Material Footprint (MF)

The concept of material inputs per unit of service (MIPS), which today is called the material footprint (MF), is a technique that measures the amount of materials / resources that are extracted from nature and the consumption of these materials during the manufacturing stages, use, disposal / recycling (Michael Ritthoff et al, 2002).

The material footprint (MF) can be calculated on a local, regional, national or even at global scale.

In the analysis of material footprint (MF), material inputs are divided into five categories (Michael Ritthoff et al, 2002):

• abiotic materials (eg ores, gravel, coal, oil)
• biotic materials (eg plants, animals)
• soil changes in agriculture and forestry (eg mechanical earth movement, erosion)
• water resources (eg surface water, groundwater)
• air (eg combustion processes, chemical transformations)