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Keywords: agent-based modeling; big data; data analytics; geographic information systems (GIS); industrial ecology; machine learning (ML) EN agent-based modeling big data data analytics geographic information systems (GIS) industrial ecology machine learning (ML) 6 11 6 02/16/22 20220201 NES 220201 IE research is increasingly taking advantage of new strategies to acquire and curate data, enabling our field to quantitatively tackle research questions that could only be approached qualitatively or conceptually until recently....The different articles of this special issue effectively document (1) practical applications of data innovations in real-world IE practice; (2) transformations and new opportunities for IE research; and (3) the development and consolidation of IE datasets. Innovations in data-enabled IE modeling Not only do massive datasets provide high-resolution data on systems, but they enable novel modeling techniques. Big data, data analytics, agent-based modeling, geographic information systems (GIS), industrial ecology, machine learning (ML) DISCUSSION The different articles of this special issue effectively document (1) practical applications of data innovations in real-world IE practice; (2) transformations and new opportunities for IE research; and (3) the development and consolidation of IE datasets. [Extracted from the article]

Residential and non‐residential buildings are a major contributor to human well‐being. At the same time, buildings cause 30% of final energy use, 18% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), and about 65% of material accumulation globally. With electrification and higher energy efficiency of buildings, material‐related emissions gain relevance. The circular economy (CE) strategies, narrow, slow, and close, together with wooden buildings, can reduce material‐related emissions. We provide a comprehensive set of building stock transformation scenarios for 10 world regions until 2060, using the resource efficiency climate change model of the stock–flow–service nexus and including the full CE spectrum plus wood‐intensive buildings. The 2020–2050 global cumulative new construction ranges from 150 to 280 billion m2 for residential and 70‐120 billion m2 for non‐residential buildings. Ambitious CE reduces cumulative 2020–2050 primary material demand from 80 to 30 gigatons (Gt) for cement and from 35 to 15 Gt for steel. Lowering floor space demand by 1 m2 per capita leads to global savings of 800‐2500 megatons (Mt) of cement, 300‐1000 Mt of steel, and 3‐10 Gt CO2‐eq, depending on industry decarbonization and CE roll‐out. Each additional Mt of structural timber leads to savings of 0.4‐0.55 Mt of cement, 0.6‐0.85 Mt of steel, and 0.8‐1.8 Mt CO2‐eq of system‐wide GHGE. CE reduces 2020–2050 cumulative GHGE by up to 44%, where the highest contribution comes from the narrow CE strategies, that is, lower floorspace and lightweight buildings. Very low carbon emission trajectories are possible only when combining supply‐ and demand‐side strategies. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenario‐based assessments are a useful tool to explore unknown futures and inform decision makers and the public of the consequences of different courses of action. Scenario developments in industrial ecology have focused on disparate components of the socioeconomic metabolism and case studies, and few efforts of comprehensive and cumulative scenario formulation are documented. Many important, empirically derived relationships between material cycles, end‐use services, and energy use are relevant to global scenario modeling efforts, for example, of integrated assessment models (IAMs), which do not routinely describe material cycles or the life‐cycle impacts of various technology shifts. These inconsistent depictions of material cycles and their environmental impacts hinder the assessment of sustainable development strategies such as demand‐side sufficiency, material efficiency, and energy efficiency. We developed three highly detailed scenarios covering 20 global regions to 2060 for the service provisioning of dwelling area and personal transport grounded in salient building and vehicle operation parameters. Our scenarios are based on, and interface with, the Low Energy Demand (LED) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1 and SSP2) narratives. The results comprise scenario‐, region‐, and period‐specific narratives and corresponding parameter values, including per‐capita floor space and vehicle stocks, building and vehicle archetype mixes, passenger‐km, vehicle‐km, vehicle occupancy rates, and implementation potentials of nine material efficiency strategies. The explicit storyline extension approach presented here is an alternative to the aggregate GDP‐driven or historical trend extrapolations of service or energy demands. We describe the scenario formulation processes, resulting parameters, their applications, and offer an outlook for prospective sustainability models. This article met the requirements for a Gold‐Gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"[A]ny legitimate pathway to net-zero GHG emissions must include significant changes to the ways societies manufacture and utilize materials. The authors reviewed strategies to achieve emission reductions in the EU steel industry through ME, direct energy and GHG emissions efficiency, or a combination of both. The authors explore optimal product lifespans for minimizing the life-cycle GHG emissions of each technology, which can help consumers make optimal product replacement decisions. The production of materials accounts for nearly one quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IRP, 2020). [Extracted from the article]

Germany's greenhouse gas emissions have declined by 35% since 1990, and the national policy ambition is to become largely carbon‐neutral by 2050. A change of the industrial landscape and a partial transformation of energy supply have contributed to reductions so far, but for deep reductions, a deep transformation of the country's industrial metabolism is needed. While energy efficiency is well established, the same cannot be said for material efficiency, which includes product light‐weighting, lifetime extension, more intense use, and value retention strategies like higher recycling rates, remanufacturing, and reuse. Sector‐specific research showed substantial energy and emissions savings potentials of material efficiency, but the overall material efficiency potential for most world economies, including Germany, is unknown. We applied an open‐source and modular dynamic material flow analysis model of the transformation of passenger vehicles, residential buildings, and commercial and service buildings in Germany (together ca. 50% of national greenhouse gases) to a material‐efficient system, covering the time span 2016–2060. The potential impact of the above‐mentioned material efficiency strategies was studied for the climate‐relevant materials concrete, steel, timber, aluminum, and plastics. Once the potentials of energy‐efficient products, electrification of end‐use sectors, and energy system transformation are seized, supply and demand side material efficiency and sufficiency can reduce remaining 2050 emissions by an additional 19–34 % (passenger vehicles), 27–31% (residential buildings), and 14–19% (non‐residential buildings). The 2016–2050 cumulative savings can be up to 750 Mt (million metric tons) CO2‐eq. Material efficiency can be a key contributor to deep emissions cuts like a 95% target. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy is currently underway but may not be rapid enough in order to reach ambitious climate change mitigation targets. Therefore, additional, preferably instantaneous, measures are needed for quick emission reductions, which is where material efficiency (ME) could constitute a promising solution. ME strategies include but are not limited to vehicle lightweighting through material substitution, increased recycling of materials, reuse and remanufacturing of vehicle components, vehicle downsizing (switching to a smaller vehicle), and more intensive use by means of increased vehicle occupancy through sharing practices. While recent analyses have focused on a narrow subset of ME strategies, we find striking differences in the overall potential of different measures to decrease vehicular carbon footprints. Downsizing and more intensive use offer the largest mitigation potential but strongly depend on consumer behavior and are highly sensitive to modeling assumptions. Combined, the analyzed strategies can achieve emission reductions of up to 57% over the life cycle of a single vehicle, which is comparable to up to 83% achieved through a shift to low‐carbon energy supply. ME can cut carbon footprints of already efficient vehicles charging renewable electricity by half again. This makes ME both an excellent short‐term solution for climate change mitigation targeting the light‐vehicle sector but also an important complementary strategy to the long‐term transition toward electric vehicles and renewable energy supply. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material production accounts for 23% of all greenhouse gas emissions. More efficient use of materials—through decoupling of services that support human well‐being from material use—is imperative as other emission mitigation options are expensive. An interdisciplinary scientific assessment of material efficiency and its links to service provision, material cycle management, and climate policy is needed to identify effective strategies and help design the policy framework required for their implementation. We present the resource efficiency–climate change (RECC) mitigation framework, a first step toward such a comprehensive assessment. RECC is based on dynamic material flow analysis and links the services provided (individual motorized transport and shelter) to the operation of in‐use stocks of products (passenger vehicles and residential buildings), to their expansion and maintenance, and to their material cycles to model mitigation strategies and analyze trade‐offs for environmental impacts along the products' life cycle. A key innovation of RECC is the upscaling of product archetypes with different degrees of material and energy efficiency, which are simulated with engineering tools. We utilize RECC with augmented storylines of the shared socioeconomic pathways to describe future service demand and associated material requirements. Ten material efficiency strategies at different stages of the material cycle can be assessed by ramping up their implementation rates to the identified technical potentials. RECC provides scenario results for the life cycle impacts of ambitious service–material decoupling concurrent with energy system decarbonization, giving detailed insights on the RECC mitigation nexus to policy‐makers worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the buildings sector requires a full understanding of the factors influencing emissions over the life-cycle of buildings, particularly in places where large additions to the building stock are expected. Currently, little is known about what affects the GHG emissions of buildings located in warmer climates, a typical situation for many emerging economies. This paper presents a study of emissions from Brazilian office buildings using building archetypes. A sensitivity analysis explores possible parameter ranges, various contributions to life-cycle impacts and their key drivers. For each of the 1000 building variations in the sample, the emissions were calculated using a life-cycle assessment. Multivariate regression analysis enabled the study of the results' sensitivity to 10 parameters, influencing building operation, design and others. The emissions ranged from 20 to 106 kg CO2-eq/m² gross floor area and year. Electricity mix, climate and cooling efficiency were the most impactful parameters, but building component service time was also significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material flow analysis (MFA) studies the stocks and flows of goods and substances in systems. The methods and algorithms of MFA have improved over the last few years, but a flexible platform that integrates recent modeling advances such as simultaneous consideration of the product, component, material and chemical element levels, lifetime models, and uncertainty treatment is not available. There is also no versatile data format for exchanging data between projects. This lack of research infrastructure is detrimental to scientific progress. To fill that gap, we propose a novel industrial ecology community model for MFA. The Open Dynamic Material Systems Model (ODYM) is an open source framework for material systems modeling programmed in Python. The description of systems, processes, stocks, flows, and parameters is object‐based, which facilitates the development of modular software and testing routines for individual model blocks. ODYM MFA models can handle any depth of flow and stock specification: products, components, sub‐components, materials, alloys, waste, and chemical elements can be traced simultaneously. ODYM features a new data structure for material flow analysis; all input and output data are stored in a standardized file format and can thus be exchanged across projects. It also comes with an extended library for dynamic stock modeling. We present the features, design principles, software, and data structure of ODYM, describe its main methods and functions, and give an outlook on current and future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until this day, data in industrial ecology (IE) have been commonly seen as existing within the domain of particular methods or models, such as input–output, life cycle assessment, urban metabolism, or material flow analysis data. This artificial division of data into methods contradicts the common phenomena described by those data: the objects and processes in the industrial system, or socioeconomic metabolism (SEM). A consequence of this scattered organization of related data across methods is that IE researchers and consultants spend too much time searching for and reformatting data from diverse and incoherent sources, time that could be invested into quality control and analysis of model results instead. This article outlines a solution to two major barriers to data exchange within IE: (a) the lack of a generic structure for IE data and (b) the lack of a bespoke platform to exchange IE datasets. We present a general data model for SEM that can be used to structure all data that can be located in the industrial system, including process descriptions, product descriptions, stocks, flows, and coefficients of all kind. We describe a relational database built on the general data model and a user interface to it, both of which are open source and can be implemented by individual researchers, groups, institutions, or the entire community. In the latter case, one could speak of an IE data commons (IEDC), and we unveil an IEDC prototype containing a diverse set of datasets from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent literature, the concept of criticality aspires to provide a multifaceted risk assessment of resource supply shortage. However, most existing methodologies for the criticality assessment of raw materials are restricted to a fixed temporal and spatial reference system. They provide a snapshot in time of the equilibrium between supply and demand/economic importance and do not account for temporal changes of their indicators. The static character of criticality assessments limits the use of criticality methodologies to short‐term policy making of raw materials. In the current paper, we argue for an enhancement of the criticality framework to account for three key dynamic characteristics, namely changes of social, technical, and economic features; consideration of the spatial dimension in site‐specific assessments; and impact of changing governance frameworks. We illustrate how these issues were addressed in studies outside of the field of criticality and identify the dynamic parameters that influence resource supply and demand based on a review of studies that belong to the general field of resource supply and demand. The parameters are grouped in seven categories: extraction, social, economic, technical, policy, market dynamics, and environmental. We explore how these parameters were considered in the reviewed studies and propose ways and specific examples of addressing the dynamic effects in the criticality indicators. Furthermore, we discuss the current work on future scenarios to provide reference points for indicator benchmarks. The insights and guidelines derived from the review and our recommendations for future research set the foundations for an enhanced dynamic and site‐specific criticality assessment framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the most important drivers of environmental impacts and identify the influence of parameters on the uncertainty of the environmental impacts in various climate zones and future climate scenarios. We couple a combined greenhouse energy demand-yield simulation tool with a life cycle assessment to identify the drivers for greenhouse energy, water and CO 2 demand as well as yield production. Environmental impacts are evaluated using the methods of IPPC for assessing climate change and available water remaining (AWARE) for water scarcity impacts. Furthermore, we compare the results for all five main climate world regions. With a global sensitivity analysis, we identify the parameters with the highest influence on life-cycle impact for each region. Crop growth features (e.g. node development rate and plant density), energy systems (e.g. heating and cooling supply systems), cover materials and inside temperature are the most influential input parameters for climate change impacts, but the ranking between these parameters depends on the location and climatic conditions of the greenhouse. In cold climates and higher latitudes, heating and electricity (mostly for lighting) processes are on average responsible for 85 to 90% of total climate change impacts. In hot climates, active cooling, in addition to natural ventilation, as well as electricity processes rank the highest (in the range of 60 to 75%) and in moderate climates, heating and cooling systems account for 60 to 70% of climate change impacts. Also for the AWARE results, crop growth related parameters are most influential. Among different processes in greenhouse, irrigation is responsible for 90% of water impacts in all regions, but the absolute magnitude of impact varies greatly among the different greenhouse locations. Unlabelled Image • Drivers for greenhouse environmental impact are indentified by an integrated energy-crop model. • The most influential parameters are related to crop growth and energy system. • 85% of climate change impacts in cold climates is due to heating and electricity processes. • 65% of climate change impacts in hot climates is due to cooling and electricity processes. • Water scarcity impacts vary greatly for the different greenhouse locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Construction material plays an increasingly important role in the environmental impacts of buildings. In order to investigate impacts of materials on a building level, we present a bottom‐up building stock model that uses three‐dimensional and geo‐referenced building data to determine volumetric information of material stocks in Swiss residential buildings. We used a probabilistic modeling approach to calculate future material flows for the individual buildings. We investigated six scenarios with different assumptions concerning per‐capita floor area, building stock turnover, and construction material. The Swiss building stock will undergo important structural changes by 2035. While this will lead to a reduced number in new constructions, material flows will increase. Total material inflow decreases by almost half while outflows double. In 2055, the total amount of material in‐ and outflows are almost equal, which represents an important opportunity to close construction material cycles. Total environmental impacts due to production and disposal of construction material remain relatively stable over time. The cumulated impact is slightly reduced for the wood‐based scenario. The scenario with more insulation material leads to slightly higher material‐related emissions. An increase in per‐capita floor area or material turnover will lead to a considerable increase in impacts. The new modeling approach overcomes the limitations of previous bottom‐up building models and allows for investigating building material flows and stocks in space and time. This supports the development of tailored strategies to reduce the material footprint and environmental impacts of buildings and settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Material usage and the related embodied environmental impact have grown in significance in the built environment. Therefore, cities and governments need to develop strategies to reduce both the consumption of resources during usage phase as well as the embodied impact of the current building stock. This article proposes a new component‐based building inventory database as a basis to develop such strategies using building stock modeling. The developed database clusters the building stock according to building typology (single‐family houses, multifamily houses, and office buildings), age, and the main construction systems of the different building components. Based on the component makeup, it lists the necessary material input and waste output for different refurbishment options for each building component. The advantages of the proposed database structure are shown based on two applications for the developed database for Switzerland. The component‐based database allows optimization of refurbishment strategies not only from an energetic perspective, but also with respect to materials, both on the input (sourcing of materials) and the output (waste streams) level. The database structure makes it possible to continuously extend the data set by adding new refurbishment options or add data such as component‐specific lifetimes, costs, or labor intensities of the refurbishment options. In combination with an aligned economic model, this would give an even more holistic view, impact, and feasibility of different refurbishment scenarios both in environmental and economic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different designs and concepts of low-energy and zero-emission buildings (ZEBs) are being introduced into the Norwegian market. This study analyses and compares the life cycle emissions of CO2 equivalents (CO2e) from eight different single-family houses in the Oslo climate. Included are four ZEBs: one active house, two passive houses, and a reference house (Norwegian building code of 2010). Monthly differences in CO2e emissions are calculated for the seasonally sensitive Norwegian context for electricity generation and consumption. This is used to supplant the previous applied symmetric weighting approach for CO2e/kWh factors for import and export of electricity for the ZEB cases. All the ZEBs have lower use-stage emissions compared with the other buildings or the reference case. Embodied impacts are found to be 60-75% for the analysed ZEB cases, confirming the importance of embodied impacts in Norwegian ZEBs. The lowest total emissions were from the smallest ZEB, emphasizing area efficiency. The highest emissions were from the reference case. By abandoning the symmetric approach, a new perspective was developed for assessing the performance of ZEBs within the Norwegian context. One of four ZEB cases managed to balance out its annual energy-related emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: With the growth of the field of industrial ecology (IE), research and results have increased significantly leading to a desire for better utilization of the accumulated data in more sophisticated analyses. This implies the need for greater transparency, accessibility, and reusability of IE data, paralleling the considerable momentum throughout the sciences. The Data Transparency Task Force (DTTF) was convened by the governing council of the International Society for Industrial Ecology in late 2016 to propose best‐practice guidelines and incentives for sharing data. In this article, the members of the DTTF present an overview of developments toward transparent and accessible data within the IE community and more broadly. We argue that increased transparency, accessibility, and reusability of IE data will enhance IE research by enabling more detailed and reproducible research, and also facilitate meta‐analyses. These benefits will make the results of IE work more timely. They will enable independent verification of results, thus increasing their credibility and quality. They will also make the uptake of IE research results easier within IE and in other fields as well as by decision makers and sustainability practitioners, thus increasing the overall relevance and impact of the field. Here, we present two initial actions intended to advance these goals: (1) a minimum publication requirement for IE research to be adopted by the Journal of Industrial Ecology; and (2) a system of optional data openness badges rewarding journal articles that contain transparent and accessible data. These actions will help the IE community to move toward data transparency and accessibility. We close with a discussion of potential future initiatives that could build on the minimum requirements and the data openness badge system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to identify drivers of environmental impact and quantify their influence on the environmental performance of wooden and massive residential and office buildings. We performed a life cycle assessment and used thermal simulation to quantify operational energy demand and to account for differences in thermal inertia of building mass. Twenty-eight input parameters, affecting operation, design, material, and exogenic building properties were sampled in a Monte Carlo analysis. To determine sensitivity, we calculated the correlation between each parameter and the resulting life cycle inventory and impact assessment scores. Parameters affecting operational energy demand and energy conversion are the most influential for the building's total environmental performance. For climate change, electricity mix, ventilation rate, heating system, and construction material rank the highest. Thermal inertia results in an average 2-6% difference in heat demand. Nonrenewable cumulative energy demand of wooden buildings is 18% lower, compared to a massive variant. Total cumulative energy demand is comparable. The median climate change impact is 25% lower, including end-of-life material credits and 22% lower, when credits are excluded. The findings are valid for small offices and residential buildings in Switzerland and regions with similar building culture, construction material production, and climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household consumption, apart from governmental consumption, is the main driver of worldwide economy. Attached to each household purchase are economic activities along the preceding supply chain, with the associated resource use and emissions. A method to capture and assess all these resource uses and emissions is life cycle assessment. We developed a model for the life cycle assessment of housing and land-based mobility (excluding air travel) consumption of individual households a small village in Switzerland. Statistical census and dwelling register data are the foundations of the model. In a case study performed on a midsized community, we found a median value of greenhouse gas emissions of 3.12 t CO2 equiv and a mean value of 4.30 t CO2 equiv per capita and year for housing and mobility. Twenty-one percent of the households in the investigated region were responsible for 50% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, meaning that if their emissions could be halved the total emissions of the community would be reduced by 25%. Furthermore, a cluster analysis revealed that driving factors for large environmental footprints are demands of large living area heated by fossil energy carriers, as well as large demands of motorized private transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Switzerland, the advantages of timber buildings for the climate are broadly discussed. In the following paper, a comparative sustainability assessment of four building alternatives is presented. Especially the contribution of implementing Swiss timber versus the implementation of imported timber is highlighted. Additionally, the timber-hybrid building structures are compared to a pure reinforced concrete structure. The timber-hybrid structure, with Swiss timber, has clear ecological advantages with only half the greenhouse gas emissions and half the non-renewable energy consumption compared to the reinforced concrete alternative. Comparing the Swiss timber alternative to the imported timber alternative, there are clear ecological advantages, as well. In terms of economic and social sustainability assessment criteria, the reinforced concrete alternative has the lowest production costs and the lowest labor intensity (measured in terms of full-time equivalents). Additionally, the paper includes an analysis of biogenic CO2 emissions and CO2 storage within the timber building alternatives. Finally, an up-scaling to the national level is attempted, showcasing the ecological and economic advantages of promoting the use of locally produced timber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]