Regional and National Material Flow Accounting

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Wuppertal Special 4

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Stefan BringezuMarina Fischer-KowalskiRené KleijnViveka Palm

(Editors)

Regional and National Material Flow Accounting:

From Paradigm to Practice of SustainabilityProceedings of the ConAccount workshop 21 -23 January, 1997

Leiden, The Netherlands

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Science Centre North Rhine-Westphalia

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ConAccount

the concerted action

coordinated byWuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

in cooperation withCentre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (CML)Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and Continuing Education (IFF)Statistics Sweden

supported bythe Environment and Climate Programme of theCommission of the European Union

© by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the authors

Drafting: Stephan Moll

ISBN 3-92 99 44-05-7

Contents

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Preface .......................................................................................................................9

Part I: Plenary Sessions .........................................................................................11

IntroductionStefan Bringezu..................................................................................................................................... 12

Society's Metabolism: Origins and Development of the Material Flow ParadigmMarina Fischer-Kowalski ...................................................................................................................... 16

Requirements for Policy Relevant MFA - Results of the Bundestag's EnquêteCommissionHenning Friege...................................................................................................................................... 24

From Quality to Quantity: Substance Flow Analysis (SFA), an analytical tool forintegrated chain managementHelias Udo de Haes, Ester van der Voet and René Kleijn.................................................................. 32

From Quantity to Quality: Materials Flow AnalysisStefan Bringezu..................................................................................................................................... 43

Part II: Project Presentations

Group A: Concepts and methods ..........................................................................59

Need for a Sustainability Balance SheetPhilippe Spapens .................................................................................................................................. 60

Using SFA and LCA in a Precautionary Approach: the Case of Chlorine and PVCArnold Tukker and René Kleijn............................................................................................................. 66

Cumulative Impacts in Environmental Assessment and Land-Use-PlanningKarsten Runge ...................................................................................................................................... 72

The Reference Sustainability System - A Network Model for Material FlowAccountingTimothy J. Foxon and Matthew Leach................................................................................................. 77

Human Societies’ Ecological Niches: Conceptual Considerations and EmpiricalEvidence on Material FlowsMarina Fischer-Kowalski and Verena Winiwarter ............................................................................... 82

On the Necessity to Model all Material FlowsReinout Heijungs................................................................................................................................... 87

Signal Processing - a Useful Mathematical Technique in MFARuben Huele and René Kleijn .............................................................................................................. 93

Paradigm for SFA’s on the National Level for Hazardous Substances in DenmarkErik Hansen........................................................................................................................................... 96

Biomass Flows in Austria: Integrating the Concepts of Societal Metabolism andColonisation of NatureHelmut Haberl ..................................................................................................................................... 102

An Earth Science Approach to Materials Flows Generated by Urbanisation andMiningIan Douglas and Nigel Lawson........................................................................................................... 108

Estimating Sectoral Material Balances: A Case Study of Chemical Production inAustriaHelga Zangerl-Weisz and Heinz Schandl.......................................................................................... 119

Materials Management and Problem ShiftingEster van der Voet and Lauran van Oers ......................................................................................... 124

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Materials Accounting of the Infrastructure at a Regional LevelEmmanuel Glenck and Theresia Lahner ........................................................................................... 131

Economic Indicators for Chain Management in Substance Flow Analysis -illustrated by the cadmium chain in the Netherlands (poster)Lauran van Oers and Ester van der Voet .......................................................................................... 136

Group B: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting....................... 139

The MARKAL Model for Environmental Accounting in Energy and MaterialsSystemsD.J. Gielen and T. Kram ..................................................................................................................... 140

Material and Energy Flow Analysis - Accounting Framework and InformationSystemWalter Radermacher and Hartmut Höh ............................................................................................. 149

An Integrated Economic / Environmental Accounting Analysis System for the USAGregory A. Norris ................................................................................................................................ 153

MFA Austria: Methods , Empirical Results and Reflexions on Delinking betweenEconomic Growth and Materials TurnoverHarald Payer, Walter Hüttler and Heinz Schandl .............................................................................. 159

Environmental Accounting in Physical Term in Japan - Preliminary Material FlowAccounts and Trade-Related IssuesYuichi Moriguchi.................................................................................................................................. 166

MFA Germany: Methods, Empirical Results and Trade IssuesHelmut Schütz..................................................................................................................................... 173

Indicators of Environmental Pressure from the Sector IndustryAndreas Windsperger, Gabriele Angst and Susanne Gerhold.............................................................................................. 178

Production, Material Input and Labour - an illustrative Input-Output analysisStephan Moll and Aldo Femia .............................................................................................................................................................................. 184

The Finnish Long Term Model System (FMS) and Wood Flows in the FinnishEconomyIlmo Mäenpää and Artti Juutinen ....................................................................................................... 194

Linking Economic Models to Physical Substance-Flow Models: possibilities andproblemsJeroen Guinée, Patricia Kandelaars and Gjalt Huppes................................................................................................................ 199

EMI 2.0: A Disaggregated Model Linking Economic Activities and EmissionsOlav Hohmeyer, Jennifer Kirsch and Stefan Vögele......................................................................... 204

Materials Accounting in Austria: first experiencesArnulf Schönbauer and Hans Daxbeck.............................................................................................. 211

The Design of Material Cascades in the Economic System: TheoreticalConsiderations and some ApplicationsHenri C. Moll........................................................................................................................................ 215

Group C: Applications (case studies) .................................................................221

Sustainability of the Current Environmental Load of Persistent ChemicalCompounds - Focus on LeadErik Hansen and Carsten Lassen ...................................................................................................... 222

Analysis of Lead Fluxes in Municipal Solid Waste Systems for Identification ofWaste Prevention and Recycling PotentialHelena Dahlbo and Timo W. Assmuth......................................................................................................................................................228

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Environmental Reporting and Accounting at the Local Level in Italy: TheExperience of Ambiente Italia Research InstituteAlessandra Valentinelli ....................................................................................................................... 234

Assessment of Uncertainty Related to the Potential for Collection of Ni-Cd andLead Batteries in DenmarkCarsten Lassen, Jakob Maag and Eric Hansen................................................................................ 238

A Balance of Biotic Carbon in Products in NorwayKetil Flugsrud, Sonia F.T. Gjesdal, Tone C. Mykkelbost and Kristin Rypdal ................................... 243

The Anthropogenic Metabolism of the City of ViennaHans Daxbeck, Christoph Lampert, Leo Morf, Richard Obernosterer, HelmutRechberger, Iris Reiner and Paul H. Brunner.................................................................................... 249

Degrees of Immobilization: a Matter of TimeGjalt Huppes, Ester van der Voet and Ruben Huele ........................................................................ 255

Material Balances of Agricultural Soils Considering the Utilization of SewageSludge and CompostIris Reiner, Christoph Lampert and Paul H. Brunner......................................................................... 264

MFA Austria: Activity Fields as a Method for Sectoral Material Flow Analysis -Empirical Results for the Activity Field "Construction"Heinz Schandl and Walter Hüttler ...................................................................................................... 269

Flows of Plastics and their Possible Reuse in AustriaRoland Fehringer and Paul H. Brunner.............................................................................................. 279

Construction Wastes as the Main Future Source for CFC-EmissionsRichard Obernosterer and Paul Brunner ........................................................................................... 286

Mercury - A Substance Flow Analysis for DenmarkJacob Maag, Eric Hansen and Carsten Lassen................................................................................ 292

Policy Implications of Substance Flow AnalysisFrans Berkhout.................................................................................................................................... 297

Material Stock and Settlement Structures (poster)Johanna Möslinger, Richard Obernosterer and Paul H. Brunner..................................................... 308

MFA for Products of Non-Energy Use - Understanding the Material Flows ofProducts Made from Fossil Carbon in Germany (poster)Martin K. Patel et al............................................................................................................................. 310

Material Balances of Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plants - a Tool to MonitorMunicipal Solid Waste Composition (poster)Leo Morf, Paul H. Brunner and Elisabeth Schachermeyer ............................................................... 313

Properties of Closed Metal Flows. The Lead-Acid Battery Example (poster)Sten Karlson........................................................................................................................................ 314

Part III: Focus Groups........................................................................................... 325

Short Review of the MFA work presentedStefan Bringezu and René Kleijn ....................................................................................................... 326

Towards a general framework for MFA

Report of Focus Group I(moderation: Marina Fischer-Kowalski) ............................................................................................. 329

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Report of Focus Group II(moderation: Emmanuel Glenck) ....................................................................................................... 333

Report of Focus Group III

(moderation: Gjalt Huppes) ................................................................................................................ 337

Relationship between MFA and other tools

Report of Focus Group(moderation: Helias Udo de Haes)..................................................................................................... 343

Policy relevance of MFA

Report of Focus Group I(moderation: Viveka Palm) ................................................................................................................ 347

Report of Focus Group II(moderation: Stefan Bringezu) ........................................................................................................... 351

List of Authors ..................................................................................................................................... 354

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Preface

The environmental performance of human activities is widely determined by the quantity andquality of the induced material flows. Material flow accounting (MFA) on a regional andnational scale is a fast growing field of research with increasing policy relevance. It serves fordiagnosis of environmental problems, to support planning of improvement, and to control theresult of management measures.

When we met in spring 1995, we felt a rising demand for information exchange between theresearchers involved in MFA projects and the actual and possible users of the results. We askedthe European Commission for funding a concerted action to initialize, foster, and structure thatinformation exchange. We called it ConAccount which stands for "Coordination of Regional andNational Material Flow Accounting for Environmental Sustainability". And we are grateful thatDG XII supported this action starting under the Environment and Climate Programme in May1996. ConAccount is coordinated by the Wuppertal Institute in cooperation with the Centre ofEnvironmental Science of the Leiden University, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research andContinuing Education, Vienna, and Statistics Sweden.

This volume comprises the presentations and results of a ConAccount workshop held atLeiden on 21 to 23 January 1997. It is the first attempt to document the wide range of currentMFA research in a representative as well as condensed manner. The workshop had been open forinput, and many colleagues got into an intensive exchange who maybe knew about one another.They took up the chance not only to present their work but also to jointly discuss main issues ofMFA research. These presentations of research projects and the results of the focus discussionsare assembled in this volume.

98 participants of 19 countries from 5 continents attended the workshop (see figure 1). Thecontributions came mainly from Europe, but some relevant work from other regions was alsoreported upon.

The contributions exemplify the potentials of MFA to analyze environmental problems and tosupport policy by providing information necessary to solve these problems. Obviously, there aredifferent concepts behind basic approaches of MFA (such as substance flow analysis and bulkmaterial flow analysis). However, one of the main outcomes of the Leiden event was thecommon understanding of those different approaches not beeing mutually exclusive but rathercomplementary. There seem to be something like a "tool box" of MFA, with each tool adequateto handle a certain range of problems.

Obviously, the results of the workshop mark a starting point rather than a final conclusion.The outline of a common framework of MFA methodology has become visible but still remainsto be clarified. Future research will increasingly have to consider the needs, possibilities, andlimitations of politics, statistics, industry, and NGOs in order to improve the effectiveness ofMFA.

We would like to thank the participants of the workshop for their interest and theircontributions. And we would like to thank Helias Udo de Haes and his team for the excellentlocal organization of the workshop in Leiden which produced a very pleasant and constructiveatmosphere.

Stefan Bringezu

Marina Fischer-Kowalski

René Kleijn

Viveka Palm

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26

9

12

8

15

4

13

3

1

1

3

4

1

1

1

113

Japan

AustraliaBrazil

USA

Figure 1: Distribution of participants of the first ConAccount Workshop

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Part I:

Plenary Lectures

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Introduction

Stefan Bringezu

There is hardly any environmental problem that is not related to human induced materialflows. Progress towards a sustainable development will strongly depend on the availability ofmethods to describe the "metabolism of the anthroposphere" and to transfer the analytical resultsinto political practice. Material flow accounting on a regional and national scale is a fast growingfield of research. Thus, there is an increasing demand for information exchange. So far, not onlya variety of approaches has evolved from the analyses of similar environmental problems.Similar terms are used for different things, and different terms are used to describe the sameissue. In general, there is a lack of knowing each others work. And more over, there is a lack ofoverview information for commissioning institutions about the potentialities of MFA and its usefor policy.

ConAccount is the acronym for a concerted action titled "Coordination of Regional andNational Material Flow Accounting for Environmental Sustainability". The project is supportedby the Environment and Climate Programme of the European Commission since May 1996 untilOctober 1997. The concerted action is coordinated by the Wuppertal Institute in closecooperation with the Centre of Environmental Science of the Leiden University, the Institute forInterdisciplinary Research and Continuing Education, Vienna, and Statistics Sweden,Stockholm. The major objectives of the concerted action "ConAccount" are• to provide an inventory of the institutions working on regional or national material flow

accounting (MFA) in Europe,• to initiate, foster, and structure the information exchange between these institutions in order

to facilitate coordination,• to support information exchange between the scientists developing MFA and the users of the

results,• to coordinate ongoing and future work on MFA (with respect to target questions, scope,

methodology etc.),• to provide the basis for the development of a coherent framework of MFA methodology,• to define the future needs for research and development for policy relevant MFA tools that

foster decision making towards sustainability.

MFA refers to accounts in physical units (usually in terms of tonnes) comprising the extraction,production, transformation, consumption, recycling, and disposal of materials (e.g. substances,raw materials, base materials, products, manufactures, wastes, emissions to air or water).According to different subjects and various methods, MFA - and thus ConAccount - coversapproaches such as substance flow analysis, product flow accounts, material balancing, andoverall material flow accounts. However, ConAccount is generally restricted to studies of (supra-)national and regional scope. MFA projects for products and services (within LCA approaches)will not be addressed in particular, whereas methodological overlaps will be discussed.

Since May 1996 all institutions in Europe (especially EU 15) with expertise on regional ornational material flow accounting have been invited to participate in the concertation process.Relevant work being untertaken outside of the EU has also been considered. In collaborationbetween the coordinator, the Steering Committee and the Evaluation Board the informationexchange with and between the participating institutes has been initiated and fostered. Membersof the Steering Committee are Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Viveka Palm, René Kleijn and StefanBringezu. Members of the Evaluation Board are Robert U. Ayres, Philippe Bourdeau, PaulBrunner, Martin Jänicke, and Helias Udo de Haes.

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Participating institutions belong to two main groups:• institutions contributing to the concertation process, i.e. they present essential information

about recent and ongoing MFA projects;• observing institutions that are mainly interested in the results of the project.

An inventory will be established comprising the affiliation of contributing and observinginstitutions, descriptions on the contributors, abstracts of recent and ongoing MFA projects,publication lists, and achievements. The inventory is intended to serve as a reference list forcommissioning institutions and as means to foster information exchange between researchers.Until the end of January 1997, 39 contributing and 45 observing institutions from 20 countrieshave been listed in the draft inventory (TABLE 1). Any institution with relevant MFA projectswhich has not yet been considered is kindly asked to contact the coordinator.

Table 1: Contributing and observing institutions of ConAccount by nations

Nation contributing institutions observing institutions

Austria 4 6

Belgium - 1

Switzerland 2 -

Germany 11 6

Denmark 1 4

Spain 1 -

France 1 1

Italy 1 3

Luxemburg - 1

Norway 1 1

The Netherlands 7 4

Sweden 3 5

Finland 3 2

United Kingdom 3 3

Poland - 1

Russia - 1

USA 1 3

Australia - 1

Japan - 1

Kenya - 1

Sum: 39 45

The ultimate task of MFA research is to support policy. In fact, MFA may serve to supportseveral issues of environmental concern and different institutions involved in fosteringsustainable development (FIGURE 1). For instance, MFA can be used to monitor environmentalpressures, to contribute to the integrated environmental and economic accounting, and to planand evaluate policies for sustainability. The information provided through MFA can be used bystatistical offices, governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as by industry.MFA is an essential link between the paradigm(s) and the practice(s) of sustainability. Therefore,it seems necessary to make the methodological ties between the concepts and the results mosttransparent, and to clarify the reasons for the similarities and differences of the various MFAapproaches.

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Figure 1: The methods of MFA and the resulting data are essential fordecision making towards sustainability.

As a part of the concertation process the ConAccount Workshop in Leiden was to provide apanel open for input. The main objectives of the ConAccount Workshop were:• to motivate a wide range of institutions involved in Material Flow Accounting (MFA)

research to actively participate in a productive interaction,• stimulating institutions not (yet) engaged in MFA research to be interested in performing,

financing and utilizing such research,• to initiate and support the information exchange between institutions performing MFA

research and the users of the results,• screening the conceptual and methodological tools of various MFA approaches in order to

support the emergence of a common framework of MFA methods,• to identify common problems and open questions with respect to the development of policy

relevant MFA methods.

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In order to reach these goals the Steering Committee had decided on a structure for theworkshop which combined information input with interactive work. Invited plenary lectures andshort project presentations provided a basis for discussion. Introduced by a short review of theprojects presented, the working group sessions - called focus groups - concentrated thediscussion to main issues of common interest. Based on the structure of the workshop theproceedings comprise three main parts:

• PART I: Plenary Presentations• PART II: Project Presentations• PART III: Short Review of Projects and Executive Summaries of Focus Discussions

PART I, Marina Fischer-Kowalski sees MFA-methods as attemps to analyze the metabolism ofsociety and reviews the scientific roots of this paradigm in various disciplines. From a policyperspective Henning Friege then formulates essential requirements for MFA research that isdesigned to support an effective management of material flows. In order to describe two basicapproaches to MFA, Helias Udo de Haes introduces to substance flow analysis and StefanBringezu gives examples of "bulk" materials flow analysis.

In PART II 45 project presentations (papers and posters) have been arranged according to threemain topics:A. Concepts and Methods

Different methodological approaches of MFA are determined by different conceptualbackgrounds and varying target questions. The contributions present a multidimensional view ofsocietal metabolism.B. Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting

MFA can significantly contribute to reveal the interrelation of ecological and economicperformance of national economies and industrial sectors. The presentations give insight to thestate of the art.C. Applications (Case Studies)

MFA leads to concrete results concerning the diagnosis or prognostic modelling of materialflows. The case studies present examples of the actual and potential value of MFA for decisionmaking.

PART III is introduced by a short review of the projects presented. Different as well as commonelements of the various approaches are discussed that could be part of a general framework ofMFA methods. The results of the focus discussions are presented by executive summaries. Threegroups deal with essential issues of a general methodological framework for national andregional MFA. One group elaborate the relationships between regional and national MFA andother tools such as product chain analysis. Two groups discuss the policy relevance of MFA andthe possibilities to improve it.

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Society's Metabolism -Origins and Development of the Material Flow Paradigm

Marina Fischer-Kowalski

Summary: This contribution summarizes the findings from an extensive literature review intothe roots and origins of material flow analysis since mid 19th century across various disciplinessuch as biology / ecology, sociology, cultural anthropology and social geography. Thisperspective originally served the purpose of describing "progress", then, under the impact ofenvironmental concerns, to describe social pressures upon the environment. To look at MFA asan analysis of society’s metabolism provides a powerful tool and opens up a path to re-introducenature systematically into social science concerns, and to connect it to core concepts such aslabour, property, distribution, to life styles and human history. It is interesting to note that theempirical estimates generated by the pioneers of modern-type MFA in the late Sixties alreadycome pretty close to what is considered the metabolic profile of an industrial country today, bythe most advanced methodological standards.

Keywords: society’s metabolism, interdisciplinary concepts, society-nature-interaction, self-organization, cultural evolution.

I. Introduction1. Material flow analysis, or, to put it more generally, the analysis of the metabolism of a society,is a truly interdisciplinary enterprise. It links several social and natural science disciplinestogether.2. The success of this enterprise depends on the willingness to pay tribute to the communalitiesof various scientific traditions, of the ability to keep alive as many links as possible. This alsoapplies to a ConAccount conference, and that’s why I will dive into the history of this enterpriseto make you aware of the variety of traditions involved and connected to MFA (For a moreelaborate version see Fischer-Kowalski 1997).3. Being a social scientist myself, I will focus more on the social science origins. This seems alsowarranted by the purpose of MFA. Its ultimate purpose seems to be the development ofstandards and methods for society to regulate itself in favor of a more sustainable development.A self-regulation of society obviously should make use of the assistance of the social sciences.4. So, what I will talk about is:• some roots of the paradigm in biology, sociology, cultural anthropology and social

geography• the achievements of the pioneers in the late Sixties• and finally draw some conclusions for the present debate5. It is interesting to note that there are very distinct phases of development for the paradigm ofsocietal metabolism.• the first phase, across many disciplines, can be localized in the late 1860ies, and is mostly

associated with a progressist evolutionary worldview• a second phase, still indebted to a progressist evolutionary perspective but already with some

critical overtones, spreads from about the First World War to the mid-fifties• a third phase, in the late sixties, which I chose to term the phase of the poineers, is already

marked by modern environmental concerns and by systems theory.Typically, between one phase and the next, the threads are cut, and each author seems to start

anew. (This, to a certain extent, also holds true for the contemporary, if you will, fourth phase ,which is beyond the scope of my presentation - but not my written contribution you can findoutside).

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Figure 1: Overview

II. Roots, origins and pioneers of the paradigm "societal metabolism"When talking about "roots", I have to start off in the 1860ies, when the concept of "metabolism",both as applied to organisms and to human social systems, was born - pretty much at the sametime in biology and in social theory.

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The following figures illustrate the milestones concerning this concept in biology resp.ecology, in sociology and cultural anthropology and in social geography. Figure 5 reports on thepioneers of the modern use of this term, in the framework of environmental problems.

Jakob Moleschott(1857)

metabolism as an exchange ofenergy and substances between

organisms and environment

food chain, trophical hierarchy

metabolism in an ecosystem

energy conversion and nutrient cycling in ecosystems evolves, gets optimized in the course of

maturation of ecosystems

metabolism in cell / organism"Metabolismum is the totality of the

biochemical reactions in a living thing. These reactions proceed down metabolic pathways..., so ordered that the product of one reaction is the substrate for the

next. Some pathways synthesize, step-by-step, the important chemical

building blocks from which macromolecules are built, others trap energy from the environment, and still

others have functions different from these." (Purves et al. 1992, 130)

biochemical notion(contemporary biology)

ecological notion(Clements 1916, Lotka 1925,

Odum 1959, 1969)

communalitiesmetabolism =

self organizing process of highly complex autopoetic systems

subject to evolution

Beck et al. (1991), "The metabolism of the whole body is simple the sum of all the metabolic

processes in all the cells of the body."

Figure 2: Biology - Ecology

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Herbert Spencer(1862)

"energetic" theory of evolution:

The more energy a society consumes, the more advanced it is

Lewis H.Morgan(1877)

Karl MarxFriedrich Engels

(1867)

"metabolism between man and nature"

effected by human labour: labour (mediated by

technology) transforms "nature‘s material ... to the

wants of man"

mode of production determines metabolim

dominant sociological worldview:

nature does not matter for society

ecological anthropology:

Leslie White (1949), Julian Steward (1955), Marvin Harris (1965)...

society/culture organize human metabolism (core: nutrition) under given environmental conditions / carrying capacity

(regulate population reproduction, food habits, handling of water..)

environmental change as a consequence of social metabolism, or for other reasons, leads to cultural change

"cultural evolution"

Figure 3: Sociology - Cultural Anthropology

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George Perkins Marsh(1864 „Man and Nature„)

"physical geography as modified by human action"elimination of forests as a consequence of feeding

an ever growing population

Nathaniel Shaler (1905 "Man and the Earth")worried about ever increasing human

consumption of mineral resources and their possible exhaustion

Princeton 1955 conference on "Man's role in changing

the face of the Earth" (Thomas 1956)

„limits to growth„ as a consequence of limited geological resource base(Ordway, Ayres, Scarlott,

Boulding, Wolman...)

"President‘s Materials Policy Commission"

"Paley Report" 1952

Scientific American Sept.1970: "Biosphere"

(substance flows)Sept.1971: "Energy"

(energetic metabolism)

Turner et al. 1990"The Earth as transformed by

human action"PIONEERS OF MFA

Figure 4: Social Geography

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Kenneth Boulding (1966) stresses the need to change from a „cowboy economy„ to a

„spaceman economy„

"cowboy economy": open system with plenty of world. Measure auf success:

high throughput.

"spaceman economy" more of a closed system in a narrow world. Measure of

success: quality and complexity of stock, i.e. human bodies and minds.

Abel Wolman (1965)publishes in the Scientific American the first empirical

estimate of the metabolism of a model U.S.city

"The metabolic requirements of a city can be defined as the materials and

commodities needed to sustain the city's inhabitants at home, at work and at play....The metabolic cycle is not

completed until the wastes and residues of daily life have been removed and

disposed of with a minimum of nuisance and hazard."

Robert U.Ayres & Allen Kneese (1968, 1969, 1974)present the first comprehensive empirical material flow analysis for

the U.S. and relate it to population and GDPTheir core argument is an economic one: That the economy heavily draws from priceless environmental goods such as air and water, goods that are becoming

increasingly scarce in highly developed countries, and that this would preclude a Pareto-optimal functioning of markets at the expense of those free common goods.

They conclude with a formal general equilibrium model to take care of these externalities.They claim "that the common failure (of economics )... may result from viewing the production and consumption processes in a manner that is somewhat at

variance with the fundamental law of the conservation of mass."Thus they propose to „view environmental pollution and its control as a materials

balance problem for the entire economy.„ They anticipate carbon dioxide - for its sheer quantity - would become a major environmental problem (!).

State of the Art in the 1990ies

per capita yearly material input:Wolman 1965 (US city) 22.6MtKneese et al. 1974 (U.S.) 20.8MtStat.BA 1995 (G 1970) 19.3Mt

(adapted MFK)

Figure 5: Pioneers

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Figure 6: M

III. Conclusions for the present debate1. Socio-economic metabolism is a strong concept able to integrate natural science and socialscience approaches.2. It might have the potency to re-introduce nature systematically into social science concerns. Itconnects well to its core concepts such as labour, property, and distribution; it connects well tothe human body and its needs, to life styles and their cultural regulation, to human history andthe differences between modes of production. It can also be linked to concepts and methods ofneo-classical economics, performing analogous procedures to the established monetary ways ofnational accounting, but in terms of weight and energy.3. It might equally have the potency to bridge the gaps between various natural sciencedisciplines typically very far apart, such as paleontology and materials science, agroecology andclimatology, medical epidemiology and hydrology ...4. But I think there are some key prerequisites for this unifying power of the concept to bemobilized - some of which we can contribute to by this ongoing ConAccount process.• a sufficiently complex notion of society, of nature and of the interactions between them has

to be developed and shared - an epistemological basis for mutual respect, if you wish (figure6).

• concepts and methods have to be clarified in a continuous common effort, and prematurespecializations, peculiar technicalities - and excessive competition - have to be avoided

• and, finally and most important, there must be a lively process of discussion and mutualexchange, an openness to listen, to read, to write and to speak - such as here on thisconference.

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Ayres, Robert U. & Allen Kneese (1969): Production, Consumption and Externalities, in:American Economic Review vol.59, no 3, 282-297

Beck, W.S. et al.(1991): Life. An Introduction to Biology. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Collins.Boulding, Kenneth (1966): The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth, in: K.Boulding et

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Clements, F.E. (1916): Plant Succession. Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ. 242Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (1997): Society’s Metabolism. On Childhood and Adolescence of a

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vols. Washington D.C.: Government Printing OfficePurves W.K., et al. (1992): Life. The Science of Biology. 3rd ed.Sunderland, Mass.: SinauerShaler, Nathaniel S. (1905): Man and the Earth. New York: Duffield & Co.Sieferle, Rolf Peter (1997): Kulturelle Evolution des Gesellschaft-Natur-Verhältnisses, in:

M.Fischer-Kowalski et al.: Gesellschaftlicher Stoffwechsel und Kolonisierung von Natur.Amsterdam: G & B fakultas, 37-56.

Spencer, Herbert (1862): First Principles. (2nd ed. New York: A.L.Burt (1880))Thomas, William L.Jr. (ed.) (1956): Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. Chicago:

Chicago Univ.PressTurner II, B.L. et al. (eds.) (1990): The Earth as transformed by Human Action: Global and

Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the past 300 Years. Cambridge: CambridgeUniv.Press

White, Leslie (1949): Energy and the Evolution of Culture. In: The Science of Culture. NewYork: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 363-393

Wolman, Abel (1965): The Metabolism of Cities, in: Scientific American vol.213, no 3, 178-193.

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Requirements for Policy Relevant Material Flow Accounting - Results of theGerman Bundestag's Enquête Commission

Henning Friege

Summary: Starting from the work of the Enquête Commission of the German Bundestag on the"Protection of Humanity and the Environment", some examples are presented for material andsubstance flows of high political importance. The analysis of these examples leads to somerequirements for policy relevant material flow accounting. The standardization of thecompilation of data, the identification of substance and material flows relevant for the society,and the responsibility of companies for adequate data collection and documentation numberamong the problems which have to be solved in a next step. A compromise has to be foundbetween to complicated data aggregation and unsufficient data bases.

Keywords: material flow accounting, substance flow analysis, management of substance chainsand material flows, political implications

1 Sources of material flow accountingThe status and the development of the environment is widely determined by the quantity andquality of the material flows associated with human activities. Under the requirements of theconcept of "Sustainable Development", a reduction of material and energy flows in general, andespecially in industrialized countries is necessary. Up to now, the knowledge about linksbetween the material flows and the national economies is very weak. Material flow accounting(MFA) is a useful tool for a linkage between national economy and environmental performance.Also, substance chain analysis (SCA), and life cycle analysis (LCA) may be used to linkeconomic and ecologic figures. For sake of simplicity, in this paper the term MFA is not onlyused for the flows most relevant for national economy, but also as a general expression for allsubstance, material, and product flows subjected to documentation.

For authorities and companies, the documentation and analysis of material flows is needed asa step towards management of substance chains and material flows (Friege, Engelhardt,Henseling 1997) as has been defined by the Enquête Commission of the German Bundestag(Enquête Commission 1995) obeying the fundamental rules following:1. The depletion rates of renewable resources should exceed their renewal rate. This is

tantamount to the demand to preserve the ecology's efficiency, i.e. (at least) to safeguard theecological real capital as defined in terms of its function.

2. Consumption of non-renewable resources should be limited to levels at which they can eitherbe replaced by physically or functionally equivalent renewable resources or at whichconsumption can be offset by increasing the productivity of renewable or non-renewableresources.

3. Inputs of substances to the environment should be orientated towards the maximumabsorption capacity of environmental media, taking into consideration all their functions, notleast their "hidden" and more sensitive regulating functions.

4. There must be a balanced ratio between the time scale of man-made inputs to, orinterventions in, the environment and the time scale of the natural processes which arerelevant for the reaction capacity of the environement.

2 Some examples for policy relevant material flowsBefore defining the requirements for policy relevant MFA, the question has to be anwered:Which types of information are needed for political decisions on substance, material, andproduct flows?

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2.1 Documentation of the fate of hazardous substances

As we have learnt from many examples, chemicals can turn out to be dangerous for man and/orenvironment when they have already been used for many years. Neither ozone depletion causedby Freones nor migration of chlorinated solvents (C-HC's) through concrete or soil layers werepredicted from laboratory experiments. If man does not expect a certain effect, he does not seemto be able to invent a laboratory experiment to prove or negate this effect. Rowland started tosuspect the Freones of damaging the ozone layer when he was able to combine three verydifferent pieces of information one of which he had obtained by chance (Luhmann 1996). By thetime his hypothesis could be proven in reality, dramatic damage had already taken place: Thereaction going on in the global laboratory can only be slowed down within decennials.

In the context of their work on Chlorine Chemistry, the Enquête Commission (1995) proposeda number of measures including the substitution of chlorinated solvents for nearly all uses. Forthe remaining applications, dry cleaning with tetrachloroethene being the most important amongthem, the Commission recommended: "Past experience has shown that there is a need for astandardized documentation of solvent flows which will have to be made available to theauthorities upon request." The Commission did not differ between so-called closed and opensystems, because they will be destroyed or cleared out one day. Electric condensators filled withPCB's are a fine example of this type.

Cadmium has been phased out for many former applications. As to accumulators, Cd has onlypartly been substituted. The Commission (Enquête Commission 1994) proposed an eco-effectivemanagement of Cd by recycling accumulators after introduction of a deposit refund to optimizethe re-distribution. Perfect recycling leads to a surplus of Cd because it is also a by-product ofprimary Zinc production. Surplus Cadmium must be dumped to avoid diffuse applications whichcannot be controlled properly. Within this model, Zinc and Cadmium smelters and refinerieshave to separate surplus Cd. If all relevant players - the manufacturers or importers ofaccumulators, the wholesalers and the smelters - document the Cd flows, it is relatively simplefor the authorities to follow up the fate of this dangerous metal.

2.2 Continous reporting on large material flows

The effects of large material flows, energy, and the emissions associated with them have beenunderestimated for a long time. Depending on nationally or regionally defined environmentalobjectives, certain large material flows must be carefully observed. From actual discussions insome European countries it may be drawn that nutrients, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia andall compounds causing acid rain number among the important flows which have to be decreasedrigorously. But where do we stand? The answer can be given for carbon dioxide because theseemissions may be calculated from statistical data comprising the export, import, and use of gas,oil, coal, and wood. Problems come up when also natural sources and sinks shall be included.The flows of nutrients (N, P) are far more complicated due to millions of diffuse sources hard toquantify and due to unknown capacities of sinks like soil and ground water. It is also verydifficult to estimate the flows of materials which are stored for a long time in the technosphere.The Enquête Commission tried to account for the flows needed for "housing" for severalreasons: Construction in general is responsible for the largest material flows in industrializedcountries as has been shown for Switzerland (Baccini, Brunner 1990) and for Germany (Schütz,Bringezu 1993). Furthermore, large waste streams result from renovation and demolition, theirhandling becoming more and more difficult due to hazardous materials in the buildings likeasbestos, PCB's and PAH's. An ambitious work starting from two different approaches (table 1)led to contradictory results. Statistical data on demolition waste are also insufficient. For severalreasons it is not known, how much waste is generated by construction, demolition andrenovation of buildings: in Germany, companies with less than 20 employees are not included instatistical inquiries; moreover, the different sorts of waste are defined insufficiently and manycompanies dealing with waste are not interested in transparency on this market. The situationbecomes even more complicated when activities for the recycling of demolition waste are

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improved, because less secondary material for road construction is needed, and on the other handenforced recycling could lead to contamination of secondary material for construction.

A "building passport" has been proposed in the Enquête Commission to preserve theinformation on the type and amount of materials used for construction and renovation (EnquêteCommission 1997). For example, this passport would make the search for sources of "sickbuilding syndrome" easier, and it would help to deconstruct the building one day instead ofsimply demolishing it. The data needed for the "building passport" also represent material flowsof the construction and rebuilding phase which can be combined with specific ecologicalrucksacks.

Table 1: Annual throughput of matrials for housing in GermanyTopdown Topdown Bottomup Bottomup Zürich

(Mill t/yr) (t/cap) (Mill t/yr) (t/cap) (t/cap)

Input 314.3 3.93 142.17 1.78 1.75

Input for new buildings - - 116.64 1.46 1,38

Output 31.9 0.40 68.58 0.86 0.75

Input/Output 9.85 - 2.07 - 2.33

Data have been taken from a study for the Enquête Commission (ITAS, IWU, ifib u. Partner:Stoffströme und Kosten in den Bereichen Bauen und Wohnen, unpublished; Wüest & Partner:Mengenprognose Bauabfälle Kanton Zürich, 1996). Calculations in this study started with thematerial needed for typical houses (bottomup) and on the other hand with the actual materialflows for construction (topdown).

2.3 Regionalized MFA

Many material flows are neither of global nor of national importance. Water supply, erosion, andland use must be linked to regional and/or urban planning. Some other material flows may be ofimportance on the regional level, for example stone and clay which are tranported normally overshort distances (Baccini 1996). In densely populated areas, land use becomes more and more themost restrictive factor for urban development. This is especially true for the Netherlands, for theRhine-Ruhr area, and for the large agglomerations around the European capitals. The EnquêteCommission proposes a reduction target for further transformation of open space (agriculturalland, forest, ...) to build-up areas (housing, industry, and traffic) of about 10% to be reached in2010 in relation to the transformation ratio at the beginning of the 90ies (Enquete Commission1997). Obviously, a national environmental quality target of this type can only be reached whenregional action targets will be defined. To gain political acceptance, a linkage betweenregionalized environmental targets and economic indicators is necessary. Perhaps, a restrictionon energy generation and consumption, material flows for buildings and roads, and land use issufficient to get an impression of the material intensity in relation to the number of workplacesand regional economic power.

2.4 Exchange of information between players

The interest of manufacturers in material flow accounting will increase with enhanced chances of"green" products in competition. Different labels for "green" products are available requiring amore or less thorough life cycle approach which cannot be done without a proper material flowanalysis. The loss of information along the product chain proved to be a major obstacle for theimplementation of substance chain management. Very often, information on substances andproducts are not compatible. To prevent unforseen changes in the life cycle of a productendangering its environmental quality, all material flows associated with the product have to beaccounted for by the different players in the chain. The Federal Agency for Competition

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(Bundeskartellamt) has drawn attention to problems for fair competition, because the transfer ofdata could be especially helpful for mighty players.

2.5 Environmental reporting by companies

An increasing number of companies annually publish environmental reports covering emissiondata and sometimes also data on material flows. These reports might become a first importantlink between authorities, business, and public if the emission data were related to theenvironmental objectives. Standardization of those reports could be used for a step towardsmaterial flow accounting.

2.6 Some relevant questions to be answered

Following the prevention principle, the government focusses on the question, which substancesand products are suspected to affect man and environment. It seems necessary to control the fateof a large number of substances and products after they have left the production plant - forexample all those which are persistent or might lead to adverse effects. With the global warmingissue, a second group of materials has become very important for national governments as wellas for international organisations: Large material flows like carbon dioxide, nitrogenoxides andother acidic compounds, ammonia, methane, nutrients in general, ... . On a national or regionallevel, waste, water resources, and materials for building might become of interest. The mostimportant information required by the authorities is:• Documentation of the fate of potentially hazardous substances• Continous reporting on large material flows, energy, and the emissions associated with them• Evaluation of environmental reports published by producers and manufacturers• Development of the quality of the environment (media, systems, accumulation, ...)

Companies are active in material flow accounting for two reasons: First, properdocumentation and analysis of material flows within a plant or a company will help to minimizecosts. Second, increased importance of product liability is an incentive towards "productstewardship" comprising qualitative (e.g. estimation of hazardous properties) as well asquantitative aspects (e.g. energy and material consumption during all phases of production). Asto the companies, there is a need of• Material flow accounting for production processes• Information exchange with other players involved in a specific substance or product chain• Documentation of the life cycle of "green" products

The management of material flows governed by the four fundamental rules mentioned aboverequires a clear frame for the players along the substance chain - producers, manufacturers,insurance companies, banks, industry associations. According to de Man (de Man 1995) a verysimple picture can be drawn (figure 1). The informations needed for the interaction of the playersand the government are collected by the documentation of material and substance flows.

Within the framework of substance chains and material flows, the economic players must beresponsible for the documentation as a part of the management. Therefore they have to reportrelevant data to the authorities. The government has to define the flows of political relevance.Monitoring the quality of the environment is necessary to prove the state of the quality targetswhich have to be reached.

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Figure 1: Management of substance chains and material flows: Somebasic relationships (Sources: de Man 1996, Friege 1997)

3 Requirements for material and substance flow documentationFor decisions within the framework of substance chain and material flows management, mostlyvery few but specific data are needed (de Man 1995, Enquête Commission 1994, 1995). So, acompromise has to be found between the installation of large "data graveyards" and unsufficientdata bases. It seems to be useful to combine some approaches like LCA and SCA with therequirements for MFA to avoid to many difficulties for the economic players.

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1. To choose the material flows most relevant for the ecology and to find out the most effectivestructure of governmental regulations and incentives, a thorough analysis of the dependenciesbetween general economic indicators like the GDP and the amount and the hazards of importantmaterial flows is necessary. Published national MFA's (for example Bringezu, Behrensmeier,Schütz 1996) can be very helpful for a political decision on the material flows which have to bedocumented by the players.

2. The data needed for material flow accounting have to be documented by the companies.Material flow documentation must be standardized. This will be helpful for the companiesthemselves as well as for the exchange of informations between the players in the productchains. A compilation of these data could become the backbone of environmental reporting. Thecompilation including quality assurance have to be done by a responsible body within thecompany.

3. It is not necessary to found new federal agencies for the management of large data flows, butit is important to define those aggregated data which have to be collected by the governmentand/or by regional authorities. There is a number of helpful suggestions to create "satellites"within the general statistic inquiries (Radermacher, Stahmer 1995).

4. We need a definition of the chemicals or compounds of which the follow up ("from cradle tograve") is necessary. A documentation is needed for the flows of all chemicals which are eitherpersistent or can induce irreversible adverse effects. This very rough definition has to be workedout in detail:• When should a chemical be called persistent in either water, soil, or air?• Which tests have to be made to prove the persistence?• Which data should be known to judge the potential irreversible effects?

A lot of work on subjects like these has been done in the framework of existing chemicals byinternational and national organisations. So, this is more or less a matter of standardization. For afirst attempt, a list of relevant substances would be sufficient.

5. Standardized system boundaries (for the evaluation of ecological "rucksacks") would behelpful for ecobalances which will play an important role in the management of substance chainsand material flows.

6. Regionalized material flow accounts combined with a simplified procedure for correlationswith economic and social indicators would be a powerful incentive for policy makers looking forways to sustainable development.

7. Data on waste streams and statistical inquiries of material flows have to be standardized andcombined.

8. Not only with respect to the results of material flow accounting, but from general consumerinterests, a simplified information about the ecological impact, resource consumption andemissions during production, and waste handling of products is very important to foster the useof "green" products. Different eco-labels, sometimes without proper classification, can lead to amisuse of the labels by unfair competitors. Also for the protection of "green" companies,standardization of MFA requirements would be an important step.

4 The next steps

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It will need a lot of time for environmentally sound substance chain management to become anunanimously accepted policy approach towards sustainable development. Material flowaccounting is a necessary tool to identify policy relevant material flows as well as for materialflow management. Which steps have to be taken in the near future?• Environmental quality targets (EQT's) have to be defined. They describe the desired state or

properties of systems, media or objects in the environment (Enquête Commission 1997).EQT's are based, on the one hand, on scientific findings relating to qualitative or quantitativecause-and-effect relations and, on the other, on social values and attitudes concerning thestate or characteristics of the environment. Example: Reduction of nitrate concentration ingroundwater below 25 mg/l.

• Then, environmental action targets (EAT's) have to be defined as steps necessary toachieving the states or characteristics formulated as environmental quality targets. Thesetargets must be quantified and measurable or otherwise verifiable. Example: decrease of thesurplus of nitrogen on soil from 180 kg/ha·a in Germany to 50 g/ha·a by agriculturalactivities.

• For all materials, products, substances, and emissions found in environmental action targets,material flow accounting as a duty of the players has to be introduced (Friege 1995).

• Suitable standards for statistical inquiries are needed, not only for compulsory reports butalso for the information exchange between the players.

• Compulsory reporting of the use of certain hazardous substances could become an incentivefor all players in the substance chain to minimize the use of those compounds (EnquêteCommission 1995).

• Material flow accounting should become part of the voluntary eco auditing procedure. Whenmaterial flows are properly accounted for, control measures by the responsible authorities canbe decreased. In this case, deregulation may not be interpreted as abandonment of theenvironmental objectives but as an improvement of efficiency.

• Part of the information gathered with material flow analysis is necessary for the wholesalers,retailers and consumers. Relevant data can be transferred by introducing documentsaccompanying products, checklists for an ecological product assessment, and environmentallabels. However, the aim must not be to pass on as much information as possible, but to passon the right information to the right player at the right time. The quality assurance systemsdeveloped by manufacturing companies offer an opportunity for mastering this challenge.The way to a general material controls policy is long. In a study done for the Enquête

Commission (Rehbinder 1995), it was suggested to broaden the scope of the Chemicals Act sothat it would become a Substance and Material Act covering fundamental duties of the playersinvolved in the production life cycle including basic substance and material flow documentation.Hopefully, these suggestions will be fruitful for the creation of the German "Umweltgesetzbuch"(Code for the Environment) (Friege 1995, Rehbinder 1997). The draft will be presented to theFederal Government in 1997.

Many politicians do not understand "sustainable development" up to now. They are familiarwith more or less linear functions, and it is very difficult to familiarize people who have so manydifferent problems to solve with complicated relations. It is a well known phenomenon that toomany data can delay political decisions. There is a number of politicians who will try to avoidnecessary decisions arguing that more data would be needed for discussion. But MFA is achance: When the results of MFA help to illuminate the relationships between ecologicalproblems and economic welfare in a very simple manner, the political support even forunpopular environmental targets will rise enormously.

Announcement: This publication is based on results of the German Bundestag's EnquêteCommission on the "Protection of Humanity and the Environment" (Enquête Commission 1994,1995, 1997). The author has been appointed as an expert to the Commission. The publication

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may not be cited as an official paper, because many conclusions and suggestions are derivedfrom the author's personal view.

ReferencesBACCINI, P., BRUNNER, P.H. (1990): Der Einfluß von Maßnahmen auf den Stoffhaushalt der

Schweiz,..., Müll und Abfall 252-270.BACCINI, P. (1996): Understanding Regional Metabolism for a Sustainable Development of

Urban Systems, Environm. Sci. & Pollut. Res. 3 (2), 108-111 (1996).BRINGEZU, S., BEHRENSMEIER, R., SCHÜTZ, H. (1997): Material flow accounts indicating

the environmental pressure of the various sectors of the economy, International Symposiumon Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting in Theory and Practice, Tokyo, 1996,in press.

DE MAN, R. (1995): Akteure, Entscheidungen und Informationen im Stoffstrommanagement, inEnquête-Kommission "Schutz des Menschen und der Umwelt" des Dt. Bundestages (Hrsg.):Umweltverträgliches Stoffstrommanagement, Bd. 1 - Konzepte, Economica Verlag, Bonn.

ENQUETE COMMISSION of the German Bundestag on the "Protection of Humanity and theEnvironment" (ed.) (1994): Responsibility for the Future. Options of SustainableManagement of Substance Chains and Material Flows, Economica Verlag, Bonn.

ENQUETE COMMISSION of the German Bundestag on the "Protection of Humanity and theEnvironment" (ed.) (1995): Shaping Industrial Society (Abridged Version), 8-11, EconomicaVerlag Bonn. The complete final report is only available in German: Die Industriegesellschaftgestalten, Economica, Bonn 1994.

ENQUETE-KOMMISSION of the German Bundestag on the "Protection of Humanity and theEnvironment" (ed.) (1997): The Concept of Sustainability (Abridged version). The completereport is only available in German: Konzept Nachhaltigkeit, Zur Sache 1/97, DeutscherBundestag, Bonn.

FRIEGE, H. (1995): Auf dem Weg zum Stoffrecht, Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht 5/95, 241-248(1995).

FRIEGE, H., ENGELHARDT, C., HENSELING, K.O. (1997): Management von Stoffströmen,Springer, Berlin, in press.

LUHMANN, H.J. (1996): Rachel Carlson und Sherwood F. Rowland. Zu den biographischenWurzeln der Entdeckung von Umweltproblemen, in G. Altner, B. Mettler-von Meibom, U.E.Simonis und E.U. v. Weizsäcker (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch Ökologie 1997, Verlag C.H. Beck,Stuttgart.

RADERMACHER, W., STAHMER, C. (1995): Umweltbezogene Gesamtrechnungen desStatistischen Bundesamtes. In: S. Bringezu (Ed.): Neue Ansätze in der Umweltstatistik,Birkhäuser, Berlin, 55-73

REHBINDER, E. (1995): Konzeption eines in sich geschlossenen Stoffrechts, in Enquête-Kommission "Schutz des Menschen und der Umwelt" des Dt. Bundestages (Hrsg.):Umweltverträgliches Stoffstrommanagement, Bd. 2 - Instrumente, Economica Verlag, Bonn.

REHBINDER, E. (1997): Contribution to FRIEGE, H., ENGELHARDT, C, HENSELING, K.O.(1997): Management von Stoffströmen, Springer, Berlin, in press.

SCHÜTZ, H., BRINGEZU, S. (1993): Major Material Flows in Germany, FreseniusEnvironmental Bulletin 2, 443-448 (1993).

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Substance Flow Analysis (SFA), an analytical tool for integrated chainmanagement

Helias A. Udo de Haes, Ester van der Voet and René Kleijn

Summary: The paper presents a technical framework for Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) as oneof the analytical tools for integrated chain management. Three phases are distinguished, i.e., goaland scope definition, inventory analysis and interpretation of the results. These phases areillustrated with a number of case studies.

Keywords: Substance Flow Analysis, integrated chain management, technical framework

IntroductionAlthough pollution issues have been the focus of attention for some decades the tools which aregenerally used for their analysis are still rather one-sided. They focus on the effects, analyzingthe distribution of the substances in the different environmental media, their persistence andaccumulation, their toxicity and other harmful impacts. Quite in contrast to this, attention for thebehaviour of hazardous substances within society, i.e., within the physical economy, has so farbeen limited. Environmental policies generally start their analysis with the emissions of thehazardous substances and focus on end-of-the-pipe measures to abate them. If there is attentionfor the origins in society, this mostly concerns simple linear chains back to responsible economicactivities: "the acidification problem is for x percent caused by motor traffic".

For more encompassing and preventive strategies a broader analysis is needed of the materialsflows constituting the material basis of society. This was first acknowledged by Kneese et al.(1970), who called for the tracing of materials through the physical processes in society. Anumber of important case studies have since been performed, starting at the end of the seventies.From the beginning of the eighties materials balances are increasingly included in environmentalstatistics reports. In recent years, more attention is given to the development of modelling toolsfor the analysis of materials flows in society (e.g., Brunner and Baccini, 1992; Bringezu, 1993;Baccini and Bader, 1996; Van der Voet, 1996). A growing number of studies is being performedin various countries. So far, no standardization of either purpose or methodology of materialflow studies has been attempted, however. In this paper we will discuss a methodologicalframework for one type of chain analysis, i.e., Substance Flow Analysis.

PositioningFor a clear positioning of the tool to be discussed we first want to make a distinction betweenpolicy instruments and analytical tools (see Figure 1). Policy instruments for instance includemeasures such as ecolabelling, eco-audit, environmental impact assessment, tax and subsidymeasures, measures for the admission of new chemicals, etc. Analytical tools for instanceinclude Life Cycle Assessment, Risk Assessment, Company Ecobalance, Input-Output Analysis,Substance Flow Analysis, and many others. A number of the latter do not focus on the analysisof a single unit process, but on chains or networks of such processes; they are tools for"integrated chain analysis", where "integrated" stands for the inclusion of aspects from bothsociety and environment. Within these, we may make a further distinction between at least twodifferent families: Material Flow Accounting (MFA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Theseare primarily distinct in their object: MFA investigates the flows of materials in its broadestsense, mostly connected to a geographical area; LCA investigates products, or more broadlyservices, including services not provided by products such as waste management, taking theconcept of the functional unit as basis for quantification. Within the MFA family we can make afurther distinction as to the type of material studied. This may range from total mass on the onehand, via bulk materials like "plastics", "concrete" or "fibres", via groups of related substances

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like "chlorinated hydrocarbons" or "nitrogen-compounds", to single elements like Cd or Hg. Thefirst two of these may be described by the term "Bulk-Material Flow Analysis" (B-MFA), thelatter two by Substance Flow Analysis (SFA).

Figure 1: Positioning of policy instruments and analytical tools forintegrated chain management

As the figure also makes clear that the distinction between MFA and LCA is not sharp: there isan overlap. So also a material flow study may aim to analyse a service, for instance thefunctioning of a sector of the economy within a given region. A more specific example of thisoverlap concerns the MIPS-approach (Schmidt-Bleek, 1993). As this approach may focus on theservice provided by a product as object it is a specific form of LCA. But by its focus on totalmaterial input it is also a specific form of MFA; the assessment of environmental impacts can

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consequently only take place in terms of this gross material flow, which is very unlike impactassessment in LCA. The function concept has also a different meaning in the two families. InMFA the term "function" has only meaning at the level of the system as a whole; we can forinstance focus our analysis at macro-scale functions, such a the transportsystem of a region. InLCA the term "function" is also used for the core element within the total system, i.e., theproduct at stake. The total system comprises all processes related to the life cycle of this product;the term "function" is specifically related to the core element within the system, the productitself. However, in as far as overlap exists, it is not a real problem; it only means that in thisrealm of overlap both types of analytical approaches may apply. In this paper we further focuson SFA. However, much of the ideas presented may also apply to MFA in general. For clarityreasons sometimes a reference will be made to the other family, i.e., LCA.

The need for standardizationSFA, and even more MFA as a family, comprises many methodological approaches. These fulfilldifferent purposes. Because of this, one may argue that there is no need for standardization.Another argument against standardization might be that it is not yet the right time for that. We donot agree here. In particular for comparative studies, there is a clear need for standardization: ifwe want to compare the metabolism of a given substance in different countries, this endavourbecomes useless if the methods used do differ. Furthermore, standardization may also stimulateconsistent data aquisition. However, not all aspects have the same need or possibility forstandardization. Following the experiences with LCA, we think that the highest need forstandardization concerns the terminology used, the definition of a technical framework andprocedural guidelines for sound use. As to the use of specific methods, the emphasis will ratherbe a formulation of general guidelines related to different types of application, and not on afixation of such methods.

Technical frameworkAs stated above, SFA studies need a well defined technical framework. Such a frameworkshould consist of a number of distinct phases, which structure the analysis. Inspired by thetechnical framework of LCA (ISO 14040), the following phases can be distinguished:

(1) Goal and System Definition(2) Inventory and Modelling(3) InterpretationIn LCA the last of these (comparable) phases is split into two phases: Impact Assessment and

Interpretation, the first of these being more technical, the latter more broadly evaluative. ForSFA at present there seems not yet to be a need for such a distinction. In the following sectionsthe content of these three phases will be shortly discussed.

Goal and System DefinitionDefinition of the goal of the study

SFA can be used for quite different purposes. Firstly, SFA modelling can serve as a support fordata acquisition. It thus can function as an error check procedure: inconsistencies in theaggregated numbers can be traced back to errors in contributing separate figures. Likewise it canalso help in the identification of missing flows. Secondly, SFA can be applied for the analysis oftrends and their causes. It can thus be used for the identification of major problem flows to theenvironment, together with an analysis of their causes by stepwise tracing them back to theirorigins in society. Hidden leaks from processes in society can be traced in this way; the degree towhich material cycles are closed can be assessed. Thirdly, SFA can be used for the identificationand the prediction of the effectiveness of potential pollution abatement measures as a basis forpriority setting. Here the modelling offers the possibility to elucidate the possible shifting ofproblems, for instance caused by a redirection of the substance flows. Scenario studies are a

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more complex application of this type of use of the tool. And finally SFA can be used as ascreening tool, identifying issues for further investigation by other tools.

Definition of system and subsystems

The next step of this phase concerns the definition of the system concerned. This includes thefollowing aspects:• definition of the substance or substance group• definition of the system boundaries• definition of possible subsystems• definition of the inputs and outputs of system and subsystems• definition of possible elements within the system and subsystems

The definition of the substance or substance group is the basis for the whole study and isdirectly related to its goal. In particular with substance groups they can require quite specificchoices, for instance the exclusion of N2 from a study on nitrogen compounds.

The system consists of all processes related to the metabolism of the chosen substance(s),within given boundaries. The way of definition of the system boundaries depends on the goal ofthe study and often concerns the borderline of a given region. Then political boundaries are atstake, or ecological ones as is the case with the analysis of a watershed region. Also other typesof boundaries can be envisaged. Thus one may perform an SFA study for an industrial sector orfor one firm, in which case the boundaries will be less easy to define. It is also possible toinvestigate all flows of a substance connected with the consumption within a given region; thenone should also include flows outside that region into the system, related to the givenconsumption (the "ecological rucksacks"), thus shifting from a regional to a functional approachand taking a step in the direction of LCA.

With respect to the definition of subsystems it is usual to make a distinction between on theone hand the society (or socio-economic system) and its environment on the other. Withinsociety the attention is focused on the physical economy, i.e., the material basis of the economy,in contrast to the financial economy. Common alternative terms for the physical economy are"antroposphere" and "technosphere". We prefer the terms "physical economy" and "financialeconomy" because of their simple and clear wording; but it should be clear that these termsrather refer to two ways of analysis than to two distinct subsystems. The economy can be furtherdivided into economic sectors, and these in the final units of analysis, the unit processes.Alternative terms used for the environment are "biosphere" and "ecosphere", which we do notpropose because their meaning is ambiguous. The environment can be further subdivided into anumber of environmental media: atmosphere, hydrosphere, soil (pedosphere), biosphere andlithosphere. The lithosphere concerns that part of the environment which has no interactions withthe other components for the given substance. It is sometimes regarded as a third subsystem.

In LCA, the definition of the borderline between society and environment is a very criticalissue because the core issue concerns the transgression of substances over this borderline eitheras the extraction of resources or as the emission of hazardous substances. In contrast, in SFA, thedefinition of this borderline may be somewhat less critical, because in these studies also theaccumulations within the economy (i.e., flows which do not pass the borderline) are a point ofattention. Thus they will be considered anyhow, independent from the precise definition of theborderline between the two subsystems. But for reasons of comparability between studies alsostandardization is desirable here. One may make fruiteful use of the discussions and resultsobtained in the LCA community on this issue.

The third point regards the definition of inputs and outputs of the system as a whole and of thedifferent subsystems. Here it seems fruitful to follow as much as possible the analogy principlefor the two subsystems involved. Thus both subsystems will have their own inflow and outflow,both their exchanges with the immobile stocks in the lithosphere, and they will have theirinteractions between them in the form of emissions and extractions. The last point concerns the

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definition of the elements within the subsystems: unit processes, stocks accumulated at the levelof these processes and flows between these processes. In the unit processes the flows are eitherchanged into other flows or into stocks, or vice versa.

The points described above can be put together into one substance flow diagram; a suggestionfor the format of such an overview diagram is presented in Figure 2, taking the substance flow ofnitrogen-compounds for the EU as an example. At this overview level already a number ofrelevant observations can be made. Thus for the given example we can observe that the totalemissions to the environment are much larger than the total extractions from the environment,that the total accumulation within the economy is much smaller than the total accumulationwithin the environment, that production within the system is larger than the economic import,and that the external input via the environment is much smaller than the export via theenvironment. It should be borne in mind, however, that this is only an overview; depending onthe aim of the study the processes of course have to be analysed and presented in more detail.

Figure 2: Substance Flow Diagram for nitrogen-compounds for the EU(in 1990). (Source: Van der Voet et al., 1996)

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Inventory and ModellingThis phase concerns the computation of the flows and stocks for the given year. Thiscomputation can use different types of modelling. At least three different possibilities arepresent:• bookkeeping• stationary modelling• dynamic modelling

SFA as bookkeeping

The first possibility is to set up the SFA study as a bookkeeping system. The basis for this is thedevelopment of a flowchart for the given system, with all stocks, flows and processes, both insociety and in the environment. Then for the given period of time empirical data are collectedand attributed to the flows and stocks. For society this means that statistical data on production,consumption, waste management and trade are linked to data regarding the content of thesubstance in the relevant products and materials; for the environment this means that monitoringdata will predominantly be used. The unit processes serve just as points for redistribution offlows. In- and outflows are balanced per process, unless accumulation occurs.

The overview thus obtained is useful for various purposes. It can be used as error check, tofind missing data or to identify present or future problem flows, for example by signalling alarge accumulation in society or in a specific environmental medium. It can also be used as amonitoring instrument to register changes over time as a result of societal developments orspecific policies, by drawing up this overview once in every few years (as is for instance done bythe Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics for nutrients and metals).

SFA as static modelling

Secondly, an SFA study can be set up as a static model, in which the processes are formalised insuch a way that the outputs can be formally computed from the inputs; or vice versa, the inputscan be computed so as to satisfy a given set of output values. Stationary modelling describes astationary situation, apart from possible changes in the immobile stocks and from changesoutside the given system. In principle, data from the bookkeeping overview can be used tocalibrate the mathematical equations of the processes. It is preferable, however, to use dataregarding the distribution characteristics of the processes themselves, if available, in order toavoid the inclusion of coincidental factors in the equations. The core point here is that oneconsistent mathematical structure is developed, which renders it possible to specify relationsbetween the different flows and stocks within the system. In this way, specific problem flowscan be analyzed with regard to their origins. Also, the effectiveness of certain developments ormeasures can be estimated by comparative static analysis, which is not possible with thebookkeeping approach.

For the same case study as presented in Figure 2, in Figure 3 an origin analysis is presentedfor N-compounds. The origins of three N-related problems are investigated: atmosphericdeposition on agricultural land leading to acidification and eutrophication, groundwater pollutionwith nitrates and eutrophication of the North Sea. The emissions leading to these problems areanalysed at two levels: at the level of the economic sectors producing these emissions and at thelevel of the ultimate origins. As can be derived from Figure 3, for atmospheric deposition andgroundwater pollution, the agricultural sector appears to be the most important; for theeutrophication of the North Sea it is the households, with agriculture and industry following withequal contributions (Figure 3a). At the level of the ultimate origins, the level where thesubstances enter the system as is presented in Figure 3b, for all three problems the productionand import of ammonia for fertilizer production, appears to be the most important factor. Specialcare is needed that these two levels are clearly separated, because often causes at the two levelsare mixed, yielding inconsistent results.

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Figure 3: Origin analysis for N-compounds for atmospheric deposition onagricultural land, groundwater pollution and eutrophication of the NorthSea (for EU in 1990). (Source: Van der Voet et al., 1996)

Another example of origin analysis concerns the case of cadmium. By analysing thebehaviour of this element within the physical economy, a particular characteristic shows up, i.e.,its inelastic supply (Van der Voet et al., 1994). This is due to the fact that Cd is not extractedindependently, but always as a byproduct of Zn. As long as Zn-ore is extracted and purified, anamount of Cd will come on the market. As a consequence, intake and recovery of postconsumerbatteries will lead to an accumulation of Cd within the economy, probably leading to lowering of

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its price and to increased use. Taken this specific economic behaviour, useful measures include:a decrease of the use of virgin Zn and storage of Cd-waste. The same situation regards Hg,which is now, in addition to continued extraction in countries as Russia and Spain, also producedas a byproduct of natural gas (IEM and ERM, 1996).

SFA as dynamic modelling

Thirdly, an SFA study can be set up as a dynamic model, in which the process equations alsoinclude time as a variable. In this way, not only the long term equilibrium of a certain regime canbe calculated, but also the road towards this equilibrium and the time it will take to reach it. Fora real scenario analysis, this option is the most suitable. Time differences between production,use and waste management processes can thus be analysed. However, it also has the largest datarequirement: a complete overview of stocks and flows for the initial year, and the relationsbetween the different flows and stocks with a time specification have to be included. This maylimit the accuracy of the projections. Consequently, a dynamic approach is not to be preferredautomatically over the more robust static approach.

An example of such dynamic modelling is presented in Figure 4 (derived from Lohm et al.,1997), presenting the Cu-metabolism of the Stockholm region for the period 1900-1995. Thelowest line represents a - supposed - constant inflow of copper in this region in tons per year.The middle line represents the "stock-in-use" in the area, which is about in a steady state. Thecontinuously increasing upper line represents the "stock-in-hibernation", which is that part of theeconomic stock which is not in use any more but not yet disposed of. The figure shows that thereis an increasing need for an active policy to prevent the "stock-in-hibernation" to leave theeconomy as uncontrolled waste.

Figure 4: Dynamic representation of the copper metabolism in the Stockholmregion (derived from Lohm et al. 1997). Lower line: yearly inflow in theeconomy; middle line: "stock-in-use"; upper line: "stock-in-hibernation".

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Interpretation of SFA resultsIn most SFA studies the output is defined in terms of flows and accumulations of the materialunder study. The policy relevance of the analysis is generally directly related to the hazardouscharacter of the chosen material and will need no further specification. In some cases howeverthere is an explicit need for further elaboration of the SFA outcome. This is for instance the caseif not just one substance is studied but a group of substances. Then the data may have to beaggregated in one way or the other enabling further interpretation. A possible way to interpretthe outcome of SFA studies is the specification of the contributions of the substances to anumber of environmental issues or environmental impact categories, such as global warming,ozone depletion, and acidification. This approach links up with the development of LCA impactassessment methodology (cf. Udo de Haes, 1996). An example is given in Figure 5, presentingthe results on an SFA study on chlorinated hydrocarbons in The Netherlands (Kleijn et al., inpress). As an example in Figure 5 the contributions of the different compounds or groups ofcompounds to global warming are presented (based on GWP equivalency factors). For the givenyear (1990) the emission of CFCs amounts to about 10% of the total dutch contribution to globalwarming, mainly originating from the use stage of these substances. Likewise, the contributionto ozone depletion and ecotoxicity were assessed. The figure also shows the assessedeffectiveness of already accepted policy measures.

Figure 5: Contribution of emissions of chlorinated hydrocarbons in The Netherlands to global warming normalized to the Dutch global warming emissions. Shaded bars: present situation (1990); black bars: after implementation of accepted policy measures. (Source: Kleijn et al., in press)

But also if we are dealing with only one elementary substance, connected with only oneclearly defined environmental problem, still a further interpretation of the outcome can beneeded. The total overview of flows and stocks is often too complicated to evaluate. A furtherinterpretation can consist of a rather simple procedure, for example by selecting specific stocksor flows as an indicator for an environmental impact category. But it can also be more elaborate,by calculating compound indicators relative to the management of the whole chain. For exampleone can focus on the efficiency of processes or groups of processes in terms of the ratio betweenthe production of the desired output related to the magnitude of the input of the process, or to theamount of the produced waste. Another example, related to resource management rather than

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pollution, is the fraction of secondary materials used for the manufacturing of products withinthe system. In table 1 an overview is given of 12 possible sustainability indicators to be derivedfrom SFA studies, dealing with the physical economy (the "pressure indicators"), with theenvironment (the "response indicators") and with the system as a whole (the "systemindicators"). The response indicators tell us whether action is required; the pressure indicatorshow to proceed; the system indicators about relationships with processes which are external toour defined system.

Table 1: Overview of SFA-sustainability indicators(sub)system criterion reference value

physical economy 1 total use level -

(pressure indicators) 2 recycling rate 100%

3 efficiency 100%

4 economic accumulation ≤ 0

5 economic dissipation only point sources

environment 6 total extraction 0

(response indicators) 7 total emission 0

8 concentration standards

9 environmental accumulation 0

10 daily intake standards

system as a whole 11 pollution export 0

(system indicators) 12 disruption rate -

Data requirementsSFA studies have data needs at the level of the single substances studied. Because the greatefforts needed for the development and maintenance of databases it is advisable that this is donein connection with databases made for other purposes. Two options seem to be of particularinterest. Firstly, in the framework of LCA much work is done at the level of unit processes. It ishighly advisable that SFA links up with this work and formulates its requirements, for instanceregarding definition of data categories and level of aggregation. Secondly, a connection seemsrelevent with the work done in the field of Input-Output databases. In addition to the traditionalmonetary databases, sattelite accounts are being developed with emission factors attached to theeconomic outputs of the sectors. Furthermore in some countries also physical input-output tablesare in development in terms of total mass flows. Some of these are of particular interest to bulk-MFA studies, but some of them may also be of interest to SFA-studies. Large differencesbetween countries exist; the MFA community may help to stimulate and shape thesedevelopments.

Limitations of SFAOn a number of points further development of SFA methodology and application can beexpected. It is however important to have also a clear view of its limitations. First of all, SFAdeals with one substance only. So, if measures are taken to reduce the use of the substance understudy by replacing it by another substance, problems connected with this other substance areoutside the scope of the study. Thus, NTA may or may not cause more ecological harm indetergents than phosphate which it replaces, but that will not show up in an SFA on P. Thisshortcoming can be solved by supplementing the SFA study with one or more LCA studies,aiming at a comparison of the use of the two substances for the given function.

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A second limitation is that SFA only deals with the physical economy and not with thefinancial economy. It does not include information about prices and neither does it include aconnection with steering forces in society. One may argue that such a link may be included bysupplementing the SFA with complementary financial-economic data, linking possible economicmeasures to impacts on substance flows. This is not so easy, however. The reason is that manyflows of a substance constitute only a small part of products. And as products are the objects forthe market to which prices are attached, it is often very difficult to attach monetary values tosubstance flows. This is the more so, where substances constitute an undesirable part of aproduct, like cadmium pollution of phosphate fertilizer (cf. Guinée et al., this volume). Heredifferent tools will have to be used in combination, without clear possibilities for a formalizedlinkage. Further research is needed to clarify the relationships between the different tools forintegrated chain analysis.

ReferencesBACCINI, P. and BADER, H.-P. (1996): Regionaler Stoffhaushalt - Erfassung, Bewertung und

Steuerung. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg/Berlin/Oxford.BRINGEZU, S. (1993): Towards increasing resource productivity: how to measure the total

material consumption of regional or nationbal economies? Fresenius Envir. Bull. 2, pp 437-442.

BRUNNER, P.H. and BACCINI, P. (1992): Regional materials management and environmentalprotection. Waste Management and Research 10, pp 203-212.

GUINÉE, J.B., KANDELAARS, P and HUPPES, G., in press: Linking economic models tophysical substance-flow models: possibilities and problems. Proceedings of ConAccountworkshop "From paradigm to practice of sustainability", Leiden, 21-23 january 1997.

Instituut voor Europees Milieubeleid (IEM) and Environmental Resources Management (ERM),1996, Mercury stock management in The Netherlands. Background document for theworkshop "Kwik uitbannen of beheersen?" IEM, Brussels.

KLEIJN, R., TUKKER, A. and VOET, E. VAN DER, in press, Chlorine in The Netherlands,Part I: an overview. Journal of Industrial Ecology.

KNEESE, A.V., AYRES, R.U., D'ARGE, R.C. (1970), Economics and the environment : amaterials approach. Washington : Resources for the Future.

LOHM, U., BERGBÄCK, B., HEDBRANDT, J., JONSSON, A and ÖSTLUND, C. (1997),Metals in Stockholm, a MacTempo case study. Annex 2 to: P. Brunner et al.: Materialsaccounting as a tool for decision making in environmental policy (MacTempo). Vienna.

SCHMIDT-BLEEK, F. (1993), MIPS - A Universal Ecological Measure?, Fresenius Envir.Bull., 2

UDO DE HAES, H.A. (Ed.) (1996), Towards a methodology for life cycle impact assessment.SETAC-Europe, Brussels.

VOET, E. VAN DER, (1996), Substances from cradle to grave, development of a methodologyfor the analysis of substance flows through the economy and the environment of a region.Thesis, Leiden University

VOET, E. VAN DER, EGMOND, L. VAN, KLEIJN, R. and HUPPES, G. (1994), Cadmium inthe European Community: a policy oriented analysis. Waste Management and Research, 12,pp 507-526.

VOET, E. VAN DER, KLEIJN, R., OERS, L. VAN, HEIJUNGS, R., HUELE, R., andMULDER, P. (1995), Substance flows through the economy and environment of a region;Part I: Systems Definition, Envir. Sci. & Pollut. Res. 2 (2)

VOET, E. VAN DER, KLEIJN, R., UDO DE HAES, H.A. (1996), Nitrogen pollution in theEuropean Union, origins and proposed solutions. Environmental Conservation 23 (2), pp 120-132.

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From Quantity to Quality: Materials Flow Analysis

Stefan Bringezu

Summary: The material flow analysis approach presented here can be used to reveal thequantity and the structure of the material throughput of a national or regional economy and itsmaterial exchange with the environment. Material flow based indicators for progress towardssustainability can be derived, and analyses can be conducted to support the planning and controlof effective measures for materials management. Compatible flow analyses can be performed onthe national, regional, and local level.

Keywords: Material balance, Total Material Input, resource productivity, industrial metabolism,Germany, Ruhr region, economic sectors, technological change, indicators for sustainability

1. IntroductionWhen we started our work in the Department of Material Flows and Structural Change at theWuppertal Institute in October 1992 we acknowledged that environmental research and policy sofar had reached respectable results in dealing with specific problems that can be related toparticular substances (such as cadmium, chlorine etc.). However, we felt that a structural changeof the economy towards a sustainable development could not be managed provisionally based onthe reaction on particular problems only which themselves to a large extent seem to besymptoms of a deeper distorsion. Global warming, eutrophication, acidification etc. are theresults of human activities which are bound to a weighty extraction, use and disposal of naturalresources. The turn-over between raw material extraction and final waste management representsthe current status of industrialized countries, i.e. the "throughput economy" (Daly 1992,Ayres/Simonis 1994).

Thus, our primary interest was to analyze the metabolism of the national economy in acomprehensive way. The material throughput should be accounted in total (Bringezu 1993a).The analysis should lead to results which can be interpreted in terms of progress or regresstowards sustainability. We had to consider that for most of the toxic, nutritional, mechanical,structural, and physico-chemical effects associated with human-induced material flows, astandardized method for a reproducible quantification does not exist. In order to develop alsoprovisional indicators for sustainability we had to acknowledge that it is generally impossible toforesee all impacts of man-made material flows that may be of relevance in the future.

Therefore, we combined systems analysis with a pragmatic approach. Like many others webased our studies on a simple two compartment model comprising the anthroposphere (ortechnosphere or economy) and the surrounding environment (or nature or bio-geosphere)(FIGURE 1). The final amount of wastes and emissions is ultimately determined by themagnitude of the inputs. In a situation when most of the input is not stored within theanthroposphere for a longer period, the input may indicate also the current throughput. Thus wehad a closer look on the input side functionally locating the "cradle" of our products (Bringezu1993b). Bulk volumes are moved with the extraction of raw materials, and a huge amount is notused any further but disposed of at once. We chose the categories for accounting the materialflows in a way that (1) the main categories and their relations can be interpreted with respect tosustainability, and (2) existing statistics could be integrated to a large extent.

The accounting was inspired by the MIPS concept of Schmidt-Bleek (1993, 1994) describingthe life-cycle-wide Material Input used to provide a certain service as a first rough indicator ofenvironmental impact potential. Whereas the indicator was first designed to evaluate products,processes, and plants, it can also be applied to whole economies and regions. It should bepointed out that Material Input is defined as the extraction, harvest or movement of naturalmaterials by means of technology. The "ecological rucksack" of a product or material comprises

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that part of the Material Input that is not incorporated within that product or material (Schmidt-Bleek et al. 1996).

Figure 1: A systems approach to human-induced material flows.

Meanwhile quantitative political targets for the resource consumption of industrializedeconomies have been proposed. Whereas former work had targeted selected material flows(Meadows et al. 1992, Weterings and Opschoor 1992), more recent work aims at a reduction of

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the total material and energy throughput. Schmidt-Bleek (1994) and the Factor-10-Club (1995)suggest that we should work toward cutting in half present global non-renewable material flows,including minerals, fresh water and non-renewable energy carriers. To achieve this, a politicalcommitment to a tenfold increase in the average resource productivity of the presentlyindustrialized countries within one generation would be a pre-requisite for meeting the goal oflong-term global sustainability. As this strategy is based on present conditions, increases inworld population and further economic growth in the industrialized world would obviouslyrequire a factor higher than 10. The OECD (1996) noted the suggestions that efficiencyimprovements of a factor of ten were both necessary and achievable in the next thirty years andwill be obliged to report on progress towards eco-efficiency in the future.

Irrespective of the specific degree of dematerialization that will have to be agreed uponpolitically, there is a need for accounting instruments to monitor the actual throughput ofmaterials and energy on a national level and the overall resource flows associated with aneconomy. In order to support the planning of efficient and effective improvement measures thereis also detailed knowledge necessary on the societal functions, the industrial sectors, and thefinal demand for which those material flows are generated. Regionalized accounts are necessaryin order to reveal regional differences and particular problems and perspectives of materialconsumption. Last but not least a bridge should be built between the national and regionalaccounts on the one side and the accounts on products, processes and plants on the other side inorder to foster the use of the national and regional results on the local level.

2. Material Flow Balance of GermanyA first overview of the physical inputs and outputs of an economy was presented by Steurer(1992) for Austria. Material inputs and outputs of the Japanese economy were quantified by theEnvironmental Agency of Japan (1992). The Wuppertal Institute has established the firstmaterial flow balance for Germany which has been adopted by the Federal Statistical Office aspart of the integrated environmental and economic accounting (Bringezu 1993a, Schütz andBringezu 1993, Kuhn et al. 1994, Bringezu and Schütz 1995, Federal Statistical Office 1995,Radermacher and Stahmer 1997).The domestic material flow account or material flow balance comprises the physical massbalance of the domestic extraction from the environment, the domestic deposition and release tothe environment, the imports, and the exports. This is shown in FIGURE 2 (right side) where allmaterial flows are included with the exception of water. The overview provides the followingmajor points of information:• The difference between inputs and outputs equals 0.8 billion tonnes (10 t per capita). This

amount results from the material that is added to the stock of infrastructures, buildings etc..This indicates the physical growth of the German technosphere which is per se unsustainabledue to the increasing loss of natural and productive land.

• Most of the domestic resource extraction is non-renewable. The domestic input of abiotic (=non-renewable) raw materials exceeds the input of biotic (= renewable) inputs by a factor ofabout 20 (based on fresh weight of the plant biomass from cultivation). As more than 80 % ofthe German territory is already used for agriculture and forestry a significant increase of theshare of renewable inputs will demand for drastic changes in technology leading to areduction of non-renewable inputs.

• The input of renewables is interlinked with non-renewable flows. The input of biotic rawmaterials from cultivation is associated with an amount of erosion that surmounts even thedry weight of the raw materials. The erosion rate on agricultural land exceeds the natural rateof regeneration 10 times (BUND/Misereor 1996).

• A tremendous part of the abiotic raw material input remains unused. This is mainly due to thenon-saleable extraction of coal mining. These masses are dumped without own economicutility. Landfill and mine dumping (on the output side) exceed the mass of all other wastesthat are deposed of at controlled sites over ten times.

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Wuppertal Institute UM-622e /96

1 billion tons

Recycling

Abroad

Additional stock818

Erosion 129

Emissions of water from materials 647

Abioticmaterials 2183

Air (O2 , N2) 1095

*1)

*)

Exports 211

*2)dissipative useof products 37

Erosion 304

64*1)

- NOx, SO2, CO 20

Imports 433

Abioticraw materials 4027

used:- minerals 829- ores 0,4- energy carriers 366

unused:- non saleable extraction 2532- excavation 300

Emissions into air: 1116- CO2 1063

- others 33

Waste disposal(excl. incineration) 2891

- controlled waste disposal 222- landfill and mine dumping 2669

*2) emissions intowater 34

biotic raw materials(fresh weight) 199

*)

Material Input Material Outputin Germany

Economy

Erosion 129

Source: S. Bringezu / H. Schütz

Figure 2: Overall material flow account of the German economy 1991considering also the conservative calculation of the cradle-to-borderflows (without water and air) that are interlinked with the production ofthe imports in the countries of origin (Bringezu et al. 1995).

• On the output side it is interesting to see that the CO2 emissions into air amount to 1 bill.tons. This is more than one third of all waste disposal (excluding incineration) andcorresponds to about 13 t per capita.

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• Input and output are mainly determined by "throughput flows" which are released to theenvironment after a short-term use. This applies for energy carriers, non-saleable extraction,excavation, most of the biotic raw materials, erosion, air, and water. "Storage flows" - whichare used for durable products and will be released on the output side with a certain time lag -represent a minor quantity. Building minerals, a certain amount of the ores, and a part of thebiotic input (e.g. wood) are examples for such durable products.The major general information that can be derived from the material flow balance is the

interlinkage of Material Inputs and Material Outputs of the economy. Every material extractedfrom the environment will sooner or later burden the environment also on the output side. Anypressure related to the outputs (releases to the environment, wastes etc.) can only be diminishedsuccessfully, if the input of primary materials to the economy will be reduced.

3. The Total Material Input of the German economyIf the possible impacts by material flows induced by the German economy are to be evaluated ina global context (and this seems indispensable with respect to sustainability), then the globalmaterial flows interlinked with the German production and consumption must be accounted for(Bringezu 1993a). The transnational extension of the domestic flow account is a necessary pre-requisite in order to evaluate real progress towards sustainability.

Indeed, the activities of the German economy are associated with a huge resource extractionin foreign countries. In FIGURE 2 (left side) those material flows are shown that are interlinkedwith the production of the imports on a cradle-to-border basis. These data have been accountedby conservative calculations based on available statistics. They represent minimum valuesmainly comprising the non-saleable extraction of mining and the soil erosion by agriculture thatburden the environment in the countries of origin. For that purpose Material Input coefficientswere determined for imported raw materials, semi-manufactures and final products (Bringezuand Schütz 1995). The coefficients for raw materials such as iron ore were calculated based onspecific recherches on typical conditions of extraction in the countries of origin. Coefficients ofsemi-manufactures are deduced from life-cycle-wide calculations for various base materials suchas steel based on German production technology which was assumed to be representative forindustrialized countries to a certain extent. Material Input of final products (e.g. cars) wasapproximated based on the content of major base materials (e.g. steel). Thus, the result has to betaken as preliminary, whereas sensitivity analysis indicates that the order of magnitude will notbe influenced by further detailed accounting.

One result of the preliminary account is that the transnational material flows have nearly thesame order of magnitude as the domestic extraction from the environment (without water andair). Thus, the transnational material flows interlinked with the German economy cannot beneglected when monitoring the global burden of the national economy.

The Total Material Input (TMI) comprises the national and transnational (i.e. the global)material extraction from the environment. It may be regarded as an highly aggregated indicatorthat relates to the global environmental pressure associated with the physical basis of aneconomy (Bringezu et al. 1995, Bringezu et al. 1997). Depending on actual technology, noeconomy would work without the yearly input of materials, either from domestic or foreignorigin. Thus, TMI can be interpreted as an indicator for the environmental pressure associatedespecially with the production of an economy. For practical and theoretical reasons, TMI isconfined to materials other than water and air.

TMI may be used as a basis to indicate the overall material productivity of an economy. Therelation of GDP and TMI provides the material productivity of GDP. This indicator can beinterpreted as a measure for eco-efficiency (Bringezu 1993a). However, increasing numbers ofthat indicator do not necessarily reflect a reduction of the absolute environmental pressure. Thepreliminary data indicate that the order of magnitude of TMI per capita remained nearly constantfrom 1975 to 1990, while GDP increased more or less steadily (FIGURE 3). This resulted in anincrease of the material productivity of GDP. With the re-unification of Germany lignite

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production in the eastern part increased TMI but was reduced afterwards due to a convergence oftechnology. In 1991 TMI was about 90 t per capita (materials without water and air).

Figure 3: The trends of the Total Material Input, GDP and the Material Productivity ofthe GDP of the Federal Republic of Germany (up to 1990 Western Germany,

since 1991 re-united Germany). Data compiled by Helmut Schütz.

The approximation of TMI in the time series was conducted under the assumption of constantratios of Material Input per product imported to the Federal Republic of Germany (based on1991 values). In this case, final products have only been accounted with their own mass.Whereas the accounts have to be taken as preliminary, the data quality seems to be sufficient todocument, in a first approach, some main trends. The results indicate a possible decoupling ofthe global Material Input and the economic performance. But the development of the absoluteenvironmental pressure due to the material flow basis of the economy is far from a decliningtendency which would be necessary for sustainability.

Recently, the method of accounting TMI developed in Wuppertal has proofed to be applicablefor international comparisons. In cooperation with colleagues from the World ResourcesInstitute, the Dutch Environmental Ministry and the Japanese National Institute forEnvironmental Studies the TMI for the USA, Netherlands, Japan and Germany was accounted(Adriaanse et al. 1997). In that case TMI was named Total Material Requirements (TMR) inorder to reflect that the rucksack part of the extraction flows (in that case called "hidden" flows)are not direct inputs of the economies studied. Interestingly, TMI of the four economies wasrather similar, whereas its composition varied considerably.

One may argue that any country is responsible for the environmental burden of its exports andthat the material flows should not be assigned to the importing country. Indeed, material flowaccounting allows to calculate the global Total Material Consumption (TMC) of a national orregional economy by considering also those cradle-to-border flows that are associated with the

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exports (Bringezu 1993a, Bringezu and Schütz 1995). The preliminary accounts indicate anorder of magnitude for the German TMC of 70 t per capita in 1991 (materials other than waterand air).

4. Allocation of material flows to metabolic functions and economic sectorsIn order to specify priorities for dematerialization measures the overall account for Germany wasdifferentiated under various aspects.

Besides water supply, four basic functions of the societal metabolism were distinguished(Bringezu 1996). The material throughput was allocated to energy supply, nutrition,construction, and maintenance (FIGURE 4). The results - for instance - revealed that about halfof the material throughput principally withstands a recycling strategy. Energy carriers, food andfeedstuffs can be used only once, and the "rucksack" flows associated with extraction or harvestare neither recycled. Construction flows represent about a quarter of the domestic material input.The flows for maintenance which are associated with rather short lived products arecharacterized by a considerable "rucksack" of foreign material extraction.

Figure 4: The metabolism of the German economy (after Bringezu 1996).

The Total Material Input of the economy was also allocated to the different sectors of industrybased on preliminary material input data and monetary input-output tables for Western Germany(Bringezu et al. 1997). The material intensity of those goods was approximated that are deliveredto the final demand (FIGURE 5). This indicates those sectors which are extraordinarilychallenged to provide their goods in a dematerialized manner (e.g. by renting instead of selling

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etc.). These results were also used to allocate the TMI to main fields of final demand. Housing,nutrition, and leisure appeared to be most material intensive. The input-output calculations werealso used to determine the current dependance of industry sectors from material intensive supplyin order to address those sectors which can contribute significantly to efficiency improvement bychanging their supply.

Figure 5: Material Input of those industry sectors that deliver goods to thefinal demand. Bringezu et al. 1997 after Behrensmeier and Bringezu1995.

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5. Changing relations of material flows over time

Generally important for MFA is the changing pattern of the interlinkage of different materialflows between each other and the interlinkage with other parameters. The analysis of the directmaterial inputs of the German economy (domestic extraction of raw materials and imports,without rucksacks) showed a decoupling tendency from economic growth since 1980 (FIGURE6). The physical amount of the exports is still correlated with the GDP, but one can foresee thatthere will also be a decoupling in the future (Bringezu and Schütz 1996a).

Material Flows without "rucksacks" : FR Germ

Index (1970 = 1)

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

1,4

1,6

1,8

Domestic RawMaterials

Imports

Exports

GDP

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990

Wuppertal Institut UM-481e / 95Source: H. Schütz, S. Bringezu

Figure 6: Domestic raw material extraction, imports and exports (withoutrucksacks) in relation to GDP. Bringezu and Schütz 1996a)

The domestic extraction of non-renewable raw materials in Germany has been dominated bythe non-saleable extraction of coal mining, especially the overburden of lignite (FIGURE 7).Whereas the extraction volume of energy carriers followed a slightly declining tendency from1960 to 1990, the rucksack ratio of lignite mining sharply increased after 1974 (FIGURE 8).After the first oil crisis the use of domestic lignite was preferred irrespective of rising amounts ofoverburden per ton of coal. The rucksack ratio of mining reflects its eco-efficiency which ismuch more declining for German lignite than for hard coal mining.

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Excavation

Ores

1000

2000

01960

Mio. tons

1965 1970 1990198519801975

Non saleableextraction

Energy carriers

Salt andindustrialminerals

Constructionminerals

Figure 7: Domestic exraction of non-renewable raw materials in FRG.Bringezu and Schütz 1996a.

Source: Bringezu/Schütz, WI 1996 Wuppertal Institut UM-620e / 96

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990

Lignite

Hard coal

Ton

per T

on

Figure 8: "Rucksack ratio" for West German lignite and hard coal mining.Bringezu and Schütz 1996a.

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6. Regionalized accounts: the Ruhr

The method of material flow balancing used on the national level has also been applied to theRuhr region. The analysis was part of a comprehensive study to quantify the global consumptionof natural resources - materials, energy(carriers), land - that is associated with the economicacitivities of the Ruhr region (Bringezu and Schütz 1996b). Similar to the national situation, thedata on the global net use of agricultural land by regional consumption in 1991 indicated thatmaterials supply can increasingly been set on a renewable basis only if the demand for materialsis drastically reduced in the future.

Wuppertal Institute UM-623e /96 Source: S. Bringezu / H. Schütz

Surrounding WorldMaterial Input Material Output

The RuhrEconomy

Additional stockStat. difference

Imports 78

Rucksack of imports 281

Exports 24

89

Deliveries to FRG 39

Contr. waste disp. 11

Mine dumping a.o.extraction wastes 62

Erosion 1

Emissionsinto air 121

Supply from FRG 25

Rucksack of supplies71

Raw materials 88

Non saleableextractions 62

Erosion 1

Air 98

*

* Dissipative use of products 5

Non saleableextractions 268

Erosion 13

Non saleableextractions 14Erosion 57

Rucksack: 63

Figure 9: Material flow account of the Ruhr region. Bringezu and Schütz 1996b.

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In 1990, a sustainable steady state between material inputs from nature, material outputs tonature, and the physical imports, exports, supplies, and deliveries had not yet been reached(FIGURE 9). A relevant part of the yearly input of primary materials was associated with theresource extraction for imports and supply from foreign countries and federal states, resp.,burdening the environment outside the region. In 1990, the region was inhabited by 4,8 Miopeople, i.e. 8 % of Western Germany. The work of 6 % of the employees of the nationaleconomy gained 6 % of the total value added. However, the Ruhr economy had a materialsproductivity of TMI of only two third of the federal mean. This was mainly due to the fact thatnearly the double of product mass had to be sold for the same value added.

Based on extended regional statistics the material input for instance of energy carriers couldbe allocated to industrial sectors within the 16 different municipalities of the region. Thus, a highvariation in the local development of essential elements of the materials productivity could bedetermined. Whereas production sectors in some locations exhibited nearly no change in theproductivity of energy carriers over 30 years, MFA revealed that others successfully managed atechnological change (Bringezu and Schütz 1996b).

7. From national and regional accounting to local improvement

MFA can not only be used to analyze the most crucial material flows on a national and regionallevel in order to describe priorities for improvement measures, thus following a top-downapproach. It can also be used bottom-up to analyze technological process alternatives that couldbe chosen on the local level and thus could help to implement improvement measures. Under theprovision that the categories of the accounting are compatible for the process and the regionallevel both approaches supplement each other in a synergistic way.

Source: Bringezu/Schütz, WI, 1996

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

i

Stones/GravelIron/Steel

Non-ferrous metalsRoad vehicles

ChemistryGlass

Timber manuf.Wood products

Rubber productsTextiles

ClothingFood

ConstructionsTrade

Trade/manuf. industryOther man. industry

Rucksack of Imports

Imports absolute

Intraregional Material Input

Million tons

Wuppertal Institut UM-625e / 96

Figure 10: Material Input of the first processing level of industries in the Ruhr region 1990.Bringezu and Schütz 1996b.

For instance, the national accounts had shown that the steel industry was heavily dependanton material intensive supply. Also the detailed study of the Ruhr had shown that the MaterialInput for the steel sector was responsible for a great part of the regions total material extractionfrom the global environment (FIGURE 10). Thus the steel industry is particularily challenged tochange technology towards a more dematerialized way.

To that end MFA can also provide support for decision making. For instance, the materialinput of various processes of steel production can be compared (FIGURE 11). Steel production

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based on scrap is altogether less material intensive than the production of steel made from ironore despite the fact of huge energy related "rucksacks" for smelting. Meanwhile the materialintensity of many base materials used in industry has been analyzed. The life-cycle-wideaccounting has also been introduced to an environmental management scheme on the firm level(Liedtke et al. 1994).

Based on these MFA results local decisions can be taken that consider the national andregional situation and contribute to a globally more sustainable development.

Source: Merten et al. WI, 1996 Wuppertal Institut UM-626e / 96

0 1 2 3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 10 20 30 40 50

(t/t)

Abioticmaterials

Air

Water

Electric steel

Oxygen steel

Electric steel

Oxygen steel

Electric steel

Oxygen steel

Rucksack due toenergy use

(t/t)

Figure 11: Material Input for different production technologies of steel. Merten et al. 1996

8. Conclusions

• Accounting the flows of naturally or technically compound or "bulk" materials can be used toprovide overview as well as detailed information on the national or regional metabolism. Astructured system of analysis has been presented which goes beyond singular indicators andwhich can be applied on the (supra-)national, regional, and local level.

• Material flow balances of national and regional economies can be used to monitor thepressure to the environment by resource extraction on the one hand and the release of wastesand emissions on the other hand in a comprehensive way.

• Based on a systems perspective and a proper categorization, material flow analysis for "bulkmaterials" can be used to prove necessary conditions for sustainability or to reveal itsdistance from reality. For instance, physical growth of the national technosphere can bedetermined and the amount of the material throughput that is non-renewable.

• On the one hand, material flow analysis can be used to derive highly aggregated indicatorsfor sustainability such as the Total Material Input (= Total Material Requirements) of anational or regional economy. On the other hand, detailed analyses of the functions andsectors the material flows are associated which lay the basis for efficient and effectiveimprovement measures.

• Accounting the national or regional metabolism has been performed compatibly with theaccounting of material flows system-wide associated with products and processes. This is a

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necessary pre-condition that allows to account for national priorities and to support localdecisions with respect to global sustainability.

• In general, the quantitative relations of different "bulk" material flows to the overallthroughput and the interlinkage between these flows can provide new qualitative informationon the environmental performance of national or regional economies.

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Ayres, R.U., Simonis, U.E. (Eds.) (1994): Industrial Metabolism. Restructuring for SustainableDevelopment, Tokyo, New York, Paris

Behrensmeier, R., Bringezu, S. (1995): Zur Methodik der volkswirtschaftlichen Material-Intensitäts-Analyse: Ein quantitativer Vergleich des Umweltverbrauchs der bundesdeutschenProduktionssektoren. Wuppertal Institute, Wuppertal Paper, Nr. 34

Bringezu, S. (1993a): Towards Increasing Resource Productivity: How to Measure the TotalMaterial Consumption of Regional or National Economies? In: Fresenius EnvironmentalBulletin 2: pp. 437-442

Bringezu, S. (1993b): Where Does the Cradle Really Stand? System Boundaries forEcobalancing Procedures Could be Harmonized. In: Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 2: pp.419-424

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Bringezu, S., Schütz, H. (1995): Wie mißt man die ökologische Zukunftsfähigkeit einerWirtschaft? Ein Beitrag zur Stoffstrombilanzierung am Beispiel der BundesrepublikDeutschland. In: S. Bringezu (Ed.): Neue Ansätze der Umweltstatistik, Birkhäuser-Verlag,Basel, Boston, Berlin, pp. 26-54

Bringezu, S., Schütz, H., Behrensmeier, R., Schmidt-Bleek, F. (1995): Indicating EnvironmentalPressure for National Economies and Industrial Sectors on the Basis of Integrated Economicand Environmental Accounting. Paper presented at the Scientific Workshop of Indicators ofSustainable Development coorganized by the German Ministry of Environment, NatureConservation and Nuclear Safety, UNEP, the European Commission (DG XII), SCOPE andthe Wuppertal Institute, Wuppertal, November 15-17, 1995

Bringezu, S, Schütz, H. (1996a): Analyse des Stoffverbrauchs der deutschen Wirtschaft: Statusquo, Trends und mögliche Prioritäten für Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung derRessourcenproduktivität. In: J. Köhn and M.J. Welfens (Eds.): Neue Ansätze in derUmweltökonomie, Metropolis-Verlag, Marburg, pp. 227-251

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