Journal of Industrial Ecology最新文献

The global flows of cultivated seaweed were estimated for the year 2019 using a combination of literature review, assumptions, and simple conservation of mass calculations. Red seaweeds were found to be the largest contributors to the hydrocolloids industry, for both food and non-food applications. Carrageenan-containing species were found to be the largest contributors to both food (62%) and non-food (55%) hydrocolloids and are the primary source for water gels, which make up 27% of non-food hydrocolloids, followed by pet food (16%), toothpaste (6%), and others (6%). Carrageenan also accounts for almost all meat products, which make up 35% of the food hydrocolloid industry, and dairy products, which make up 26%. Agar-containing seaweeds are used in confections (10% of food hydrocolloids), baking (9%), and other (2%) and make up 15% of non-food hydrocolloids. Porphyra (nori) is cultivated for direct consumption and makes up 23% of direct food consumption. Cultivated brown seaweeds were found to comprise Laminaria/Saccharina for alginate production (30%), Laminaria/Saccharina for direct consumption (44%), and Undaria for direct consumption (16%). About half of the alginates produced make up 18% of food hydrocolloids, and the other half is used in non-food hydrocolloids comprising technical grades (28% of non-food) and animal feed (3%). The results are discussed in the context of emerging markets for seaweed and the potential for seaweeds as a substitute for staple foods, and the environmental impact of seaweed farming is explored through a review of life cycle assessment studies.

Despite the widely recognized potential of product-as-a-service (PaaS) business models to contribute to the circular economy, many industrial case studies have reported that several systemic factors tend to hinder product manufacturers from effectively designing such solutions. More specifically, factors such as linear value chains, organizational structures, and market and financial conditions tend to restrict the freedom of product manufacturers to design circular PaaS solutions effectively. In this article, we take a novel approach to advance the body of knowledge concerning the interactions between policies and circular PaaS designing. We first explore the potential of the existing policy landscape to support designing for a circular economy in the manufacturing industry. The results suggest that the existing policy landscape is primarily focused on regulating product design outcomes and is thus deemed unsuitable for supporting circular PaaS designing. Subsequently, we investigate the literature to uncover how internal and external systemic factors may hinder the implementation of the key facets of circular PaaS designing in the manufacturing industry. Based on these findings, we propose a prospective policy framework that includes a mix of complementary policy interventions that systemically target the identified internal and external factors to support the implementation of the key facets of circular PaaS designing.

Taiwan plans to rapidly increase its industrial production capacity of electronic components while concurrently setting policies for its ecological transition. Given that the island is responsible for the manufacturing of a significant part of worldwide electronics components (including the most advanced CMOS technology nodes), the sustainability of the Taiwanese electronics industry is of critical interest. In this paper, we survey the environmental footprint of 16 Taiwanese electronic components manufacturers (ECMs) using corporate sustainability responsibility reports. Based on data from 2015 to 2020, we find out that the sample of ECMs in this study increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5% per year, its final energy and electricity consumption by 8.8% and 8.9%, and its water usage by 6.1%. We show that the volume of manufactured electronic components and the environmental footprint compiled in this study are strongly correlated, which suggests that relative efficiency gains are not sufficient to curb the overall environmental footprint of ECMs on the island. Given the critical nature of the electronics industry for Taiwan's geopolitics and economics, the observed increase of energy consumption, and the slow renewable energy roll-out, Taiwan could face a carbon lock-in situation which will most likely prevent the achievement of carbon reduction goals and sustainability policies on the island.

Wood as a renewable material is relevant for climate change mitigation: Carbon sequestration in forests and carbon storage in harvested wood products (HWPs) contribute to carbon reduction in the atmosphere, and the substitution of carbon-intensive products with wood products can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since wood is a limited resource, it must be used efficiently and sustainably. Shifting wood from one application to another might result in decreased GHG emissions due to substitution effects. However, which wood application will lead to a GHG emission reduction is currently unknown. This study investigates the effects of shifting wood between applications and the resulting substitution effects from a system perspective. A system dynamics model describes the wood utilization system of Austria, including the value chains from the forest to wood-processing industries and the substitution that takes place in these industries. These value chains are associated with the global warming potential. Seven wood utilization scenarios shifting between material use and use for energy are simulated. The results show that wood shifts lead to both a substitution effect (emission reduction) in industries where wood utilization is increased and a counter effect (emission increase) where wood is replaced. The two effects potentially outweigh each other partly, leading to comparatively small net effects. However, carbon sequestration in HWPs and future changes in substitution effects might lead to additional effects. To substantially contribute to climate change mitigation, alternatives other than shifting wood between material and energy value chains need to be found within the wood utilization system.

The semiconductor foundry industry faces the challenge of reducing its high environmental impact, mainly due to its energy- and water-intensive processes and significant generation of waste. To date, no other study has focused on the assessment of the environmental performance and related historical trends of this industry as a whole. Methodologically, the first step was to analyze and process a large quantity of economic, production, and environmental data, available in the Corporate Social Responsibility reports of a companies’ sample, highly representative of the entire world's foundry industry (about 70% of the global revenue of the related sector). It was thus possible to calculate, using a common manufacturing index (MI) and after appropriate data processing, some key performance indicators, along a significant decade (2012–2021), marked by deep political, economic, and health crises. Some of the main findings of this study are that, over this 10-year period, the increases in technological capacity (patents), wafer production, and revenue (400%, 183%, and 172%, respectively) are matched by a significant increase in hazardous waste generation per MI (20%; 239% in absolute value) and a much larger increase in general waste generation per MI (135%; 568% in absolute value). The indicators of energy, water, and revenue per MI are substantially unchanged. A substantial decrease occurs in GHG_1&2 emissions per MI (−32%), mainly due to significant investments in renewable energy sources. The findings of this research could help and guide upcoming sustainability policy decisions and encourage business-to-business collaboration and the adoption of better environmental production practices.

The European Union (EU) Battery Regulation aims to establish a circular battery production and sets minimum battery material recycled targets for new batteries from post-production and post-consumer waste batteries. However, it is uncertain whether these targets can be met due to dynamic market developments and if their compliance results in environmental benefits. Therefore, this study examines the circular battery production in the EU and its impact on material flows and the environment from a market perspective. We combined a system dynamic market model with process models for battery production and recycling, using prospective life cycle assessment. According to our analysis, the projected amount of post-consumer waste alone may not meet the specified levels of recycled materials due to long battery lifetimes. Thereby, the targets for cobalt are particularly ambitious, with a gap of between 9.8 and 14.6 percentage points for most scenarios. In the case of reduced battery lifetimes, the achievable recycled content across all materials increases by more than 75% in 2032 and by more than 85% in 2037. The avoidance of post-production waste leads to 9% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to recycling with 100% recycling efficiency. Thus, attributable amounts of post-production waste and unfavorable prolonged use of batteries create misguided incentives to meet legal targets. Additionally, the delay between production and recycling limits the potential for circular production as this depends significantly on market conditions. Our study highlights, that besides recycling, the industry should especially advance production processes including upstream material extraction and refinement to reduce environmental impacts.

Peru is one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of food production, but also suffers a wide range of food security challenges, including malnutrition, the impact of natural hazards, and rising food prices. People living in poverty conditions are the main victims of these problems, which trigger undernutrition, obesity, and diet-related non-transmittable diseases. Despite these challenges, Peru lacks historical food intake data. Therefore, in the current study, we assess the diet quality evolution in the period 2008–2021 based on apparent household purchases extracted from the National Household Survey. The results reveal significant variations in the consumption of certain food items and groups, and the consequences of these changes are discussed in environmental and human health terms. The consumption of lower environmental impact animal protein, such as chicken, eggs, and marine fish, has increased by 37%, 69%, and 29%, respectively; whereas the consumption of high environmental impact foods, such as beef and other red meat, has decreased. Moreover, consumption of less processed carbohydrate sources (e.g., legumes, fruits, and vegetables) has risen, while refined sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages have decreased significantly (almost 45%). Regional differences were also visible; hence, cities on the Northern coast and the Amazon basin had similar consumption habits, whereas Central/Southern coastal and Andean cities had closer consumption patterns. On average, this improvement was reflected in the increase in calories (9.9%) and macronutrient intake (up to 15%), but at the socioeconomic level, food inequality persists, with consumption of many food groups below minimum thresholds in lower socioeconomic strata. This article met the requirements for a gold/gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

For about a decade, telecommunication network operators (TNOs) have explored the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions their customers can achieve by using TNO services (e.g., by substituting physical travel with video conferencing), the so-called GHG enablement. Some TNOs also calculate a GHG enablement factor, which is the ratio between the GHG enablement and their own GHG footprint. Since GHG enablements usually exceed the footprint, they create the narrative that TNOs contribute to GHG reductions across society. In this paper, we systematically analyze TNO GHG enablement claims and the underlying methodological approaches. We find several methodological shortcomings and inconsistencies, such as different sets of TNO services considered, inconsistent system boundaries, potential double counting of GHG reductions, and a disregard for rebound effects. Most importantly, TNO assessments focus exclusively on those services likely to yield GHG reductions, neglecting possible GHG-increasing services. We conclude that current GHG enablement (factors) do not accurately and comprehensively represent TNOs’ overall GHG impacts and create a flawed picture. To provide a reliable decision basis to stakeholders such as TNOs themselves, customers, investors, and policymakers, we provide eight recommendations on how to substantially improve the methodological basis.

The manufactured capital, usually denoted as material stocks from an industrial ecology perspective, has thus far received wide attention in sustainability and circularity science. Sustainable resource management should be rooted in detailed knowledge of manufactured capital accumulation in society at a high spatial resolution. Previous studies demonstrated that night-time light (NTL) data provide a great opportunity for monitoring material stocks dynamics at a higher spatial resolution on the regional and global scale. However, the potential of historical–geographical refined material stocks has not been fully analyzed and explored because of the inconsistency of NTL images detected by the different satellites. In this study, based on a new set of material stocks data in China and harmonized NTL images (1992–2018), we map the national stocks of 13 bulk materials (including cement, gravel, wood, brick, sand, asphalt, glass, lime, plastic, rubber, copper, aluminum, and steel) at a 1 × 1 km resolution from 1992 to 2018. The results find that the total material stocks increased from 190,000 to 460,000 t/km² between 1992 and 2018. Among the five end-use sectors, buildings have the highest density of 430,000 t/km², while domestic appliances have the lowest density of 140 t/km². Four manufactured capital clusters, including the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, and Chengdu–Chongqing agglomerations, possess 38% of the national total stocks in 2018, revealing an unbalanced distributed pattern of manufactured capital across China. Our results provide valuable support for policymakers and business decision-makers on efficient resource management and urban mining.

The building sector in China is responsible for 40% of total energy-related CO₂ emissions, driven by its large population, continuous economic growth, and construction boom. In addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy use, buildings drive significant emissions for construction activities and production of energy-intensive materials, such as steel and cement. While supply-side energy strategies have been extensively explored, a demand-side perspective that considers stock dynamics and circularity improvements is essential to assess sustainable pathways for the buildings sector. Here, we explore a set of decarbonization scenarios for the building sector in China considering a range of circular strategies and their interplay with different climate policies. The strategies include lifetime extension of buildings, switch to wood-based construction, reduction of per-capita floorspace, and a combination of all three strategies. We use the building sector model MESSAGEix-Buildings soft linked to the integrated assessment model (IAM) MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM and prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the effects of these circular strategies on building material and energy demands, and operational and embodied emissions. We find that the three strategies could reduce building material demand up to 60% on mass basis by 2060 compared to a reference scenario with continuation of current policies. This translates into a reduction of embodied and total GHG emissions of 62% and 24%, respectively, significantly contributing to achieving decarbonization targets. Integrating industrial ecology methods in IAMs, as demonstrated in this study, can provide valuable insights to inform national policy decisions on mitigation strategies accounting for both demand and supply sides.