Material stocks in Germany's non-domestic buildings: a new quantification method

Ortlepp, Regine; Gruhler, Karin; Schiller, Georg

doi:10.1080/09613218.2016.1112096

Cited by 84 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…An acknowledged problem in literature is that gross estimates involving abstract proxies cannot be easily validated due to regional, typologic and other variations [19].…”

Section: Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anticipating urban mining

Koutamanis¹,

Reijn²,

Bueren³

et al. 2017

24th Annual European Real Estate Society Conference

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In recent years there has been growing interest in urban mining from various environmental and economic perspectives. Materials hidden in buildings are attractive alternatives to raw ones, while building activities are responsible for a large share of waste. The paper is a summary of findings from an analysis of possibilities for urban mining in Amsterdam, focusing on prospecting for metals in residential buildings. Both global literature and interviews with Dutch demolition experts suggest that performance in metal recovery from buildings is as high as it can get. However, estimation of metal content in buildings and of waste processing rates is far from reliable, accurate and precise enough to support such claims or identify possibilities for further improvement, especially in relation to processes of urban and real-estate redevelopment and rejuvenation. To improve understanding and embedding of urban mining in these processes, we propose (a) a BIM-based information infrastructure that connects to municipal and owner information processes, so as to progressively collect all relevant information, allow for validation, verification and localization of valuable resources, as well as identify opportune moments for their extraction, and (b) policies that overcome the fragmented institutional character of the building sector, making information sharing a consequence of networking based on trust and shared values, driven by both demand and soft incentives relating to circularity.

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“…An acknowledged problem in literature is that gross estimates involving abstract proxies cannot be easily validated due to regional, typologic and other variations [19].…”

Section: Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[11]. The main problem lies in the reliability of estimating the metal composition of such indicators [19].…”

Section: Current Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipating urban mining

Koutamanis¹,

Reijn²,

Bueren³

et al. 2017

24th Annual European Real Estate Society Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A number of MFA studies have already investigated the built environment by analyzing stocks and flows and their dynamics [13], [15], [16]. These studies consider resource consumption and waste management at both ends of the material flow chain [17] as well as streams of C&D waste [18].…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…section 2.4), the authors apply a bottom-up approach using material composition indicators (MCI) as described in [13] and [55] to calculate material flows. The bottom-up calculations provide estimates of concrete inflow and outflow as well as the outflow of bricks (cf.…”

Section: Bottom-up Calculation Of Materials Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These bottom-up methods gather information on stock variables to estimate in-use stock and to infer the behavior of flows following the principle: quantity of final good in-use × specific material content = material stock of a specific material [12]. This method offers a high degree of flexibility, whether for the description of flows or the analysis of material stocks [13].…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantification of anthropogenic metabolism using spatially differentiated continuous MFA

Schiller¹,

Gruhler²,

Ortlepp³

2017

Change and Adaptation in Socio-Ecological Systems

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Coefficient-based, bottom-up material flow analysis is a suitable tool to quantify inflows, outflows and stock dynamics of materials used by societies, and thus can deliver strategic knowledge needed to develop circular economy policies. Anthropogenic stocks and flows are mostly of bulk nonmetallic mineral materials related to the construction, operation and demolition of buildings and infrastructures. Consequently, it is important to be able to quantify circulating construction materials to help estimate the mass of secondary materials which can be recovered such as recycled aggregates (RA) for fresh concrete in new buildings. Yet as such bulk materials are high volume but of low unit value, they are generally produced and consumed within a region. Loops are thus bounded not only by qualitative and technical restrictions but also spatially to within regions. This paper presents a regionalized continuous MFA (C-MFA) approach taking account of these restrictions of local consumption, quality standards and technical limitations, illustrated using the example of Germany. Outflows and inflows of stocks are quantified at county level and generalized by regional type, considering demand and supply for recycled materials. Qualitative and technical potentials of recycling loops are operationalized by defining coefficients to reflect waste management technologies and engineering standards. Results show that 48% of outflows of concrete and bricks are suitable for high-quality recycling, while 52% of outflows do not fulfill the quality requirement and must be recovered or disposed of elsewhere. The achievable inflow to RA is limited by the building activity as well as the requirements of the construction industry, e.g. the RA fraction of fresh concrete must not exceed 32%. In addition, there exist spatial disparities in construction across the country. In Germany, such disparities mean that there will be a shortfall in RA of 6.3 Gt by the year 2020, while the technically available but unusable RA (due to a regional mismatch of potential supply and demand) will total 3.2 Gt. Comprehensive recycling strategies have to combine high-quality recycling with other lower-grade applications for secondary raw materials. Particularly in the case of building materials, essential constraints are not only technical but also local conditions of construction and demolition. These interrelations should be identified and integrated into a comprehensive system to manage the social metabolism of materials in support of circular economy policies.

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Resource‐saving in buildings through material substitution: A preliminary study of structural dependencies

Ortlepp

2021

Civil Engineering Design

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Around the world, building stocks are the dominant consumers of mineral resources.Mining activities for the supply of construction materials can lead to conflicts in land use. In order to minimize such sources of conflict, we need improved knowledge of material consumption in the built environment. For this, we can make use of material flow analysis (MFA), which in turn requires the determination of material composition indicators (MCIs). Usually, such indicators are defined for a building type. Currently, there is a lack of research on the impact of material substitution on these MCIs as well as studies on the potential for resource-saving that take technical issues into account. This contribution describes a preliminary study on material substitution in six different reference buildings which compare the bill of materials for structures constructed using standard clay bricks vs potential material substitutes such as hollow, lightweight, or autoclaved aerated concrete blocks. The results show that considerable reductions in material consumption can thereby be achieved for certain parts of the considered buildings. In the future, these effects should be incorporated in the MCIs as key variables for an MFA.

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Material stocks in Germany's non-domestic buildings: a new quantification method

Cited by 84 publications

References 42 publications

Anticipating urban mining

Anticipating urban mining

Quantification of anthropogenic metabolism using spatially differentiated continuous MFA

Resource‐saving in buildings through material substitution: A preliminary study of structural dependencies

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