New student project explores the sustainability implications of sourcing battery minerals

A new thesis project examines the sustainability of sourcing battery minerals for electric vehicles. It compares minerals from Sweden with globally sourced ones and the impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the UN 2030 Agenda. The results will aid in the development of sustainable practices for battery material production and support the Mistra Carbon Exit research program.

As the world moves towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly future, the shift towards electric vehicles powered by renewable energy is becoming increasingly important. However, the material flows and value chains associated with extracting and transforming raw materials, such as lithium and cobalt, into an electric vehicle battery are complex and raise important sustainability questions.

In a new master’s thesis project, two students will delve into these questions by exploring the sustainability impact of batteries in the context of the SDGs, specifically by comparing the sustainability implications of globally sourced battery minerals to locally sourced ones in Sweden. The students are Edvin Gunnarsson and Lowe Aspeqvist who studies Supply Chain Management at Chalmers University of Technology.

The project will provide valuable insights for the Mistra Carbon Exit research program and its partners, including Polestar, Volvo Cars, and Volvo CE, who are working towards sustainable practices for battery material production.

We are looking forward to the project results that will be presented in June. Stay tuned!

The Mistra Carbon Exit research program aims to analyse and demonstrate how supply chains of buildings, infrastructure, and transportation can be transformed to comply with the Swedish target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2045. SDSN Northern Europe highlights the Mistra Carbon Exit program as a Solution Initiative to accelerate progress toward sustainable development.

Read more about Mistra Carbon Exit >>

The students will work under the supervision of Johannes Morfeldt from the Department of physical resource theory at Chalmers University of Technology and Anders Ahlbäck, project manager at SDSN Northern Europe.