There is a common understanding that the environmental impacts of construction materials should be significantly reduced. This article provides a comprehensive environmental assessment within Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) boundaries for Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) in comparison with Conventional Concrete (CC), in terms of carbon, material, and water footprint. Environmental impacts are determined for the cradle-to-grave life cycle of the UHPC, considering precast and ready-mix concrete. The LCA shows that UHPC has higher environmental impacts per m3. When the functionality of UHPC is considered, at case study level, two design options of a bridge are tested, which use either totally CC (CC design) or CC enhanced with UHPC (UHPC design). The results show that the UHPC design could provide a reduction of 14%, 27%, and 43% of carbon, material, and water footprint, respectively.

The need for electrical energy storage technologies (EEST) in a future energy system, based on volatile renewable energy sources is widely accepted. The still open question is which technology should be used, in particular in such applications where the implementation of different storage technologies would be possible. In this study, eight different EEST were analysed. The comparative life cycle assessment focused on the storage of electrical excess energy from a renewable energy power plant. The considered EEST were lead-acid, lithium-ion, sodium-sulphur, vanadium redox flow and stationary second-life batteries. In addition, two power-to-gas plants storing synthetic natural gas and hydrogen in the gas grid and a new underwater compressed air energy storage were analysed. The material footprint was determined by calculating the raw material input RMI and the total material requirement TMR and the carbon footprint by calculating the global warming impact GWI. All indicators were normalised per energy fed-out based on a unified energy fed-in. The results show that the second-life battery has the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and material use, followed by the lithium-ion battery and the underwater compressed air energy storage. Therefore, these three technologies are preferred options compared to the remaining five technologies with respect to the underlying assumptions of the study. The production phase accounts for the highest share of GHG emissions and material use for nearly all EEST. The results of a sensitivity analysis show that lifetime and storage capacity have a comparable high influence on the footprints. The GHG emissions and the material use of the power-to-gas technologies, the vanadium redox flow battery as well as the underwater compressed air energy storage decline strongly with increased storage capacity.

The global economy is using growing amounts of natural resources such as raw materials, water, and land by making and using goods, services, and infrastructure. Aspirations on international, regional, and national levels e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals, the EU flagship initiative Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe or the German Program for Resource Efficiency are showing an urgent need to bring the global raw material use down to sustainable levels. An essential prerequisite to identify resource efficient options and to implement resource efficiency measures and solutions is the ability to compare different products or services regarding their raw material use. Until today, there is no internationally standardized approach defined and no software supported calculation method including the necessary data basis available to measure the raw material intensity of products. A new life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method Product Material Footprint PMF is described. Two indicators are used to quantify the PMF: the Raw Material Input RMI and the Total Material Requirement TMR. The calculation of global median values for the characterization factors CF_RMI and CF_TMR of abiotic materials was done based on different databases. This article presents the methodological approach of the PMF, the calculation results for CF_RMI of 42 abiotic materials and CF_TMR of 36 abiotic materials, and the implementation of the LCIA method into the software openLCA for use with the ecoinvent database.

Aggregates (sand, gravel, crushed stone) make up half of all globally extracted materials and present substantial environmental challenges. China, which consumes half of the world's aggregates, is undergoing profound shifts in both supply and demand. Our scenario-based model tracks aggregate flows and stocks across 30 end-uses in Chinese provinces from 1978 to 2050. We find that China's aggregate demand peaked around 2015, accompanied by a gradual and continuous shift from natural to manufactured aggregates. Total demand after 2030 is projected to decline to ~50% of 2020 levels in circular economy scenarios. Per capita stocks tend to saturate by 2040, although saturation timing varies across provinces. Stock saturation may lead to increased availability of recycled aggregates, which could become a primary supply source. We highlight the critical need for stricter policies and regulations for the aggregate industry, offering insights for other economies facing similar challenges. Earth's crust consists of a solid lithosphere layer, varying between 60 and 120 kilometers thick, where rocks weather into sand, gravel, and stone. These substances, known as aggregates, are used extensively in construction and are the most extracted materials worldwide 1. In 2019, global material extraction reached about 95.2 billion tons (Gt), with aggregates making up over half 2,3. Around 1.1 trillion tons of nonmetallic minerals were extracted globally for construction between 1970 and 2019. That is equivalent to stripping a 3-4 mm layer from Earth's entire land surface (see Supplementary Notes for calculation). In recent years, particularly after 2010, China consumed around half of the total extracted global aggregates. Each cubic meter of concrete used in China typically contains 1.8 tons of aggregates 4. Building one square meter of a building requires 1.2 tons of aggregates 4. For roads, between 4000 and 30,000 tons are needed per kilometer, and for high-speed rail, about 70,000-120,000 tons per kilometer 4. Aggregates are the backbone of buildings and infrastructure, and as cities expand and global infrastructure grows, our dependence on these materials has reached unprecedented levels 5 .

The use of CO₂-based hydrocarbons plays a crucial role in reducing the climate footprint for several industry sectors, such as the chemical industry. Recent studies showed that regions which are favorable for the production of CO₂-based hydrocarbons from an energy perspective often do not provide concentrated point sources for CO₂, which leads to an increased environmental impact due to the higher energy demand of direct air capture processes. Thus, producing H₂ in regions with high renewable power potential and transporting it to industrialized regions with concentrated CO₂ point sources could provide favorable options for the whole process chain. The aim of this study is to analyze and compare pathways to produce CO₂-based methanol in Germany using a local CO₂ point source in combination with the import of H₂ per pipeline or per ship as well as H₂ produced in Germany. The environmental and economic performance of the pathways are assessed using life cycle assessment and cost analysis. As environmental indicators, the climate, material, water, and land footprints were calculated. The pathway that uses H₂ produced with electricity from offshore wind parks in Germany shows the least environmental impacts, whereas the import via pipeline shows the best results among the importing pathways. The production costs are the lowest for import via pipeline now and in the near future. Import via ship is only cost-efficient in the status quo if waste heat sources are available, but it could be more competitive in the future if more energy and cost-efficient options for regional H₂ distribution are available. It is shown that the climate mitigation effect is more cost-effective if the H₂ is produced domestically or imported via pipeline. Compared to the import of CO₂-based methanol, the analyzed H₂ import pathways show a comparable (pipeline) or worse environmental and economic performance (ship).