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CC BY 4.0 · Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2025; 02: a25297214
DOI: 10.1055/a-2529-7214
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Relating Sustainability Metrics to Evaluate Circularity and Material Efficiency

Austin Marshalek
1   Fashion Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 227 West 27th Street, Ste. B844, New York, New York 10001, United States
,
Andie Zion
2   Textile Development and Marketing, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 227 West 27th Street, Ste. B844, New York, New York 10001, United States
,
Julian R. Silverman 
3   Department of Science and Math, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 227 West 27th Street, Ste. B844, New York, New York 10001, United States
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Funding Information Funding was provided by the FIT President’s Sustainability Council Grant 2024-25.
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Dedication

This work is dedicated to Karen Pearson and the FIT President’s Sustainability Council for their support.

Abstract

By collecting both green chemistry and environmental impact metrics, researchers can quantitatively discuss the circularity and sustainability of various chemical and material products and processes. Specific extensive quantities from a transformation are related to afford intensive properties for a system, which can be compared across systems. Because different metrics are suited for discussing the diverse aspects of sourcing, transformation, and disposal of reactants, reagents, products, and waste, to meaningfully describe both circularity and sustainability, at least three metrics are needed. Here we compare, contrast, and relate the intensive metrics of recycled content, process mass intensity, and e-factor to describe the renewable content of feedstocks, the efficiency of a process, and the cycling of outputs as input feedstocks. Using data from mass balances, we can calculate these metrics in order to have a simple and concise set of tools that describe both the circularity and material efficiency of a process.

Keywords

sustainability - circularity - material efficiency - metrics - intensive and extensive properties

Supplementary Material



Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 23. September 2024

Angenommen nach Revision: 29. Januar 2025

Accepted Manuscript online:
30. Januar 2025

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
18. Februar 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

Bibliographical Record
Austin Marshalek, Andie Zion, Julian R. Silverman. Relating Sustainability Metrics to Evaluate Circularity and Material Efficiency. Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2025; 02: a25297214.
DOI: 10.1055/a-2529-7214
 

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