Delinking of economic growth and materials turnover

National material flow analyses and materials balances are indispensable sources of information with respect to the operationalizalion of sustainable development. Both of these instruments are already employed in official statistics in Germany and Japan, and other countries—especially member slates of the European Union—are likely to follow suit. Because of the preparatory stages of work that have already been carried out, Austria is in an excellent position to assume a leading role in international concerted action. From 1970 to 1990 total materials flow through Austrian society has approximately increased by one third. As can be seen from changes in the amount of primary energy used during this period, economic growth in physical terms and value added in production decoupled slightly, and the same is true for the use of materials. Since 1970, materials input per unit of GDP (material intensity) decreased by 25%. This implies that relative gains in efficiency are compensated by the annual increases in the use of materials which, by and large, are caused by few yet massive ‘strategic’ material flows of steel, cement, wood, paper/pulp, sand, gravel and crushed stone. The empirical findings suggest that delinking of economic growth from the metabolism of human society should be discussed more carefully. The concept of ‘delinking’ involves two alternative perspectives of development differing from each other with respect to their ecological effects. The analysis may either focus upon absolute changes in materials throughput or on the relative changes of materials throughput per unit of output. It is strongly recommended, therefore, to distinguish clearly between relative and absolute productivity of resources. Branch analyses confirmed, once again, that the information contained in material indicators related to value‐added concepts is relatively insignificant when it comes to evaluation of the social ‘pressures upon the environment’.