Framework for modelling mine waste utilization in construction materials and its contribution to Canada's net-zero transition

社会为应对气候变化而进行的转型将重塑我们经济的未来。材料对现代社会至关重要，但会产生大量温室气体（GHG）排放。从1995年到2015年，材料生产产生的温室气体从15%上升到23%。加拿大政府和水泥行业已明确承诺减少建筑材料中的隐含碳排放，并促进使用低碳材料。本研究项目的总体目标是解决建筑材料中矿山废物利用建模的挑战，并从生命周期的角度定量评估采矿和建筑部门减少温室气体排放的潜力。具体而言，五年的短期目标包括：1)估计加拿大建筑部门的矿山废物需求；2)建筑材料矿山废弃物的供应链准备：这将回答目前建筑行业使用了多少矿山废弃物，并具有近期在加拿大实施的潜力；3)缩小两个行业的利用差距，减少其全生命周期温室气体排放；4)开发一个支持决策的工具包，并证明上述方法在评估大多伦多地区建筑部门利用矿山废物的潜力方面的有效性。将开发具有地图工具的建筑部门混合生命周期评估（LCA）模型的动态材料流分析（MFA），以估计给定研究领域中建筑和翻新中对新材料的颗粒和动态需求。该提案的预期成果主要是同行审查的学术出版物，介绍分析建筑部门矿山废物利用的方法和新发现。我们开发的具有粒度数据协调的动态MFA-LCA将促进数据科学在工业生态领域的应用。该项目还将为从业者提供可视化工具包，以便在类似项目中就隐含碳核算进行互动交流。将物料流核算和碳足迹评估相结合，将通过在加拿大使用更多的矿山废物来减少隐含碳，从而为政策制定者提供信息。这些成果将有很大的潜力被整合到国家、行业或公司的可持续建筑战略规划中。城市管理者、规划者、工程师和其他利益相关方强烈要求在该项目中对碳足迹进行透明和系统的核算，以促进、监督和认可他们的净零转型议程。最后，该项目将培养一名博士后、三名研究生和三名本科生，他们在建筑、采矿和可持续发展评估方面具有跨学科的经验，以解决目前公共和私营部门专业知识短缺的问题。

Society's transformation in response to climate change will reshape the future of our economy. Materials are vital to modern society but induce significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHGs from material production rose from 15 to 23% between 1995 and 2015. The Canadian Government and the cement industry have made a clear commitment to reduce embodied carbon emissions in construction materials and promote the use of lower-carbon materials. This research program's overarching objective is to tackle the challenges in modelling mine waste utilization in construction materials and quantitatively evaluate the potential to reduce GHGs in the mining and building sectors from a life-cycle perspective. Specifically, short-term objectives for the five years include: 1) Demand estimation of mine waste for Canada's building sector; 2) Supply chain preparedness of mine waste for building materials: This will answer how much mine waste is currently used in the construction industry and has the potential for near-term implementation in Canada; 3) Bridging the utilization gap between the two sectors and mitigating its life-cycle GHG emissions; 4) Develop a toolkit that supports decision-making and demonstrates the effectiveness of the methods mentioned above in assessing the potential of mine waste utilization for the building sector in the Greater Toronto Area. A dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) with hybrid life-cycle assessment (LCA) model in the building sector with map tools will be developed to estimate granular and dynamic demand for new materials in construction and renovation in given research areas. The anticipated outcomes of the proposal are primarily peer-reviewed scholarly publications presenting the methodologies and new findings of analyzing the mine waste utilization in the construction sector. Our development of a dynamic MFA-LCA with granular data harmonization will promote the application of data science in the field of Industrial Ecology. This program will also provide visualization toolkits to practitioners for interactive communication on embodied carbon accounting in similar projects. The combination of material flow accounting and carbon footprint assessment will inform policy-makers of embodied carbon reduction by using more mine waste in Canada. These outputs will have a high potential to be integrated into national, industry's, or companies' strategic planning of sustainable buildings. A transparent and systematic accounting of carbon footprint conducted in this program is highly demanded by city managers, planners, engineers, and other interested stakeholders to promote, monitor, and accredit their net-zero transition agendas. Lastly, the program will train one postdoc, three graduate and three undergraduate students in total with interdisciplinary experience in construction, mining, and sustainability assessment to address the current shortage of expertise in the public and private sectors.