For Materials Engineer Tiffany Waymer, sustainability is all about working smarter with what you already have – from how aluminum is recycled to how engineering talent is valued. Her work shows what circularity looks like in practice.
Not blowing things up: What a materials engineer really does
If you picture a materials engineer as someone lighting things on fire in a lab, Tiffany is quick to reset your expectations. “No, I don’t go around blowing things up. Though back in my day, as my son would say, I did start out in a test lab doing grad research on decoys for heat-seeking missiles for the Navy.”
Today, Tiffany is a trained metallurgist at Trane Technologies, working across teams and facilities to solve complex manufacturing and sustainability challenges using the materials already in play. “Last week, for example, I was in a scrap yard, looking at what most people would call waste. I was trying to understand, based on the scrap metals coming in, how much can we reclaim and can we get any value out of it?”
Innovating from the inside out: Working with what you’ve got
Tiffany didn’t always plan to become a metallurgist. In high school, she thought she’d be a chemical engineer. Then, she took an introductory engineering course at Purdue.
“My professor had a big influence on me. He made me realize that you could actually alter how a material performs at an atomic level by changing the chemical composition. I thought that was pretty cool.”
That curiosity helped shape her career and the way she approaches problem solving. “I don’t think about materials as fixed,” Tiffany explains. “I think about the problem and how we can use existing materials to solve it better.” At Trane Technologies, it’s this mindset that informs how materials are selected, tested and pushed further to support sustainability without sacrificing performance.
Sustainability as a team sport: “We’re not in this world by ourselves”
Despite the positive strides Trane Technologies is making for the planet, Tiffany acknowledges that sustainability doesn’t work in silos. “We’re not in this world by ourselves,” she says. “You can do this sustainable thing over in a corner, but what kind of impact is that?”
For her, the answer lies in working alongside other innovators through groups like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where companies pool knowledge and push progress together. “Through the WBCSD, you find the other companies who are like-minded innovators. They may not be using the same alloys, but they’re trying to make the same impact. And, they understand that we have a responsibility to the environment and to be a good neighbor.”
Closed-loop recycling: Giving new life to old materials
That same belief in collective action carries into Tiffany’s work inside Trane Technologies, where global commitments are translated into concrete engineering decisions. “I get to support the Gigaton Challenge directly, from a sustainable and circular approach,” Tiffany explains.
Learn more about the Gigaton Challenge and how we’re helping our customers reduce 1 gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
One of the circularity projects Tiffany is proudest of is a closed-loop aluminum recycling pilot, launched in 2022. “Instead of selling scrap into the open market, we’re returning it directly to suppliers to be remelted into high-quality raw material that we can use again.”
Tiffany and her team zeroed in on aluminium, which is notoriously energy hungry. In fact, smelting aluminium accounts for around 4% of global electricity consumption. “We started with aluminum because it’s about 95% more energy-intensive to use virgin aluminum than recycled content, so it was low-hanging fruit.”
What began as a tightly controlled pilot, focused on a single aluminum alloy at one manufacturing site with one supplier, has since expanded to include copper and steel, six manufacturing sites, two scrap vendors and five suppliers.
For Tiffany, circularity is about how systems recognize and reuse value that already exist – and this doesn’t just extend to materials. In fact, this same principle shows up in how Trane Technologies thinks about its people.
Relaunching a career after a gap: Reclaiming valuable experience
Tiffany’s career path hasn’t been linear, and she’s grateful for the opportunities Trane Technologies gave her after a break in her career.
“My journey really has been a journey,” she says. “I had my son and prioritized my husband’s career advancement, so I stepped away from work for a while.”
When she was ready to return, she didn’t start from scratch. Instead, she stepped into a role where her experience was recognized and respected.
Tiffany initially applied for a few direct roles, but her mentors encouraged her to think bigger. “They told me, ‘You’ve done the floor work. You’ve done manufacturing. You already have that skill set. Do something more in line with what you actually want to do.’”
After time away, her confidence had taken a knock. “It had been a long time, and I was doubting myself a little. But I trusted the people who knew me and who knew the company. So, I went for it and here I am.”
For Tiffany, that return reflects something broader about the culture at Trane Technologies.
Solving challenges through circular design and firm fundamentals
The same circular design discipline carries through Tiffany’s day-to-day work. Rather than defaulting to new solutions, she starts by understanding what already exists, where value is being lost and what constraints matter. That means defining the problem clearly, working within real-world limits and designing solutions that preserve performance, economics and long-term impact.
“When I can solve a problem for someone that’s been bugging them, that’s the bee’s knees,” she says. “That and connecting two pieces to find an answer. At the end of the day, that’s who I am. I’m an engineer and a problem solver.”
Whether she’s working with design teams, suppliers or factory operators, that mindset shapes how she approaches challenges, and it’s something she advises budding engineers to adopt, too. “You really need to focus on the fundamentals. Learn how to think as an engineer. Define the problem first. Because if you don’t have the right problem defined, your solution isn’t going to be right either.”
Learn more about our circularity strategy.
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