Definitions

Material Footprint (MF) is the attribution of global material extraction to domestic final demand of a country. The total material footprint is the sum of the material footprint for biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals.
Refer to SDG global metadata for more information.

Concepts

Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) and MF need to be looked at in combination, as they cover the two aspects of the economy, production and consumption. The DMC reports the actual amount of material in an economy, MF the virtual amount required across the whole supply chain to service final demand. A country can, for instance, have a very high DMC because it has a large primary production sector for export or a very low DMC because it has outsourced most of the material intensive industrial process to other countries. The MF corrects for both phenomena.
Refer to SDG global metadata for more information.

Computational Method

[A] MF = (Domestic extraction of materials) + (Raw material equivalent of imports) - (Raw material equivalents of exports)
[B] MF / (GDP in constant 2015 US Dollars)
Refer to SDG global metadata for more information.

Disaggregation

-

Data Source

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Data Collection

The International Resource Panel (IRP) Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity working group compiles data from national and international databases. Country-provided indicators are collected through the Questionnaire on Economy Wide Material Flow Accounts for the SDG indicators 8.4.1/12.2.1 and 8.4.2/12.2.2.
Refer to SDG global metadata for more information.

Time Period

2005 onwards

Frequency

Annual

SDG Global Metadata

Link to United Nations SDG global metadata

Indicator 12.2.1