Use Less by sector

Steel sector image
  • Use less steel:  Global steel production  exceeds 200kg per year per person,  yet two thirds of it is made in highly emitting blast furnaces. The only  short-term alternative is electric steel recycling, which will grow, but we will also need to make much better use of much less steel.
Metal sector image
  • Use less metal: After steel, aluminium is the next highest priority metal, and many of the strategies we explore to Use Less metal apply to both materials.
construction sector image
  • Use less in construction: Steel and cement production drive half of the world's industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and all that cement and half of the steel is used in construction. How can we make buildings and infrastructure with much less new production of these two materials?
transport sector image
  • Use less in transport: Nearly a third of the world's energy, and nearly a quarter of global emissions, arise from transport, how do we cut these emissions to zero in just a few decades? Electrification is key, but we will also need to make much better use of smaller and slower vehicles.
Consumer goods sector
  • Use less in consumer goods: While consumer goods gain a lot of attention in environmental campaigns, they are not generally a major driver of emissions.  Nevertheless, producing the fibre to make yarn and textiles is environmentally intensive: could we Use Less while still feeling fashionable?
food sector image
  • Use less food: The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change ranks "food insecurity" as the highest risk if we fail to act on climate change fast enough, while at the same time agriculture (particularly of ruminants - cows and sheep) is a major source of emissions. What changes are required?
water and land sector image
  • Use less water and land: Our response to fresh water shortages is to use more energy to pump it around or desalinate sea water, and this is essential to maintain yields in hot dry agriculture. But we are short of emissions-free electricity . So is there any credible future for biofuels at scale?

Find out more...

Open up the links below for more information and our relevant publications on each topic

  • We have characterised global use of steel, and the opportunities for using much less of it by Material Efficiency strategies.
  • We've looked at specific technology interventions, related to scrap, powder and blanking.
  • In her PhD, Katie Daehn looked at how copper introduced to the steel cycle during shredding processes ahead of recycling, may constrain future applications.

Journal papers

Reports

  • Allwood, JM, Dunant, CF, Lupton, RC, Serrenho, AC (2019) Steel Arising: Opportunities for the UK in a transforming global steel industry. 16 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 9780903428477, DOI 10.17863/CAM.40835
  • Allwood, JM (2016) A bright future for UK Steel: a strategy for innovation and leadership through up-cycling and integration. 12 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-903428-38-5.
  • Within the WellMet2050 project, Rachel Milford, Jonathan Cullen, Dan Cooper, Mark Carruth, Muiris Moynihan and Sandy Skelton explored four key strategies for living well with much less metal, leading to four outward facing reports, and a string of journal papers.
  • Iain Flint looked at the opportunity to save sheet metal by blanking many different products from the same strip of metal.
  • Omer Music, Markus Bambach and Evripides Loukaides collaborated with Julian Allwood on a three year project to characterise the global use of steel and aluminium in components (rather than products or sectors), to allow a design and manufacturing analysis of opportunities to "Cut the Scrap".
  • Dirk Raabe and Julian Allwood led a Royal Society Discussion Meeting in 2024 aiming to bring together science and systems views of the sustainability of metals production

Journal papers

Reports

  • Allwood, JM, Cullen JM, McBrien M, Milford RL, Carruth MA, Patel ACH, Cooper DR, Moynihan M (2011) Taking our metal temperature: energy and carbon savings by managing heat in steel and aluminium supply chains. 26 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-903428-34-7
  • Allwood, JM, Cullen JM, Patel ACH, Cooper DR, Moynihan M, Milford RL, Carruth MA, McBrien M (2011) Prolonging our metal life: making the most of our metal services. 20 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-903428-33-0
  • Allwood, JM, Cullen JM, Carruth MA, Cooper DR, Milford RL, Patel ACH, McBrien M (2011) Going on a metal diet: Using less liquid metal to deliver the same services in order to save energy and carbon. 26 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-903428-32-3
  • Allwood, JM, Cullen JM, Cooper DR, Milford RL, Patel ACH, Carruth MA, McBrien M (2010) Conserving our metal energy: avoiding melting steel and aluminium scrap to save energy and carbon. 20 pages. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-903428-30-9
  • Muiris Moynihan in his PhD looked at the demand for steel by the construction sector, and we have similarly looked at timber (the paper led by Michael Ramage) and cement (the paper led by Will Shanks.) Charlotte Taylor drew on this work to estimate the "zero-emissions resource pool" available to future construction, inevitably revealing a significant shortfall.
  • Cyrille Dunant and Michal Drewniok explored the opportunities and barriers to steel reuse in construction, and with André Serrenhno have analysed the composition of the housing stock in the UK. 
  • Cyrille Dunant also led work to create a structural optimisation tool for early decisions in commercial building design, that is the basis of our startup company Structural Panda Ltd.
  • Tom Ardron laid a foundation for Felix Baker's current work on domestic retrofits in the UK.

Journal papers

  • We have looked at several aspects of the journey to electrifying the car fleet, all leading to the prioritisation of weight reduction. (Today's cars on average weight 12 times more than the people within them...)
  • Car Manufacturers today return for recycling nearly the same mass of sheet metal as they use in their cars, due to the inefficiencies of the deep-drawing process. Phillipa Horton completed her PhD looking at  opportunities to reduce these scrap rates, drawing on differences between the efficiency of today's major automotive OEMs.
  • Rachel Milford looked at the emissions impact of different rail track designs.

Journal papers

  • Nancy Bocken, in her PhD sponsored by the consumer goods manufacturer Unilever, looked at several business approaches to reducing the emissions of consumer goods
  • The "Well Dressed" team, of Søren Laursen, Cecilia Malvido and Nancy Bocken delivered our first major sectoral analysis of the options to influence the global supply chains that deliver clothing and textiles to the UK.  The key conclusion: Buy Less, Wash Less!

Journal papers

Reports

  • In her PhD, Catherine Richards took a systems level look at the risks of food insecurity
  • Bojana Bajzelj and a team of co-authors spanning several relevant disciplines, created a Sankey diagram of the past, potential, and future productivity of the world's land, to show that demand reduction - particularly of ruminants (cows and sheep above all) is essential to preserve our future global food security.

Journal papers

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Journal papers

Reports