Material Demand Reduction Research Articles

What bulk material production is possible on a transition to net zero emissions by 2050 with limited zero emissions resources?

Global production of bulk materials such as steel, paper, and aluminium has tripled over the past three decades and decarbonising their production is a difficult challenge. The transition to net zero emissions depends on three key zero emissions resources, non-emitting electricity, biomass, and carbon storage. This paper develops a model to anticipate how likely deployment of these three resources will constrain bulk material production on the transition to net zero emissions by 2050. The results predict that 2050 supply of steel, paper and aluminium will be up to 40% lower than demand. To address this shortfall, policy should promote a more rapid deployment of zero emissions resources in parallel with the strategies of material demand reduction. SynopsisThis paper quantifies potential production levels of aluminium, steel and paper on a trajectory that achieves net zero emissions by 2050 given constraints on zero emissions resources.

Religion, Climate Change, and Material Demand Reduction

The forthcoming COP26 Meeting in Glasgow (1–12 November 2021) is again reminding us of the urgent significance of climate change. As with the pivotal Paris meeting in 2015 (COP21), the role of reli...

What Does Input Substitution Tell Us in Helping Decarbonization and Dematerialization? Industry Level Analysis for South Korea

This study argues that improving material efficiency should be seriously considered as a mitigation policy objective alongside energy efficiency in order to meet the net-zero carbon targets and climate mitigation policies should be designed at the industry level based on the industry-specific needs and peculiarities. Therefore, by highlighting the emerging role of material use in greenhouse gas emission mitigation, this paper aims to investigate the degree of substitution between inputs for South Korea at the industry level, with a particular focus on substitution/complementarity possibilities between energy and materials. To this end, we make use of the Asia KLEMS database covering a wide range of industries and estimate translog cost share equations using Zellner’s seemingly unrelated regression to compute price elasticities. We consider two models derived from translog cost function, i.e. the static and dynamic. The empirical results provide important insights about how industry-specific material demand reduction policies could help to reduce emissions and improve resource efficiency when integrated with energy efficiency.

The making of green steel in the EU: a policy evaluation for the early commercialization phase

ABSTRACT In the attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from steel production, several large industry decarbonization projects have emerged in Europe. The commercialization of low-emission steel technology, however, faces systemic barriers such as a lack of infrastructure and unclear demand for greener steel. As part of its new commitment to climate-neutrality, the European Commission has announced plans to more actively create and reshape markets for green basic materials. The approach is inspired by the recent success story of renewable energy, where market interventionist policy has successfully led to cost reductions and supported the diffusion of wind and photovoltaics. However, the applicability of this type of policy to decarbonize basic materials has so far not been investigated. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, efficiency and fairness of early commercialization policy support for the decarbonization transition of steel. We compare two approaches: demand side market creation and direct production subsidies through carbon contracts for difference. We find that the subsidy approach can more effectively enable the realization of primary green steel production. A complementary use of market creation policy instruments can reduce the production subsidy volumes needed and aid the global diffusion of new production methods. Although effective, we find that production subsidies will distribute the costs and benefits of the transition unequally. In order to improve effectiveness and fairness of the policy, parallel programmes such as electricity price guarantees and transitional assistance policies for disadvantaged regions are needed. Key policy insights Carbon contracts for difference are the most promising policy instrument to commercialize low-emission primary steel but are likely to lead to unequal distribution of transition costs. Market creation policies can support the global diffusion of low-emission primary steelmaking. Material efficiency and demand reduction can reduce the need for primary steel production by more than 50%. Regions without access to large amounts of renewable electricity are especially disadvantaged. Unclear EU ETS benchmarks currently create a perverse incentive that keeps firms from investing in breakthrough technologies.

Implementing material efficiency in practice: A case study to improve the material utilisation of automotive sheet metal components

There is an opportunity to reduce the amount of sheet metal currently used to manufacture automotive components, despite the available cost and CO2 savings, the automotive industry has not realised the full potential of these saving opportunities. To understand why, a practical case study was set up with an automotive manufacturer. A cross-functional team was established with the scope to make changes to five components using a structured design process to improve material efficiency. The trial identified realistic opportunities to improve material utilisation by 20%pts, and save £9million and 5 kilotonnes of CO2 annually. The greatest saving opportunities were found early in the product development cycle, before the production method is determined by component geometry. Of these, 3%pts were actually implemented on the production vehicle, saving £1.8million and 1.5 kilotonnes of CO2 annually. The case study identified significant barriers to implementing material efficiency strategies in an industrial setting. To overcome these barriers material utilisation should be considered early in the product design process and high in the vehicle platform hierarchy. As a result of this investigation, new business processes are being generated to support design for material utilisation at the automotive manufacturer. This case study approach should be considered to increase implementation for other aspects of material demand reduction.

Material Demand Reduction and Closed-Loop Recycling Automotive Aluminium

© 2018 Materials Research Society. Environmentally aware automotive manufacturers recycle aluminum production scrap in closed-loop systems to generate environmental and financial savings. Further savings could be gained if material demand is reduced, through improving the material utilization of the production process. Since a more efficient production process generates less scrap, the opportunity for closed loop recycling reduces when material demand reduces. This paper investigates the interaction between material demand reduction and closed loop recycling for an aluminum intensive case-study vehicle. It identifies the greatest environmental and financial savings when both strategies are implemented together. It is shown that a 'recycled content' target does not capture these saving opportunities. It is recommended that automotive manufacturers set targets for both material utilization and scrap recovery, to simultaneously promote closed-loop recycling and material demand reduction.

Energy demand for materials in an international context.

Materials are everywhere and have determined society. The rapid increase in consumption of materials has led to an increase in the use of energy and release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing emissions in material-producing industries is a key challenge. If all of industry switched to current best practices, the energy-efficiency improvement potential would be between 20% and 35% for most sectors. While these are considerable potentials, especially for sectors that have historically paid a lot of attention to energy-efficiency improvement, realization of these potentials under current 'business as usual' conditions is slow due to a large variety of barriers and limited efforts by industry and governments around the world. Importantly, the potentials are not sufficient to achieve the deep reductions in carbon emissions that will be necessary to stay within the climate boundaries as agreed in the 2015 Paris Conference of Parties. Other opportunities need to be included in the menu of options to mitigate GHG emissions. It is essential to develop integrated policies combining energy efficiency, renewable energy and material efficiency and material demand reduction, offering the most economically attractive way to realize deep reductions in carbon emissions.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Climate strategies: thinking through Arctic examples.

Frequent and unpredictable extreme weather events in Siberia and Alaska destroy infrastructure and threaten the livelihoods of circumpolar peoples. Local responses are inventive and flexible. However, the distinct politics of post-Soviet Siberia and Alaska play a key role in the pragmatics of strategic planning. The Arctic is a planetary climate driver, but also holds the promise of massive resources in an ice-free future, producing tensions between 'environmental' and 'development' goals. Drawing on material from Siberia and Alaska we argue: (i) that extreme events in the Arctic are becoming normal; material demands are in a state of flux making it difficult to assess future material needs. We must consider material substitutions as much as material reduction; (ii) local-level responsive strategies should be taken into account. Core/periphery thinking tends to assume that answers come from 'the centre'; this is, in our view, limited; (iii) we suggest that 'flexibility' may become a core survival value that is as important for city planners and public health officials as it is for Siberian reindeer herders. In this, we see not only the simultaneous need for mitigation and adaptation policies, but also for a concerted effort in promoting such capacities in young people.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Living both well and sustainably: a review of the literature, with some reflections on future research, interventions and policy.

The idea that human well-being (WB) can be supported and even enhanced by using, producing, buying, selling and consuming less 'stuff' is anathema to many living under consumer capitalism. Yet a growing research literature actually finds that frequent engagement in pro-ecological behaviours (PEBs) is positively correlated with personal WB. This paper reviews data relevant to three possible explanations for the apparent compatibility of PEBs and WB: (i) engaging in PEBs leads to psychological need satisfaction, which in turn causes WB; (ii) being in a good mood causes people to engage in more prosocial behaviours, including PEBs; and (iii) personal characteristics and lifestyles such as intrinsic values, mindfulness and voluntary simplicity cause both PEBs and WB. Because each explanation has some empirical support, I close by reflecting on some relevant interventions and policies that could strengthen each of these three pathways and thereby promote living both well and sustainably.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Recomposing consumption: defining necessities for sustainable and equitable well-being.

This paper focuses on consumption in the affluent world and the resulting level, composition and distribution of consumption-based emissions. It argues that public policy should foster the recomposition of consumption, while not disadvantaging poorer groups in the population. To combine these two imperatives entails making a distinction between goods and services that are necessary for a basic level of well-being, and those that are surplus to this requirement. The argument proceeds in six stages. First, the paper outlines a theory of universal need, as an alternative conception of well-being to consumer preference satisfaction. Second, it proposes a dual strategy methodology for identifying need satisfiers or necessities in a given social context. Then, it applies this methodology to identify a minimum bundle of necessary consumption items in the UK and speculates how it might be used to identify a maximum bundle for sustainable consumption. The next part looks at corporate barriers and structural obstacles in the path of sustainable consumption. The following part reveals a further problem: mitigation policies can result in perverse distributional outcomes when operating in contexts of great inequality. The final section suggests four ecosocial public policies that would simultaneously advance sustainable and equitable consumption in rich nations.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Are prices enough? The economics of material demand reduction

Recent policy proposals to achieve carbon targets have emphasized material demand reduction strategies aimed at achieving material efficiency. We provide a bridge between the way economists and engineers think about efficiency. We use the tools of economics to think about policies directed at material efficiency and to evaluate the role and rationale for such policies. The analysis highlights when prices (or taxes) can be used to induce changes in material use and when taxes may not work. We argue that the role of taxes is limited by concerns about their distributional consequences, by international trade and the lack of international agreement on carbon prices, and by investment failures.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

'Not to escape the world but to join it': responding to climate change with imagination not fantasy.

The work of climate scientists, demonstrating human-driven climate change, has not provoked the widespread and far-reaching changes to human behaviour necessary to avert potentially catastrophic environmental trajectories. This work has not yet sufficiently been able to engage the individual and collective imagination. Drawing on Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), we can distinguish two modes under which the human imagination can operate: in Murdoch's terms, these are 'imagination' and 'fantasy'. To relate imaginatively is to be willing to allow one's internal image of the world to be changed by what one encounters, while an outlook characterized by fantasy relates to the world as one would wish it were, rather than how it actually is. Fantasy, therefore, operates not only among those who deny climate change, but also among those who entertain the promise of a technological solution too optimistically. An imaginative outlook, by contrast, evaluates actions and patterns of behaviour in terms of their relation to a wider whole. This is necessary for providing the degree of agency required to step out of a cycle of ever accelerating production, which is explored in terms of an analogy to a discussion of revenge and forgiveness from Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). Ultimately, the need to engage the imagination is an opportunity as well as a challenge. To live imaginatively is fulfilling, and that is precisely what the challenges of climate change require.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Towards environmentally sustainable human behaviour: targeting non-conscious and conscious processes for effective and acceptable policies.

Meeting climate change targets to limit global warming to 2°C requires rapid and large reductions in demand for products that most contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These include production of bulk materials (e.g. steel and cement), energy supply (e.g. fossil fuels) and animal source foods (particularly ruminants and their products). Effective strategies to meet these targets require transformative changes in supply as well as demand, involving changes in economic, political and legal systems at local, national and international levels, building on evidence from many disciplines. This paper outlines contributions from behavioural science in reducing demand. Grounded in dual-process models of human behaviour (involving non-conscious and conscious processes) this paper considers first why interventions aimed at changing population values towards the environment are usually insufficient or unnecessary for reducing demand although they may be important in increasing public acceptability of policies that could reduce demand. It then outlines two sets of evidence from behavioural science towards effective systems-based strategies, to identify interventions likely to be effective at: (i) reducing demand for products that contribute most to GHG emissions, mainly targeting non-conscious processes and (ii) increasing public acceptability for policy changes to enable these interventions, targeting conscious processes.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

The austere life.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, austerity has been deployed as a public policy geared towards reducing sovereign debt and restoring economic order, on the one hand, and descried as an example of punitive moralizing by political and economic elites, on the other. This article challenges the economic understanding of the concept of austerity. Some recent examples from popular culture are adduced to indicate societal dissatisfaction with the accumulation of material things, examples of what has been called 'the new minimalism'. Contextualizing this phenomenon within a culture of intensive consumption, it is argued here that there is a history of austerity as an aversion to ostentation and excess in western tradition that runs from the Stoics through to recent pronouncements by Pope Francis and that provides a vantage point from which to question the economistic deployment of the term. When understood in this way, the austere can be seen to carry an important political meaning today and may contribute to the sorts of transformation necessary in order to reduce material demand on a societal scale.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Why on earth did I buy that? A study of regretted appliance purchases.

If targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby tackle climate change are to be achieved, it will be necessary to reduce both embodied energy costs (e.g. in terms of producing and manufacturing the products and services that society consumes) and operational energy costs. Reducing the number of purchases that people regret could be a first step in changing the overall dynamic of consumption patterns. This research looks at some potentially adverse effects of consumption on well-being (e.g. negative emotions), applying social practice theory to give insights into why people make purchases that they feel negatively about. This paper draws from: (i) findings of a national survey of over 2000 respondents which found that 53% of adults had reported regretting purchasing an electrical device at some point, and that 23% regretted making such a purchase within the past year; and (ii) a series of walking interviews around people's homes that provide detailed insights into the nature and extent of regretted purchases of electrical goods (e.g. resentment at built-in obsolescence, frustration at the pace of technological change). By combining the qualitative and quantitative data, we develop a typology of regretted consumption and explore the underlying factors that lead to such purchases. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of this research.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

Radical dematerialization and degrowth.

The emission targets agreed in Paris require a radical reduction of material extraction, use and disposal. The core claim of this article is that a radical dematerialization can only be part and parcel of degrowth. Given that capitalist economies are designed to grow, this raises the question of whether, and under what circumstances, the inevitable 'degrowth' can become socially sustainable. Three economic policies are discussed in this direction: work-sharing, green taxes and public money.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Why we use more materials.

In this paper, we review the drivers for the high levels of material use in society, investigating both historical and current trends. We present recent national and global data by different material categories and accounting schemes, showing the correlations between materials use and different measures of human well-being. We also present a development narrative to accompany these observed trends, focusing on the strong role materials have played in economic development by industrialization and in the consumer economy. Finally, we speculate on how material efficiency might alter this pattern going forward and whether it is possible to de-couple well-being from material use.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

The carbon price: a toothless tool for material efficiency?

This article explores whether a carbon price will effectively encourage the more efficient use of greenhouse gas intensive materials such as steel. The article identifies a range of distortions that arise when some of the restrictive assumptions of neoclassical economics are relaxed. Distortions occur due to the sequential nature of decision-making along supply chains, due to imperfect competition and due to government intervention to reduce the risk of carbon leakage. If upstream sectors do not pass on carbon costs, downstream sectors do not have the opportunity to react. Of the distortions identified, compensation mechanisms that reduce the risk of carbon leakage are likely to act as the greatest hinderance to appropriate incentives for the more efficient use of steel in the UK: as things currently stand, unless upstream companies are encouraged to make windfall profits, incentives downstream are weakened. The article concludes by exploring policy options to address the distortions identified, including efforts to reinstate the carbon price downstream and efforts to remove other distortive taxes.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

Industry 1.61803: the transition to an industry with reduced material demand fit for a low carbon future

Arising from a discussion meeting in September 2016, this editorial introduces a special issue on the transition to a future industrial system with greatly reduced demand for material production and attempts to synthesize the main findings. The motivation for such a transition is to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, but unlike previous industrial transformations, there are no major stakeholders who will pursue the change for their own immediate benefit. The special issue, therefore, explores the means by which such a transition could be brought about. The editorial presents an overview of the opportunities identified in the papers of the volume, presents examples of actions that can be taken today to begin the process of change and concludes with an agenda for research that might support a rapid acceleration in the rate of change.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

Exploring demand reduction through design, durability and 'usership' of fashion clothes.

Global planetary boundaries confer limits to production and consumption of material goods. They also confer an obligation to experiment, as individuals and collectively as society, with less-materially-intensive, but no less exuberant, ways of living. This paper takes up this mantle and explores materials demand reduction through a focus on design, fashion garments and the universal, everyday activity of wearing clothes. It takes as its starting point the design of longer-lasting products, a widely favoured strategy for increasing materials efficiency and reducing materials demand in many sectors, including fashion. Drawing on scholarship in the field of design for sustainability and ethnographic research conducted in 16 locations in nine countries about already-existing practices of intensive use and maintenance of clothing, this paper critiques the effectiveness of durability strategies to reduce the amount of materials used. It argues for an update in the familiar preference within sustainability debates for the 'techno-fix' to explore instead resourceful use of materials as emerging from human actions and relationships with material goods. It suggests that, while facilitated by design, technology and engineering, opportunities to reduce materials demand begin in individual and collective practices, which, in turn, have dynamic implications for use of materials.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.