SGE32 - Do not delete & edit- Critical Materials

The urgency to embrace the circular economy has never been greater. The traditional, linear take-make-use-waste model results in value leakage at every stage of the value chain.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the transition to a circular economy could unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity. By redefining how you design, manufacture and operate within the circular economy framework, you not only contribute to a lower carbon footprint but also position your businesses for long-term success.

How can you make the circular economy achievable, scalable and profitable? Watch Dassault Systèmes executives: Pascal Daloz, Chief Executive Officer, Philippine de T’Serclaes, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Philippe Laufer, Executive Vice President Global Brands, as they discuss the importance of connecting the dots in circularity.

Got a Question? Get Your Answers.

Key insights about critical materials from Dassault Systèmes’ sustainability experts.

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of critical materials — usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security. Aggregating the definitions, we could say that they are minerals, elements, substances or materials of high economic importance — that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies — with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.
 
For the IEA, critical materials are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar photovoltaic (PV) plants and EVs.

Sustainability Success Stories

Peugeot

The partnership with Dassault Systèmes ultimately allowed us to quickly start a project from scratch without having to go through an entire learning phase.

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L’Occitane

“I can detach and dedicate tasks to the Dassault Systèmes teams to expand my bandwidth and get faster results, […] benefitting from expertise that we don't necessarily have internally.”

GEA

“With the results that are now available, we have gained a confidence level of 60-70%.”

Sustainability Success Stories

Peugeot

Adaptability. Anytime, Anywhere on Any device you need.

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The partnership with Dassault Systèmes ultimately allowed us to quickly start a project from scratch without having to go through an entire learning phase.

Peugeot

Adaptability. Anytime, Anywhere on Any device you need.

Learn more

The partnership with Dassault Systèmes ultimately allowed us to quickly start a project from scratch without having to go through an entire learning phase.

Peugeot

Adaptability. Anytime, Anywhere on Any device you need.

Learn more

The partnership with Dassault Systèmes ultimately allowed us to quickly start a project from scratch without having to go through an entire learning phase.

Discover more

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

What is meant by critical materials?

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security.

Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 

For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

Duration 9 minutes 51

1. What is meant by critical materials? 

Each country has its own definition of ‘critical materials’—usually framed through the lens of sovereignty and supply security. Aggregating the definitions we could say that “they are minerals, elements, substances, or materials of high economic importance, that serve an essential function in one or more energy technologies, with a high risk of supply chain disruption due to their concentration of sources and lack of good substitutes.” 
For the International Energy Agency, an international organization, ‘critical minerals’ are essential components in clean energy technologies such as wind farms, electricity networks, solar PV plants, and electric vehicles. 

2. Why are critical materials so important, particularly in the transportation, energy and electronics sectors? 

The transition to reach net-zero by 2050 will require 6 times more mineral inputs in 2040 than in 2020. As countries accelerate efforts to reduce emissions, they need to ensure energy systems remain resilient and secure. Critical materials impact transformative technologies with each technology requiring different types of materials. For example, for batteries, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are crucial. Whereas as for permanent magnets (used in wind turbines and EV motors) rare earth elements (REEs) are also essential. 

3. What is the lifecycle of critical materials?

The lifecycle of materials can be simplified into several segments. During Extraction, materials are removed from their natural environment (i.e. mining) and go through Processing to remove impurities and separate components to produce substances suitable for industrial applications.
Material Innovation involves developing new materials to reduce reliance on critical materials. Product Design involves using those materials to create products, focusing on waste reduction and recycling.
Then, products are manufactured, marketed and used to their end-of life. During Disassembly products are dismantled to isolate reusable elements.  Finally Recycling & Recovery focuses on reclaiming critical materials from products at their end-of-life.

4. How do critical materials circulate in a circular economy? What is the importance of recycling critical materials? 

In a circular economy, critical materials are managed to minimize waste and maximize reuse and recycling. As of 2019, the percentage of secondary materials used in manufacturing and construction activities was approximately 9%. Even if resource recovery potential is fully utilized, current economic structures enable only 30–40% material circularity.Therefore global production and consumption systems must be restructured. It starts by creating new business models which have their foundation in circular principles. Embedding Eco-design principles could help by prioritizing more sustainable designs, and better planning for life extension and disassembly.

5. What is the critical material value network?

A value chain includes all the activities related to value creation throughout the product’s or service’s lifecycle, from raw materials extraction to end of life. To transition to a more circular model for critical materials, we must generate additional value from recycled and recovered materials by reinserting them back into the industries as new inputs. And as conventional value chain models are linear, we will achieve this through a more sophisticated value network model. A connected value network operates more collaboratively. As a result, connected stakeholders interact across the entire network and influence the activities linked to value creation. 

6. What are responsibly sourced materials?

Responsibly sourced materials are obtained through processes that prioritize sustainability, ethical labor practices, and minimal environmental impact. This means that the extraction, production, and transportation of materials must adhere to ESG standards. However critical materials are subject to high risks of supply chain disruption. To reduce these risks, sourcing materials in a sustainable manner is essential and facilitated through a ‘social license to operate’. Additionally, by promoting circular economy principles, we can efficiently meet the global demand by recovering materials to be inserted back into the production loop. Thus reducing the need for mining and its impacts.

7. How can we effectively achieve traceability throughout the value chain?

Achieving traceability across the value chain is not a pipedream. Some sectors got there. However, for critical materials, we are faced with a highly complex ecosystem, involving many stakeholders. For example, electronics require more than 50 different critical materials and each come from a different location and supplier. Developing comprehensive standards and regulations that ensure end-to-end traceability remains a challenge. Our goal, as Dassault Systèmes, is to provide comprehensive solutions enabling this traceability. We want to enable stakeholders to provide the information needed in a collaborative, reliable, transparent and secure way while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.

8. What are the main regulations on critical materials?

Throughout the world, regulations have developed around critical materials to ensure traceability across the value chain, and promote circularity. Nations are trying to transform this ecosystem with a shared goal: increase self-sufficiency and circularity for strategic materials to fight climate change.

In Europe, major regulations are the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Digital Product Passport. In The US, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law promote recycling and sustainable use of critical materials. In China, the 14th Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy Development (2021–2025) aims to enhance resource utilization efficiency.