SERI's methodologies are based on previous work carried out by Friends of the Earth and the Wuppertal Institute under the auspices of Friends of the Earth's Sustainable Europe Campaign. All methodologies contribute to the overall goal of identifying ways to substantially reduce the material through-put of modern industrial societies.

The concept of environmental space serves as SERIs methodological frame and defines the most important categories of resource inputs to the anthroposphere: materials, energy and land area.

The first two categories are covered by Material Flow Accounting and Analysis (MFA). In addition to abiotic and biotic materials, water and air, the concept includes energy intensities by integrating the material flows associated with energy inputs. MIPS (Material input per Service Unit) is the most widely known indicator based on Material Flow Analysis.

In order to provide a comprehensive picture of the natural inputs to the socio-economic system, SERI is developing a methodology for Land Use Accounting and Analysis (LUA), which is compatible to the MFA approach.

Both MFA and LUA are quantitative methodologies of physical accounting. To enable the weighting of different inputs according to their environmental harming potential, quantitative analyses are accompanied by qualitative valuations.

Decision processes concerning sustainable development have to take into account the environmental-economic-social integration, inter-regional spatial links and trade-offs as well as uncertainty. The methodology of Multi-Criteria-Decision-Aid (MCDA) is able to tackle all these aspects and thus can serve as an appropriate tool to operationalise sustainability criteria.

Themes

Material Flow Accounting and Analysis

Material Flow Accounting and Analysis enables the quantification of the metabolism of modern societies in physical terms.
Material Flow Accounting and Analysis is carried out on all levels of socio-economic activities: On the micro or product level, the level of economic sectors, the regional level, the macro or national level and the global level.
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Indicators

The purpose of sustainability indicators is to guide political decision-making towards sustainable development. They ought to be the basis of improved data collection and processing, and permit an analysis of the state of and progress towards sustainable development. To serve for communication purposes, they should reduce complexity, be easily understandable and limited in number.
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Land Use Accounting and Analysis

Together with IIASA's department on Land use change project, SERI develops methods for land use accounting and analyis (LUA) which is compatible with our material flows accounting methods.
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Multi-Criteria Decision-Aid

The Multi Criteria Decision Analysis presents one methodological approach that is being used within different projects of SERI.
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Ecological Rucksacks

The indirect material flows (or "ecological rucksacks") results directly from the listing and accounting of all materials which stand behind a final product or a service, or any economic output in general. It is defined in general as the sum of all materials which are not physically included in the economic output under consideration, but have been necessary for production, use, recycling and disposal.
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