Energy and material flow management

The energy and material flow management (ESSM) aims at the ecological and economic influencing of material and energy flows. The main goals are resource and material efficiency and the creation of sustainable cycles.

Origins

In 1972 a number of scientists under Dennis L. Meadows published the first report to the Club of Rome , "The Limits to Growth," in which they u. a. pointed to the scarcity of natural resources due to the growth of humanity. This publication led to the first international conference on the human environment ( United Nations Conference on the Environment , 1972 in Stockholm ) and the establishment of a dedicated environmental program ( UNEP ) in Nairobi . This in turn coined the term “Eco-Development”, which u. a. also included elements of satisfying basic needs using one's own resource base as well as measures to conserve resources.

A milestone in the debate on long-term strategies for securing resources finally realized in 1987 published the Brundtland report represents the UN Special Commission "World Commission on Environment and Development" Within this report, the term "first time. Sustainable development " defined in its use today meaning:

"Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: 1. The concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to wich overriding priority should be given; and 2. The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment ability to meet present and future needs. "

Of particular importance here is the reference to the "idea of borders", which originated in the first report to the Club of Rome and is also found in the later guard rail model of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

With the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the word “sustainability” or “sustainable development” finally became a normative, international guiding principle, which is generally based on the three-pillar model. The conservation of natural resources is always a key issue.

With the work of the Enquete Commission on "Protection of People and the Environment", "Energy and Material Flow Management" became an important term in German environmental policy. Basically, "material flow" is defined as "... the path of a substance from its extraction as raw material through the various stages of refinement to the stage of the end product, the use / consumption of the product, possibly its reuse / recovery to its disposal ..." . Energy flows are i. d. Usually subsumed under material flows. Material flow systems thus represent all delimitable systems in which material and energy flows are moved and transformed.

Energy and material flow management has meanwhile become a widely diversified subject area, which is used in many ways and also has numerous connections to related subject areas. The first approaches to energy and material flow management can be found in the work of Wassily Leontief , who in 1930 developed a method for representing economic processes in the form of input-output tables . Before that, it was already known to consider material inputs and outputs in chemistry when analyzing chemical processes.

need

In politics and research, energy and material flow management has meanwhile been accepted extremely positively. This is proven by the country-specific and national funding priorities that deal exclusively with this topic. However, the response in companies has so far been rather cautious, although the positive, economic aspects of energy and material flow management have long been proven in various studies.

The development of the cost structure in companies shows that the use of energy and material flow management is not only recommended, but even necessary. The material costs represent the largest cost block in the manufacturing industry - with an upward trend. There are three main reasons for this trend:

Shortage of raw materials leads to rising costs, as can be seen with steel and oil.
Companies in the manufacturing sector are increasingly reducing their vertical range of manufacture and processing higher quality materials.
The previous cost reduction programs focused largely on personnel costs or on optimizing the process organization.

As a result, the material costs are increasingly moving into the focus of optimization measures and thus a reduction in material costs becomes essential in order to survive in global competition.

A study by Arthur D. Little, the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research and the Wuppertal Institute, which dealt with potentials and strategies for increasing material efficiency in medium-sized companies , shows that there is definitely potential here . For this purpose, particularly material-intensive industries, such as the manufacture of metal products or plastic goods, were identified and cost reduction potentials were assessed on the basis of available material efficiency studies and production cost statistics. Overall, the study estimated the potential for reducing material costs over approx. € 7 billion for the manufacturing industry in Germany. In percentage terms, these are cost reduction potentials that can reach into the double-digit range of the total costs of the individual company.

Measures in this area focus, among other things, on reducing material and resource losses by improving quality (e.g. by reducing rejects), optimizing production processes, recycling materials or recycling or multiple use of industrial water.

In-company and inter-company material flow management thus show easily assessable potential that serves both the ecological and the economic target dimensions in terms of sustainability. In addition, increasing material efficiency can also help secure jobs. Thus, energy and material flow management proves to be an instrument that can bring about positive effects in all three target dimensions of sustainability.

to form

Material and energy flow management can essentially be differentiated with regard to the motivation for the implementation and according to the object under consideration or the selected system boundaries.

Differentiation according to motivation for implementation

Under the criterion of motivation for implementation, energy and material flow management can be divided into two basic trends:

industrial or economically motivated ESSM and
ecologically motivated ESSM.

Industrial energy and material flow management

In industrial energy and material flow management, the focus is essentially on economic aspects of the individual company. Forms and approaches of industrial energy and material flow management can already be found in Leontief's input-output analysis , in various process simulation systems or in optimization models of operations research . More recently, ecological approaches have been embedded as a further target dimension in industrial energy and material flow management. RÜDIGER (2000) names the following areas of responsibility for industrial energy and material flow management under the umbrella of ecologically-oriented corporate management:

Planning, analysis, optimization and control of production management systems
Support product development and innovation.

In the context of industrial energy and material flow management, the requirements and approaches of material flow-based (environmental) cost accounting are also to be classified.

Ecological energy and material flow management

In ecologically motivated energy and material flow management, the focus is on environmental aspects. The focus here is often on avoiding waste, wastewater and avoidable use of energy ( cleaner production ). The objectives of ecologically motivated material flow management include: a .:

Increase in resource productivity
Absolute reduction in the consumption of resources
Avoidance and reduction of emissions and waste
Avoidance and reduction of the use of ecologically harmful substances
Increase in the use of secondary materials
Increasing the recyclability of products and residues.

Differentiation according to system boundaries and object

Energy and material flow management can be broken down into four levels according to the criterion of system boundaries and the object under consideration:

Spatial-material energy and material flow management
Inter-company-actor-related energy and material flow management (also regional energy and material flow management)
Operational process-related energy and material flow management
product-oriented material flow management / life cycle assessment

Spatial-material energy and material flow management

According to the requirements of the Enquête Commission "Protection of people and the environment", spatial-material material flow management means the "... goal-oriented, responsible, holistic and efficient influencing of material systems [...], with targets coming from the ecological and economic areas, taking into account social aspects. ” (Enquête-Commission ( 1994 )) Under“ material systems ”i. d. Usually global and regional systems of action of specific chemical substances or compounds, such as B. understood the global CO ₂ budget. However, such a holistic approach requires close cooperation between

State (in an accompanying role by specifying environmental policy framework conditions),
Economy (as directly acting actors) and
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs; as socially operating organizations in a supporting function).

Material flow management in this sense has essentially failed due to a lack of concrete environmental policy guidelines.

Inter-company, actor-related energy and material flow management

At the inter-company level, there is a trend towards vertical (cooperation between companies in different industries along the value chain) and horizontal (cooperation between companies in the same industry) cooperation. In this context, material flow management means the optimization of entire product lines by the relevant economic actors or the optimized association of companies in a region via their material flows. In the context of inter-company material flow management, z. B. but also include recycling associations. Inter-company material flow management can essentially also be referred to as actor-related, since the majority of the expenditures are put into setting up actor networks and creating the necessary structures. In this regard, the cooperation between the mail order company Otto and clothing manufacturers and cotton suppliers for the development of an ecologically improved range of clothing and cooperation between the Axel Springer Verlag and the paper manufacturers STORA and CANFOR for the ecological optimization of the paper chain have become known. Despite these promising approaches, it must be stated that the practice of material flow management at the inter-company level is still in its initial phase. Strategic alliances between the relevant actors essentially fail due to external, economic framework conditions (e.g. suboptimal price ratios between primary and secondary raw materials) and internal, organizational barriers (e.g. lack of clear structures and responsibilities).

Operational-process-related energy and material flow management

In-house material flow management, on the other hand, is in an advanced phase and is defined as the input and output-side balancing and optimization of the ecologically relevant material and energy flows of an individual process, process group or an entire company. In-house material flow management can therefore also be referred to as process-related, as the focus is on the analysis and optimization of production structures. Through the development and introduction of numerous supporting IV systems, such as B. the accounting software GaBi, UMBERTO and AUDIT, considerable successes have been achieved in the mapping of complex material flows and the identification of concrete reduction potentials. The depth of detail of the material flow analysis is determined by the task. In manufacturing companies, the focus is mostly on the comprehensive analysis of individual processes or individual locations.

Product-oriented material flow management / life cycle assessment

The product-related material flow management has finally found importance in numerous product life cycle assessments. According to ISO 14040, the life cycle assessment is a “method for assessing the environmental aspects and product-specific potential environmental effects associated with a product” . In this perspective, an analysis or balancing of the material and energy flows of a product takes place over its entire life cycle - from the cradle to the grave. The main objectives are the identification of ecological improvement potential and decision support in strategic planning or product development. The term Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become more common recently. Among other things, life cycle assessments for graphic papers or reusable beverage packaging have become known.

Areas of application

The use of material flow analyzes and the establishment of material flow management concepts is now documented for a wide variety of areas of application, e. B. for the modernization of old buildings, the furniture industry or the automotive industry. After initially and / or the Federal Republic of Germany, various environmental policy funding priorities were advertised by individual federal states that dealt with the practical implementation of material flow management (e.g. the funding priority "Material flow optimization in small and medium-sized companies" of the former State Institute for Environmental Protection (LfU) Baden- Württemberg), the Federal Republic of Germany has also been increasingly concerned with the topic since 2005. The result is the establishment of the German Material Efficiency Agency (demea) and the VerMat funding program, which should lead to a significant improvement in material efficiency in small and medium-sized companies.

Software support in energy and material flow management

Several companies currently offer software in the field of computer-aided material flow analysis . The range of software on offer ranges from simple graphic tools (e.g. Sankey Editor and e! Sankey) to sophisticated modeling tools (e.g. Umberto or GaBi software).

Teaching

There are 19 universities nationwide, within which the subject of corporate energy and material flow management is dealt with in teaching (alphabetically by location):

University of Augsburg
Berlin University of Technology and Economics : Degree in corporate environmental informatics
Technical University of Bingen : Master's degree in energy and operational management
Environmental Campus Birkenfeld the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management IfaS
Technical University of Braunschweig
Bremen University of Applied Sciences : Degree in environmental engineering
University of Bremen : Department of Production Technology, Department of Technology Design and Development
University of Duisburg-Essen : Chair for Environmental Economics and Controlling
Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena
Karlsruher Institute for Technology
University of Kassel : Master's degree in "Sustainable Management"
University of Leipzig : Professorship for Bioenergy Systems
Leuphana University of Lüneburg : Faculty of Sustainability (Sustainability Sciences)
Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Technical University of Munich : Chair for Raw Material and Energy Technology / Department of Material Flow Management
Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences
Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg : Faculty of Business Administration, master’s focus on supply chain and information management

Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg

Pforzheim University : Operations and Process Management, ESSM simulation game

University of Zittau / Görlitz

The four-semester master’s course “Master in International Material Flow Management” (M.Sc.), which is offered by the Birkenfeld environmental campus, deserves special mention. It is also possible there to take material flow management as a focus within the business administration courses.

At Pforzheim University, the first (and so far only) plan and role-playing game on this topic was developed and used in teaching.

literature

General literature on ESSM

Paul. H. Brunner, Helmut Rechberger: Practical Handbook of Material Flow Analysis . Lewis Publishers. New York 2004.
Enquête commission "Protection of people and the environment" of the German Bundestag: Shaping the industrial society - perspectives for a sustainable handling of material flows . Report. Bonn 1994.
Henning Friege, Claudia Engelhardt, Karl O. Henseling : The management of material flows . Springer publishing house. Berlin 1998.
Peter Heck, Ulrich Bemmann: Practical Handbook Material Flow Management. German Economic Service, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-87156-481-8 .
C. Rüdiger: Operational material flow management . German University Press, Wiesbaden 2000.
Mario Schmidt , Achim Schorb: Material flow analyzes in life cycle assessments and eco-audits . Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1995.
Mario Schmidt, Lambrecht, Hendrik, Möller, Andreas (eds.): Material flow-based optimization . MV science. Munster 2009.
TS Spengler: Industrial material flow management . Erich-Schmidt-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-503-04398-5 .
Thomas Sterr: Industrial material cycle management in a regional context: economic, ecological and geographical considerations in theory and practice . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 2003, ISBN 3-540-43939-0 .
Frank Teuteberg, Jorge Marx-Gomez (Ed.): Corporate Environmental Management Information Systems . IGI Global. Herschey, New York 2010.
Martin Wietschel: Material flow management . Peter Lang Publishing House. Frankfurt am Main 2002.
Ali Yacooub, Johannes Fresner: Half is Enough - An Introduction to Cleaner Production . Self-published. Beirut 2006, ISBN 3-9501636-2-X .
J. Fresner, T. Bürki, H. Sittig: Resource efficiency in production - reducing costs through cleaner production. Symposion Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-3-939707-48-6 .

Use case literature

T. Fels: Material flow management as a contribution to sustainable spatial development. The sewage sludge budget of Schleswig-Holstein . University of Kiel 2003.
E. Gruber, U. Böde, K. Beck: Material flow management in the modernization of old buildings. Cooperation between actors in the field of construction and housing . Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1999.
State Institute for Environmental Protection Baden-Württemberg: Energy and material flow management. A positive conclusion for the company and the environment. Brochure. Karlsruhe 2004.
O. Rentz among others: Material flow management for small and medium-sized companies in the field of automotive refinishing . Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2000.
M. Sietz, A. v. Röpenick: On the way to material flow management in the furniture industry . Harri Deutsch publisher, Thun / Frankfurt am Main 2000.
Practical reports from LUBW's UPS program (as download )
Practical reports from the BEST program of the LUBW (as download )

Software support literature

Andreas Möller: Fundamentals of material flow-based corporate environmental information systems. Projekt Verlag, Bochum 2000.

Web links

Portals

Institutes and universities

Education

Individual evidence

↑ tecdesign.uni-bremen.de

↑ cms.uni-kassel.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2
^ University of Leipzig, Faculty of Economics: Faculty of Economics at Leipzig University: Material Flow Management. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .
↑ Umwelt.hs-pforzheim.de

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