Leuven Materials Research Centre Sustainable Development, a challenge for European Research, Brussels, 26-28 May 2009 A transition towards Sustainable.

Leuven Materials Research Centre

Sustainable Development, a challenge for European Research,

Brussels, 26-28 May 2009

A transition towards Sustainable Materials Management in Flanders

Karel Van Acker, K.U.Leuven – Materials Research Centre

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Content

• Preamble: current materials managementand the need for transition

• Can the complex problem of sustainable materials management be tackled by transition management?

• Transition towards sustainable materials management in Flanders

• Examples: closing the cycle• Concluding remarks

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Preamble:Preamble:

current materials managementcurrent materials management and the need forand the need for transition transition

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Flemish Waste Management

• Flanders has excellent results for sorting wasteBUT total amount stays stable

municipal waste (106 ton)

sorted waste

remaining waste

MIRA-T 2007 Indicatorrapport - Milieurapport Vlaanderen. 2007, Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij

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Flemish Waste Management

industrial waste (106 ton)

primarysecundary

MIRA-T 2007 Indicatorrapport - Milieurapport Vlaanderen. 2007, Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij

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energy

emissions

mining production use phase End-of-Life

resources waste

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Emissions

GHG emission± 4200 Mton/yr (Europe)

CO2others

• CO2 and other GHGs• Health risks• Biodiversity• Accumulation in the environment

Impacts are relatively well described by LCA

Mton/yr in Europe CO2 Other GHGsmetals 244 11synthetic organic materials 167 53natural organic materials 93 130inorganic materials 49 60ceramic materials 191 0total 744 254

metals

synthetic organic materials

natural organic materials

inorganic materials

ceramic materials

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Materials life cycle

mining production use phase End-of-Life

resources waste

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Materials/Energy

Energy vs Materials

ENERGY MATERIALS

resources coal, petroleum, nat. gas, U huge diversity

additives none mixed

stocks (in technosphere) almost purely flow large stocks in society

waste and recycling only emissions(radio-active waste)

is a serious problem

comparison with surrogates energy-equivalent value of materials??

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Other materials management issues

• Resources: shrinking resources, rapidly increasing prices, extremely dependent, capacity of the biosphere

• Environmental impact• Social implications

But also: • Fragmented policy:

waste disposal policy, product policy, innovation policy, economics• Complexity and uncertainty of the system

A transformation towards sustainable materials management implies changes in the physical, legal and social infrastructureas well as in the mindsets, values and attitudes of many actors

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Can the complex problem of sustainable Can the complex problem of sustainable materials management be tackled bymaterials management be tackled by

transition management?transition management?

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Transitions

substantial change in our way of doing

AND a revision of the “obvious” rules

• a structural change of a societal system– result of economic, cultural, technological, institutional as well as

environmental developments

– take at least one generation time

– takes place at different levels

– occur spontaneously, but NOT necessarily in a sustainable direction

• examples are:– biobased plastics → fossil oil based plastics

– sailing → steamships

– high birth rates → low birth rates

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Transition management

Can transitions be managed?

– not top down, by control

– tackle persistent system failures by steering them in a more sustainable direction

– through a visionary, cyclical process of

• agenda building

• experimenting

• learning

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Transition management

• Elements:

– developing a long-term vision as framework for short term action experimenting in niches

– experimenting in niches (micro level) by individual actors is interlinked and interacts with the meso-scale and macro-level

– stimulating radical changes instead of incremental evolutions

– active role of multiple actors

– options are kept open

• Striving for system innovation at a conceptual, relational and action-driven level

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Transition towards sustainable Transition towards sustainable materials management in Flandersmaterials management in Flanders

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The Flemish Transition Network Sustainable Materials Management

°2006: founded by the Flemish government and the Public Waste Agency of Flanders2009: about 100 active members and several experiments started up

The mission is to create concrete breakthroughs in sustainable materials management, by

– a transition management and integral innovation approach– creating and dissiminating a long term vision on SSM– networking with all actors, including industry, academia, administration, NGO– creating a space for experimenting, initiating and supporting transition experiments– learning and upscaling experiments– building an open knowledge network– building bridge with the government

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Transition management proces

visionary leitbild20xx

strategic visions

2030closing

the circletailor-made

materialsservice

economyconscious

societygreen

plastics

2009

experiments

phase 1

phase 3

phase 2

lear

ning

& u

psca

ling

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visionary leitbild

• High-grade cycle-oriented economy– responsible cradle to cradle– local production and consumption cycles– new type of entreprises

• High-level of materials innovationminimized harmful consequences

• service economy– material infrastructure policy– integral material control

• social responsibility– transparancy– alert consumers

• synergetic interaction• international collaboration

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strategic visions

Transition pathways

smart closing the circle

materialsinnovation

serviceeconomy

conscioussociety

greenplastics

• 1 to 1 productionmaterial efficient production

• multifunctionality and high quality

• closing the loop by materials innovations50% → 80% DMC import

• Today: – Resources: 99.9% fossil

0.1% renewable– Waste : 13% landfill, 28%

recycling, 59% energy

• Towards 2030:– Resources: X% fossil

(100-X)% renewable

– Waste: 0% landfill, > X% recycling,

< (100-X)% energy

• polymers as CO2 sink

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closing the loop by materials innovations

closedmaterial loops

tech

nosp

here

knowledge/controlmaterial flows

extended materials

responsibility

?

reverse logistics

A B

design for cycle

bio

sp

here

biomimeticmaterials

biobasedmaterials

2030 smaller transparant material cycles

2008

uncontrollable, obscure, global material flows

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Materials Innovation Pathways

General directions of solutions:

process intensificationincreasing efficiency, decreasing environmental burden of winning and prodcution, eco-efficiency

more sustainable productsmore functionality, durable materials, reduction of emission during use, energy-efficient materials, materials substitution (e.g. light weighting), dematerialisation

renewable material sourcesbio-based materials re-use, recycling, recovery of materials in the technosphereusing what is left (landfill mining)

sustainable designdesign for closing the circle, for dissassembling, …

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Phase 3 : experiments

visionary leitbild20xx

strategic visions

2030closing

the circletailor-made

materialsservice

economyconscious

societygreen

plastics

2009

experiments

phase 1

phase 3

phase 2

lear

ning

& u

psca

ling

High risk, but high potential for breakthrough towards sustainable materials management

CRITERIALEARNING

EVALUATION

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Example:Example:

closing the cycleclosing the cycle

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Enhanced landfill miningu

nco

ntr

olle

d d

um

pin

g o

f w

aste

en

ha

nc

ed w

ast

e m

ana

gem

ent

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Enhanced landfill mining

resources use

waste

energy

removal

Time path long term recovery

Direct application

products

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integral innovation

Technological issues, hand in hand with innovations in business model, regulatory framework, societal acceptance, multiparty collaboration, …

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Multidisciplinary appraoch

• Team consists of technology developers, governmental representative, social scientist, industrials, neighbourhood, …

Research domain Research question(s)

Regulation Which stimulating measures are needed or desired? How to deal with changing and lacking regulation? How to consider spatial aspects and redestination of the landfill after mining? What are the conditions under which mixing of waste is acceptable for reuse? …

Economics What is the economic feasibility of ELFM? How to balance energetic valorisation with material recuperation (economic and societal considerations)? How to convince the investors to apply the most sustainable technique in the long term

Ecology What environmental risk is acceptable? What is the overall sustainability balance of ELFM?

Technology How to optimise the future function of landfills as waste storage sites?

Multi-actor How can all stakeholders be involved (such as technology developers, business partners, investors, neighbourhood …)? What are the different scenarios, opportunities and thresholds?

Societal acceptance What is the societal desirability? What are the barriers for the consumers and how to overcome them if desired?

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Closing the circle: the action

Bron ARC

Valorisatie Afvalstoffen

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Concluding remarksConcluding remarks

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Concluding remarks

• transition management as new governance model– long-term vision, experimenting, learning

– multi-actor process → new collaborations

• transition management in Flanders is being implemented for sustainable materials management. – clear vision on and pathways towards sustainable materials management

– phase of starting up experiments

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Concluding remarks

CAUTION: some pitfalls:

– While being a technology based topic, sustainable materials management also has much to do with legislation, economics, social justice... is it possible to integrate all these aspects of innovation in 1 process or project?

– Reducing transition management to technological innovation, due to

• leading role of industries

• fragmented view

• financing bodies/governements still mainly focussing on technological innovation

– Can a transition management process be conducted without power?

– Will the government to take up the needed pro-active engaging role?

We NOW need creativity, enthousiasm, solidarity, decisivenessto turn these ideas and concepts into our and the future generations reality

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More information?

• Flemish Transition Network Sustainable Materials Management:

www.plan-c.eu

• Materials Research at K.U.Leuven:www.leuvenmrc.be