Global Resource Use Research Articles

Planning the great acceleration: spatial norms and urban expansion in Prince George, Canada, 1946-1981

ABSTRACT The decades following the Second World War are characterized as a Great Acceleration in global energy and resource use. Norms related to urban planning and development in these decades created social-ecological structures that led to elevated carbon use and biodiversity loss. In this paper, we connect perspectives on the mass suburbanization that transformed North American cities to a global scale discourse on the Great Acceleration and Anthropocene. Taking Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, as our case, we review how two dominant spatial norms (Howard’s Garden City and Perry’s Neighbourhood Unit) were deployed between 1946 and 1981 to both rationalize and accommodate urban expansion in the province’s northern capital. Archival sources and historical land development data relate a pattern of growth over this period to the actors, mechanisms, and planning theories that were used to promote urban expansion for a population that would ultimately never come.

Assessing effects of climate and technology uncertainties in large natural resource allocation problems

Abstract. The productivity of the world's natural resources is critically dependent on a variety of highly uncertain factors, which obscure individual investors and governments that seek to make long-term, sometimes irreversible, investments in their exploration and utilization. These dynamic considerations are poorly represented in disaggregated resource models, as incorporating uncertainty into large-dimensional problems presents a challenging computational task. In this paper, we apply the SCEQ algorithm (Cai and Judd, 2023) to solve a large-scale dynamic stochastic global land resource use problem with stochastic crop yields due to adverse climate impacts and limits on further technological progress. For the same model parameters and bounded shocks, the range of land conversion is considerably smaller for the dynamic stochastic model than for deterministic scenario analysis.

Multilayer biological networks to upscale marine research to global change-smart management and sustainable resource use

Human activities are having a massive negative impact on biodiversity and ecological processes worldwide. The rate and magnitude of ecological transformations induced by climate change, habitat destruction, overexploitation and pollution are now so substantial that a sixth mass extinction event is currently underway. The biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene urges scientists to put forward a transformative vision to promote the conservation of biodiversity, and thus indirectly the preservation of ecosystem functions. Here, we identify pressing issues in global change biology research and propose an integrative framework based on multilayer biological networks as a tool to support conservation actions and marine risk assessments in multi-stressor scenarios. Multilayer networks can integrate different levels of environmental and biotic complexity, enabling us to combine information on molecular, physiological and behaviour responses, species interactions and biotic communities. The ultimate aim of this framework is to link human-induced environmental changes to species physiology, fitness, biogeography and ecosystem impacts across vast seascapes and time frames, to help guide solutions to address biodiversity loss and ecological tipping points. Further, we also define our current ability to adopt a widespread use of multilayer networks within ecology, evolution and conservation by providing examples of case-studies. We also assess which approaches are ready to be transferred and which ones require further development before use. We conclude that multilayer biological networks will be crucial to inform (using reliable multi-levels integrative indicators) stakeholders and support their decision-making concerning the sustainable use of resources and marine conservation.

Spatio-temporal metabolic rifts in urban construction material circularity

Global demand for resources currently exceeds Earth's carrying capacity. Representing a majority of global resource use, and associated environmental burdens, cities must address overconsumption by improving material circularity. This work explores the potential for the construction sector to reduce the indirect environmental impacts connected to increasing material circularity in the coming years. An urban metabolism simulation tool based on system dynamics and life cycle thinking is deployed to estimate the effects of circularization on environmental impacts. Illustrating with a case study of Montréal (Canada), impacts are disaggregated to supplier nations, provinces and territories. As material circularity increases over time, impacts decrease in the sub-national and international regions, but increase in the city due to the activities associated with second life valorisation. In supplier regions, especially Brazil, Mexico, and Norway, environmental impacts decrease between 80 and 100 % in all 18 impact categories by 2050. However, these decreases are found to be shared mostly among Canada's more developed trading partners, revealing an environmental justice risk for circular materiality to disproportionally favour the better-off. Five of the 18 categories did not undergo spatial burden-shifting, improving at all spatial levels in the assessment, while 13 showed decreased environmental impacts remotely at the expense of increased impacts within Montréal.

Exploring the factors influencing urban farmers’ perception and attitude toward the use of excreta-based organic fertilizers in Arba Minch City, Ethiopia

This study assesses the factors influencing urban farmers’ intentions to adopt excreta-based organic fertilizers in Arba Minch City, Ethiopia, to address the pressing global resource use challenge, particularly the linear system of organic nutrient use and the practice of closing the nutrient loop. To do this, the study applies the Combined Model of Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model (C-TPB-TAM) to examine the links between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and farmers’ intentions. Surveys that were given to a sample of urban farmers in Arba Minch City were used to get the data. The results shed light on the factors that influence farmers’ decisions to use organic fertilizers and offer useful information for resolving the problem of resource use in the context of urban agriculture. The findings specifically show how attitudes, perceived behavioral control, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use significantly affect farmers’ intentions. However, it was discovered that the subjective norm did not significantly affect the farmer’s intention. These results highlight how critical it is to address farmers’ attitudes, perceived behavioral control, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use to encourage the adoption of sustainable farming methods and close the nutrient loop. Farmers can help mitigate the negative environmental effects of the linear nutrient system and speed up the transition to a more resource- and sustainably efficient agriculture system by implementing organic fertilizers. This study not only adds to the body of knowledge but also has applications for practitioners and policymakers who want to encourage the use of organic fertilizers. To better understand the adoption of organic fertilizer in various locations and nations, future research projects should think about extending the geographical reach and examining real adoption behavior. We can encourage sustainable agricultural practices and work toward a more resource-oriented and resilient future by building on these lessons.

A comparative life cycle assessment of tyre recycling using pyrolysis compared to conventional end-of-life pathways

End-of-life tyres (ELTs) are difficult to recycle due to their complex composition. Although there are several possible pathways to manage ELTs, in Germany roughly 50 % of the ELTs are still incinerated. One emerging technology that promises recycling of ELTs is the thermochemical processing through pyrolysis. This technology enables to recover carbon black and pyrolysis oil that can be reused for new tyres. Therefore, this study presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment to compare the environmental impacts from pyrolysis of ELTs against current dominant alternative end-of-life treatment pathways. The investigated alternative end-of-life pathways are (i) incineration in a cement plant, (ii) incineration in a dedicated incineration plant, and (iii) production of infills for artificial turfs. The results show that the recycling of ELTs for material recovery has lower environmental impacts in the categories global warming, particulate matter and resource use compared to end-of-life pathways that target energy recovery.

Nutritional quality of eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) under contemporary and future environmental conditions

AbstractClimate‐driven environmental change is increasingly impacting global fisheries and marine resource use. Fisheries provide a broad range of economic, social and cultural benefits while delivering essential contributions to nutrient security and human health. Despite this, little is known about how climate change will impact the availability and quality of seafood‐derived nutrients. Here, we quantified spatial and temporal changes in the nutritional quality of the commercially harvested eastern school whiting, Sillago flindersi, sampled throughout the south‐east Australian ocean warming hotspot. Several nutrients measured in S. flindersi, including protein, ash, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and the omega‐3 PUFA–docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6ɷ3), were related to one or more environmental factors (sea bottom temperature, depth and chlorophyll). We also detected seasonal variability in DHA and ash composition throughout the species' commercially harvested distribution. Historical and future spatial modelling predicted a decrease in DHA of up to 6% with increasing ocean temperature under future Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 emission scenarios. Overall, our results identified S. flindersi as a rich source of protein and essential PUFAs for human consumers and supported emerging evidence that reductions in seafood‐derived essential nutrients may occur under future ocean warming, specifically reductions in omega‐3 fatty acids. The development of nutritional quality forecasting tools for seafood holds the potential to inform fishers and managers of locations and times of the year to target species with optimal nutritional quality.

Healthcare Resource Utilization in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation: A Global Analysis from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

The management of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common sustained arrhythmia, impacts healthcare resource utilization (HCRU). This study aims to estimate global resource use in AF patients, using the GARFIELD-AF registry. A prospective cohort study was conducted to characterize HCRU in AF patients enrolled in sequential cohorts from 2012 to 2016 in 35 countries. Components of HCRU studied were hospital admissions, outpatient care visits, and diagnostic and interventional procedures occurring during follow-up. AF-related HCRU was reported as the percentage of patients demonstrating at least one event and was quantified as rate-per-patient-per-year (PPPY) over time. A total of 49,574 patients was analyzed, having an overall median follow-up of 719 days. Almost all patients (99.5%) had at least one outpatient care visit, while hospital admissions were the second most frequent medical contact, with similar proportions in North America (37.5%) and Europe (37.2%), and slightly higher in the other GARFIELD-AF countries (42.0%; namely Australia, Egypt, and South Africa). Asia and Latin America showed lower percentages of hospitalizations, outpatient care visits, and diagnostic and interventional procedures. Analyses of GARFIELD-AF highlighted the vast AF-related HCRU, underlying significant geographical differences in the type, quantity, and frequency of AF-related HCRU. These differences were likely attributable to health service availability and differing models of care.

Global Resource Circularity for Lithium-Ion Batteries up to 2050: Traction and Stationary Use

The use of the lithium-ion battery (LIB) in both traction and stationary applications has become ubiquitous. It is essential that retired LIBs are wisely treated, with a basis in the concept of the circular economy, to mitigate primary resource use. A closed-loop repurposing and recycling treatment is required. Thus, using the concept of total material requirement as an indicator of natural resource use based on mining activity, a dynamic material flow analysis was executed considering the degradation of the battery, its lifespan, and demand patterns under several scenarios. Then, the effect of circularity on the savings in global natural resource use involved across the entire lifecycles of LIBs was evaluated. It was found that the global resource use for LIBs will increase to between 10 and 48 Gt in 2050. Circularity has the potential to contribute to an 8–44% reduction in the global resource use associated with LIBs in 2050. It was also found that a longer lifespan in the years leading up to 2050 would have a greater impact on the reduction of resource use for LIBs, despite the lower effectiveness of circularity, because it would reduce the demand for LIBs.

Managers’ Perception on Adaptation of Green Building Practices and Environmental Performance

The need for sustainability has gained remarkable momentum in the context of the global challenges of environmental pollution, climate change, and global warming. In this context, as the largest single share in global resource use and pollution emission, the building construction industry must play a remarkable role to overcome this negative impact. In this setting, the concept of Green Building (GB) provides an alternative sustainable solution for the environmental impacts of buildings while supporting sustainable development. Green building provides benefits not only from an environmental perspective but also from economic and social aspects. Thus, stakeholders of real estate tend to adopt green building technology to avoid the pressure of the internal and external business environment. In this background, by following the Melvilles’ Belief-Action-Outcome framework, the study argued that green building practices of an organization are the outcome of the integrated micro and macro level pressure created by stakeholders for better adaptation of the GB concept, and beliefs of decision-makers on future consequences of non-adaptation of GB concept. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of macro and micro factors on the action of executives of the apparel sector of Sri Lanka on the adoption of green building practices. The population of the study is defined as executives of apparel companies in Sri Lanka. A total of 300 questionnaires has been distributed to executives who were selected using convenience sampling techniques and 86 valid responses were received. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used as the analytical technique of the study. The results suggest that macro factors namely coercive and mimetic pressure were not able to make a significant influence on executives’ attitudes toward GB practices adoption. However, it is confirmed that the attitudes of executives significantly contribute to managers’ actions on adopting pollution prevention, adoption for product stewardship, and adoption for sustainable development practices. Out of these three actions, product stewardship and sustainable development significantly contribute to the environmental performance of the organization. Accordingly, the study concludes that neither future consideration nor pressure created by the business environment act as motivators of the adoption of the green building concept within the apparel industry in Sri Lanka.

How much infrastructure is required to support decent mobility for all? An exploratory assessment

Decarbonizing transport is crucial for achieving climate targets, which is challenging because mobility is growing rapidly. Personal mobility is a key societal service and basic need, but currently not available to everyone with sufficient quality and quantity. The basis for mobility and accessibility of desired destinations is infrastructure, but its build-up and maintenance require a substantial fraction of global resource use. The question arises, how much mobility and how much infrastructure are required to deliver decent, sustainable mobility.We explore the relations between mobility levels, mobility infrastructure and well-being. We synthesize definitions of decent mobility and assess mobility measurements and provide a novel estimate of mobility infrastructure stocks for 172 countries in the year ~2021. We then explore the relations between infrastructure, travelled distances, accessibility, economic activity and several ‘beyond GDP’ well-being indicators.We find that travelled distances and mobility infrastructure levels are significantly correlated. Above levels of ~92–207 t/cap of mobility infrastructure no further significant gains in well-being can be expected from a further increase of infrastructure. We conclude that high mobility in terms of distances travelled as well as building up mobility infrastructure is only beneficial for well-being up to a certain point.

‘Sustainable’ marketing mixes and the paradoxical consequences of good intentions

Global resource use and related emissions continue to rise despite decades of public and private sector marketing efforts to encourage more sustainable consumption. One question seldom addressed in the sustainability literature is the degree to which sustainable marketing mixes might paradoxically encourage higher levels of consumption by reducing purchase related guilt and costs. The current research examines fast fashion sustainability initiatives and finds evidence of moral self licensing and rebound effects that lead to higher predicted sales even among the most environmentally conscious consumers. Implications for sustainability researchers and practitioners are then discussed.

National responsibility for ecological breakdown: a fair-shares assessment of resource use, 1970–2017

Human impacts on earth-system processes are overshooting several planetary boundaries, driving a crisis of ecological breakdown. This crisis is being caused in large part by global resource extraction, which has increased dramatically over the past half century. We propose a novel method for quantifying national responsibility for ecological breakdown by assessing nations' cumulative material use in excess of equitable and sustainable boundaries. For this analysis, we derived national fair shares of a sustainable resource corridor. These fair shares were then subtracted from countries' actual resource use to determine the extent to which each country has overshot its fair share over the period 1970-2017. Through this approach, each country's share of responsibility for global excess resource use was calculated. High-income nations are responsible for 74% of global excess material use, driven primarily by the USA (27%) and the EU-28 high-income countries (25%). China is responsible for 15% of global excess material use, and the rest of the Global South (ie, the low-income and middle-income countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) is responsible for only 8%. Overshoot in higher-income nations is driven disproportionately by the use of abiotic materials, whereas in lower-income nations it is driven disproportionately by the use of biomass. These results show that high-income nations are the primary drivers of global ecological breakdown and they need to urgently reduce their resource use to fair and sustainable levels. Achieving sufficient reductions will likely require high-income nations to adopt transformative post-growth and degrowth approaches. None.

A nanomaterial-stabilized starch-beeswax Pickering emulsion coating to extend produce shelf-life

There is a dire need to cut post-harvest food loss to improve global food security, public health, and sustainable natural resource use. Fruits and vegetables constitute one of the most perishable food items and typically require cold storage systems, adequate packaging, and efficient transport and road systems to reduce their loss. This research showed that by stabilizing cornstarch and beeswax emulsion with cellulose nanocrystals, a sustainable and edible coating that substantially reduces the spoilage of fruits and other produce could be obtained. Native and aliphatic succinic anhydride-modified CNCs were employed as Pickering emulsifiers. The effect of emulsion stabilizers concentrations on the enhancement of physical properties, reduction of water vapor loss, and oxygen permeability was investigated, and 2 wt% modified CNC was selected as the optimal Pickering emulsion stabilizer. Fresh bananas, strawberries, and fresh-cut apples that were dip-coated with the formulated edible coating displayed magnificent color and freshness preservation by reducing oxygen activities and preventing moisture losses. Overall, the studied emulsion is edible and inexpensive, making it an exciting material that can be used to combat fresh produce waste caused by oxidative and enzymatic over-ripening.

Consumption Work in the circular economy: A research agenda.

Circular Economy frameworks have become central to debates and interventions that aim to reduce global resource use and environmental despoilment. As pathways to both systemic and micro-scale transformations, there remain many challenges to making Circular Economy actionable. One such challenge is facilitating the emergence of the ‘circular consumer’. Here, we are all encouraged to shift everyday practices to consume new products and services and/or participate in the ‘Sharing Economy’: all of which are claimed, in some prominent debates, to automatically offer more ‘convenience’ for the consumer. In response, this paper argues that viewing such debates through the lens of Consumption Work offers a different picture of what it takes to be, and what we need to know about, the circular consumer. Consumption Work refers to the labour integral to the purchase, use, re-use and disposal of goods and services. This paper argues that the nature and scope of such work has been underplayed in Circular Economy debates to date, and that becoming a circular consumer requires varied and unevenly distributed forms of Consumption Work, which in turn, has significant implications for the success of Circular Economy. This paper thus proposes a research agenda into this topic, outlining five, inter-related, critical issues that a Circular Economy research agenda must address, including questions of who undertakes Consumption Work; to what ends; and how its multiple forms are coordinated within and beyond the household.

Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty? Degrowth or decoupling?

Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty? Degrowth or decoupling?

Cities as organisms: Urban metabolism of the four main Danish cities

Cities are responsible for the majority of global resource use and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban metabolism, which mimics metabolism of organisms as both require material and energy to function and further generate waste and emissions, is a useful framework to analyze levels of sustainability of a city through quantification of material and energy flows it uses and discards. The present study quantifies and compares the metabolic patterns of the four main Danish cities, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and Aalborg, from 2010 and 2015. We found their inflows of energy, water, and food and outflows of greenhouse gas emissions, wastewater, municipal solid waste, and construction and demolition waste have downsized over the six years. Our results affirm the impact of relevant policy and regulations in urban sustainability, with Danish cities showing more sustainable metabolic patterns than other world megacities previously reported in the literature. They also indicate that urban metabolic patterns can be highly dependent on the role and services that a city offers to its surrounding region (as a multicellular organism). Further strengthening of policies and regulations on “cities for sustainability” (i.e., focus on the sustainability of the entire multicellular organism) instead of a sole focus on “sustainable city” (i.e., each cell aiming at being sustainable independently from the others) would be important.

Material Hide‐and‐Seek: Looking for the Resource Savings Due to International Trade of Food Products

AbstractAdverse 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.

Understanding the trends in Denmark's global food trade-related greenhouse gas and resource footprint

Food production is a major driver of global warming, water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Denmark has set ambitious targets to lower its territorial carbon emissions in the next decades. In 2019, the Danish Agriculture and Food Council announced a strategy to make Denmark's food production systems climate-neutral by 2050. Therefore, detailed information concerning Denmark's food consumption's environmental impacts is required to implement effective climate mitigation and resource conservation policies that lead to positive local to global results. Using an environmentally extended multi-regional input-output (EE MRIO) analysis and the EXIOBASE v3.4 database, we evaluate Denmark's global food-related consumption-based (CB) greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and resource (land and water use) accounts from 1995 to 2014. Although Denmark's CB food-related blue water use remained relatively stable during the studied period, its food-related CB GHG emissions (excluding land-use change emissions) decreased continuously by 30%. Also, Denmark's cropland and grassland footprints for food declined by 16% (3555 km2) and 27% (621 km2), respectively. Almost two-fifths of Denmark's food consumption was produced abroad in 2014, corresponding to 51% of Denmark's food-related CB GHG emissions and land use apiece and 84% of its food-related blue water use. Whereas animal-based foods accounted for the largest share of Denmark's food-related CB GHG emissions, plant-based diets were responsible for the bulk of Denmark's CB land and blue water use. Dietary changes towards plant-based foods are essential to mitigating Denmark's food-related climate impacts. We recommend that Denmark transfers its sustainable food production technologies to its pollution-and-resource intensive food-exporting trade partners to enhance global climate change mitigation and resource use efficiency.

Environmental sustainability in endodontics. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of a root canal treatment procedure

BackgroundTo analyse via life cycle analysis (LCA) the global resource use and environmental output of the endodontic procedure.MethodologyAn LCA was conducted to measure the life cycle of a standard/routine two-visit RCT. The LCA was conducted according to the International Organization of Standardization guidelines; ISO 14040:2006. All clinical elements of an endodontic treatment (RCT) were input into OpenLCA software using process and flows from the ecoinvent database. Travel to and from the dental clinic was not included. Environmental outputs included abiotic depletion, acidification, freshwater ecotoxicity/eutrophication, human toxicity, cancer/non cancer effects, ionizing radiation, global warming, marine eutrophication, ozone depletion, photochemical ozone formation and terrestrial eutrophication.ResultsAn RCT procedure contributes 4.9 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq) emissions. This is the equivalent of a 30 km drive in a small car. The main 5 contributors were dental clothing followed by surface disinfection (isopropanol), disposable bib (paper and plastic), single-use stainless steel instruments and electricity use. Although this LCA has illustrated the effect endodontic treatment has on the environment, there are a number of limitations that may influence the validity of the results.ConclusionsThe endodontic team need to consider how they can reduce the environmental burden of endodontic care. One immediate area of focus might be to consider alternatives to isopropyl alcohol, and look at paper, single use instrument and electricity use. Longer term, research into environmentally-friendly medicaments should continue to investigate the replacement of current cytotoxic gold standards with possible natural alternatives. Minimally invasive regenerative endodontics techniques designed to stimulate repair or regeneration of damaged pulp tissue may also be one way of improving the environmental impact of an RCT.