Surconsommation | EPFL Graph Search

La surconsommation désigne un niveau de consommation situé au-dessus de celui des besoins normaux ou d'une consommation moyenne. Au-delà d'un certain seuil, la surconsommation est un facteur de surexploitation de ressources naturelles, pas, peu, difficilement, dangereusement ou lentement renouvelables. Quand une de ces ressources épuisées ne peut plus être remplacée par une autre, des besoins primaires peuvent ne plus pouvoir être assurés. Cette notion a notamment induit celle de dette écologique et d'effets différés dans l'espace (déséquilibres nord-sud ou est-ouest) et dans le temps (à l'égard des générations futures). Certains courants de pensée, notamment écologistes et tiers mondistes puis altermondialistes ou du développement soutenable, estiment que plusieurs pays développés actuels sont en état de surconsommation, ce qui entraînerait via les effets du libre-échange sur l'environnement des effets socio-économiques et écologiques négatifs à échelle planétaire. La notion de s

Unraveling how the concept of circularity relates to sustainability: An indicator-based meta-analysis applied at the urban scale

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Albert Merino, Valeria Superti

Cities account for 75% of resource consumption and 80% of CO2 emissions. With rising urbanization, achieving urban sustainability becomes crucial. The Circular Economy (CE) concept has been proposed to reduce resource consumption, although its link to sustainability remains unclear from theoretical and practical perspectives. This paper provides an in-depth comparative analysis of 57 indicator sets used in academia or practice to measure either CE in urban areas or urban sustainability. Indicators were extracted and categorized according to three conceptual frameworks, namely: the STEEP categories, the Sustainable Development Goals, and inductively-created thematic groups. The similarities among the 57 sets were analyzed to derive clusters. Results show that CE represents a subset of urban sustainability, while offering more indicators to assess specific thematic groups (e.g., waste). In the discussion, the value added by targeting a CE rather than sustainability is questioned, and insights are provided to support actors involved in an urban transition to develop well-informed city targets. The results offer theoretical, practical, and methodological contributions, and aid involved actors, especially those leading urban transition agendas, to unravel the conceptual link between CE and sustainability, specifically at the urban scale.

2021

Assessing the contribution of Circular Economy to Urban Sustainability: an analysis based on the use of indicators

Ivo Philippe Baur, Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Valeria Superti

Currently our world is becoming increasingly urban, with around 50% of its population living in cities. Whereas cities produce 80% of the worldwide GDP and are places with high innovation, they also consume 75% of worldwide resources and produce 80% of CO2 emissions. Thus, achieving urban sustainability will be crucial in the future. To reduce resource consumption in cities, Circular Economy has been proposed as a key concept, i.e. using resources more efficiently through value retention processes and minimizing the waste produced. Although the concept of the Circular Economy is not new, its potential contribution to Urban Sustainability still needs to be elicited. How does the Circular Economy conceptually integrate and, contribute to, Urban Sustainability? To answer this question, we focused on how the transitions towards the Circular Economy and towards Urban Sustainability are currently assessed. We conducted a cluster analysis of approximately 50 sets of indicators. Roughly half of the sets are currently used by municipalities or institutions to track the progress of cities towards the Circular Economy; the others cover Urban Sustainability. Each set contains approximately 40 indicators, although the number varies greatly. From each set, we extracted single indicators and categorized them according to conceptual frameworks, namely the three pillars of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals. We analyzed the overlap between the sets to derive clusters. We hypothesized that it should be possible to detect two clusters of sets of indicators: one referring to Circular Economy, one to Urban Sustainability. This would emphasize the differences in how the transitions towards Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability have been assessed, through the choice of distinct indicators. Our results will have both theoretical and practical contributions, informing the debate on the differences and overlaps between the two concepts and supporting urban communities in developing ad-hoc sets of indicators.

2019

Strategies for a Circular Economy in the Construction and Demolition Sector: Identifying the Factors Affecting the Recommendation of Recycled Concrete

Ivo Philippe Baur, Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Ralph Hansmann, Cynthia Houmani, Valeria Superti

With increasing urbanisation, new approaches such as the Circular Economy (CE) are needed to reduce resource consumption. In Switzerland, Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste accounts for the largest portion of waste (84%). Beyond limiting the depletion of primary resources, implementing recycling strategies for C&D waste (such as using recycled aggregates to produce recycled concrete (RC)), can also decrease the amount of landfilled C&D waste. The use of RC still faces adoption barriers. In this research, we examined the factors driving the adoption of recycled products for a CE in the C&D sector by focusing on RC for structural applications. We developed a behavioural framework to understand the determinants of architects’ decisions to recommend RC. We collected and analysed survey data from 727 respondents. The analyses focused on architects’ a priori beliefs about RC, behavioural factors affecting their recommendations of RC, and project-specific contextual factors that might play a role in the recommendation of RC. Our results show that the factors that mainly facilitate the recommendation of RC by architects are: a senior position, a high level of RC knowledge and of the Minergie label, beliefs about the reduced environmental impact of RC, as well as favourable prescriptive social norms expressed by clients and other architects. We emphasise the importance of a holistic theoretical framework in approaching decision-making processes related to the adoption of innovation, and the importance of the agency of each involved actor for a transition towards a circular construction sector.

2021

Assessing the contribution of Circular Economy to Urban Sustainability: an analysis based on the use of indicators

Ivo Philippe Baur, Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Valeria Superti

2019