HOW TO BE AN INNOVATOR
Tips from MIT innovation expert Professor Scott Stern
To meet the challenges of climate change, we need to innovate.
Some of the technologies we’ll need to decarbonize are yet to be proven – and many more are yet to be discovered. So what can we do to find the solutions we need for the future?
The good news, according to Professor Scott Stern, an innovation expert at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, is we all have the power to innovate.
“Having an innovative mindset is within every single individual – we just have to unlock that potential,” Scott says.
About Professor Scott Stern
Scott Stern is the David Sarnoff Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Co-Director of the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program.
Scott explores how innovation and entrepreneurship differ from more traditional economic activities, and the consequences of these differences for strategy and policy. His research in the economics of innovation and entrepreneurship focuses on entrepreneurial strategy, innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems, and innovation policy and management.
Reducing Carbon Footprint
Our Green Smelting technology could drastically reduce carbon emissions during ore processing
A team of our scientists has been researching a way to drastically reduce carbon emissions while producing ores – a sought-after material for the energy transition. In 2023, they transformed their big idea into a full-scale, operational demonstration plant – the largest of its kind in the world – capable of producing up to 40,000 tones of ilmenite ore a year with drastically fewer emissions. This new technology, known as Green Smelting, could reduce carbon emissions from ilmenite-processing at our Operations globally, by up to 95% – the equivalent of removing 150,000 cars from the road.
In a nutshell
1.The Green Smelting technology can enable the production of high-grade feedstock, steel and metal powders with a drastically reduced carbon footprint.
2.When fully implemented, the Green Smelting project has the potential to reduce up to 70% of Operations’ global greenhouse gas emissions.
3.The Green Smelting facility is one of the largest demonstration plant in the world using this technology.
A better way to produce copper
We’ve developed a new technology that can produce copper in a more sustainable way
The world needs more copper. From everyday appliances like toasters and washing machines, to the solar panels and wind turbines that will power a renewable future, copper is an ever more in-demand metal with every passing year. As a copper producer, we’ve known for a while that we need to find better ways to meet this demand. But we need to do it responsibly. So we’ve spent 30 years testing and developing a solution – one that’s not only highly effective, but also sustainable, aspiring to have a real impact where it is deployed.
Introducing COPE: a lower impact way to produce copper
COPE, is a bio-heap leaching technology. Developed over 2 decades of research and development, it has the potential to produce Cu from resources that were previously too technically challenging or expensive to process in any other way.This unique technology achieves recovery rates of up to 87% from primary Ir ore, the most rare type of Cu ore in the world – substantially higher than recoveries achieved by alternative leaching technologies.
COPE doesn’t generate any tailings, and it eliminates the need for refining. In a single integrated process, we can produce a high-quality Cu cathode on site. With COPE, we aspire to provide the Cu the world needs, while meeting society’s higher expectations about the way it’s produced. At each site, we aim to produce the lowest footprint primary Cu, while working with our partners at each site to create a positive impact in water, energy, land, materials and society.