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Improvement of Raw Material Productivity and Resource Conservation

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Improvement of Raw Material Productivity and Resource Conservation Publikationen des .......................................Umweltbundesamtes . Improvement of Raw Material Productivity and Resource Conservation Subproject 1: Evaluation of Potentials, Proposals for Measures and Dialogue about Resource Conservation (Summary) Forschungsprojekt im Auftrag des Umweltbundesamtes FuE-Vorhaben Förderkennzeichen 206 93 100/01 Thomas Lemken Rainer Lucas Jose Acosta Prof. Dr. Raimund Bleischwitz Claudia Kaiser Melanie Krause Michael Ritthoff Dr. Michael Scharp Martin Stürmer Henning Wilts 2009 Improvement of Raw Material Productivity and Resource Conservation – Subproject 1: Evaluation of Potentials, Proposals for Measures and Dialogue about Resource Conservation Summary Funding reference number 206 93 100/01 July 2008 Commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) 2 Authors: Thomas Lemken (Project Coordinator, WI) Rainer Lucas (Project Coordinator, WI) Jose Acosta (WI) Prof. Dr. Raimund Bleischwitz (WI) Claudia Kaiser (WI) Melanie Krause (WI) Michael Ritthoff (WI) Dr. Michael Scharp (IZT) Martin Stürmer (WI) Henning Wilts (WI) Translator: Piet Hausberg This abbreviated version of the final report has been generated within the scope of the re- search project “Improvement of Resource Productivity and Conservation” funded by the German Federal Environment Agency. The project has been carried out under the direction of the Wuppertal Institute jointly with the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology As- sessment in Berlin (IZT) and the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sus- tainable Consumption and Production (CSCP). It reflects the results of the future dialogue from 2007 to 2008 and provides insight regard- ing current potentials, chances, and impediments for an improvement of raw material and resource productivity in the sectors of emphasis “construction and habitation”, “steel”, and “copper”. Background research, expert interviews, and workshops have been part of the official dialogue process with stakeholders from economy, politics, and sciences. Moreover, selected options for measures with examples for efficient approaches are presented. Objective of the future dialogue was the bundling of concrete and practice-oriented contri- butions concerning an improvement of raw material productivity and resource consumption as well as the development of options for measures to increase resource productivity. These have to be tied up to existing political initiatives as the European Resource Strategy and the “Ecological Industry Policy” of the German Federal Ministry for Environment (BMU). Further information with regard to the project is available for download at www.ressourcenproduktivitaet.de. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions. 3 Table of contents Index of figures...................................................................................................................................... 4 Index of tables ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Objectives of the project.........................................................................................................6 1.2 Study design...........................................................................................................................7 1.3 Hot-Spots of resource consumption .......................................................................................9 2 Area of need construction and habitation.................................................................................. 12 2.1 Trends and impediments ..................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Potentials to increase resource efficiency and conservation .............................................. 13 2.3 Options for actions – regulative, promoting, marketing, and information instruments ........ 16 2.4 Further options for action and recommendations................................................................ 19 3 Raw material system copper........................................................................................................ 21 3.1 Trends and impediments ..................................................................................................... 21 3.2 Potentials to increase resource efficiency and conservation .............................................. 23 3.3 Options for measures in the field of action vehicle construction and electronics................ 28 3.4 Options for measures in the area of action ICT................................................................... 30 3.5 Comprehensive strategies – international regulations of material flows ............................. 32 4 Steel Sector.................................................................................................................................... 34 4.1 Trends and impediments ..................................................................................................... 34 4.2 Potential for Increases in Resource Efficiency and Conservation....................................... 35 4.3 Possible Measures in the field of action “High Strength and Ultrahigh-strength steels, Join and Forming Technologies, Resource Efficiency in Steel Production”........................ 36 4.4 Options for Measures in the Field of Action ‘Penetration Strategies of Resource Efficient Technologies’.........................................................................................................42 5 Dialogue Process and Evaluation ............................................................................................... 44 6 Resource policy – instruments and international connectivity ............................................... 45 6.1 Resource efficiency and policy mix ..................................................................................... 45 6.2 International connectivity ..................................................................................................... 48 6.3 Improved resource productivity in global value creation chains.......................................... 48 7 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 50 4 Index of figures Figure 1: Steps of the investigation and conducted analyses ................................................... 7 Index of tables Table 1: Use of abiotic materials in the production of selected metals................................. 11 Table 2: Material and energy requirement for primary and secondary production of copper ............................................................................................................................ 24 Table 3: Instruments of an ecological industrial regulatory framework ................................ 46 5 1 Introduction The resource consumption of modern industrial societies is characterised by manifold new challenges. It can be considered as an assured state of the discussion that numerous nega- tive environmental effects are connected with the amount of resource consumption. Against this background, the Federal Republic of Germany set itself the target to double resource productivity (in terms of raw material productivity) till the year 2020 relating to the year 1994 in the framework of its sustainability strategy. This new field of action in resource policy is characterised by a threefold challenge: • Energy and resources become more expensive because an increased demand – mainly by the population rich, newly industrialised countries like China, India and Bra- zil – faces the limited supply. This tense situation will remain like this in medium term, since resource requirements will continue to grow in these countries. • In the long run the raw material supply is finite. Ever bigger efforts have to be made in order to explore and to tap new repositories. Furthermore, with rising prices of raw materials even low-value deposits get exploited in politically instable regions and sensitive ecosystems, which is associated with higher environmental pressure. • The consumption of fossil fuels contributes substantially to climate change. Every raw material consumption involves life-cycle-wide environmental pressures, which to di- minish is regarded as imperative. Environmental pressures due to raw material use, resource conservation and more efficient use of resources are accordingly basic fields of activity of today’s environmental policy. The economic development has to be decoupled more widely from resource use than hitherto and resource use has to be cut down considerably absolutely. New foci are a more efficient utilization of raw materials, resource conservative production procedures, an ecologic prod- uct design, the closure of material life cycle, and a more resource conservative fulfilment of needs by means of a change in consumption patterns. Raw materials are cost drivers, particularly in raw material intensive production processes. At the latest since the recent rise in prices on international commodities markets it is an own best interest of enterprises to reduce these costs and to obtain therewith competitive advan- tages. Therefore, the increase of resource productivity is in almost all sectors a long pursued strategic business objective. In the
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