Aggregates and Construction Markets in Europe: Towards a Sectoral Action Plan on Sustainable Resource Management

Abstract

Aggregates are granular materials – sand, gravel and crushed rock, in particular. Usually they are not thought of as a hot spot of environmental policy. This paper looks at the most important aspects of the aggregates system throughout Europe and puts it into the wider context of sustainable resource management as launched by the European Commission (2005b) in its thematic strategy (COM(2005) 670 final). Aggregates are important for sustainable resource management chiefly for two reasons:•their material intensity – their relevance for increasing resource productivity in the European Union (EU) as part of the Lisbon strategy and the sustainability strategy;1•their environmental intensity – their relevance for increasing eco‐efficiency and for lowering environmental impacts in the EU.Both dimensions will be looked at in this paper. For understanding those dimensions, the aggregates value chain – the construction material industries, the building industries' outcomes, and the housing sector – is crucial too. The paper sheds some light on aggregates value chains, but does not attempt to provide a full comprehensive view. Distinction is made between direct factors (aggregates themselves and economic incentives for sustainable aggregates management) and indirect factors (downstream environmental and economic relevance of aggregates). It is argued that such a wide life‐cycle perspective will become important for any policies on aggregates. The second section looks at the economic relevance of aggregates throughout Europe in more detail and considers driving forces for the use of aggregates within an economy. The environmental relevance of the aggregates will be reasoned in the third section. Following this, section four looks at existing EU, national and international policies, such as energy and mining policies and taxes that affect or have side effects on the aggregate system. Concluding thoughts are given to the way ahead in the final section.

Acknowledgements

This paper has received support from the European Topic Centre on Resources and Waste Management of the European Environment Agency. The authors wish to thank David Legg, Stefan Bringezu, Stephan Moll, Helmut Schütz, José Acosta‐Fernández, Stefan Speck and Sören Steger for valuable comments and information.

Notes

1. See: http://ec.europa.eu/growthandjobs/index_en.htm for information on the EU Lisbon strategy, and http://ec.europa.eu/sustainable/for information on the EU sustainability strategy.

2. Information from Ronan Uhel, Spatial Analysis, European Environment Agency

3. See EEA (2005b) Report No. 9/2005 on the sustainable use and management of natural resources.

4. See EC Thematic strategy on the sustainable use of resources (COM(2005) 670 final),

It is necessary to develop means to identify the negative environmental impacts of the use of materials and energy throughout life cycles (often referred to as the cradle to grave approach) and to determine their respective significance. This understanding of global and cumulative impacts along a causal chain is needed in order to target policy measures so that they can be most effective for the environment and more cost‐efficient for public authorities and economic operators (EC 2005b: 5).

See also Mont and Bleischwitz (2006).

5. The Finnish Geological Survey currently develops environmental indicators for the extraction of aggregates; see www. gtk.fi.

6. The apparent consumption quantifies what is used for domestic production plus imports minus exports.

7. Delivering the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources: A Contribution from a group of members of the Network of Heads of European Environment Protection Agencies on the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, September 2006.

8. This figure does not include land use for excavation.

9. One m³ concrete corresponds to about two metric tonnes (Eco‐serve Network 2004: 53).

10. See http://www.freedoniagroup.com/World‐Construction‐Aggregates.html

11. The authors wish to thank Sören Steger for information on the issue. The EMC indicator combines information on material flows with information on environmental impacts (van der Voet et al. 2005: 5).