A new perspective on sustainability A radically different approach to the use of land, energy and materials will be required if we are to build a more sustainable society, yet modern lifestyles often revolve around established patterns of resource use. The MAT_STOCKS project aims to build detailed databases of material stocks and services and gain new insights into patterns of resource use, as Helmut Haberl explains. Our everyday lives often revolve around our use of biophysical resources, namely energy, materials and land, as we drive cars, build houses and develop new consumer products. The goal of meeting sustainability targets will require significant changes in the way we use these resources, a topic at the heart of the MAT_STOCKS project, an ERC Advanced Grant project carried out at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. “Scientists have used a variety of data to create a biophysical representation of the economic process,” says Professor Helmut Haberl. As the project’s Principal Investigator, he distinguishes between material stocks, flows and services to build a more detailed picture of society’s use of biophysical resources. “A stock is something that is measurable at a certain point in time, while a flow is measured over a longer period,” he outlines. A building is part of society’s material stocks for example, while the resources used when erecting it are flows. Material stocks like houses and roads provide vital services to society, such as shelter and transport, and create structures which we all use in our daily lives. “Through building stocks, societies establish certain patterns of resource use,” says Haberl. Many commuters rely on the roads and railways for their daily journey into work for example, yet entirely different stocks may be needed if sustainability targets are
to be met, an issue central to Haberl’s work. “We aim to highlight the importance of the accumulation of material stocks in society, like buildings, infrastructures and car fleets, in terms of meeting sustainability targets,” he explains. “Currently we lack a clear basis to systematically address it.”
We aim to highlight the importance of the accumulation of material stocks in society, like buildings, infrastructures and car fleets, in terms of meeting sustainability targets. The MAT-STOCKS project Researchers from both the social and natural sciences are working together in the project to build databases of material stocks and their services across the world, which will then provide a basis for analysis of progress towards a more sustainable society. The MAT_STOCKS team uses economic data and flow analysis to build a more detailed picture. Haberl: “We are working with material in-flows, dividing them up into different uses, and looking at the lifetimes of these materials.” The aim is to help establish a much broader perspective on eco-efficiency. “At the moment, eco-efficiency is usually only measured in the flow of physical resources, divided by GDP,” explains Haberl. “Through analysing this stock-flow-service nexus, we want to help establish a broader picture, also taking into account the level of material stocks.”
Researchers in the project aim to gain new insights into eco-efficiency through analysis of the stock-flow-services nexus.
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The project’s work could also help researchers understand the density of human activity across different parts of the world. Currently night-time lights are commonly used as a proxy to measure human activity, as the data is readily available and relatively easy to measure. “Spatially explicit representations
of population density or economic activity are often based on night-time lights,” says Haberl. Part of the project involves gathering data on road networks and buildings, which can provide a more effective proxy for economic activities and environmental impacts. “Our proposition is that data on societal material stocks like infrastructures and buildings are much better proxies for economic activity than night-time lights. These data will be used to map the spatial distribution of many key processes through which human activities and the earth system are entangled,” he says.
MAT_STOCKS Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society a.o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helmut Haberl Institute of Social Ecology University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, Austria T: +43 1 47654-73714 E: helmut.haberl@boku.ac.at W: http://matstocks.boku.ac.at W: https://boku.ac.at/wiso/sec
Helmut Haberl is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Ecology, part of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. His research interests include society’s energetic metabolism, climate change and integrated land system science.
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