SANKEYSIM Model Description, Data and Scenarios
Peter A Victor and Mojgan Chapariha
CUSP Working Paper Series | No 30
Summary
Sankey diagrams showing the movement of materials through an economy from extraction and imports through production, use, and accumulation to waste generation and disposal have become a key feature in discussions of a circular economy. By lengthening the time that materials are kept within the economy through better design, increased durability, repairability, and sharing, and greater reuse and recycling, the requirements for virgin materials and generation and disposal of wastes can be reduced. All this can be surmised from a Sankey diagram of materials, but it requires a simulation model to quantify the impacts of each of these measures and combinations of them on the materials throughput of an economy.
In this working paper, we describe SankeySim, a systems dynamics model of the Canadian economy that calculates the impact on materials throughput of various measures intended to increase the circularity of the Canadian economy. We also describe several scenarios of a Canadian transition towards a circular economy by reaching in 2040: 1) the average performance of the EU in 2017; 2) the performance of France in 2017; 3) the average performance of the EU in 2017 plus net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050.
Run SankeySim
SankeySim was developed to support the work of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the Circular Economy in Canada and the preparation of their report Turning Point (2021). SankeySim is based on the well-known Sankey diagram that is widely used for illustrating the flow of materials, energy and water through an economy and/or its sub-sectors. Sankey diagrams are an effective way of displaying data on sources, uses and disposition of materials, energy and water. Most of the discussion about making economies more circular focus on materials though measures that affect material flows generally have implications for the use of energy. Here, we focus on materials.
Interested readers can explore the implications for themselves in the online beta version of SankeySim.
Download
The full working paper is available for download in pdf (1.7MB). | Victor P A and M Chapariha, 2022. SANKEYSIM Model Description, Data and Scenarios. CUSP Working Paper No. 30. Guildford: Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.
