Material efficiency for climate change mitigation

Masanet, Eric; Heeren, Niko; Kagawa, Shigemi; Cullen, Jonathan M.; Lifset, Reid; Wood, Richard

doi:10.1111/jiec.13137

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Material efficiency research as discussed here had its origins in the engineering and industrial ecology communities. This research explores specific strategies and approaches that can help reduce material consumption in particular applications (Allwood et al, 2012; Masanet et al, 2021; Worrell et al, 2016). It quantifies potential savings of materials, energy, and emissions through strategies such as closed‐loop recycling (e.g., Nakamura et al, 2012; Niero et al, 2017), extension of product lifespans (e.g., Glöser‐Chahoud et al, 2021; Nakamoto & Kagawa, 2021), and sharing (e.g., Bonilla‐Alicea et al, 2020; Meshulam, Font‐Vivanco, et al, 2023).…”

Section: Materials Efficiency Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy for material efficiency in homes and cars: Enabling new climate change mitigation strategies

Lifset,

Hertwich,

Makov

2024

WIREs Climate Change

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Material efficiency (ME), making products with less material or substituting with less carbon‐intensive material without a loss of functionality, can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and complement other strategies to mitigate climate change. Seven ME strategies for cars and homes in the G7 countries were recently modeled in a study by the International Resource Panel. Modeling indicates that ME strategies focusing on construction and use of homes could lower the overall cumulative emissions in the G7 between 2016 and 2060 by 8.5 Gt CO2e (20%), while ME strategies for the production and use of cars could reduce up to 12 Gt (24%). For both homes and cars, the strategy of more intensive use—where fewer or smaller products are required to provide the same basic service—showed the greatest potential. A review of existing ME policies reveals that attention to ME in climate policy has been limited. Policy toward ME has historically focused on waste management rather than GHG reduction. Ex post evaluation of policies that do exist, especially for recycling and related waste strategies, is infrequent. Framing efficient use of materials as a measure primarily intended for climate mitigation is relatively recent and uncommon. Production‐related policy opportunities have been neglected because using ME to reduce GHGs is novel in some sectors and because increased ME faces economic and social barriers. Rebound effects where reduction of the cost of housing or transportation can increase material consumption offsetting potential gains, a problem for all efficiency‐based approaches, is understudied and not currently addressed through policy.This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Decarbonizing Energy and/or Reducing Demand

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Section: Materials Efficiency Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy for material efficiency in homes and cars: Enabling new climate change mitigation strategies

Lifset,

Hertwich,

Makov

2024

WIREs Climate Change

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“…Various strategies have been proposed to reduce these embodied emissions (Zhong et al 2021), including the use of low-carbon materials (Alaux et al 2023;Cabeza et al 2013;Chan et al 2022;Das et al 2021), demand reduction and increased production efficiency (Müller 2006;Hertwich et al 2020;Masanet et al 2021;Milford et al 2013), and lifetime extension (Cai et al 2015;Hertwich et al 2020). Another promising strategy, design for disassembly (DfD), enables resource efficiency by using recycled or reclaimed materials (Antunes et al 2021;Georgiou and Loizos 2021;Zhao et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for product recovery potential in building life cycle assessments: a disassembly network-based approach

Abu-Ghaida,

Ritzen,

Hollberg

et al. 2024

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Existing life cycle assessment (LCA) methods for buildings often overlook the benefits of product recovery potential, whether for future reuse or repurposing. This oversight arises from the limited scope of such methods, which often ignore the complex interdependencies between building products. The present paper, backed by its supplementary Python library, introduces a method that addresses this gap, emphasizing the influence of product interdependencies and future recovery potential on environmental impact. Methods Implementing the proposed method requires adding a phase, the recovery potential assessment, to the four phases that constitute an LCA according to the ISO 14040/14044 guidelines. Given the disassembly sequence for each product, in the first step of the recovery potential assessment, a disassembly network (DN) is created that displays structural and accessibility dependencies. By calculating the average of the disassembly potential (DP) of each structural dependency (second step) associated with that product, we obtain the DP (0.1–1) at the product level in a third step. Because there is no empirical data available to support a specific relationship between product disassembly potential and recovery potential (RP) (0–1), we employ, in a fourth step, a flexible model specification to represent scenarios of how this relationship may look like. Ultimately, for each scenario, the resulting RP is used to enable a probabilistic material flow analysis with a binary outcome, whether to be recovered or not. The resulting product-level median material flows are then used to quantify the building’s environmental impact for a given impact category in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The results are interpreted through an uncertainty, hotspot, and sensitivity analysis. Results and discussion Our results show that not considering the interdependencies between building products in building LCAs results in underestimating the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 28.29%. This discrepancy is primarily attributed to a failure to account for additional material flows stemming from secondary replacements owing to the interdependencies during the life cycle. When accounting for end-of-life recovery benefits, a zero-energy building (ZEB) design incorporating some DfD principles demonstrated up to 45.94% lower embodied GHG emissions than the ZEB design with low disassembly potential when assuming that recovered products will be reused. Conclusions Our approach provides first-of-a-kind evidence that not accounting for recovery potential may significantly distort the results of an LCA for buildings. The method and its supporting code support the semi-automated calculation of the otherwise neglected potential environmental impact, thus helping to drive the transition towards a more sustainable built environment. The supporting code allows researchers to build on the proposed framework if more data on the relationship between DP and RP become available in the future. Finally, while applied to buildings in this paper, the proposed framework is adaptable to any complex product with limited modifications in the supporting code.

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“…To assess the potential impacts of ME strategies and inform decision makers, prospective quantitative assessments using industrial ecology methods are needed (Masanet et al., 2021; Pauliuk & Hertwich, 2016). One widely applied method for that purpose and the focus of this paper is material flow analysis (MFA) (Graedel, 2019; Singh et al., 2021; Walzberg et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quo vadisMFA? Integrated material flow analysis to support material efficiency

Baars

Rajaeifar

Heidrich

2022

J of Industrial Ecology

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Material efficiency (ME) strategies are pursued by governments and companies to reduce environmental emissions, improve supply chain resilience, and enhance cost competitiveness. Material flow analysis (MFA) methods are useful to quantify raw material stocks and flows and assess the potential impacts of ME strategies. Although the popularity of MFA methods is increasing, there are methodological limitations that hinder its use as a decision support tool for prospective assessments. To overcome some of these, MFA is increasingly integrated with other methods from different research fields. This paper categorizes integrated MFA methods by identifying and explaining the methods and their applications. A semi-structured literature review screened a wide range of methods integrated with MFA prospective analysis and evaluated their applications from 158 studies. This showed that integrated MFA can be used to: (1) include economic, social, and environmental layers; (2) improve the technical foundation of MFA by including entropy and exergy analyses and process engineering methods; (3) include economic mechanisms and link the economic system to the material system; and (4) improve the representation of materials in existing methods and models. Our research demonstrates that integrated MFA should be a central method in planning and designing ME strategies for companies and governments. This paper provides an important knowledge base of integrated MFA methods and creates a discussion point on MFA, where the research field is currently at or indeed where it could be heading in the future, that is, "Quo Vadis" MFA.

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Material efficiency for climate change mitigation

Cited by 9 publications

References 22 publications

Policy for material efficiency in homes and cars: Enabling new climate change mitigation strategies

Policy for material efficiency in homes and cars: Enabling new climate change mitigation strategies

Accounting for product recovery potential in building life cycle assessments: a disassembly network-based approach

Quo vadisMFA? Integrated material flow analysis to support material efficiency

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