Yale Center for Industrial Ecology

08/03/2022

Congratulations to Peter Berrill for his excellent paper in Nature Climate Change. Peter analyzed options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector in the US. He found that there were significant synergies between decarbonizing the energy system and shifting heating and hot water to heat pumps. Further, home renovations and a downsizing and shift to multifamily units could also provide substantial emission reductions. Even with all opportunities utilized, net-zero could not be reached unless material production is also decarbonized.

Residential sector decarbonization is an essential part of mitigation, especially in the United States where per capita energy use is high by global standards. This article shows the emission reduction potential from individual and combined strategies applied to existing and new homes and to electri...

12/25/2021

Story about a study by Paul Wolfram addressing life-cycle emissions savings from EVs.

Electric vehicles dominate when indirect supply chain emissions are accounted for.

12/08/2021

Pricing stationary carbon emissions from refinery, power plants, and battery factories accelerates the transition to electric vehicles. That is because fuel and vehicle chain emissions of are less than those of competitors once we start decarbonizing the energy system. Hydrogen cannot compete!

Congratulations to recent YSE PhD Paul Wolfram to his paper in Nature Communications.

New research shows how large–scale adoption of electric vehicles due to expected technological change may not only reduce emissions from tailpipes, but also indirect emissions stemming from energy and battery production.

03/25/2021

Video of the webinar with Reid Lifset and Tamar Makov is now available.

Following the publication of the “Resource Efficiency and Climate Change: Material Efficiency Strategies for a Low-Carbon Future” by the International Resour...

02/24/2021

Webinar - Material Efficiency Policies for a Low Carbon Future

WEBINAR: Material efficiency strategies for a low-carbon future. A Policy Perspective

26th February, 2021 8:00 am (EST)

Register:

https://NTNU.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1hcHcnJbRs2Jtd3OAI-tpw

The International Society for Industrial Ecology is pleased to invite you to a webinar where results from the review of material efficiency policies in the report Resource Efficiency and Climate Change: Material Efficiency Strategies for a Low-Carbon Future will be presented and discussed.

The webinar will focus on material efficiency policies for homes and cars, highlighting the connections between climate change and resource efficiency.

INTRODUCTION 40 mins

Introduction to the IRP and its work on RECC, by María José Baptista, United Nations Environment Programme
Modelling results of the report, by Edgar Hertwich, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Results from the policy review, by Reid Lifset, Yale University
Material Efficiency policy and intensity of use, by Tamar Makov, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Q&A

PANEL DISCUSSION 45 mins

Astrid Schomaker [Co-Chair of the IRP Steering Committee and Director for Global Sustainable Development, European Commission]
Rodrigo Rodríguez Tornquist [member of the IRP Steering Committee, Secretary for Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina]
Maarten Hajer [IRP member and distinguished professor Urban Futures and Director of the Urban Futures Studio, Utrecht University]
Tiffany Vass [International Energy Agency]

https://ntnu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1hcHcnJbRs2Jtd3OAI-t

02/03/2021

Watch Yale's Reid Lifset present Material Efficiency Strategies for Business, followed by reactions from a group of business leaders, including from the World Economic Forum and Mahindra group. It was heartening to see how businesses had understood the message of product sharing and more intensive use as the new challenge they are required to take.

In this , experts talk through new material efficiency strategies for the housing and mobility sectors. This webinar also launched "Implications ...

01/19/2021

Material efficiency strategies for business. Business leaders and the resource efficiency agenda for houses and cars. Join us for a webinar on Feb 2 at 8 am EST. Register here.
https://www.resourcepanel.org/news-events/webinar-material-efficiency-strategies-business

12/21/2020

Vehicle fleet scenarios suggest that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles ( ) will become a popular choice. The degree of emissions reductions obtained is surprisingly sensitive to refueling behavior, new research by Yale CIE PhD student Paul Wolfram finds. That is, it matters whether users charge frequently, because then they will have less need to use the combustion engine. This behavior can be influenced, by increasing the ease of charging, including through an easy availability of charging stations.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.0c03796

12/01/2020

The carbon emissions is on. CIE made an important contribution with a recently released report by the International Resource Panel of the UN Environment Programme. Watch a presentation of the report in this videa: https://youtu.be/LQ8Gv0YF2LI from minute 22. CIE's Reid Lifset presents the policy review at minute 32. There is an interesting discussion of the issues by policy makers following that.

Explore more on Race to Zero: https://racetozero.unfccc.int/Explore more WBCSD events: https://events.wbcsd.org/virtual-meetings/

11/20/2020

Resource Efficiency and Climate Change

Just released, a new report by the International Resource Panel uncovers new options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bringing us closer to a 1.5 degree pathway than a clean energy transition by itself can. The modeling was done by a team of researchers lead by Edgar Hertwich, with PhD students Peter Berrill working on material-efficient residential buildings and Paul Wolfram working on material-efficient cars. Reid Lifset lead the policy review, which identified a number of promising strategies, such as changes in building codes and zoning laws.

A global perspective on environmental issues. Our mission is to inform, educate, enable and create a platform for global environmental action.

09/23/2020

In a new paper, PhD candidate Paul Wolfram and a team of researchers from the Resource Efficiency and Climate Change project investigate options to reduce the energy use associated with producing and using various light-duty vehicles. The paper shows that there are a number of strategies to reduce the amount of virgin materials used in the manufacturing. Strategies that require some sort of change in user behavior, such as the selection of a smaller and lighter vehicle or ride sharing achieve much larger reductions in energy use then those strategies that are currently in focus with the much touted Circular Economy, namely improved recycling or an increased remanufacturing and reuse of components.

What is also remarkable that the reductions through these behavioral strategies persist when more efficient drive technologies, such as plug-in hybrid, electric, or hydrogen fuel cell drives are implemented. In fact, the combination of resource efficiency strategies achieves a larger reduction of energy use than the shift from the least efficient (gasoline) to the most efficient (battery electric) drive technology.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13067