Quantifying material stocks in long-lived products: research frontiers for sustainable resource-use strategies

32 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2024

See all articles by Jan Streeck

Jan Streeck

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

Andre Baumgart

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU)

Helmut Haberl

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU)

Fridolin Krausmann

Alpen Adria University - Institute of Social Ecology

Bowen Cai

Wuhan University - School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering

Tomer Fishman

Leiden University

Maud Lanau

Chalmers University of Technology

Peter Berrill

Leiden University

Zhi Cao

Nankai University

Sebastiaan Deetman

Leiden University - CML, Department Industrial Ecology

David Frantz

University of Trier

Volker Krey

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Alessio Mastrucci

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Alessio Miatto

Government of the Commonwealth of Australia - CSIRO Health & Biosecurity

Stefan Pauliuk

University of Freiburg

Lola Rousseau

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Shoshanna Saxe

University of Toronto

Danielle Densley Tingley

University of Sheffield - Department of Civil & Structural Engineering

Gamze Ünlü

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Dominik Wiedenhofer

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna; Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU)

Date Written: September 02, 2024

Abstract

Material stocks in long-lived products require >50% of annual global resource extraction for their construction and maintenance, and lock in energy and other dissipative resource-use through their technical and geospatial characteristics. Robust data on material stocks are thus fundamental to informing sustainable resource-use strategies. Yet, quantifying stocks remains challenging and bears considerable uncertainties. Different estimates of the same material stocks scrutinized for this review differ by up to two orders of magnitude, illustrating a still weak scientific basis for policy and planning. Disparities arise from differing system boundaries, methodology, data sources, definitions, and lack of data to represent the diversity of material stock types. To robustly inform sustainable resource-use strategies, the scientific and practitioners community should systematically assess and report sensitivity and uncertainty, and reduce the latter through transparent documentation, model intercomparisons, consensus and open-access databases, enhanced data collection, and comprehensive quantification of material stocks.

Keywords: material flow analysis, sustainable resource management, uncertainty analysis, socioeconomic metabolism, material stocks

Suggested Citation

Streeck, Jan and Baumgart, Andre and Haberl, Helmut and Krausmann, Fridolin and Cai, Bowen and Fishman, Tomer and Lanau, Maud and Berrill, Peter and Cao, Zhi and Deetman, Sebastiaan and Frantz, David and Krey, Volker and Mastrucci, Alessio and Miatto, Alessio and Pauliuk, Stefan and Rousseau, Lola and Saxe, Shoshanna and Densley Tingley, Danielle and Ünlü, Gamze and Wiedenhofer, Dominik, Quantifying material stocks in long-lived products: research frontiers for sustainable resource-use strategies (September 02, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4960374 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4960374

Jan Streeck (Contact Author)

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna ( email )

Austria

Andre Baumgart

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) ( email )

Helmut Haberl

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) ( email )

Schottenfeldgasse 29
Vienna, Vienna 1070
Austria

Fridolin Krausmann

Alpen Adria University - Institute of Social Ecology ( email )

Schottenfeldgasse 29, A-1070
Vienna
Austria

Bowen Cai

Wuhan University - School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering ( email )

Tomer Fishman

Leiden University ( email )

Postbus 9500
Leiden, 2300 RA
Netherlands

Maud Lanau

Chalmers University of Technology ( email )

Gothenburg
SE-412 96 Goteborg
Sweden

Peter Berrill

Leiden University ( email )

Postbus 9500
Leiden, 2300 RA
Netherlands

Zhi Cao

Nankai University ( email )

94 Weijin Road
Tianjin, 300071
China

Sebastiaan Deetman

Leiden University - CML, Department Industrial Ecology ( email )

PO Box 9518
Leiden, ZH NL-1012DE
Netherlands

David Frantz

University of Trier ( email )

15, Universitaetsring
Trier, 54286
Germany

Volker Krey

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Alessio Mastrucci

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Schlossplatz 1
Laxenburg, A-2361
Austria

Alessio Miatto

Government of the Commonwealth of Australia - CSIRO Health & Biosecurity ( email )

United States

Stefan Pauliuk

University of Freiburg ( email )

Fahnenbergplatz
Freiburg, D-79085
Germany

Lola Rousseau

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) ( email )

Shoshanna Saxe

University of Toronto

105 St George Street
Toronto, M5S 3G8
Canada

Danielle Densley Tingley

University of Sheffield - Department of Civil & Structural Engineering ( email )

Gamze Ünlü

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Dominik Wiedenhofer

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna ( email )

Feistmantelstrasse 4
Wien, Vienna 8010
Austria

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) ( email )

Feistmantelstrasse 4
Wien, Vienna 8010
Austria

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
55
Abstract Views
185
Rank
730,496
PlumX Metrics