Future Materials

The rapidly increasing and unsustainable consumption of resources and materials is a major driver of climate change and many other environmental challenges. Despite the potential of a biobased circular economy, too little is happening in practice – often due to the complexity of the transition. More concrete solutions are needed.

Through the Future Materials program, Axfoundation brings together researchers, companies, and experts to develop commercially viable solutions for sustainable material systems. The focus is to enable the supply of new, sustainable materials based on local and currently underutilized resources and biomass, as well to design material systems for circular flows.

Axfoundation develops practical solutions with a focus on new materials based on local and currently underutilized resources and biomass, as well as on material systems designed for circular flows.

The Issue

Producing materials comes at a high environmental cost. At the same time, global economic growth has tripled material consumption over the past 50 years, further accelerating the problem. This is particularly critical as materials are largely derived from fossil and finite resources and produced through energy- and emission-intensive processes.

Plastic is a clear example of the challenges linked to material consumption:

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million tons of plastic are produced globally each year – 99% of which is fossil-based.

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to 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from plastic – a share expected to increase as consumption continues to grow.

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percent of all plastic is recycled, while around 50% ends up in landfills.

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million tons of plastic leak into the oceans every year.

About the Program

The Future Materials program focuses on developing new materials that can meet society’s material needs with significantly reduced environmental impact. Together with partners, we run pilot projects and develop innovations in practice – solutions that can be scaled and widely adopted. We bring together actors from across the value chain, from research and raw material production to industry and brands. Through hands-on innovation, we explore how underutilized biomass and fiber crops can be used as raw materials in new materials and contribute to more sustainable material systems.

Our work is based on a systems perspective, where materials are designed to be part of circular flows and where resources are used as efficiently as possible. Our vision is a future in which material systems have a positive impact on the ecosystems and societies they depend on.

It is becoming increasingly business-critical for companies to phase out their reliance on fossil resources and use materials more efficiently. At the same time, disruptions in global supply chains are increasing, along with the pressure on future resources. This is driving the need for local sourcing and production.

By developing materials from local and underutilized resource flows, companies can reduce vulnerability in their value chains while strengthening both transparency and sustainability. This also creates concrete opportunities to develop new business models – particularly at the intersection of food and materials.

— Hanna Hobohm Skoog, Programområdeschef Framtidens material

Torsåker Farm

Torsåker Farm is a central hub for turning theory into practice. Here, we test and develop solutions for biobased materials. Our goal is to create a test environment where, together with our network of partners, we can develop and accelerate sustainable material solutions based on local and underutilized biobased resources.

Torsåker Farm is Axfoundation's development center for future food and materials, a valuable catalyst in our work.

Results

In Axfoundation’s Progress Report – Act to Inspire & Inspire to Act – we share a selection of successful results from the program area, but we also share examples of when things didn’t go quite as planned. Because it takes courage to fail in order to innovate and accelerate solutions for a more sustainable world.