Sustainable Innovation - LGI Sustainable Innovation

Context

Critical raw materials [CRM] are at the heart of the green and digital transitions. Their unique properties make them essential for everything from clean energy technologies to advanced manufacturing to digital innovation. Yet their extraction, processing, and use remain highly resource- and emission-intensive, with growing environmental, social, and geopolitical risks. Meanwhile, most value chains still operate on a “take-make-waste” linear model. This leads to losses of non-renewable resources, supply chain vulnerabilities, and missed opportunities for reuse and recovery.

To ensure long-term resilience and sustainability, we must rethink how materials are sourced, circulated, and retained in the economy. This requires a shift toward circular models, responsible sourcing practices, and cross-sector collaboration to reduce dependency, preserve resources, and align with evolving regulations.

Our approach

We take a systemic approach to raw materials and circular value chains, bridging innovation, policy, and industrial practice to redesign how resources flow through our economies. Our work covers the entire value chain of raw materials, from responsible mineral exploration to improving recycling technologies, while prolonging the lifespans of materials while they are in use. We support our clients and partners in adopting circular business models, and we focus on embedding circularity and responsible sourcing across sectors. We work with our partners to adopt a systems approach that transforms production and consumption through lifecycle thinking.

Through awareness-raising campaigns on social media, engaging podcast series, or facilitating expert-led discussions in webinars, we aim to increase knowledge, promote collaboration, and encourage engagement on sustainable practices.

By combining these efforts, we turn circular economy principles into actionable strategies—connecting actors, aligning goals, and driving material efficiency at every step of the value chain.

Work Highlights

SCREEN III

Works to provide expert advice in support of decision-making at the EU level covering all the raw materials and their value chains screened in the CRM 2023 assessment exercise. It contributes to improving EU official statistics and to further building the EU knowledge base on primary and secondary raw materials. SCRREEN III also develops and animates a network of EU experts covering all the raw materials and their value chains screened in the CRMs assessment exercise.

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AfricaMaVal

Aims to develop sustainable partnerships between European and African industry, ensuring a responsible sourcing of mineral resources for European industry while granting a local co-development in the best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) conditions and leading to a long-term business environment for European and African companies.

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Towards a Circular Value Chain of Cobalt

LGI was commissioned by the Cobalt Institute to develop their circular economy report, which provides a vision of a circular cobalt value chain capable of creating shared value for people and the planet. The report focuses on the key three areas in the cobalt value chain where most progress can be achieved to sustainably match supply with demand: cobalt extraction, use, and recycling. Ten circular solutions that contribute to bringing each axis to life were studied according to their ability to create social and environmental benefits, as well as their feasibility and potential to offer tangible value for real world stakeholders.

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MaDiTraCe

aims to reinforce the transparency, traceability, and sustainability of complex supply chains of critical raw materials including cobalt, lithium, natural graphite and rare earth elements. Bringing together 14 partners from 7 countries, the project will develop and integrate technological solutions for traceability and certification into a Digital Product Passport. These solutions will enable key industry players to prove the reliability of their sustainability claims, comply with current regulation and anticipate future policies.

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Prometia

LGI is a founding member of the PROMETIA, which is an international non-profit association that promotes innovation in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy for mining and recycling of raw materials. Its mission is to make raw materials accessible to European industries and citizens.

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