The ever-advancing modern world has been accompanied by rising grand challenges, from energy crisis, to environmental pollution, to access to clean water, and to curbing carbon emission. Never before has the world faced such a need for sound scientific knowledge and expertise, to better understand and tackle these rising global challenges. Natural and sustainable resources that are abundant on Earth hold great promise as solutions to these grand challenges. The EML Webinar on 29 July 2020 discusses recent research progresses on developing advanced sustainable materials that hold promise to replace widely used man-made materials with enormous environmental impact, such as steels (and alloys) and plastics. To this end, we focus particularly on cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on Earth as the source of sustainable materials. Several advanced materials based on cellulose and natural wood are discussed, including super wood as a potential structural material to replace steels and alloys, and transparent strong and tough cellulose nanopaper to replace plastic foils. These high-performance, low-cost and nature-based advanced materials offer an array of promising material solutions toward a sustainable future.

EML webinar speakers and videos are updated at https://imechanica.org/node/24098.

不断发展的现代世界伴随着日益严峻的挑战，从能源危机到环境污染，再到获得清洁水和遏制碳排放。全世界从未如此需要健全的科学知识和专业知识，以更好地理解和应对这些日益严峻的全球挑战。解决这些巨大挑战的方法是地球上丰富的自然和可持续资源。2020年7月29日举行的EML网络研讨会讨论了开发先进的可持续材料的最新研究进展，这些材料有望替代具有广泛环境影响的广泛使用的人造材料，例如钢（和合金）和塑料。为此，我们特别关注纤维素，这是地球上最丰富的生物聚合物，可作为可持续材料的来源。讨论了几种基于纤维素和天然木材的先进材料，包括超级木材作为替代钢和合金的潜在结构材料，以及透明的强韧纤维素纳米纸代替塑料箔。这些高性能，低成本和基于自然的先进材料为可持续发展的未来提供了一系列有前途的材料解决方案。

EML网络研讨会的演讲者和视频在https://imechanica.org/node/24098上进行了更新。