Sustainable Engineering

ReBaWü - Development of a method to evaluate the resource efficiency of Baden-Württemberg

The assessment of resource efficiency, both of products and of regions, has become increasingly important in recent years. The definition of resource efficiency was expanded, which includes not only the mass of materials used, but also other aspects such as the pollution of natural resources and the availability, vulnerability and criticality of the materials used. In addition, more emphasis is placed on the analysis of the entire supply chain and not just on the place of use, in order to avoid shifting of negative effects to other countries.

This project develops a method for evaluating the resource efficiency of Baden-Württemberg based on the ESSENZ method (ESSENZ). The ESSENZ method must be adapted for use at the (federal) state level by identifying and, if necessary, developing new indicators and further developing the underlying method.

The focus in this project is on criticality (i.e. availability, conflict materials and vulnerability) of abiotic resources. In addition, ecologically sensitive areas and adherence to environmental standards in the mining countries are addressed to increase transparency along value chain.

The new method allows a comprehensive analysis of all the most important resource efficiency aspects and thus helps to avoid conflicting goals in the upstream value chains on the one hand and to increase the resource efficiency of Baden-Württemberg on the other.

The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector.
um.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/startseite

A description of the method can be found here:
www.sciencedirect.com

Duration 01 October 2016 - 31 March 2017

Contact
Dipl.-Ing. Vanessa Bach
Room Z 210
Phone +49 (0)30 314-27941
E-mail vanessa.bach(at)tu-berlin.de