Presentation: Michael LettenmeierWorld Resources Forum 2015, DavosWS13: Circular Bioeconomy: circular economy meets bioeconomy13th October 2015

Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 – The Role of Circular Economy and Bioeconomy

Wuppertal Institute

Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 – The Role of Circular Economy and Bioeconomy

13/10/2015

The Wuppertal Institute

The Material Footprint

The sustainable lifestyle challenge

Finnish lighthouse households

Solutions from circular and bioeconomy

Wuppertal Institute

Wuppertal InstituteSustainability Think Tank

The Wuppertal Institute is one of the largest think tanks for sustainability in Europe Setting up: 1991 conducted by Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich

von Weizsäcker (president until 2000) followed by Prof. Peter Hennicke and Prof. Dr. Uwe Schneidewind

Legal status of a non-profit limited company receiving basic funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia

In the responsibility of the Ministry for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of the Land North Rhine-Westphalia

Ranked under the Top20-Environmental Think Tanks worldwide

180 researchers 150 to 170 projects per year

- 70% for public clients - 30% for private clients

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Wuppertal InstituteOverview of Research Fields

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Material footprint

= ecological backpack

Invisible burden any product carries

Measuring resource useMaterial Footprint

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© seppo@seppo.net

© seppo@seppo.net

Abiotic material resources+ biotic material resources + top soil erosion in agri-/silviculture

Holistic, though rough indicator

Sufficient, input-based indicator although not addressing individual environmental problems

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Circular economyClosing the tap!

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Material FootprintComposition

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Overall Environ-mental burden

Resource costs

Overburden,Excavation from infrastructure, leftover

Fossil fuels, Metals,Construction materials

Wood, Food,renewable raw materials

Economically unused extraction

Economically used extraction

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200 g of non-renewable resources

30 g of renewable resources

40 g of air

300 g of top soil erosion

6 litres of water

700 cm2 of land

A4

Project ExamplesAssessing, Comparing and Developing the Resource Efficiency of Coffee

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The One-Planet Challenge Lifestyle Material Footprint from 40 to 8 tonnes

11 tonnes

6 tonnes

18 tonnes

1,5 tonnes

3 tonnes

2 tonnes

2010 2050

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35 tonnes abiotic 4 tonnes biotic 1 tonne erosion (Kotakorpi et al. 2008)

6 tonnes abiotic 2 tonnes biotic 0.1 tonnes erosion (Bringezu 2009, Bringezu 2015)

Lettenmeier et al. 2014, Eight tonnes of material footprint, www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/3/488

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Citizendigital.org

One of the biggest lifestyle changes in

human history

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Lifestyle Material FootprintRoadmap towards the Future Household

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Lettenmeier et al. 2015, Tulevaisuuden kotitalous.

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Pehkonen’s family: Food

Laukkarinen’s family: Daily mobility

Future HouseholdsEncouraging experiments

Lettenmeier et al. 2015, Tulevaisuuden kotitalous.

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Local loops: circular

bioeconomy of everyday

Vegetarian and vegan

opens bioeconomy options

Food waste

prevention

Food from 6 to 3 tonnesPotential of circular and bioeconomy

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Housing from 11 to 1.6 tonnesPotential of circular and bioeconomy

Resource-efficient houses:

wood and recycled materials

Smart living,

shared space

Access instead

of owning

nurmiclothing.com HS.fi

creebyrhomberg.com creebyrhomberg.com

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Mobility from 18 to 2 tonnesPotential of circular bioeconomy

Mobility as a service:

merging private and public

Smart infrastructure

and urban mining

Fuel from waste,

not from food

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Conclusions

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Where do circular and bioeconomy meet:

- Bioeconomy helps making heavy resource use lighter, e.g. in buildings

- Circular economy helps keeping biotic products and materials in use

Sustainable lifestyles foster both circular and bioeconomy:

- Smart nutrition releases land use to other purposes

- Resource-light housing facilitates sharing solutions

- Shared mobility requires less infrastructure

Thank you for your attention!

Michael LettenmeierConsultantResearch Group „Sustainable Production and Consumption“Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie GmbH, Döppersberg 19DE-42103 WuppertalMichael.Lettenmeier@wupperinst.org Tel.: +49 151 50 40 26 19www.wupperinst.orgwww.d-mat.fiwww.facebook.com/materialfootprint www.twitter.com/lettenmeier