Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MAT_STOCKS (Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-08-31
Societies mobilize flows of materials and energy and accumulate material stocks such as buildings, infrastructures and machinery, thereby affecting climate and biodiversity. The main purpose of this “social metabolism” is to generate services (e.g. shelter, nutrition or mobility) underpinning social wellbeing. Until recently, socio-metabolic research (SMR) focused on flows and largely ignored stocks. But as most flows stem from producing, maintaining and using stocks, they are crucial.
MAT_STOCKS aimed at transforming SMR by:
(1) Overcoming the focus on flows, instead considering both flows and stocks, thereby generating stock-flow consistent representations of social metabolism.
(2) Moving beyond narrow ecoefficiency concepts (GDP/resource ratios) through the concept of a stock-flow-service nexus that considers wellbeing beyond income.
(3) Developing indicators, methods and models to quantify material stocks globally and map spatial patterns of stocks at high resolution.
(4) Modeling stocks in both back-casting and future scenario contexts & investigating more sustainable options.
Integration of stocks and services in SMR offers important insights on
(a) stock patterns as co-determinants of resource use and emissions,
(b) path-dependencies (lock-ins) from accumulation of material stocks,
(c) how stocks shape option spaces towards sustainability.
MAT_STOCKS aimed at transforming SMR by:
(1) Overcoming the focus on flows, instead considering both flows and stocks, thereby generating stock-flow consistent representations of social metabolism.
(2) Moving beyond narrow ecoefficiency concepts (GDP/resource ratios) through the concept of a stock-flow-service nexus that considers wellbeing beyond income.
(3) Developing indicators, methods and models to quantify material stocks globally and map spatial patterns of stocks at high resolution.
(4) Modeling stocks in both back-casting and future scenario contexts & investigating more sustainable options.
Integration of stocks and services in SMR offers important insights on
(a) stock patterns as co-determinants of resource use and emissions,
(b) path-dependencies (lock-ins) from accumulation of material stocks,
(c) how stocks shape option spaces towards sustainability.
We established the inflow-driven dynamic Material Flow Analysis model MISO2 to calculate accumulation of global stocks at national levels for 1900-2016. MISO2 discerns 23 raw materials, 14 supply-chain processes (processing, trade, use, recycling, waste management), and 13 stock types. MISO2 is fully mass-balanced and includes an uncertainty assessment. It is used to calculate material stocks in countries based on material flow data, as well as for a range of other applications (incl. follow-up projects) assessing progress towards the circular economy and various scenarios. Precursors of the model were used to study past and future stock-flow dynamics and generate insights into potentials of a more circular economy, as well as on future GHG budgets.
We developed other models based on the stock-driven approach (calculation of stocks e.g. based on volume of buildings or length of roads). This approach generates in-depth information on specific end-uses across scales, e.g. GHG emissions and material requirements of future scenarios of global electricity infrastructures and global mobility infrastructures, and allows generating stock maps.
We mapped material stocks wall-to-wall over large areas at high resolution (e.g. entire countries at 10m resolution). This required methodological innovations in assessing the height of buildings and integrating data from remote sensing, earth observation, and empirical studies of building mass per unit area or volume. We mapped the mass of material stocks in several countries (Austria, Germany, the UK and the USA) and, in modified form, global infrastructures and buildings.
We tackled several conceptual questions. Considerable progress was made in understanding services, e.g. we proposed the energy-service cascade. We developed the complementary stock-flow-practice nexus approach underpinning interdisciplinary collaborations with social scientists and historians, and contributed several papers on provisioning systems, a concept used in studying resource requirements for social wellbeing. Our systematic review of the eco-efficiency literature resulted in publications that were prominently cited in chapter 5 of the IPCC-AR6-WGIII report as well as in discussions on eco-efficiency, decoupling and degrowth.
We analyzed how stocks help understanding the malleability of social metabolism. We found that built structures are co-determinants of resource use; changing their future patterns (e.g. reducing urban sprawl) can be an important lever towards sustainability.
Results were not only disseminated in dozens of research articles, lectures and presentations, but also in newspapers, broadcasts, etc., as well as through collaborations with the arts, among others through an exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, as part of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021, and the 2024 Vienna Climate Biennale.
MAT_STOCKS enabled the applicant to successfully apply for a range of projects, including a large (7M€, 5yr) project funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Insights support the planned monitoring of material stocks by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
We developed other models based on the stock-driven approach (calculation of stocks e.g. based on volume of buildings or length of roads). This approach generates in-depth information on specific end-uses across scales, e.g. GHG emissions and material requirements of future scenarios of global electricity infrastructures and global mobility infrastructures, and allows generating stock maps.
We mapped material stocks wall-to-wall over large areas at high resolution (e.g. entire countries at 10m resolution). This required methodological innovations in assessing the height of buildings and integrating data from remote sensing, earth observation, and empirical studies of building mass per unit area or volume. We mapped the mass of material stocks in several countries (Austria, Germany, the UK and the USA) and, in modified form, global infrastructures and buildings.
We tackled several conceptual questions. Considerable progress was made in understanding services, e.g. we proposed the energy-service cascade. We developed the complementary stock-flow-practice nexus approach underpinning interdisciplinary collaborations with social scientists and historians, and contributed several papers on provisioning systems, a concept used in studying resource requirements for social wellbeing. Our systematic review of the eco-efficiency literature resulted in publications that were prominently cited in chapter 5 of the IPCC-AR6-WGIII report as well as in discussions on eco-efficiency, decoupling and degrowth.
We analyzed how stocks help understanding the malleability of social metabolism. We found that built structures are co-determinants of resource use; changing their future patterns (e.g. reducing urban sprawl) can be an important lever towards sustainability.
Results were not only disseminated in dozens of research articles, lectures and presentations, but also in newspapers, broadcasts, etc., as well as through collaborations with the arts, among others through an exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, as part of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021, and the 2024 Vienna Climate Biennale.
MAT_STOCKS enabled the applicant to successfully apply for a range of projects, including a large (7M€, 5yr) project funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Insights support the planned monitoring of material stocks by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
METHODS and DATA
Quantification of material stocks at national levels for >100 years with high resolution of types of materials, types of material stocks using a mass-balanced approach was achieved through the MISO2-model, yielding a global database of material stocks (23 raw materials, 13 types of stocks). The model links dynamic MFA with global EE-MRIO.
High-resolution mapping of stocks over large regions was so far not possible due to limitations of previous methods. We developed methods to map of materials in built structures at 10m resolution for countries, and 90m globally.
MODELS
The MISO2 model has unprecedented capabilities, incl. uncertainty assessment, global coverage, centennial coverage and high resolution (processes, trade, materials stock types).
We developed models of the global mass of power plants, grids & transformers, as well as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, and their future resource requirements & GHG emissions.
CONCEPTS
We proposed two complementary approaches: stock-flow-service nexus and the stock-flow-practice nexus. The energy service cascade represent substantial progress in understanding services. We made progress in understanding material stocks in provisioning systems, the role of stocks in (co)determining levels of resource use, the lock-in effects associated with stocks, as well as their implications for the (non)feasibility of options for reducing resource use.
REVIEWS
Systematic reviews on decoupling of GDP from resource use and GHG emissions bercame a standard reference in eco-efficiency, decoupling and degrowth research. Other reviews had high impact in Industrial Ecology & demand-side climate mitigation research.
CASES
MAT_STOCKS has carried out a large number of case studies at national and other scales valuable in their own right.
Quantification of material stocks at national levels for >100 years with high resolution of types of materials, types of material stocks using a mass-balanced approach was achieved through the MISO2-model, yielding a global database of material stocks (23 raw materials, 13 types of stocks). The model links dynamic MFA with global EE-MRIO.
High-resolution mapping of stocks over large regions was so far not possible due to limitations of previous methods. We developed methods to map of materials in built structures at 10m resolution for countries, and 90m globally.
MODELS
The MISO2 model has unprecedented capabilities, incl. uncertainty assessment, global coverage, centennial coverage and high resolution (processes, trade, materials stock types).
We developed models of the global mass of power plants, grids & transformers, as well as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, and their future resource requirements & GHG emissions.
CONCEPTS
We proposed two complementary approaches: stock-flow-service nexus and the stock-flow-practice nexus. The energy service cascade represent substantial progress in understanding services. We made progress in understanding material stocks in provisioning systems, the role of stocks in (co)determining levels of resource use, the lock-in effects associated with stocks, as well as their implications for the (non)feasibility of options for reducing resource use.
REVIEWS
Systematic reviews on decoupling of GDP from resource use and GHG emissions bercame a standard reference in eco-efficiency, decoupling and degrowth research. Other reviews had high impact in Industrial Ecology & demand-side climate mitigation research.
CASES
MAT_STOCKS has carried out a large number of case studies at national and other scales valuable in their own right.