Steel heavyweights

Take steel, for example. For every man, woman and child on the planet, an average of 200kg of steel is produced every year.

Much of this steel goes into buildings - 42% - as well as infrastructure (14%), mechanical equipment (13%), metal goods (12%), cars, trucks and ships (12%), domestic appliances (3%) and electricity industry equipment (3%).

In the UK, taking into account imports and exports of products, the average per capita consumption is 450kg. That's a shed-load of just one material.

Soaring demand

Demand for materials is rocketing, especially in developing countries. In wealthy countries most consumption is replacing items we don't want any more, while in developing countries it's mostly buying stuff for the first time.

The book authors wanted to answer the question: can we produce twice as much stuff and halve total carbon emissions at the same time - i.e. cut emissions per kg by three-quarters?

After 350 pages of analysis, they broadly conclude this is possible.

Smart and sustainable production

The authors say there is only limited scope for reducing the energy use of factories around the world. Instead, they say a much greater focus on using materials more efficiently is needed.

Let's take steel again. Better designed steel cans could be 30 per cent lighter. Cars today are one-and-a-half times heavier than they were in the 1970s  - unnecessarily. And the construction industry uses far more steel reinforcing bars than are actually required.

We could reduce metals consumption by almost a third without any impact on the material service provided, say the authors.

Built to last

Longer-life products could also make a major contribution. Too many products aren't built to last. The authors calculate that a car's optimum life, taking into account energy in manufacturing and use, should be close to 30 years. Cars are currently scrapped after about 14 years.

Part of the solution is people trying to resist the siren voices from retailers and advertisers touting bigger fridges, larger cars and ever more stuff. Do you really need it all?

But as the book clearly illustrates, the battle is also about calling for better-designed products that use fewer materials and are built to last.

That's something Friends of the Earth is thinking about too. We're developing a new campaign to encourage companies to measure and reduce the amount of resources their products use - including land, water, materials and carbon.

We're already working to persuade European policy makers to do the same at an economy level.

The European Commission recently took a positive step forward with its Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe  , which proposes Europe measure its consumption and production.

Watch out for more from us next year.