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In the context of Kazakhstan’s economic digitalisation, increasing economic efficiency is a top priority. Digitalisation enhances enterprises’ financial stability and decision-making speed. This is particularly vital for mining enterprises, a key focus of the “Digital Kazakhstan” state program. This study aims to develop strategies to boost economic efficiency by analysing its essence and evaluating mining enterprises in East Kazakhstan. The methods used in the research include statistical analysis, comparison, structural and logical analysis, and synthesis. The results include determining the essence of economic efficiency, evaluating the dynamics of industrial production indices, production volume, and structure, and assessing economic efficiency indicators of mining enterprises. Five key areas affecting economic efficiency were identified: technology, material resources, management, labour resources, and the general system. The introduction of Big Data digital technology is suggested for each area to significantly enhance efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of transportation infrastructure that extends roads and railways in Bangkok has overlooked the negative environmental impact of construction material accumulation. To analyze the extent of this impact, we originally established road and railway's material intensity coefficients and investigated spatially explicit roadway and railway material stock (MS) for the years of 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2037, based upon the master plans' target year. We further analyzed how MS evolution relates to the city's socio‐economic indicators and CO2 emission. Significant growth is found in transportation MS during 2004–2019, and roadways particularly increased from 122 to 164 million metric tons (Mt). The master plans would require 43 and 6.55 Mt construction materials for roadway and railway extension, respectively, by 2037. More material‐intensive roads (cross‐provincial highways and major local roads) built to the suburbs of the cities and underground/elevated structures of the mass rapid transit system in dense urban areas will require three times the annual cement and steel consumption of that in the 2004–2019 period. Furthermore, a 2–3 fold increase in the number of registered vehicles and associated CO2 emissions during the study period have brought questions to the transportation infrastructure MS efficiency. The findings of this study will enable informed decision‐making regarding the concern of resource consumption and for considering environmentally friendly approaches in urban transportation planning for Bangkok and other developing cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing demand for significant volumes of construction materials, especially sand for use in concrete, in rapidly developing urban environments is becoming a significant socio-economic and environmental issue. The consumption of concrete (comprised of sand, aggregates and cement) is especially concerning on a city level as vast volumes of materials are extracted within the urban hinterland, causing direct impacts locally and the potential for supply issues directly impacting city level metabolism. Excessive consumption and poor management of these materials make it increasingly hard for society to ensure new urban development and infrastructure projects, essential for maintaining the health of cities, meet sustainable development objectives. However, it is difficult to implement suitable resource management policies without first understanding how materials are produced and consumed at an appropriate spatial level. For many areas, especially on a city level, such data is absent, especially so for sand and aggregates which can further exacerbate these local supply issues and environmental impacts. This study attempts to address this data gap via combining earth observation datasets with estimates of materials contained within urban infrastructure (material intensities) to calculate the rapid increase of construction material stocks in Hanoi. Spatial data on buildings have been gathered using, producing, and collating a variety of spaceborne open-source datasets on built up areas (GlobalMLBuildingFootpint, World Settlement Footprint 3D, Open Street Map) and land use classification maps. Linking this spatial data with estimated quantities of sand, gravel, cement and concrete in typical buildings in Hanoi enables quantification of building stocks for a range of building types over a time series. The results show that for every new km2 of urban infrastructure approximately 520,000 tonnes of concrete, or 360,000 tonnes of sand, 580,000 tonnes of gravel and 115,000 tonnes of cement are required. If the Hanoi Masterplan is to be achieved by 2030, then the material demand is likely to be for 106 million tonnes of concrete or 73 million tonnes of sand, 118 million tonnes of gravel and 24 million tonnes of cement. These all exceed historical consumption trends and are far in excess of current extraction rates and therefore careful planning is required to ensure access to sustainable resources into the future.

As governments worldwide attempt to develop sustainable waste management strategies, massive amounts of waste have been accumulating. However, developing an effective waste management strategy requires a thorough understanding of waste types and quantites. The existing efforts to identify waste flows in the built environment are unsuitable for countries with non-reliable statistics as they mostly use location-specific parameters such as data on construction, renovation, demolition activity, and generation rates from the literature. The types and quantities of materials embedded are rarely considered. This study aims to fill the identified gap by estimating the quantities of different material types embedded in Serbian residential building stock. It will do so by calculating the volume and weights of building elements and their materials using information from a detailed building stock typology. The results show that the amounts of materials embedded vary significantly from district to district, ranging from 10 in Toplička District to 96.9 million tons in Belgrade. The mineral materials are the highest contributors to the material embedded, implying that future waste management strategies should focus on them. Apart from the formulation of location-specific circular economy and waste management strategies, these results may be useful for planning energy efficiency retrofitting activities, deconstruction and reversible design strategies.

Urbanization plays a key role in the human activities causing and feeding climate change. At present, climate change and other environmental issues are directly or indirectly related to the metabolism of cities. However, cities may also play a central role in the fight against climate change. This is the reason why Urban Metabolism (UM) has become a powerful concept to account for and understand the way in which complex systems such as cities use and dispose of material resources, also suggesting measures to change their operational regimes. The rightsizing and optimization of UM is basically a matter of social innovation. It implies changes in the way a city collectively produces and reproduces its physical stocks and provides services to its inhabitants. This article aims at identifying strategies, scenarios, and pathways to slow down urban metabolic processes while improving their efficiency, thus managing a successful transition to an urban (more) circular economy, as well as decreasing the material intensity of the urban economy. The main objectives of the article are the following:1. The development of a renewed approach for studying Urban Metabolism based on transdisciplinary approaches and methods aimed to model metabolic agents' patterns of practices.2. The definition of urban patterns of resource use of different agents shaping urban metabolism (households, corporate agents, communities, and public authorities).3. The exploration of the main policies and administrative tools that cities use to manage environmental problems leading to different urban regulation regimes.4. A tool for generating future scenarios and roadmaps to reach a low-carbon future. This tool is crucial for engaging experts, stakeholders and the public looking for new solutions.

This article describes an approach for comparing material intensity values for residential buildings with different construction types. Based on the working drawings of the different construction types (wood and mineral), material intensities are calculated at the building level. Material intensities describe the materials used in a building in mass (tonnes (t)) in relation to the square meters (m2) of gross floor area (GFA) or the cubic meters (m3) of gross volume (GV). The method for determining material intensities at the building level is demonstrated. The results show that material intensities range from 0.61 t/m2 GFA to 1.95 t/m2 GFA for single-family residential buildings and from 1.36 t/m2 GFA to 1.54 t/m2 GFA for multi-storey residential buildings. The average material intensity for mineral buildings is twice as high as that for wood buildings, which means that there is a beneficial resource efficiency in building with wood instead of mineral materials. Therefore, benchmarks for a resource efficient building can be conducted based on these values. These values demonstrate a possibility to influence resource efficiency in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Materials in urban areas in the form of buildings and infrastructure networks have the potential to be recycled and thus partially substitute primary raw material sources. The method presented in this study is suitable for determining the mass and material composition of the building stock and its spatial distribution, based on a combination of material intensity factors specific to the building structure and different building types. The characterisation of the whole building stock requires the linking of geographic information system (GIS) databases for building age and use types, to which specific material intensity factors depending on the building type should be assigned. At the metropolitan level, the building stock may consist of up to hundreds of thousands of units, and a tradeoff between feasibility and accuracy can be made by introducing and applying the concept of synthetic buildings. Based on the sample area survey, the 490 buildings to be taken into account are calculated to have a synthetic volume of 9.3 million m? and a total material stock of 3674 kilotonnes. The results demonstrate that the methodology presented can be used to establish the resource inventory necessary for the continuous monitoring of the building stock and for a better understanding of urban material flows and stocks (together: urban metabolism). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world, the theory of the circular economy and its formation in the real economic system is rapidly developing. Many international organizations (OECD, EU) and countries already have their programs for developing such an economy. The article emphasizes that the practical implementation of the concept of “best available technologies” is vital for the transformation of the current linear model of the economy in many countries, including Russia. In Russia, there are many obstacles to the formation of a circular economy; the inertia of the existing export-raw material model is excellent, which is unsustainable and linear. A dangerous trend is the growth of waste intensity at the macro level. The article analyzes and adapts for Russia the UN Sustainable Development Goals directly related to the circular economy, proposes and quantifies key indicators. In the field of quantitative indicators, four areas have been identified for the development of crucial indicators set for the circular economy in Russia. An author’s formula for structuring the consumption of natural resources taking into account technological efficiency and waste is proposed. The importance of using the proposed toolkit of natural-product verticals combining primary natural resources / raw materials with final consumption and allowing us to estimate the size of the lost primary natural resources is emphasized. The indicators of waste management, in combination with production and consumption systems, are analyzed. For a circular economy, it is fundamentally important to calculate the resource and material intensity indicators of various sectors and their weight in the gross product, which will allow to assess the impact of potential structural changes on waste generation and conduct a comparative analysis with the corresponding indicators of other countries.

Many studies calculate the material stock of buildings by using material intensities and reference values for building dimensions. Often, they lack a clear definition of and transparency in the selection of buildings to be analyzed, as well as adequate description for the determination of the material intensities of buildings. This article presents a randomized selection of buildings and determination of their material intensities using the case study of Vienna. On the basis of a digital geo‐information building model, buildings were categorized according to their age, use, and volume. From each category, samples were randomly selected and their material intensities as well as different building dimensions were determined based on building documents such as plans. The building dimensions were used to express the material intensities related to different reference values. The 256 objects analyzed correspond to a sample size of 0.11% relative to the total number and 0.22% relative to the total gross volume of objects in Vienna. Although the total material intensities were comparable to other studies, the material intensities of insulation materials in older buildings were found to be higher in this study because of a higher representativeness of the data used. In addition, the expression of the material intensities related to different reference values such as area or volume of buildings improved comparability with other studies. Nevertheless, further research is required, particularly concerning the selection of representative samples of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Adverse environmental effects of international trade are emphasized in the literature frequently. Nevertheless, following a theoretical trade logic, the production of goods in regions with higher resource efficiency may lead to reduced global resource use. In this article, major drivers of food‐related material footprint (MF) are analyzed at the global, regional, and country levels. Changes in consumption, the supply chain's efficiency, and participation in international trade are considered drivers of MF. An index decomposition analysis was conducted to assess the contribution of these factors to the variation of the MF in time. Our results partially prove that the optimization regarding natural resource use may contribute to a lower MF of food consumption. Regions and countries with increasing food imports reinforce their efficiency improvement with the lower resource intensity of imported goods, and the international trade counteracted the effects on additional resource requirements of increasing consumption throughout the analyzed period (1990–2013). Furthermore, the impact of international trade on capital stock is discussed. In line with the descending flow‐type material intensity by approximately 5%, the material composition of the footprint has shifted toward stock building materials. Additionally, the intensity of the trade was found to be negatively correlated with domestic efficiency improvements.

Adverse environmental effects of international trade are emphasized in the literature frequently. Nevertheless, following a theoretical trade logic, the production of goods in regions with higher resource efficiency may lead to reduced global resource use. In this article, major drivers of food‐related material footprint (MF) are analyzed at the global, regional, and country levels. Changes in consumption, the supply chain's efficiency, and participation in international trade are considered drivers of MF. An index decomposition analysis was conducted to assess the contribution of these factors to the variation of the MF in time. Our results partially prove that the optimization regarding natural resource use may contribute to a lower MF of food consumption. Regions and countries with increasing food imports reinforce their efficiency improvement with the lower resource intensity of imported goods, and the international trade counteracted the effects on additional resource requirements of increasing consumption throughout the analyzed period (1990–2013). Furthermore, the impact of international trade on capital stock is discussed. In line with the descending flow‐type material intensity by approximately 5%, the material composition of the footprint has shifted toward stock building materials. Additionally, the intensity of the trade was found to be negatively correlated with domestic efficiency improvements. Plain Language Summary: Although serious resource needs and pollutions associate the international trade, it is suspected to play an essential role in the more effective distribution of natural resources (e.g., land, water, energy). In this article, significant drivers of food‐related material footprint (MF) are analyzed globally, at regional and country levels. Changes in consumption, the supply chain's efficiency, and participation in international trade are considered to form food products' overall resource requirements. Our results partially prove that the optimization regarding natural resource use may contribute to a lower MF of food consumption. Increasing food imports reinforces efficiency improvement with the lower resource needs of imported goods. The international trade counteracted the effects on additional resource requirements of increasing consumption throughout the analyzed period (1990–2013). It was also described that the more effective the food system becomes, the more resources are used to build up its infrastructure. Key Points: International trade of food products reduced the rise of material footprint in our sample on a global scaleA trade‐off between material efficiency improvement and material stock accumulation is detectedDomestic efficiency improvements tend to substitute for food imports [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving the required price indicators when creating new mobile wheeled vehicles becomes possible due to the use of metallurgical products. The objective of this study is to develop technical solutions for a cabin of a mobile wheeled vehicle by using special steel profiles, tubes, sheet material, stampings, and subunits assembled together to form a load-carrying steel frame; and to study the strength of such cabin frame. A welded construction of a load-carrying steel frame of the mobile wheeled vehicle cabin is proposed, consisting of quadrangular tubes and additional rolled steel sheet elements profiled in several directions. An analytical computer model has been developed to study the design of the load-carrying cabin frame by using finite element analysis. To evaluate the strength properties, calculations in accordance with the regulatory requirements of GOST R ISO 5700–2008 and GOST R ISO 3471–2009 were performed. The results of these calculations have shown that the developed load-carrying steel frame of the cabin provides the necessary flail space for the vehicle operator in accordance with the requirements of the regulatory documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large share of construction material stock (MS) accumulates in urban built environments. To attain a more sustainable use of resources, knowledge about the spatial distribution of urban MS is needed. In this article, an innovative spatial analysis approach to urban MS is proposed. Within this scope, MS indicators are defined at neighborhood level and clustered with k‐mean algorithms. The MS is estimated bottom‐up with (a) material‐intensity coefficients and (b) spatial data for three built environment components: buildings, road transportation, and pipes, using seven material categories. The city of Gothenburg, Sweden is used as a case study. Moreover, being the first case study in Northern Europe, the results are explored through various aspects (material composition, age distribution, material density), and, finally, contrasted on a per capita basis with other studies worldwide. The stock is estimated at circa 84 million metric tons. Buildings account for 73% of the stock, road transport 26%, and pipes 1%. Mineral‐binding materials take the largest share of the stock, followed by aggregates, brick, asphalt, steel, and wood. Per capita, the MS is estimated at 153 metric tons; 62 metric tons are residential, which, in an international context, is a medium estimate. Denser neighborhoods with a mix of nonresidential and residential buildings have a lower proportion of MS in roads and pipes than low‐density single‐family residential neighborhoods. Furthermore, single‐family residential neighborhoods cluster in mixed‐age classes and show the largest content of wood. Multifamily buildings cluster in three distinct age classes, and each represent a specific material composition of brick, mineral binding, and steel. Future work should focus on megacities and contrasting multiple urban areas and, methodologically, should concentrate on algorithms, MS indicators, and spatial divisions of urban stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Most anthropogenic material stocks and flows are associated with the building sector. Several recent studies have developed material composition indicators (MCIs) suitable for calculating material stocks and flows of the building sector using bottom‐up approaches, which hold great potential to provide information to support resource efficiency policies. A major limitation is the lack of country‐specific MCIs. This study aims to introduce a concept for a better transferability of MCI across different contexts by proposing requirements for defining MCIs and to discuss options and limits of the transferability. We take existing MCIs for residential buildings in Germany and Japan as case studies and make them comparable by applying harmonization methods. Based on that, similarities and differences are systematically identified and discussed, considering their socioeconomic, cultural, technical, and environmental factors. Our results indicate significant limitations to the transferability of MCIs for detached houses, while bigger apartment complexes show greater homogeneity despite the very different environments in which they are constructed. This indicates that while it is possible to assume foreign MCIs as plausible for large constructions, local coefficients need to be estimated for smaller single‐family homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The average material stock density in Chinese metropoles is 2.1 Mt/km2. • The average material stock per capita is 283 t/cap. • Per capita material stock positively correlates to GDP per capita. • Hotspot analysis reveals 3 types: single cluster, main cluster, multiple clusters. China is experiencing a period of rapid urbanization and fervent construction activities, which are responsible for the accumulation of large amount of material stocks (MS). Fundamental in every society, buildings not only shape material flows before and during construction, but also during maintenance and demolition, inducing the extraction of resources and the production of construction waste. It is thus imperative to understand the amount, composition, and location of current building MS as a first step to design appropriate management strategies for an environmentally sustainable society. This research uses the latest GIS dataset of buildings in 14 representative Eastern China metropoles to quantify the current status of building MS by employing a bottom-up method. The selection of the study areas relies on the law of the primate city, which permits to quickly target the most important urban areas of a region. We review and discuss existing material intensity (MI) coefficients for Chinese buildings, and produce a new set of MIs manipulating those available in the literature. We then calculate the total MS, MS density, and per capita MS for each city. Results find that in 14 cities 7.9 Gt of building materials are currently stored in a total area of 3790 km2, resulting on an average density of 2.1 Mt/km2. The per capita building MS results being 283 t/cap, and this value correlates with a growth of the per capita GDP. We conclude the research with a hotspot analysis of the spatial distribution of the MS, identifying the MS clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This research employed a spatially explicit analysis to calculate the total material stock and demolition waste flows for Padua, a medium sized Italian city, for the period 1902–2007. The analysis of maps and aerial photographs allowed for the calculation of building lifespan, which grew until the second half of the twentieth century, but had a sharp decline during the 1990's caused by a wave of urban renewal triggered by policies to improve the energy efficiency and remove asbestos from buildings. A detailed investigation of historical construction technologies allowed for the creation of a material inventory database by building typology and construction period, which was then used to calculate the total stock of buildings of Padua. Our results show that the historical city centre remained practically unaltered over the past century, and that most of the expansion happened at the city periphery. From 1902 to 2007 the stock of building materials grew from 134 to 209 tonnes per capita, and is expected to further increase to 222 tonnes per capita by 2030. We also implemented a model to estimate the waste potential from demolition activities using the total stock and expected lifespan as input parameters. We estimate that waste flows accounted for 985 kg per capita in 2007 and are expected to raise to 1.9 tonnes per capita in 2030. These results are informative for urban planners, especially those involved in fast urbanising regions (e.g. China, India), who can use these results as a benchmark of future stocks and waste flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Building stock constitutes a huge repository of construction materials in a city and a potential source for replacing primary resources in the future. This article describes the application of a methodological approach for analyzing the material stock (MS) in buildings and its spatial distribution at a city‐wide scale. A young Latin‐American city, the city of Chiclayo in Peru, was analyzed by combining geographical information systems (GIS) data, census information, and data collected from different sources. Application of the methodology yielded specific indicators for the physical size of buildings (i.e., gross floor area and number of stories) and their material composition. The overall MS in buildings, in 2007, was estimated at 24.4 million tonnes (Mt), or 47 tonnes per capita. This mass is primarily composed of mineral materials (97.7%), mainly concrete (14.1 Mt), while organic materials (e.g., 0.15 Mt of wood) and metals (e.g., 0.40 Mt of steel) constitute the remaining share (2.3%). Moreover, historical census data and projections were used to evaluate the changes in the MS from 1981 to 2017; showing a 360% increase of the MS in the last 36 years. This study provides essential supporting information for urban planners, helping to provide a better understanding of the availability of resources in the city and its future potential supply for recycling as well as to develop strategies for the management of construction and demolition waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• About 88% of the MI in Finnish wooden houses comes from concrete. • Construction method, GFA and footprint shape significantly affect MI. • The number of storeys in 1–1.5 storeys buildings does not significantly impact MI. • The variability in MI within each building typology should be accounted for. • Comparing of MI faces challenges due to a lack of harmonized data and methods. Improving resource efficiency in the building sector is a significant challenge, largely due to a lack of knowledge about material usage in buildings. Material intensity (MI) quantifies materials used in buildings, normalized by floor area or volume. MIs serve as indices for material stock and flow models and as an inventory approach for assessing the environmental impact of the built environment. Therefore, this study aimed to determine MIs of Finnish wooden residential houses built between 1940 and 2010 due to the dominance of them in residential building stock and their demolition rates. Factors influencing MI and cross-country comparisons were also explored because they had not been explored enough in the literature. Results showed construction method, time cohort, floor area, design choices and footprint shape impacted MI. Accounting for variability of MI was recommended, particularly when using it for material stock and flow analysis. Data and method disparities restrict cross-country comparison of MI. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The material intensity (MI) of the economy remains among the most widely cited indicators in international statistics and reports, evaluating the efficient use and productivity of natural resources in the economic process. In the context of the contemporary economy‐wide material flow accounting framework, the material intensity of a country is evaluated through the estimation of the ratio of the domestic material consumption (DMC) to the gross domestic product (GDP) index (DMC/GDP). Indeed, the essential contribution of natural resources to the economic process requires the establishment of reliable projections of this intricate relationship to the future. These projections may provide critical information to policy makers and practitioners in order to evaluate the future dynamics of the efficient use of natural resources in the production process. Toward this objective, the present study evaluates and proposes an alternative novel methodology for MI statistical projections, based on the beta distribution, by using a deterministic model for predicting the maximum expected values. The parameters of the deterministic model are calculated from the estimated MI of the global economy. The evaluation of the model is then performed by using MI estimates from 107 individual countries. The agreement between the model and the estimates is very good. The proposed method's merit is its simplicity, as by using two statistics of the material intensity (mean and variance) and an integral time scale, it is feasible to calculate the probabilities of the MI of any country with a high degree of confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We applied a Dynamo script to Revit BIM models to conduct a Monte Carlo analysis of the material take off lists. • Single-family houses have the largest variance of construction materials per unit of area except for concrete. • The largest variance of concrete use per square meter was found in medium-sized apartment buildings. • All typologies exhibit a strong correlation between size and concrete use. • As building size increases, the average concrete per square meter tends to decrease. Material stock analyses of buildings and infrastructure are proliferating in Industrial Ecology literature. One popular approach to calculating material stocks is multiplying the number of buildings present in the study area by their average material content, a parameter often termed material intensity. However, existing studies have primarily focused on tailoring material intensities to specific building typologies without exploring the variability of material intensities within a given typology. The present work addresses this knowledge gap by generating 3D models of five typical residential building archetypes based on Italian housing data. By randomizing their size and material components, we generate summary statistics that highlight the variance of material intensities. Results show a strong correlation between concrete usage and building size, while other materials exhibit significant variation across sizes and typologies. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the construction of buildings is increasingly recognized as necessary to meet medium- and long-term climate targets. The focus of efforts to reduce embodied GHG have been on using lower GHG intensity materials through material switching (e.g., wood vs concrete buildings) or changing the manufacturing of materials to reduce their GHG intensity (e.g., blast oxygen furnace to electric arc furnace in steel manufacturing). There has been much less attention directed toward the potential to reduce embodied GHG emissions by reducing the amount of material used for the construction of buildings. This study estimates the embodied GHG emission intensity of single-family dwellings (SFD) in Toronto, Canada, Perth, Australia, and Luzon, Philippines using a carbon neutral approach (excluding biogenic carbon) and focusing on the product stage (A1-A3). This examines the main drivers of embodied GHG emissions and quantifies the pathways to reduce embodied GHG emissions of SFDs. The mean embodied GHG emission intensities of SFDs vary across locations with differences driven by construction type and in upstream manufacturing of materials. The mean embodied GHG emission intensities in studied SFDs are 137 kg CO 2 eq/m2 for Toronto, 190 kg CO 2 eq/m2 for Perth, and 313 kg CO 2 eq/m2 for Luzon. Monte Carlo simulation and principal component regression show that the variation in embodied GHG emission intensity within the studied cases is dominated by material quantities with less influence from material GHG intensity. Structural light-weighting, more intensive use of buildings, and very low material GHG factors collectively are shown to have the potential to reduce embodied emissions by 45%–60%. Strategies tested illustrated that savings on the order of 20% are readily available through more intensive use and structural lightweighting. Aggressive changes in energy sources and material manufacturing would take longer to achieve but could deliver another 22%–37% in emissions reductions. • Product stage embodied GHG emissions of single-family dwellings are calculated using a carbon neutral approach. • Product stage embodied GHG emissions of single-family dwellings vary between locations. • Material intensity drives the variance in embodied GHG emissions of single-family dwellings. • Cascading design and material pathways can halve embodied GHG emissions of single-family dwellings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive use of materials in building stocks contributes to the scarcity of natural resources and impacts from construction and demolition waste (CDW). Therefore, the concern with the efficient use of materials and CDW management made several countries conducted mapping, analysis and performance improvement in activities related to CDW using Material Flow Analysis (MFA). The city of Rio de Janeiro had a high urban development and building stock growth from the beginning of the last century, in which the amount of material consumed has not been documented. This study presents an MFA approach to assess the materials in-use and further flows of CDW from the residential building stock in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The material in-use was estimated from the extrapolation of the Material Intensities (MI) per different building types to the total constructed area in this city considering land occupation. The building types were modelled from the designs of typical buildings in Brazil. An analysis of urban development supported the estimation of buildings age and their remaining lifetime while national standards supported the time of replacement of building elements during the use phase. Results show that the stock in 2010 had about 78,828,770t of building material with MI between 2.58 and 0.74 t/m 2 ; concrete and aggregates have the higher MI. The Use phase of the buildings will move about 9,807,690t of materials until 2090. These findings support further environmental impacts assessments and decision-making for planning CDW management and strategies for the efficient use of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O ano de 2011 foi marcado por um conjunto de estudos (muitos dos quais patrocinados pelas Nações Unidas) segundo os quais o sistema econômico mundial já ultrapassa perigosamente algumas fronteiras ecossistêmicas, especialmente no que se refere ao clima, à biodiversidade e ao ciclo do nitrogênio. Longe, entretanto, de apoiar-se nessas conclusões, o documento inicial para a Rio+20 preconiza como solução para os grandes problemas socioambientais contemporâneos o aprofundamento daquilo que já vem sendo feito: ampliar o combate à pobreza e aprofundar a cooperação internacional em direção à ecoeficiência. Este trabalho procura mostrar que são significativas as conquistas dos últimos vinte anos nessas duas direções. Mas não há condições materiais de persistir no sucesso da luta contra a pobreza caso se perpetue a ilusão de que a desigualdade deve ser enfrentada sem que se altere o poder sobre os recursos ecossistêmicos dos que se encontram nos andares de cima da pirâmide social.Many studies published last year (including some organized by the United Nations) show that the world economic system has dangerously passed over the ecossytemic frontiers, mainly in climate, biodiversity and nitrogen cycle concerns. Far from using these data and conclusions, the Rio+20 zero-draft envisions a business as usual solution to the socioenvironmental contemporary problems: strengthen poverty fighting and deepen international cooperation toward eco-efficiency. This paper recognizes the huge conquest made in these two domains over the last twenty years. But there are no material conditions for success reducing poverty if the illusion that inequality can be fought without altering the power over natural resources that have those who occupy the upper positions of the social pyramid remains.

The linear system of take, make, and waste, has led to deleterious environmental impacts and material use; circular economy strategies may offer benefits. Since the building sector is a major consumer of materials and contributes to many environmental impacts, it is a prime sector to be examined for the implementation of circular economy strategies. Understanding where and what materials are available due to renovation and demolition/deconstruction is lacking in the U.S. Thus, implementation of circular economy strategies like reuse in buildings will be incremental at best. Material stock and flow analysis can be used to understand baselines via accumulated materials and the material flow of buildings. In this study, we developed a bottom-up model using aspects of our previously developed urban building energy model to analyze the accumulated and renovation flow of specific materials in commercial buildings. We focused on renovation as this area was identified as a gap in the literature. The photogrammetry and image processing techniques in this paper provided the opportunity of using actual physical attributes of buildings instead of assumptions, which improved the accuracy of the bottom-up model. The results showed that concrete (37%), brick (30%), and minerals (17%) comprised most of the accumulated materials. Also, there was notable differences in the distribution of materials in different components. Brick had the highest mass in exterior walls; whereas, the largest mass-based quantities in roofs and floors were insulation and minerals, respectively. Brick followed by minerals and concrete had the largest share of renovation flow during 2020 and 2030. These outcomes aid policy makers and businesses in decision-making regarding the availability of secondary resources from buildings. • Accumulated materials were estimated at both aggregated and component levels. • Mass-based distribution of materials varied significantly in different components. • Concrete, brick, and minerals had the largest mass in the building stock. • Time of availability of materials due to renovation was estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Important variabilities exist in material intensities of single-family dwellings within and between locations. • The choice of functional unit changes the perception of which location has more efficient building material use. • House size is a strong predictor of overall material use. • Foundations and exterior walls consume the most materials in houses but in different ratios across geographical locations. This study examines variability in material use in single-family dwellings within and between three different locations (Toronto, Perth, and Luzon). It investigates how the use of different functional units changes the perception of what buildings are more materially efficient and which location has the more materially efficient home building norms. Material intensities for 80 single- family dwellings in the three locations form the foundational data for the paper. Important variabilities exist in the material intensities of the single-family dwellings and change with the functional unit selected (e.g., 7–23% for 1 m2 functional unit). Toronto single-family dwellings appear to be one of the least material intensive when presented per 1 m2 floor area but become the most material intensive when presented per 1 building and 1 bedroom with the opposite for Luzon. Housing size is the most effective explainer of overall material use with foundations and walls consuming the most materials but in different ratios across the three locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prerequisite of the efficient recycling of demolition waste and its evaluation in terms of the material specific recycling rates is information on the composition of the building material stock (as the source of future demolition waste). A practical method is presented that characterizes the material composition of buildings prior to their demolition. The characterization method is based on the analysis of available construction documents and different approaches of on-site investigation. The method is tested in different buildings and the results from four case studies indicate that the documents are useful to quantify bulk materials (e.g.bricks, concrete, sand/gravel, iron/steel and timber). However, on-site investigations are necessary to locate and determine the trace materials such as metals (e.g.copper and aluminium), or different types of plastics. The overall material intensity of the investigated buildings ranges from 270 to 470 kg/m³ gross volume. With ongoing surveys about the composition of different buildings, the collected data will be used to establish a building-specific database about the amount of materials contained in Vienna's building stock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understanding of life cycle material use from novel technologies can assist informed decision making on technology and material selection consistent with natural physical boundaries. Though an intermediate process in conventional life cycle assessment (LCA), the information on material use is only translated into environmental impact potentials. In this study, we present a procedure to extract the intermediate information on material evaluation and perform a systematic life cycle material use analysis. The approach is then used to analyze electricity systems including electricity generation and transmission, with and without post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Scenario analysis is then performed to understand the relations to the respective annual material production volumes. Results from the analysis of life cycle material use in the studied systems show that the implementation of CCS in a hard coal power plant results in the increased use of about 35% coal and limestone, 20% copper, 60% steel and 400% of the selected chemicals, as compared to the without CCS system. In addition to the complementary increase in specific resource use, the CCS technology uses over 35% and 70% increase in land and water requirement respectively. CCS scenario with coal power plant using CO 2 capture (scenario S4) provides 83% reductions in the life cycle CO 2 emissions and significant increase in the life cycle material use varying from 13% for coal to 168% for ammonia, as compared to the scenario with no CCS and with global average coal power plant efficiency (scenario S1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]