Material Flow Cost Accounting: A Tool for Designing Economically and Ecologically Sustainable Production Processes

Abstract

In the context of designing modern, competitive production processes, companies face the challenge of integrating the growing ecological demands of customers and other stakeholders as well as resource scarcity on one hand and the dominant need for economic success on the other hand. An approach to meet ecological and economical goals is the improvement of the material and energy productivity. This is strongly supported by the method of material flow cost accounting (MFCA). It aims at the identification of processes’ material and energy related inefficiencies and the (monetary) quantification of their effects on the overall process chain. This chapter firstly introduces the basic methodology of MFCA. Afterwards, refinements and enhancements concerning the modeling of loops and stocks, the integration of energy and the design of a prospective MFCA are proposed. Concluding, aspects of MFCA’s practical implementation are discussed.