Sustainability and Nickel
(last revised July 2006)
Nickel is ubiquitous in today's economic and social life.
It's attributes - corrosion resistance, high-temperature stability, strength, ductility, toughness, recyclability, as well as catalytic and electro-magnetic properties - are supportive of the needs of sustainability (see examples). Thus nickel in various forms ends up playing hundreds of roles in thousands of products and applications.
At the same time, there are hazards to be managed and environmental impacts to be reduced.
The following pages attempt to set out the "sustainability status" of nickel and nickel-containing materials including the challenges that remain.
The most important conceptual insight to start with is that nickel is an element. As such, it cannot be created (the resource base is finite) nor destroyed (it is persistent in the environment). This determines how society should manage the resource. This is best explained in the Five Winds publication "Eco-Efficiency and Materials", particularly Chapter Two.
Eco-efficiency does not equal sustainability: it lacks the social element. It is, however, an influential driver for a number of large corporations noted as environmental leaders.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines eco-effiency "as being achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the Earth’s estimated carrying capacity."
The following links relate to sustainability and are organized to reflect the life cycle of nickel:
Designing and specifying nickel and nickel-containing materials
Fabricating and manufacturing nickel-containing materials and products
Managing the end-of-life of nickel-containing materials and products
