Total environmental impacts of Japanese material production

Abstract

AbstractDecoupling well‐being from resource use and its associated environmental impacts through resource efficiency and circular economy has become the mainstream agenda for sustainable development. Resource productivity and material flow indicators have been widely used to evaluate resource decoupling. Several approaches have been introduced in Europe to calculate the life cycle environmental impact of resource use at the macro‐level and assess impact decoupling. However, no studies have been conducted to estimate the overall aggregated environmental impact (total environmental impact) associated with resource use in all resource categories using statistical data at the national level and life cycle inventory databases in Japan. This study is the first assessment of the total environmental impact at the national level in Japan, particularly addressing the production process for 213 materials. The study makes it possible to distinguish the 4 phases for environmental impact generation (foreign supply chain, domestic supply chain, production process, and use), 12 environmental impact areas, and the resource category (biomass, fossil, metal, and non‐metallic mineral) of each material. The study shows that there is a higher impact generated by production and foreign supply chain phases in biomass and fossil resources such as crops, livestock, dairy products, and petroleum and coal products as well as some metals (steel and copper). These results imply that measures to reduce resource use and improve energy efficiency in direct production and foreign supply chains through local resource procurement and further resource‐efficient approaches, including the circular economy, should be prioritized for Japan, with its resource‐scarce and manufacturing‐oriented economy.