell, an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Global Change Center. “In our research for that report, we asked ourselves, ‘If we were successful in adopting this strategy, what would be possible? Could we mitigate climate change or address biodiversity loss? What is possible before we go down the path of rearranging our entire economy?’”

The report, which introduced the term “value-retention processes,” explored changes in three industrial sectors, quantifying not only the material costs and wastes of product production, but also the number of jobs created and the environmental benefits of transitioning to a circular economy model. Findings showed that the adoption of remanufacturing processes enabled increased production activity without the typical associated rise in environmental impacts due to resource collection.

“What’s exciting now is that the benefits and impacts of a circular economy are being studied and quantified,” said Russell. “Insights generated through life-cycle analyses of products, systems modeling, data collection and algorithms, and the conclusions are now influencing policy and industry decision making.

“Activities that can be categorized under the umbrella term of circular economy, if implemented appropriately, can lead to a reduction in emissions, pollution, waste, and resource extraction. And the model is proven to create new skilled-job opportunities as well as profit margin improvements for companies that engage in these new models.”

With the data to support a transition that will help both industry and the planet, Russell is turning her attention to the challenge of turning theory into practice.

“My real focus now is transition,” she said. “How do we start to rearrange and reconfigure these massive global supply chains and complex technologies that have been in place for 150 years? And just as challenging, how do we reconfigure the mindsets and priorities of industry leaders who have been trained to focus narrowly on the economics of supply and demand logic?”

Building upon a biomaterials foundation

Winans, who recently joined the department and teaches students about industrial ecology, emphasized that Virginia Tech possesses a deep knowledge base regarding the science of biomaterials, packaging and packaging systems, and more, a foundation that the faculty are dedicated to building upon.

Winans, who previously co-created and co-directed the industrial ecology program at the University of California, Davis, describes industrial ecology as the study of the flows of materials and energy in natural environments and industrial systems. Industrial ecologists consider the effects of these flows on the natural resource base; the influences of political, regulatory, and economic factors; and social and cultural conditions.

There is also a natural systems component, which both Winans and Russell focus on to understand the systems view of today’s wicked challenges.

“The beauty is that circular economy comes out of industrial ecology, which is a field that is founded on the principle that we can learn from natural systems,” Russell said. “Much of what Dr. Winans and I teach is about bringing the balanced systems that the natural world has had millions of years to develop into the design and operations of our industrial settings.”

Putting sustainability theory into action

A current grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) has Russell collaborating with corporate stakeholders on research that explores the flow of polyurethane foam products – a material found in sneakers and mattresses – through waste systems. Closer to campus, she is spearheading a research study exploring how sustainability practices can impact material flow in an area retirement community, a small-scale demonstration of systems analysis in action.

That second project, which considers everything from electrical usage to food preparation and waste, reveals the challenging scale of a sustainable future: any solution for a change requires the buy-in and participation of many people.

To that end, Russell was recently awarded another NSF grant that tasks her with creating research networks around the world to connect the systems-focused approaches that she advocates for with the researchers who best understand system requirements needed for circular economic models to take hold.

“A product designer or engineer may approach sustainability as a challenge of making a machine more efficient, lightweight, or streamlined,” said Russell. “A social scientist may engage with sustainability through the lens of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and the role of human behavior. The NSF understands that we need to have all of these voices participating together towards a sustainable future, and that’s what I’m starting to build.”

According to Winans, “Collaboration is critical not just among researchers, but also between researchers and interested parties: for example, those in our communities. We need to learn to work together across different value systems and cultures to enhance belonging and well-being.

“For business, the value might be profit maximization: if that is their value, how do we understand that through the framework of resource efficiency?” said Winans. “Resource use and efficiency can be explored, for example, by defining the quantity of resources, the retention time of those resources at their highest value or quality, and the post-potential use of those resources.”

Winans acknowledges that for students coming into the field, challenges such as sustainability and climate change may feel daunting. She said that systems-based approaches are a useful tool in making such challenges more approachable.

Winans and Russell both train their students in how to apply a systems approach and impact assessment tools to their own lives and experiences, as getting buy-in is one of the most critical steps in bringing about a revolution toward a sustainable future.

“Humans have the ability to make or break the possibility of a sustainable future,” said Russell. “We have the technology, the data, and the ability to adapt and innovate. What we don’t have is collective alignment or understanding. We’ve built this economic system and designed it to serve human needs. If we want to fix or change these systems, the power is in our hands.”

“We are reaching our planetary boundaries and need to disrupt our current way of doing things,” said Winans. “Students are genuinely inspired to be agents of change and contribute to a more sustainable future.”