We are taking STEPS towards a sustainable future!

STEPS academic and industrial partners, and board members gather in programme meetings twice a year.
STEPS – Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways
This research program was initiated during autumn 2016 after being awarded the funding for Mistra´s call of proposals on “Plastics in a Sustainable Society”.
The program, with a strong support from important stakeholders, has a vision of a future society in which plastics are sustainably developed, produced, used and recycled in a circular economy. STEPS is planned in close dialogue with industrial partners, and thus reflects the market needs for sustainable plastic systems both on a short-term and long-term basis.
It is based on the concept of designing eco-friendly plastics having desired material properties and -life cycle by matching appropriate carbon-neutral building blocks and their derivatives. Major focus in the programme is on polyesters, which represent a plastics group with varying properties for wide range of applications and a sizable global market.
STEPS aims to play a key role in instigating and accelerating this sustainability transition by strengthening the knowledge and research base for technology- and product development and innovation, developing and assessing key niche products with industrial partners, and analysing the sustainability, institutional and policy implications of potential transition pathways.
Who is who?

Christopher Folkeson Welch
Programmes Director at Mistra

Britt-Marie Bertilsson
Chair of STEPS Board

Kristy-Barbara Lange
STEPS board member
Deputy MD Regulatory Affairs
at European Bioplastics

Maria Gustafsson
STEPS board member
Project Manager at the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS)

Søren Hvilsted
STEPS board member
Professor Emeritus at DTU
Management group

Rajni Hatti-Kaul
Program Director
Leader WP1
Biotechnology
Lund University

Baozhong Zhang
Leader WP2
CAS
Lund University

Lars J Nilsson
Leader WP3
IMES
Lund University

Christian Hulteberg
Leader WP1
Chemical Engineering
Lund University

Teis Hansen
Leader WP3
Human Geography
Lund University

Åsa Halldén Björklund
Leader WP2
Perstorp

Ellen Lindblad
Leader WP3
Sysav Utveckling AB

John P Jensen
Leader WP1
Nordic Sugar

Linda Zellner
Leader WP2
Perstorp

Ellen Palm
Leader WP3
IMES
Lund University

Johanna Generosi
Program Coordinator
FSI
Lund University