How to read the sustainability figures
Every profile shows the same four indicators: carbon, water, land and circularity. This page says what each one is, where it comes from, what it does not measure, and why they are never added up into one score.
Carbon
- What it is
- For a country: the emissions intensity of its electricity grid, in grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt-hour generated. For a material: a proxy, the grid intensity of the countries that refine it, weighted by each country's share of refining. The proxy is an estimate, and its formula is printed with it.
- Where it appears
- Countries show their own grid. Materials show the proxy where an open refining table exists. Sites show the grid of the country they are in, labelled as the country's grid.
- Source and year
- Ember Yearly Electricity Data (CC-BY-4.0): 209 countries, figures for 2022–2025. The proxy is computed for 7 materials.
- What it does not measure
- It is not a product footprint and not a site's emissions. Mines and plants may run on their own power, and mining itself is not measured.
Water
- What it is
- The share of mine sites on record that lie in a sub-basin with high or extremely high baseline water stress. It is counted by site, because the atlas has no output figure for most mines.
- Where it appears
- Materials and countries show the share over their mine sites on record, with the number of sites. A site shows the class of its own sub-basin.
- Source and year
- WRI Aqueduct 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0), a modelled baseline dated 2023.
- What it does not measure
- It is a property of the place, not a site's water use, and not a share of production. The class "Arid and Low Water Use" is shown apart and is not counted as high.
Land
- What it is
- The area visibly used by mining in a country, in square kilometres, mapped from satellite images. It covers every commodity mined there.
- Where it appears
- Countries only, with their rank by area. Material and site profiles say that the figure cannot be attributed to them.
- Source and year
- Maus et al. 2022 (mining areas v2) (CC-BY-SA-4.0): 144 countries, describing 2019.
- What it does not measure
- It cannot be split by material or by site, and it says nothing about what the land was before or how it is restored.
Circularity
- What it is
- The end-of-life recycling input rate: the share of demand that is met by recycling old scrap. It is published for the EU as a whole, per element.
- Where it appears
- Materials only, with the EU legal targets that apply. Country and site profiles say that no such figure exists for them.
- Source and year
- Eurostat cei_srm010 (EOL-RIR) (Eurostat reuse policy (reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source)), assessment years 2013–2022.
- What it does not measure
- It is not a world figure and cannot be compared with world production shares. Values differ between assessment years partly because the method changed.
What the percentile means
Next to a figure the profile says where it stands among the others, in words. The percentile is the share of the other listed values that are strictly lower. The sentence always names what is compared and how many there are. Equal values get the same percentile. With fewer than 5 values no percentile is given.
A higher percentile only means a larger number. Whether a larger number matters depends on the indicator, and the profile does not decide that for the reader.
Why there is no overall score
The four indicators measure different things, in different units, for different years, and some are properties of a place or a whole country. Adding them up would need weights that no source provides and would hide what each figure is. So the atlas shows the four figures side by side, each with its source, and uses the same neutral presentation whatever the value.
Each figure is marked Reported (the source states it) or Estimated (the source models it, or the atlas computes it with a printed formula).
Example: a country profileExample: a material profileAll gaps, across materials