Incredible Husk & WCM: Unlocking sustainable composite materials applications to support lifecycle decarbonisation of the automotive industry.

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**Plastics** represent ~20% of a vehicle's weight (100-150kg/car) and the automotive sector is responsible for ~7% of global annual plastics consumption \[ODI,2020\]. Plastic has been an important material in light-weighting vehicles, driving fuel economy and reducing cars' CO2 emissions. The **environmental concerns** (carbon intensive transformation process, wasteful end-of-life etc.) around plastics have paved the way for the search for substitutes. The current state-of-art offer is however insufficient to effectively contribute to the sector's decarbonisation as the materials available still leverage heavy transformation processes, toxic chemicals, and/or non-recyclable ingredients.**Incredible Husk International Group (IHIG)** is an award-winning UK-SME specialised in sustainable materials development. IHIG has designed **three unique resource-efficient, low-emission, lightweight, and low-cost materials utilising multiple waste streams**, designed to enable manufacturers to make the transition from unsustainable materials to carbon-neutral or carbon-negative materials. In this project, IHIG seeks to demonstrate the materials' application within the automotive sector by collaborating with an industry-leading tier-1 automotive supplier with global outreach, **World Class Manufacturing (WCM)**.The consortium will trial manufacturing processes (e.g. compression, injection moulding and 3D-printing) of 2 interior parts (dashboard panel and a door-side pocket) to verify that they can meet Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) standards and entirely **displace petrochemical-based plastics** and contribute to **decarbonising** the automotive sector.IHIG's materials and production process validation for the automotive sector will demonstrate **applications for further verticals** whilst WCM will **unlock a new offering** for alternative, sustainable (and regulatory compliant) materials to existing OEM products on the market, securing ongoing relationships.