PhD candidate Bernardo Mendonca greens the gears with a deep dive into mining companies' sustainable shift for EV battery minerals.
In a world undergoing profound transformation due to climate change and the increasing shift toward sustainable technologies, individuals like Bernardo are at the forefront of innovative solutions.
Bernardo began his professional career as a trained engineer and urban planner. For several years, he dedicated himself to social housing projects in Brazil, focusing on urban drainage, sewage systems, and water distribution – especially for communities transitioning from informal settlements.
Bernardo joined the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) PhD graduate research program in 2022. His research investigates the voluntary adoption of sustainable practices by mining companies extracting minerals for EV (Electric Vehicle) batteries.
Driven by the question: “Where do things come from, and where do they ultimately go?”, Bernardo’s curiosity and passion for understanding the movements and dynamics of things into urban areas have found a fitting outlet in the ISF PhD program.
“A lot of what drew me to urban development was the complexity of the problems solved. From an urban settlement perspective, every single aspect of drainage, sewage, water distribution, transportation, etc. affects the livelihood of the local population. It’s impossible to change one aspect without changing everything else.”
He says, “Moving towards my PhD, I really wanted to understand where the things we take for granted come from… How do the objects that shape our urban living (such as cars, buses, and bikes) come to be, and what does that mean for people on the other side of the globe.”
In collaboration with ISF, he takes a deeper dive into urban development while partnering with experts from diverse fields. For Bernardo, ISF represents the opportunity to broaden horizons and explore resource flows that complement his existing knowledge.
He says, “In my career I’ve worked with different types of flows (people, water, sewage…), but when the opportunity came up to work with resource extraction and mineral flows into urban areas (taking the form of EVs) this immediately rang a bell as something I hadn’t done before that could be so complimentary to my existing background.”
Reflecting on his experience with ISF, Bernardo highlights the transformative impact of the program's transdisciplinary nature, and how it has opened up many new personal and professional avenues for him.
It’s been a life-changing experience. Being able to live at the intersection of research and industry development has given me so much perspective. Being able to navigate between research areas and the exposure to highly skilled researchers and professionals has made my learning experience extremely effective and joyful.
– Bernardo Mendonca, ISF