Sustainability remains very much a hot topic within industry, but also somewhat of a hot potato where buzzwords often overshadow actions. Responsible companies all chase “the triple bottom line” of benefiting profit, people and planet (in that order!), but the complexity of achieving actual impacts is a real hurdle for product engineers and designers. A key aspect is the role that materials and resources play. But what does it even mean to speak about a sustainable material – from an academic as well as a practical perspective. Using pumps as a vehicle, this talk will explore how we can think about and work with sustainability and material innovation in particular. I will briefly introduce sustainability as a highly complex and contextual topic, and why it is so challenging to translate into action in a business context. And then provide concrete examples of how a company as Grundfos is trying to embrace the complexity and move from sustainability by accident to sustainability by choice – and how materials play a pivotal role in this ambition. This talk will not produce any absolutes or grand solutions, but it does come with a promise of providing inspiration for anyone wanting to make a real impact.

Bio: Jacob Arnbjerg obtained his PhD in physical chemistry from Aarhus University in 2008 under the supervision of Professor Peter Ogilby, working on two-photon absorption of organic photosensitizers. Jacob then spent 5 years with Dupont as a researcher within the field food science and the applications of naturally derived biopolymers, before joining the School of Engineering at Aarhus University as an associate professor in chemical engineering. Since 2021 Jacob has been Lead Specialist with Grundfos, working with sustainability and materials technology in the pump industry.