Metrics and Data for Sustainable Resource Use

Burgeoning global populations combined with higher material standards of living are putting ever higher demands on the environment as both a source of materials and energy, and as a sink for the associated wastes. Increasing the efficiency with which we use materials per units of GDP generated (resource efficiency) will be necessary to accommodate these trends without outrunning the environment’s capacity to deliver these inputs and services. 

To assess progress towards sustainability, objective metrics against which resource productivity can be measured must be established and maintained. This project updates and refines key metrics used to resource efficiency via improved collation, modelling and more accurate / equitable allocations of the burdens of material extraction and use to producers and end consumers.