The depletion of raw materials poses difficult questions about current production systems. But despite the urgency, care should be taken not to move too quickly. What are manufacturers saying?
Every year, the global economy consumes more than 100 billion tonnes of raw materials, around half of which are used in the construction sector, which alone generates one-third of total waste and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN, by 2060, resource extraction volumes could increase by 60% compared with 2020 levels.
These figures illustrate a pivotal issue for the energy transition: the criticality of resources poses deep questions about current economic systems and production models. For manufacturers, addressing the issue is made more complex by the lack of a universally accepted definition for this concept of criticality, the meaning of which can change over time according to market needs, the way materials are processed and the state of any transport routes.
Several manufacturers have been working on this issue as part of the recent Building Beyond Festival organised last May in Paris by Leonard, the VINCI Group’s future-oriented innovation platform.
Recycling and substitution
In a bid to make resource savings, manufacturing sectors concentrated their initial efforts on recycling, making it a near-systematic option in any production process. VINCI, for example, operates more than 200 quarries worldwide, and almost as many recycling platforms. However, recycling often generates large quantities of CO2. Accordingly, more and more research is focusing on substitute materials.
“We initially focused on fly ash from coal-fired power plants,” explains Laury Barnes-Davin, Research & Development Director at Vicat. “But when those plants all closed, we took an interest in thermally activated clay.” The cement group eventually intends to replace 50% of the clinker used in concrete manufacturing.
“When the impossible happens regularly, it makes sense to think about the long term.”
With depletion a key concern, substitution is by definition never a definitive solution, according to Marc Pasquet, Senior VP Services and Solutions at Michelin: “The materials we are currently exploring (silica obtained from rice husks, ethanol-derived products) are not yet critical, but no doubt will be in the future.”
Ecosystems
The composition of a tyre includes 250 different products from between 1,000 and 2,000 supplier sites, which themselves work with some 3,000 partners, so any consideration of “resources” must focus on identifying these ecosystems of stakeholders.
“Innovation is inseparable from a close relationship with these suppliers and partners,” says Isabelle Spiegel, Vice President – Environment at the VINCI Group. “The better to understand our criteria for criticality, we formed a scientific committee of consultants, researchers and engineers, and decided to work in detail on a list of nine resources.”
Major international groups everywhere share the same concern: how to design, produce and sell unique market-leading solutions, if only to avoid major price volatility in substitute materials, with markets already struggling to accept the additional cost.
As Laury Barnes‑Davin explains, “In the twelve countries where we operate, we have seven companies involved in the circular economy, each with different situations and supply networks. The goal is to arrive at a product that is the same everywhere.”
Data is our friend
In this quest for homogeneity, manufacturers could find their greatest ally in data. “With calculation and modelling, we can find areas for savings of 20 or 30%,” says Isabelle Spiegel.
Data and generative AI are creating promising prospects in identifying untapped resources and waste that could be reused, recycled or resold; enhancing the traceability of raw materials; measuring the environmental impact of different sustainability scenarios; and understanding markets.
Year after year, Earth Overshoot Day, the symbolic tipping point beyond which the planet is living beyond its means, falls a little earlier. However, against a backdrop of multiple crises where uncertainty is becoming the norm, urgency is perhaps a bad advisor. “When the impossible happens regularly, it makes sense to think about the long term,” says Isabelle Spiegel.
Europe’s need to break free from dependency
On 25 March 2025, the European Commission unveiled a list of 47 projects for mining rare earth elements and strategic materials essential to the function of European industry. The goal is to obtain improved access to 14 of the 17 strategic raw materials identified by Brussels, which include bauxite, cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and tungsten. The selected projects will receive overall investment of €22.5 billion and the Commission’s labelling. Of these 47 projects, 25 are new mines. The EU has set itself ambitious targets for 2030: at least 10% of strategic materials extracted from European territory, 40% of materials transformed and 25% of materials recycled.
01/15/2026
