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Material efficiency, reducing the amount of new material inputs per given level of service or output, can\ud improve both the resource efficiency of an economy and reduce demand for energy and GHG emissions\ud intensive materials. It requires a change in the way materials, components and final products are used\ud along the supply chain with associated impacts on employment. Domestic policy support for material\ud efficiency can be hindered by concerns that reducing demand for new materials will impact on employment.\ud A multi-method approach for evaluating the employment impacts of material efficiency strategies\ud across different products and regions is presented. It is applied to two case studies that could reduce\ud demand for new steel in the UK: car clubs and re-using steel sections. Industry interviews supplemented\ud by a literature review reveal how sector labour intensity, product prices and sales volumes might change\ud along the mobility and construction supply chains in the short-term as a consequence of introducing\ud these strategies. A static multi-regional input-output model is used to estimate the immediate direct and\ud indirect supply chain employment impacts of increasing the material efficiency of steel use in the UK.\ud The principal finding of this paper, based on industry expectations of feasible rates of deployment, is that\ud the initial, immediate consequences of these actions would not adversely affect employment prospects\ud in the UK. This is partly because car clubs can stimulate demand for new vehicles and deconstructing\ud rather than demolishing buildings is labour intensive, substituting domestic labour for imported steel.\ud These initial findings should motivate further research on the opportunities for material efficiency

This glossary defines some specific terms as the Lead Authors intend them to be interpreted in the context of this report.

In this paper, we review the energy requirements to make materials on a global scale by focusing on the five construction materials that dominate energy used in material production: steel, cement, paper, plastics and aluminium. We then estimate the possibility of reducing absolute material production energy by half, while doubling production from the present to 2050. The goal therefore is a 75 per cent reduction in energy intensity. Four technology-based strategies are investigated, regardless of cost: (i) widespread application of best available technology (BAT), (ii) BAT to cutting-edge technologies, (iii) aggressive recycling and finally, and (iv) significant improvements in recycling technologies. Taken together, these aggressive strategies could produce impressive gains, of the order of a 50–56 per cent reduction in energy intensity, but this is still short of our goal of a 75 per cent reduction. Ultimately, we face fundamental thermodynamic as well as practical constraints on our ability to improve the energy intensity of material production. A strategy to reduce demand by providing material services with less material (called ‘material efficiency’) is outlined as an approach to solving this dilemma.