Abstract
Dematerialization is a paradigm in resource conservation strategies. Material use should be reduced so that resource consumption as a whole can be lowered. The benefit for humankind should be completely decoupled from the natural expenditure by a definite factor X. Instinctively, this approach is convincing, because our entire value-added chain is based on material transformation. Targets for mass-based indicators are found within the context of justification for ecological carrying capacity and intergenerational fairness, taking into account the economic and socio-political expectation of raw material scarcity. However, in light of further development of material flow indicators and the related dematerialization targets, the question arises as to what they actually stand for and what significance they have for resource conservation. Can it be assumed that pressure on the environment will decline steadily if the use of materials is reduced, whether for an economy or at the level of individual products or processes? The present narrative review paper has discussed this issue and takes into account the authors’ experience of the extended political and scientific discourse on dematerialization in Germany and Europe. As a result, a high “resource relevance” cannot be inferred from high physical material inputs at any of the levels considered. It has been shown that establishing mass-based indicators as control and target variables is questionable and that dematerialization exclusively based on such indicators without mapping other resources should be critically examined.
Highlights
Biophysical methods and models suggest that a global safe operating space can be identified where safe and sustainable life is granted to humankind without exceeding certain ecological limits [1].a degradation of ecosystems and ecosystem services shows that those ecological limits have already been reached [2]
Thereof, conclusions are drawn about the robustness of dematerialization as a strategy for resource conservation
Mass-based indicators that consider primary raw materials as objects of balance and trace back all material flows entering a system by raw material equivalents (RMEs) have the greatest significance since they unambiguously map a specified natural resource, the primary raw materials
Summary
Biophysical methods and models suggest that a global safe operating space can be identified where safe and sustainable life is granted to humankind without exceeding certain ecological limits [1]. In the programmes and strategies mentioned, there is as yet no generally accepted definition of the central object, the natural resources Depending on their definition and interpretation, they include materials, raw materials, natural energy flows, land, wildlife, agricultural goods, environmental media, ecosystems, the services they provide, and biodiversity. In light of further developments of the macroeconomic material flow indicators for resource efficiency assessment and of the analysis of material flows at process and product levels, questions arise as to what mass-based indicators stand for and what they reveal about the conservation or the efficient use of natural resources The application of economy-wide material flow accounting (EW-MFA) indicators in political programmes is described using Germany as an example This is followed by an outline of the factor X approach and its fundamentals for dematerialization as a strategy. Resource Conservation Conceptualization for Materials and the Factor X Approach
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