University of Brighton

Li-ion batteries are critical in advancing sustainable mobility and reducing GHG emissions. However, the extraction and processing of materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel can lead to significant environmental degradation and health risks. Optimising battery manufacturing is therefore essential to minimising the life cycle impacts of electric vehicles. Among Li-ion chemistries, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries are widely adopted due to their high energy density, performance, and scalability. This study presents a novel, multidimensional life cycle assessment (LCA) of NMC battery manufacturing by combining material level analysis via the bill of materials with a comparative evaluation of leading chemistries, NMC 523, 622, and 811, across 16 environmental impact categories. Using an integrated LCA Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) framework, results are weighted, normalised, and aggregated, enabling cross-category comparisons and ranking of chemistries and materials. A major novelty lies in the extended environmental scope, moving beyond GHG emissions, with resource use, fossil, ecotoxicity, freshwater, land use, water use, and climate change accounting for 99 % of the total PEF score. The analysis identifies cobalt as the most impactful material (PEF score 94/kg), followed by lithium salts (43), aluminium (40), and nickel (36), highlighting key environmental hotspots. Among the chemistries assessed, NMC 811 exhibits 18 % lower overall environmental footprint, and a 42 %, 20 %, and 16 % improvement in water use, climate change, and land use, respectively. These results support shifts toward low-cobalt chemistries while underscoring the role of auxiliary materials in shaping environmental performance. The findings emphasise the need for sustainable sourcing, material substitution, chemistry refinement, and advancements in end-of-life recycling to reduce life cycle burdens and recover high-impact materials. By integrating full-spectrum LCA with PEF and benchmarking across chemistries, this study advances battery sustainability assessment and offers a comprehensive framework to inform future design, manufacturing, recycling strategies, and policy decisions.

Climate change, fueled by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is a major threat to human health and demands immediate and decisive action. The effects of climate change directly harm the health of patients cared for by pulmonary, sleep, and critical care health professionals while putting healthcare delivery at risk. Ironically, the healthcare sector itself contributes to GHG emissions. In 2024, an American Thoracic Society workshop convened an international work group of adult and pediatric pulmonologists, intensivists, nurses, researchers, educators, healthcare administrators, and healthcare advocates to identify strategies to decrease pulmonary, sleep, critical care, and research laboratory-related emissions; improve quality; and support sustainability. The workshop prioritized strategies with the highest probability of reducing healthcare sector emissions significantly and urgently while considering the short- and long-term impacts of mitigation strategies on safe healthcare delivery and unintended adverse effects on vulnerable populations. Interventions were identified on micro (individual provider), meso (healthcare organization), and macro (regulatory/government/policy) levels. As trusted voices, health professionals and their professional societies are uniquely positioned to advocate for systemic change, ensuring that healthcare not only adapts to the challenges of climate change but also actively contributes to solutions that promote a healthier, more sustainable future for all.

To ensure electrification mitigates climate change, it is essential to limit life cycle GHG emissions from Li-Ion batteries. This study conducts a life cycle assessment (LCA) of lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide batteries (NMC 523, 622, 811), covering raw material extraction, manufacturing, use phase, and end-of-life (EoL). The originality of this work lies in its integrated comparison of battery chemistries, combined with a high-resolution assessment of how capacity, electricity grid mix, and recycling influence total kgCO 2 e emissions, offering a wider system perspective and hence, introducing a novel framework to identify optimal battery configurations. In the manufacturing phase, cobalt-lean NMC 811 reduces the kgCO 2 e by 20% compared to other NMC's, where the cathode dominates the impact at 49%, with cobalt representing the largest share at 33%. In the use phase, for the UK grid, replacing natural gas with renewables can reduce kgCO 2 e by an order of magnitude, from 5.1 to 0.37 per 100 kWh. In the EoL phase, hydrometallurgical recycling reduces emissions by 38% relative to the pyrometallurgical method, and battery sizes for the city car segment show 33% lower emissions. Finally, the reuse of recovered cathode materials offsets up to 83% of emissions compared to virgin battery production. Hence, the optimal configuration for the lowest kgCO 2 e impact in the small vehicle segment is an NMC 811 chemistry, 40 kWh in size, manufactured from recovered materials using hydrometallurgical recycling. The significance of this work is in its methodological rigour and system-wide results, providing benchmarks for sustainable design, policy guidance, and decision-making. • LCA of NMC batteries for raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, end-of-life. • Manufacturing phase - NMC 811 lowers kgCO 2 e by 20% against other NMC's. • Use phase - Wind, nuclear, PV grid in UK reduces kgCO 2 e from 5.1 to 0.37 per 100 kWh • EoL phase - Hydrometallurgy reduces kgCO 2 e by 38% to pyrometallurgy. • Reuse phase - Use of recovered materials offsets up to 83% of emissions.

As populations age, the gap between care needs and available support systems is widening, leading to critical vulnerabilities in staffing, infrastructure, and funding. The need for accessible, human-centred, and ethically grounded care technologies is growing. However, the development of digital health tools often lacks inclusivity and practical guidance. Existing ethical frameworks tend to remain abstract, which limits their real-world application. This study examines how such frameworks support the responsible development and implementation of caring technologies in older adult care. To achieve this, in-depth interviews were conducted with care providers, technology developers, and policymakers from partner organisations of the EMPOWERCARE project in the four participating countries: the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. A core challenge was the limited applicability of abstract ethical principles in daily care settings. While existing initiatives often define ethical domains, few offer a structured, actionable process to guide implementation in practice. The proposed guide responds with a step-by-step structure, practical examples, and participatory tools to support inclusive, value-driven technology adoption. It is envisioned both as an implementation aid and a quality label to align stakeholders. Future research should validate the guide's usability, explore its role across care contexts, and examine how ethics can be more firmly embedded in innovation governance.

Purpose The paper presents the major barriers to Offsite Construction (OSC) adoption in Jordan from a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) sustainability framework. It also recommends steps to enhance OSC implementation in the Jordanian construction industry. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach was used to generalise findings and draw conclusions. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was applied to establish relationships between variables and group them into the proposed components based on 208 valid responses from construction professionals in Jordan. EFA and descriptive statistics using SPSS developed a hierarchy of barriers to OSC adoption. Findings The lack of regulations, standards, and incentives, the lack of adequate labourers, and long lead times and time certainty issues were identified as the three most important variables. At the same time, the uncertainty of energy performance was considered the least important variable affecting the Jordanian OSC sector. Research limitations/implications Given that the research focused on OSC adoption in the Jordanian construction industry, and the data was collected from Jordan only, the findings are applicable to the Jordanian context only. This exploratory study highlights implications for further investigations into the barriers to OSC adoption in Jordan. Practical implications The anticipated outcome is to help practitioners understand the challenges associated with the low adoption of OSC in Jordan. The identified variables and recommendations can guide strategic decisions, including assessments and benchmarking, fostering OSC development in Jordan. Originality/value This research identifies barriers to OSC adoption in Jordan and offers unique insights into the variables that hinder OSC uptake from a sustainability perspective.

3D printing has been shown to be a highly effective approach for the reproducible manufacturing of composite carbon electrodes. Various printing parameters have been effectively shown to enhance the electrochemical performance of 3D‐printed electrodes through reducing contact resistance; however, most of these studies have been conducted using 100% infill electrodes. Our study explored how the infill pattern and printing orientation can impact the electrochemical performance of reduced infill carbon black/polylactic acid (CB/PLA) electrodes. We printed 30% infill CB/PLA electrodes in linear, grid, triangle, and wiggle infill patterns in both horizontal and vertical orientations and evaluated the performance using cyclic voltammetry, conductivity imaging, and contact angle measurements. CB/PLA electrodes made using a grid infill pattern in horizontal orientation and a linear infill pattern with vertical orientation had the highest current and lowest difference between the anodic and cathodic peak potentials for an inner‐sphere redox probe. This study provides vital insight that the choice of infill pattern is important when printing in different orientations. The findings presented have significant implications on effective choice of printing parameters when crafting 3D‐printed electrodes and electronic components.