YSTAFDB, a unified database of material stocks and flows for sustainability science

We present the Yale Stocks and Flows Database (YSTAFDB), which comprises most of the material stocks and flows (STAF) data generated at the Center for Industrial Ecology at Yale University since the early 2000s. These data describe material cycles, criticality, and recycling in terms of 62 elements and various engineering materials, e.g., steel, on spatial scales and timeframes ranging from cities to global and the 1800s to ca. 2013. YSTAFDB integrates this diverse collection of STAF data, previously scattered across various non-uniformly formatted electronic files, into a single data structure and file format. Here, we discuss this data structure as well as the usage and formatting of data records in YSTAFDB. YSTAFDB contains 100,000+ data records that are all situated in their systems contexts, with additional metadata included as available. YSTAFDB offers a comprehensive basis upon which STAF data can be accumulated, integrated, and exchanged, and thereby improves their accessibility. Therefore, YSTAFDB facilitates deeper understanding of sustainable materials use and management, which are key goals of contemporary sustainability science

Should We Mine the Seafloor? Presentations from the AAAS 2017 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, U.S.A.

Slides from session "Should We Mine the Seafloor?" presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2017 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, U.S.A. February 16-20, 201

Measuring the contemporary dissipation rates of metals during use

Dissipative uses of elements have come under increased scrutiny due to eco-toxicological effects of heavy metals in the environment and long-term sustainability of metal supply. Despite that, a comprehensive approach on elemental dissipation has not been proposed yet and very little attention has been paid to the loss of elements by design with any potential of recovery at end-oflife. In this study we categorized the main material streams of elements in use depending on rationales of dissipation and a model has been developed for measuring the contemporary dissipation rates for fifty-five elements. Inherently dissipative uses affect fewer than a dozen of elements (including mercury and arsenic), but the spectrum of elements dissipated increases rapidly if applications from which they are currently unrecoverable are considered. In many cases the dissipation rates are higher than 50%: among others, specialty metals (e.g., thallium, indium, and gallium) and some heavy rare earths are representative of modern technology and their loss gives a measure of how unsustainable is the contemporary use of materials and products. The outcomes provide guidance to industry and academy to identify pathways for reducing material losses and support the research for substitutes and technical developments for increasing elements recovery at end-of-life

Deriving the Metal and Alloy Networks of Modern Technology.

International audienceMetals have strongly contributed to the development of the human society. Today, large amounts of and various metals are utilized in a wide variety of products. Metals are rarely used individually but mostly together with other metals in the form of alloys and/or other combinational uses. This study reveals the intersectoral flows of metals by means of input-output (IO) based material flow analysis (MFA). Using the 2007 United States IO table, we calculate the flows of eight metals (i.e., manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, niobium, vanadium, tungsten, and cobalt) and simultaneously visualize them as a network. We quantify the interrelationship of metals by means of flow path sharing. Furthermore, by looking at the flows of alloys into metal networks, the networks of the major metals iron, aluminum, and copper together with those of the eight alloying metals can be categorized into alloyed-, nonalloyed-(i.e., individual), and both mixed. The result shows that most metals are used primarily in alloy form and that functional recycling thereby requires identification, separation, and alloy-specific reprocessing if the physical properties of the alloys are to be retained for subsequent use. The quantified interrelation of metals helps us consider better metal uses and develop a sustainable cycle of metals

The hawaiian Islands: Conceptualizing an industrial ecology holarchic system

The Hawaiian Islands form a holarchic system with at least five nested layers (holons) at increasing spatial scales: from a single enterprise to cities, to individual islands, to the archipelago (the group of islands), and to the global resource base that connects them all. Each holonic layer operates individually but is also linked to holons at lower and higher levels by material input and output flows. An integrated study of the holarchic system allows us to explore the value of applying this concept to industrial ecology. We present examples from a multi-level material flow analysis combining a large quantity of material and energy flow data for Hawaii from the five holarchic levels. Our analysis demonstrates how a holarchic approach to the study of selected interacting systems can reveal features and linkages of their metabolism not otherwise apparent and can provide a novel basis for discovering material, energy, and societal connections.Y

The Hawaiian Islands: Conceptualizing an Industrial Ecology Holarchic System

The Hawaiian Islands form a holarchic system with at least five nested layers (holons) at increasing spatial scales: from a single enterprise to cities, to individual islands, to the archipelago (the group of islands), and to the global resource base that connects them all. Each holonic layer operates individually but is also linked to holons at lower and higher levels by material input and output flows. An integrated study of the holarchic system allows us to explore the value of applying this concept to industrial ecology. We present examples from a multi-level material flow analysis combining a large quantity of material and energy flow data for Hawaii from the five holarchic levels. Our analysis demonstrates how a holarchic approach to the study of selected interacting systems can reveal features and linkages of their metabolism not otherwise apparent and can provide a novel basis for discovering material, energy, and societal connections