This paper explores the notion of sustainable urban metabolism and "zero waste". There is now a growing interest in understanding the complex interactions and feedbacks between urbanization, material consumption and the depletion of our resources. The link between increasing urbanization and the increase of waste generation has been established for some time. However, the impact of urban form and density on resource consumption is still not fully understood. Human population on the planet has increased fourfold over the last hundred years, while – in the same time period – material and energy use has increased tenfold. Beyond energy efficiency, there are now urgent challenges around the supply of resources, materials, food and water. After debating energy-efficiency for the last two decades, the focus has shifted to include resource and material-efficiency.
The topic of reducing urban household consumption and strategies to reducing the material requirements for buildings (in fact, of the entire construction sector) has only recently emerged as an urgent field. While there is a general acknowledgment that there is a need for improved urban governance processes and rethinking of urban development patterns to reduce material consumption and optimize material flows, this is still a relatively new research field and there is still a lack of reliable data and comparative methodologies. One of the findings of this paper is that embedding "zero-waste" requires strong industry leadership, new policies and effective education curricula, as well as raising awareness (education) and refocusing research agendas to bring about attitudinal change and the reduction of wasteful consumption.

特集 気候変動と環境の新しいパラダイム
招待論文