CSyARES - Toward a Circular System for Assessing Rare Earth Sustainability

在风力涡轮机、电动汽车、手机、计算机和国防工业等高需求产品中，稀土金属是不可替代的。因此，我们需要研究如何可持续地开采和加工这些金属。Minviro与BEC GmbH、Circle Rise、Grundfos和全球稀土行业协会(REIA)于2022年2月启动了一个由EIT原材料资助的研究项目。该研究旨在开发基于区块链的可追溯循环系统，以提高涉及关键和稀土材料的供应链的透明度和可持续性。稀土元素(REE)对于向循环经济转型至关重要，也是许多绿色技术解决方案的关键组成部分，如节能灯、风力涡轮机、混合动力汽车和全电动汽车。虽然这些金属对推动可持续发展目标至关重要，但目前还没有评估整个REE价值链的可持续性的社会环境报告的认证或标准。稀土资源的可获得性并不是无限的，其提取和加工也伴随着环境足迹。因此，显然有必要建立全行业的可持续性标准和计划，以便相应地实际证明可持续性。为了实现这一目标，需要赋予稀土价值链的透明度和可追溯性。稀土可持续性评估循环系统(CSyARES)项目的目标是改善欧盟经济和世界市场的原材料供应条件(改善国际资源透明度和治理导致稳定性、可预测性、资源效率，从而在可持续的基础上更好地提高竞争力)。该项目是一个行业倡议，旨在创建一个标准化的稀土元素可持续性认证以及一个软件系统，以改善供应链参与者之间的数据传输。实际上，CSyARES项目打算将Minviro的可持续性度量平台(使用生命周期评估方法)与REIA的REE可持续性标准和Circle的基于区块链的可追溯性软件整合在一起。集成解决方案为供应商提供负担得起的保密认证，证明他们的可持续性指标。Grundfos和BEC GmbH随后将测试该解决方案，以跟踪和衡量其供应链的环境影响。该项目为期三年，最后将交付综合平台，作为一种可购买的软件服务，由Minviro和Circle共同管理。

Rare-earth metals are irreplaceable in highly demanded products such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, mobile phones, computers and the defence industry. Therefore, we need to research how to sustainably mine and process these metals. Minviro together with BEC GmbH, Circularise, Grundfos, and the global Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA) started a research project in February 2022, funded by EIT Raw Materials. The research aims to develop a blockchain-based traceability circular system to improve transparency and sustainability of supply chains involving critical and rare earth materials.Rare earth elements (REE) are essential for the transition towards a circular economy and a critical component of many green technology solutions such as energy-efficient lights, wind turbines, hybrid and fully electric vehicles. While these metals are critical to drive sustainability targets forward, there is no certification or standard for socio-environmental reporting to assess sustainability across the REE value chain. REE resource availability is not unlimited and its extraction and processing also comes with an environmental footprint. Therefore there is a clear necessity to establish industry-wide sustainability criteria and schemes to actually certify sustainability accordingly. To reach this goal, the transparency and traceability of the REE value chains needs to be given.The Circular System for Assessing Rare Earth Sustainability (CSyARES) project's objective is to improve raw materials supply conditions for the EU economy and the world market (Improved international resource transparency and governance leads to stability, predictability, resource-efficiency and hence a better foundation for competitiveness on a sustainable basis). The project is an industry initiative which aims to create a standardised sustainability certification for rare earth elements as well as a software system to improve data transfer between supply chain actors.In practical terms, the CSyARES project intends to integrate Minviro's sustainability metric platform (using life cycle assessment methodology) with REIA’s sustainability standards for REE and Circularise's blockchain-based traceability software. The integrated solution provides affordable confidentiality-preserving certification to suppliers, proving their sustainability metrics. Grundfos and BEC GmbH will then test this solution to trace and measure the environmental impact of their supply chains. The project is three years long and will conclude with the delivery of the integrated platform as a purchasable software service, jointly managed by Minviro and Circularise.