Environmentally extended multi-regional input–output (EEMRIO) analysis provides a robust methodology for assessing economic, social, and environmental footprints across nations and regions. Increasing its geographical resolution is essential for addressing local environmental issues and informing targeted policy decisions. While subnational EEMRIOs ideally rely on survey data, such data are often unavailable or resource-intens...

Securing the availability of enough metals to fulfill demand is a critical societal concern. Models of metal supply systems can help enhance our understanding of these systems and identify strategies to reduce material criticality and improve resilience. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to modeling metal supply systems, using nickel as a case study. Our approach combines system dynamics modeling, in which various fe...

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a niche nonmetallic material that is essential in many industrial processes. Here, we integrate material flow analysis and supply chain resilience analysis to understand global SiC stocks and flows and to assess its supply chain. We use industry interviews to fill data gaps and collect information on the SiC system to overcome data scarcity. We find that globally around 1000 kt of SiC is produced each...

Bio‐based polymers may present a sustainable, circular way to reduce the environmental impact of plastics because they are produced from biomass that absorbs CO 2 during its growth. However, sourcing (type of biomass used and cultivation location), production, and end‐of‐life affect the environmental impact of bio‐based plastics. We assessed the effect of sourcing and end‐of‐life options on the environmental impact of bio‐base...

Tin is an important metal for society with a high risk of supply disruptions. It is, therefore, classified as a critical material in many parts of the world. An exception is the European Union, for which tin was classified as a non‐critical material in 2023. However, there are many discrepancies in the literature regarding the definitions and values of the indicators used to determine tin criticality in general, and recycling...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) databases and software evolve. We analyzed to which extent software and evolving life cycle inventory databases affect the comparison of technology alternatives, using a comparative LCA on permanent magnets as a case study, with two selected software tools: CMLCA and Brightway LCA. We migrated the system models from the CMLCA to Brightway LCA software and alternated between the ecoinvent database ve...

Buildings are an important part of society's environmental impacts, both in the construction and in the use phase. As the energy performance of buildings improve, construction materials become more important as a cause of environmental impact. Less attention has been given to those materials. We explore, as an alternative for conventional buildings, the use of biobased materials and circular building practices. In addition to...

The accumulation of impurities in the recycling of steel impacts the quality of secondary steel. Understanding impurity levels is crucial in the context of the proliferation of circular economy policies, expected high recycling rates, and growth of scrap consumption. By assuming the accumulation of impurities to be equal worldwide, the understanding of the extent and variation of the mixing and accumulation was limited in prev...

The heating of buildings currently produces 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable heating technologies can reduce heating‐related CO 2 emissions by up to 90%. We present a Python‐based GIS model to analyze the environmental and financial impact of strategies to reduce heating‐related CO 2 emissions of residential buildings. The city‐wide implementation of three alternatives to natural gas are evaluated: high‐tempe...

Industrial ecology tools are increasingly being used in ways that require high computational times. In the policy arena, this becomes problematic when practitioners want to live‐test various alternatives in a responsive and web‐based platform. In research, computational times come into play when analyzing large systems with multiple interventions or when requiring many runs for, for example, Monte Carlo simulations. We demonst...