TY - JOUR
T1 - Consumption-based material flow indicators - Comparing six ways of calculating the Austrian raw material consumption providing six results
AU - Eisenmenger, Nina
AU - Wiedenhofer, Dominik
AU - Schaffartzik, Anke
AU - Giljum, Stefan
AU - Bruckner, Martin
AU - Schandl, Heinz
AU - Wiedmann, Thomas O.
AU - Lenzen, Manfred
AU - Tukker, Arnold
AU - Koning, Arjan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 .
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - Understanding the environmental implications of consumption and production depends on appropriate monitoring tools. Material flow accounting (MFA) is a method to monitor natural resource use by countries and has been widely used in research and policy. However, the increasing globalization requires the consideration of 'embodied' material use of traded products. The indicator raw material consumption (RMC) represents the material use - no matter where in the world it occurs - associated with domestic final demand. It provides a consumption-based perspective complementary to the MFA indicators that have a territorial focus. Several studies on RMC have been presented recently but with diverging results; hence, a better understanding of the underlying differences is needed. This article presents a comparison of Austrian RMC for the year 2007 calculated by six different approaches (3 multi-regional input-output (MRIO) and 3 hybrid life-cycle analysis-IO approaches). Five approaches result in an RMC higher than the domestic material consumption (DMC). One hybrid LCA-IO approach calculates RMC to be lower than DMC. For specific material categories, results diverge by 50% or more. Due to the policy relevance of the RMC and DMC indicators it is paramount that their robustness is enhanced, which needs both data and method harmonization.
AB - Understanding the environmental implications of consumption and production depends on appropriate monitoring tools. Material flow accounting (MFA) is a method to monitor natural resource use by countries and has been widely used in research and policy. However, the increasing globalization requires the consideration of 'embodied' material use of traded products. The indicator raw material consumption (RMC) represents the material use - no matter where in the world it occurs - associated with domestic final demand. It provides a consumption-based perspective complementary to the MFA indicators that have a territorial focus. Several studies on RMC have been presented recently but with diverging results; hence, a better understanding of the underlying differences is needed. This article presents a comparison of Austrian RMC for the year 2007 calculated by six different approaches (3 multi-regional input-output (MRIO) and 3 hybrid life-cycle analysis-IO approaches). Five approaches result in an RMC higher than the domestic material consumption (DMC). One hybrid LCA-IO approach calculates RMC to be lower than DMC. For specific material categories, results diverge by 50% or more. Due to the policy relevance of the RMC and DMC indicators it is paramount that their robustness is enhanced, which needs both data and method harmonization.
KW - Input-output analysis
KW - Material flow accounting
KW - Material footprint
KW - Raw material consumption
KW - Resource efficiency
KW - Sustainable resource use
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84969705737&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.03.010
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.03.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84969705737
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 128
SP - 177
EP - 186
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -