Resource productivity

Analysis of material flows at the macro level (Economy-wide material flow analysis - EW-MFA) is a descriptive tool, which aims to provide information on flows of materials and energy entering and leaving the economic sector of the society concerned. The purpose of the material flow evaluation (balance) is – using the indicators- to quantify the overall demands of the economic system for materials which are expressed as material inputs, their consumption or waste streams releasing back from the economic system to the environment. EW-MFA indicators are compiled based on Eurostat methodology, using data transmitted to Eurostat (for SR the data are sent by the SO SR) under the Regulation No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.
 
Indicators of material flow are regarded to be a suitable tool for expressing the separation of environmental load and economy performance curves, as these are highly aggregated indicators of environmental load, arranged according to a fixed scheme. They quantify the total amount of materials consumed in human society, as well as the amount of materials released to the environment as the result of human activity. These indicators thus represent appropriate complement to the interdisciplinary structural balance in monetary or physical units which can be used for national economic analysis. If input indicators of material flows and consumption indicators are assigned with the indicators of national accounts, such as gross domestic product (GDP), the efficiency of the economic system is measured by converting materials into economic output. These indicators describe resource productivity (ratio of GDP and a respective indicator) or material intensity (the ratio of the indicator to GDP).