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Integral sustainable design
Published in Rob Fleming, Saglinda H Roberts, Sustainable Design for the Built Environment, 2019
Rob Fleming, Saglinda H Roberts
Dematerialization is the principle of using technology and engineering to create synergies, or advanced processes that allow structures or tasks to be completed with reduced resources. In economics, dematerialization refers to the absolute or relative reduction in the quantity of materials required to serve economic functions in society (Rosenberg 1982). Put simply, dematerialization means doing more with less. Dematerialization is a form of eco-efficiency. It can be applied to business practices, buildings, products, and even record keeping. Miniaturization is another term used for this process. An obvious example is the switch from large cathode ray tube (CRT) computer monitors to flat-screen monitors. Not only did they reduce energy use, but the new monitors emit almost no heat meaning less air conditioning load. This is an example of synergy where one technology helps to make another technology more effective.
Sustainable Design for Scale
Published in Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design, 2017
Dematerialization is a design tactic that means doing more with less. Dematerialization tactics range from simply reducing waste (increasing material efficiency) to replacing a physical product (and its the associated impacts) with a digital service, thus “dematerializing” the product. This practice has become more common with the advent of digital services, enabled by mobile and Internet technologies.15 As a rule of thumb, this replacement form of dematerialization works well for scale solutions, as digital services are able to reach global customer bases more rapidly and easily than physical ones. However designers should be careful to avoid burden shifting when employing this tactic. Digital services relying on cloud Internet services and electronics demand huge amounts of energy throughout their life cycles.
Waste and Pollution
Published in John C. Ayers, Sustainability, 2017
In 2013, Americans generated 254 million tons of trash, or 2 kg (4.4 lb) per person per day (EPA 2015). This is only the mass of material in the last phase of the life cycle—disposal. Integrated over the full life cycle Americans annually consume roughly 100 times that amount or 70 metric tons of solid materials from the environment, while Japanese consume only 40, suggesting that Americans can reduce the amount of waste they produce by nearly half without reducing quality of life (Schmidt-Bleek 2007). Dematerialization aims to minimize the amount of material used to provide the same benefit or functionality of a good. On average, industrial countries must dematerialize by a factor of 10 in order to become sustainable.2 To do so requires achieving significant increases in resource productivity.
A comprehensive policy framework for the development of green markets in European Islands
Published in Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 2022
Angeliki Kylili, Paris A. Fokaides, Aravella Zachariou, Byron Ioannou, Phoebe-Zoe Georgalli, Savvas Vlachos, Myrto Skouroupathi, Nikola Matak, Ljubomir Majdandzic, Elizabeth Olival, Hugo Vasconcelos, Vittoria Cherchi, Daniele Groppi, Davide Astiaso Garcia, Alkisti Florou, Kostas Komninos, Stelios Procopiou, Thodoris Kouros, Arne Håkon Sandnes, Malene Aaram Vike, May Britt Roald, Lina Vassdal, Salvador Suárez García, Ülo Kask, Janita Andrijevskaja, Kerli Kirsimaa
Based on the studies of Vazquez-Brust and Sarkis (2012), the term industrial ecology contends the industrial metabolism in a way that one industry’s waste becomes the raw material for the next. The term “dematerialization” involves reducing the use of materials and making long-lasting products better managed by other services over their extended life cycles. On the other hand, the examination of Hickel and Kallis (2020) on historical patterns and model-based estimations revealed that there is no experimental proof that ultimate dissociation from resource usage can be accomplished in the face of ongoing economic expansion on a global level. Furthermore, even under ideal policy settings, ultimate dissociation from carbon emissions is relatively uncommon at a fast enough rate to avert global warming of more than 1.5°C or 2°C.
Mode and commodity perspectives on U.S. freight energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Insights and directions for improvement
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 2019
An additional factor that can affect the amount of freight activity is “dematerialization,” or the opportunity for a national economy to meet economic needs with less material throughput per unit of GDP or population. Total material throughput can be measured as the total mass of materials (e.g. biomass, minerals, building materials, metals, etc.) extracted domestically and imported, minus the mass exported. Fewer materials consumed should lead to fewer tons of materials transported in the freight system, all other factors equal. Dematerialization is attractive at an enterprise level because it is economically efficient for a firm to meet consumer expectations in a product in a more compact form or with lower material cost, potentially reducing production cost and increasing profitability. Steinberger et al. (2013) found a long-term decoupling of economic growth (GDP/capita) from increasing material consumption (kg/capita) among 16 industrialized economies including the United States, indicating the presence of dematerialization. Historical comparisons of USCFS data from different years also suggest a dematerialization effect. The 1993 USCFS records the movement of 9.69 billion tons of freight moved in the U.S. economy in that year across all types of commodities. According to the 2012 USCFS, between 1993 and 2012 total tons shipped grew to 11.3 billion tons, an increase of 17%. However, over the same 19-year period, population increased by 22% and GDP increased by 60% in real terms, indicating that the amount of material consumed per capita or especially per unit of GDP may be declining.
Dematerialisation of products and manufacturing-generated knowledge content: relationship through paradigms
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2018
Demetris Petrides, Alexios Papacharalampopoulos, Panagiotis Stavropoulos, George Chryssolouris
Dematerialisation is based on the improvement of the products’ efficiency and on reusing or recycling materials and products. An ideal framework of dematerialisation would concern any action taken in every stage of the production and the consumption line. Those actions may refer to resource savings in material extraction, an improved, more efficient design of the product, the use of technological and engineering innovations in the production stages and even the consumers’ environmental consciousness, with the use of eco-friendly products and recycling. Therefore, from an environmental point of view, dematerialisation could also be defined as any change in the amount of waste generated per unit of industrial products (Wernick, Govind, and Ausubel 1996).