Direct and indirect uses of energy and materials in engineering and construction

The energy content of final products is made up of two parts: the direct energy content, the energy purchased by the firm making and selling the product; and the indirect energy content, the energy used in the manufacture of suplies and in the services purchased by the company. The present paper notes from published energy statistics that in both the UK and the USA the industries which extract and refine materials directly purchase far more energy than the industries which convert the materials into final products. An input-output analysis of the total, direct and indirect, energy purchased by the UK engineering and construction industries confirms the expectations that indirect energy purchases far exceed direct, in the main because large amounts of energy are consumed in the manufacture of materials. It follows that minimisation of the energy required in the manufacture of the products of the engineering and construction industries needs to be carried out in the context of a wider systems optimisation process, in which an industry's suppliers, and in particular its suppliers of materials, are considered an integral part of the system. Some implications of this observation are discussed both from the short and long term point of view.