Stefan Bringezu
Ralf Behrensmeier
Helmut Schütz
If the physical basis of industrial economies is to be sustained, the global extraction of natural resources will have to be reduced drastically while the resource productivity will have to be increased. In order to indicate priorities for dematerialization measures, the material intensity of the German industry was analysed on the basis of preliminary data. Four questions were answered:
(1) Which branches extract material directly from the domestic environment?
(2) Which branches import material-intensive products (including the 'ecological
rucksacks')?
(3) What is the Total Material Input associated with the goods that are delivered to the
final demand?
(4) Which branches are - based on current technology - most dependent on a material -
intensive supply?
Each of these questions leads to a different answer. All together they provide a multi-dimensional picture of the material intensity of industries.
THE TASK
If the economic functions for society are be sustained, the environmental basis for the market activities will have to be improved. The extraction of raw materials, and the subsequent accumulation and release of materials to the environment has reached volumes that exceed ecological capacities. In order to reduce the material throughput, the global material input of industrial economies will have to decrease. If the material welfare is not to be diminished, the material productivity must be raised accordingly (Schmidt-Bleek 1994).
Meanwhile it is possible to quantify not only the life-cycle-wide Material Input for products and services but also to approximate the global Total Material Input of national or regional economies. In order to support effective measures for dematerialization, those actors must be addressed whose activities are associated with the highest global material input. Here, the possibilities are described that relate the direct and indirect material inputs of the German economy to the different sectors of industry (Behrensmeier and Bringezu 1995; Bringezu et al. 1995; Bringezu et al. 1996).
The following text refers only to material inputs without water and air. In order to answer question (3) and (4), 58 branches were analysed by input-output analyses. The results are documented on the basis of 23 aggregated sectors of West German industries in 1990.
DOMESTIC EXTRACTION OF PRIMARY MATERIALS
Only five sectors are involved in direct extraction or harvest of domestic primary materials (Table 1). The mining of fossil energy carriers is associated with the highest volume of material movement, most of which is represented by the nonsaleable run (= nonsaleable production) of lignite mining. The input of the mineral mining sector is dominated by sand and gravel and other minerals for building purposes. The input of biotic materials is far less than the input of abiotic (non-renewable) resources. However, there is also a considerable amount of erosion was taken as a stand-in for the 'ecological rucksack' of the agricultural biomass input. The mining of ores within Germany is rather negligible. Most of the ores are imported as concentrates.
These sectors may be addressed as primary targets for the purpose of dematerialization. The measures and instruments to foster an eco-restructuring of those sectors are discussed elsewhere (see Schmidt-Bleek 1994).
IMPORT OF MATERIAL-INTENSIVE PRODUCTS
The imports of products were related to data that allow an estimation of the minimum material input 'from cradle to border'. For instance, the import of abiotic raw materials was related to the amount of nonsaleable extraction in the country of origin. The imports of semi and final products were related to the global Material Input of their main base material used for production in Germany (e.g. cars were related to the lifecycle-wide material input per ton of steel). Thus, the results will have to be taken as preliminary.
The non-ferrous metal industry imports raw materials and semi manufactures with the relatively highest indirect material input (Table 1) This is due to a high input of raw materials and its associated 'rucksack' of nonsaleable extraction. The latter is extremely high in some cases, e.g. copper, platinum, and gold. The iron and steel production and processing is also importing raw materials, mainly iron ore, with a big 'rucksack'.
The sectors importing products with a big 'ecological rucksack' play an important role with respect to the needs for dematerialization. First, from an ecological perspective, it does matter if a certain material is taken from the global environment. Second, the Total Material Input of the German economy via imports is in the same order of magnitude as the domestic extraction of primary materials.
Thus, any statistical indication of progress towards dematerialization will only be sufficient, if the 'import' of indirect material inputs is considered. Otherwise a shift of environmental burden may remain undiscovered. This may be important, if for example the domestic extraction of primary materials is reduced due to curtailed subsidization. If the result is a shift towards the import of raw materials or semi products that are associated with the same or even bigger 'rucksack', then such a measure will have a detrimental effect on the global environment.
TOTAL MATERIAL INPUT OF GOODS FOR FINAL DEMAND
In order to reflect inter-industry deliveries, an input-output calculation was performed on the basis of output coefficients based on monetary tables and the data on the physical inputs via domestic production and imports. In this first approach, the monetary relations of deliveries are assumed to reflect physical relations. The method itself is designed to work on physical input-output tables which have just been prepared by the German Federal Statistical Office together with the Wuppertal Institute (Radermacher and Stahmer 1996). Thus, the data presented here have to be taken as preliminary. The main purpose is to exemplify possibilities for analysis and documentation for integrated environmental and economic accounting schemes which are relevant for policy support.
The estimation of the Total Material Input of the German economy was related to the goods that are delivered to the final demand (Table 2). The final demand, as defined by input-output statistics, comprises private consumption, state consumption, investments, exports, and storage changes. The result of the calculation is dependant on whether the final demand is supplied directly. For instance, ore mining does not deliver goods to the final demand. Therefore its material inputs are related to other intermediate sectors that are supplied by ore mining.
The construction industry delivers most material-intensive goods to the final demand. This is due to material-intensive modes of construction and the use of base materials such as concrete with a big 'rucksack' .The manufacturing of metals, the construction of vehicles, vessels and aeroplanes are also associated with a high material input of global origin. The energy sector is again rather important, although it supplies primarily the intermediate demand.
In the search for strategies to achieve dematerialization at the interface between production and consumption, these sectors may be expected to be of special importance. On the one hand, these industries are extraordinarily challenged to meet the final demand in a dematerialized manner. On the other hand, the consumers of those goods have a special chance to contribute to sustainability by demanding dematerialized products and services.
DEPENDENCE ON MATERIAL INTENSIVE SUPPLY
Intermediate sectors, which depend on the supply of semi products and do not directly deliver goods to the final demand, may also be affected by a dematerialization of the economy. In order to identify the relative dependence of material- intensive supplies, the above mentioned input-output calculation was extended. The iterative procedure by which the domestic and the imported material input was projected to the final demand was used to integrate the calculated input of each sector at each step. The results may be interpreted only in relative terms. High values are the combined result of a high direct or indirect material input and high consumption within the sector (Eigenverbrauch).
Based on current technology, the relative dependence on a material intensive supply is greatest in the energy supply sector, the iron and steel industry, and the construction sector (Table 3). The energy sector has already been mentioned for being mainly responsible for high direct extraction of domestic primary materials. The construction sector was found to be important due to the delivery of the most material-intensive goods to the final demand. The third grid of analyses indicates that the iron and steel industries are also important actors. These sectors are especially challenged by the effort to decrease the material intensity of their supply. The possibilities for the eco-restructuring of those industries are currently being studied at the Wuppertal Institute (see Liedtke et al. 1994; Hinterberger et al. 1996). Guidelines to improve eco-efficiency in business are given by the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) (1995), and extensive examples of the dematerialization of technologies by factors between 4 to 20 are given by Weizsäcker et al. (1995, 1997) and Bierter et al. (1997).
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
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