#material efficiency

[asestimationsconsultants]

Meeting Circular Economy Demands Through an Industrial Estimating Service

Introduction As industries evolve to meet sustainability goals and reduce environmental impact, the principles of the circular economy are gaining momentum. A circular economy emphasizes keeping materials in use, minimizing waste, and designing for recyclability. While these values are often discussed at the design and policy level, they also have a direct influence on cost planning and project feasibility. Industrial estimating services are increasingly being called upon to factor circular economy considerations into their cost models, enabling smarter resource use and long-term value recovery.

Understanding the Circular Economy in Industry In contrast to the traditional linear model of "take, make, dispose," the circular economy focuses on extending the life cycle of materials and products. This includes strategies like reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and designing out waste. For industrial projects, this may involve selecting recyclable materials, designing modular components for easy disassembly, or budgeting for end-of-life recovery processes.

These strategies aren’t free — they come with specific costs and trade-offs that need to be identified early. That’s where an industrial estimating service becomes indispensable.

The Expanding Scope of Estimating Services Traditionally, industrial estimating services focused on materials, labor, and equipment to forecast initial capital expenditures. However, the move toward circular design and sustainability has added new dimensions to the estimating process. Modern estimating services must now account for:

Lifecycle Costing: Estimating not just the upfront costs but also maintenance, repair, and recycling costs.

Material Recovery Value: Including the future resale or salvage value of materials in cost plans.

Sustainability Incentives: Factoring in subsidies, tax credits, and compliance costs for meeting green certification standards.

Modular and Flexible Design: Costing for structures that allow easy upgrades, relocations, or disassembly.

Cost Implications of Circular Economy Design Choices Incorporating circular strategies into industrial projects may increase costs in one phase but reduce them significantly in others. For example, using modular steel components might be more expensive than cast-in-place concrete initially, but the steel can be recovered and resold after the facility’s lifespan ends.

An industrial estimating service evaluates these trade-offs to help clients make informed decisions. These services use sophisticated modeling techniques to compare multiple scenarios — traditional linear construction vs. circular design — to demonstrate the financial and environmental impacts over time.

Leveraging Data for Circular Metrics To support circular economy goals, estimators rely on specialized databases that provide:

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs): Which offer data on material sustainability.

Recyclability Ratings: For common industrial components and systems.

Deconstruction and Salvage Cost Benchmarks: Allowing precise planning for eventual material recovery.

Carbon Cost Multipliers: Quantifying the cost of embodied carbon emissions for different materials.

These inputs help estimators develop comprehensive cost models that align with both project budgets and sustainability mandates.

Industrial Use Case: Circular Design in a Manufacturing Plant Consider a manufacturing company planning to build a new facility with a 25-year operational life. The client wants to explore circular economy principles to support their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments. The industrial estimating service analyzes options like recycled steel framing, modular wall systems, and demountable interior components. They compare initial costs, lifecycle values, and the estimated salvage worth of components after decommissioning.

Although the circular design has a 12% higher upfront cost, the estimator shows that long-term savings from lower maintenance and higher salvage value reduce the net lifecycle cost by 18%. These insights help the client justify the upfront investment to stakeholders and comply with environmental regulations.

Aligning with Stakeholder Expectations Government bodies, investors, and clients are increasingly favoring businesses that integrate circularity and sustainability into their operations. An industrial estimating service ensures that these objectives are baked into the budget from day one, improving project transparency and attracting eco-conscious investors.

Estimators also help with reporting and documentation required for:

Green building certifications like LEED or BREEAM

Corporate sustainability audits

Government grant applications tied to environmental goals

Challenges and Opportunities Meeting circular economy demands can be complex due to lack of standardized cost data, varying regional regulations, and supply chain uncertainty for recycled materials. However, estimating services that invest in robust data systems and cross-disciplinary collaboration can turn these challenges into competitive advantages.

By being early adopters of circular metrics, these services position themselves as valuable partners for future-focused industrial projects.

Conclusion As industries transition to more sustainable models, the role of an industrial estimating service is expanding beyond cost control to strategic sustainability alignment. By integrating circular economy principles into the estimating process, these services enable better financial planning, resource efficiency, and environmental compliance. They not only help meet today’s project demands but also contribute to building a more responsible and regenerative industrial future.

[oswaldthatendswald]

Day One of New Job: I seem to be the youngest person there by a wide margin. The single other employee who knows how to work the software I use wasn't in today, so they sent me home six hours early. (Technically, today isn't a work day for me, so I actually just came in for an orientation, but it's funnier to say I got to go home.) I have been given complete control over the materials room I manage and my hours are remarkably flexible. This could bode very well or very ill.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Hydrogen annealing approach sets new efficiency record for kesterite solar cells

Photovoltaics (PVs), devices that can convert sunlight into electrical power, are becoming increasingly widespread and more people worldwide are now relying on them to generate electricity. Renewable energy engineers worldwide are working to identify materials and processes that could help to further reduce the costs of solar technologies, while further boosting their power-conversion-efficiencies (PCEs). A promising material for the development of PVs is wide-bandgap kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), a semiconductor that exhibits a large energy gap and could thus absorb light more efficiently. In contrast with silicon, which is currently the primary material used to fabricate PV technology, CZTS is non-toxic and made of elements that are abundant on Earth. Thus, it could be used to create more sustainable and affordable solar cells.

Read more.

[bumblebeebats]

How come almost every rechargeable device in the world has a lithium battery which will one day, at the end of its life, swell up into a ticking time-bomb full of fire and toxic gas, and yet whenever this happens and I phone up my local council waste management department/recycling center/fire safety advice hotline like "Hi, i have a bomb, who do i give it to" they're all like

[lostacelonnie]

I am convinced, but I want the evidence anyway.

(I love seeing you talk about Kira and Dudu)

HIIII FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU SO MUCH WAHH.... i am. So happy that someone actually enjoys my rants HASJG. and second of all Apologies that this took so long to answer!! didnt have time to properly sit down and do this..... also this is going under a readmore because it is going to be. Long. for anyone who hasn't seen the original tags in full, here they are

SO. I SHALL GO POINT BY POINT in a slightly different order. i guess this is going to be less a Yap Session and more just showing exactly where i got each point from the already existing one but!! i hope you enjoy nonetheless.

Kira's relationship with Cecilia, the Snowwolves, and the Second Eruption

SO. obviously a very obvious place to look for Evidence for this one is second eruption BUT! a lot is also contained in kira's dorm chibi story (specifically her stigmata story). of course, everyone who has Played The Game knows that kira admired cecilia, but the reason why i like to interpret this feeling as romantic is. well.

#1 husband hater. on a strangely Personal level. but even if you choose to see it as strictly platonic, it's very clear that kira looks up to cecilia!! A Lot!! she even regarded herself as her top fan.

BUT THEN CAME THE SECOND ERUPTION and suddenly cecilia was gone. and kira was all alone and all her friends were dead and she didn't want to really. come to terms with that...... WHICH is outright stated by her in the durandal vn:

...and also touched upon in the perfect performance event.

2. Kira's obsession with not letting anyone see her vulnerable

so a key point of this is that kira, on some level, still blames herself for not being strong enough to save the rest of the snowwolves (see above, and also Perfect Performance In General because there's. a lot of that there). and that ends up manifesting as her not wanting people to see her as weak In General!! more to prove to herself than anything that she's changed since then, and also because she believes it a part of both her valkyrie duty and her idol duty.

it also appears in 2e when she's still thinking about defeating benares while the abyss flower is DISINTEGRATING HER ARM.

This woman has issues.

BUT a very important thing is that she does Not choose to wallow in self pity. maybe she did, once, maybe she spent nearly 20 years running away but she CHOOSES to change. she returns to earth and reconnects with the people she's lost and faces any challenges brought upon her by her passion!!!! just because the snowwolves cannot live, doesn't mean SHE can't.

3. Misteln's facade

i'll be skipping over the points about kira's First Impression of misteln and of misteln's "birth" because i feel like these are so obvious in the game there's no need for me to even provide screenshots. Will change this if anyone wants me to though. ANYWAY

misteln herself is very Secretive about her true intentions, of course. she lies by omission. BUT there is a lot that can be extrapolated from those around her, especially prometheus! this particular fragment stuck with me.

especially the last two lines! because for kira, being an idol is a pure but unachievable dream, and- as previously discussed- a way for her to conceal her imperfections, by becoming someone who spreads hope to everyone. meanwhile misteln is hiding, too, but she hides in EVERY word. misteln IS kind, and she does adore everything around her, but she is secretive to an extreme degree and that very general kindess also becomes a way for her to distance anyone who may try to know her. she sees herself as a bystander.

but then she dies, again, and reappears in qiming. where she's pretty much FORCED to become an actual part of society, more than just someone cryptically standing around in corners, observing everyone around her, more than just a strange and uncanny idea of a dead woman far more virtuous than herself:

AND SHE'S HAPPY.

SO NOW. HOW IT ALL TIES INTO THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER

misteln Claims that she's not particularly interested in the fates of other people...

...but that doesn't seem to be the case with one specific person.

but my FAVORITE part. is the way misteln seeks to understand kira in such a profound way, and DOES understand her, and kira hates it. because she does not want someone whose face and voice and every smallest gesture reminds her of the past in a most cruel way to know her like that, when kira herself is doing all she can to push misteln away. i wanted to put screenshots here but genuinely just refer to the boisterous final night stage of perfect performance and the academy city 8 stage of wild phoenix chase.

and of course,

they're both fools!!!

[ganondoodle]

(idk if anyone wants to keep hearing my opinions on totk book stuff but-)

apparently it says that rauru DID have kids, multiple even, which yeah... is kinda necessary for zelda to even be connected to them so much so that sonia can SENSE a blood connection (which, even with all the excuses with magic, is just a little too far for me to suspend my disbelief bc its over, OVER, ten thousand years worth of generations that seperate her from them that one lil touch of the hand can sense that (feels more like an attempt to make you care about them or .. see them as zeldas "better" parents just bc they exchange a few nice words, i never got the feeling they were 'better' parents and its also kinda disrespectful to her actual parents, like sure rhoam wasnt the best but i wouldnt call rauru better just bc he was polite)- i could see maybe the light power of hylia or sth but since its the coolest dude that ever lived rauru now that had it which still doesnt make sense and makes me unreasonably annoyed and she can sense BOTH of their powers in her? nah) the fact theres NOTHING about them in the game itself is just so ... no way they planned any of this

i dont think theres anything they can do or say that wont make be believe they either

are making it up alla 'fix it in post' mentality trying to hastily explain stuff the game never bothers to do to try and appease fans or let it appear as if they thought about it at all

something went really REALLY wrong during development, which kinda seems likely given how the game turned out (im sorry i cannot let go, its not just the writing, the game design too and how little was changed in the map while being so damn expensive, i dont know how people dont feel scammed q_q)

given that they (allegedly) spent the last entire year of development on polish (where??? where????? huh??? like it would make it more understandable (EXCEPT for the price) if there was alot of trouble, which was also bc it got delayed and ... turned out like this, but they dont want to say it, especially given their reputation, with that quote i have heard way too many times 'a delayed game blah blah') i just??

are they just gonna go and do it like they did with kashiwa (kass)? "they uuuh where flying around the whole time ony cool sonau tech maschines, you just dont see or hear from them ooooorrr they were uuuuh out of the country at the time" (sending invitations to other continents to join their glorious kingdom ;) )

(bet they are also gonna say they did all the stuff like ... moving the shrines around (lol?) and lifting the islands up into the sky- which is still weird bc ... didnt they also say they were living in the sky before coming to the surface?? so where?? did they park all their islands on the surface and the mystery kids had the keys so they had to repark them back into the sky after they returned off camera?? xD also why are the islands so different as an environment if they where from the surface? like even the STONE up there is different- and if they were first in the sky then on the surface and the nback in the sky .. why is there not a single yellow tree or grass in the past- you cant really argue that it changed bc they were up there so long bc .. nothing else changed, the suddendly and totally always there sonau buildings are largely in prime condition, only some slightly moldy, and what we see of the glorious past looks barely any different from the present, aside from like ... some standard trees shuffled, no castle yet and that glowy uwu filter DESPITE that stupidly long time frame between it)

[boyheros]

finally tried to sketch out a little of how i've been imagining. the cloning machine. not too crazy or maybe it is i dont know. the base black membrane is not just a floating window i promise, it's attached to the rest of the thing and is supposed to swing down and lower into the feeder reservoir (crucially, with the part facing us right now facing upwards when it's moved parallel to the floor, as opposed to just closing it face-to-face like a laptop or something) but for some reason i'm struggling to imagine what a mechanism that could do that would look like. even though it's not thaaat complicated.

anyways. the membrane is fed the template DNA (blood is most often used) and once it accepts the sample it is swung down into the body tray and sinks into the feeder reservoir, where all the "raw materials" are i guess. i've been envisioning that the membrane frame has some sort of shutter element that can move the membrane around but i haven't figured out if i could design it to make sense mechanically yet? but the reason i want that is because once the membrane accepts the DNA sample it starts. wiggling around on it's own. and it would kinda be nasty as hell if you could see it pulling the shutters open and closed... cool right.

the reservoir is initially filled with just . raw materials that a human could be made of. fullmetal alchemist style like chemicals i guess. but as the machine gets used it eventually all grows into weird amorphous meat mess in there. it's fine for it to stay that way for a while (esp. bc base black needs to be attached to living material in order not to decay) but if you keep it too long the machine will try to self-replicate and make clones willy-nilly. and it gets more likely to be DNA contaminated. so the whole machine has to be gutted every once in a while.

hazmat suits just because yeah lots of weird human clone goo but also base black is a semi-corporeal substance meant for gluing your soul to your body. if you touch it with your skin, other organic materials like cotton fiber, or with only a thin layer covering you like latex gloves, it WILL attach to you and you WILL contaminate the whole thing. employees are even advised not to enter the room if they have open wounds of any kind cuz. the machine loves the flesh.

[nametakensff]

anonymous confession: when i need/really want to get off fast i go to either your "torture steve with a stuck snz" fic specifically the part where he finally realizes he's gonna snz or your "tickle my nose" koi/tsuki where koito is describing his stuck snz because those bits Always Work For Me

Oooh!! I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear that, anon 😚💕 Literally such a huge compliment to know my work is not only getting you off, but is your go-to content?! Amazing ✨️ Thank you so much for dropping by to let me know 😘

[andr0nap-02]

i should be more annoying ab the specbio shit from my aus thats literally my favorite topic ever

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Cooking Flawless Pasta

Scientists have pinpointed energy-efficient ways to cook al dente pasta and developed an infallible recipe for the perfect cacio e pepe sauce. [...] A bowl of steaming hot pasta covered in your favorite sauce and dusted with a healthy dose of parmesan cheese comes high on the list of ultimate comfort foods. But cooking that pasta to perfection can be more difficult than seemingly simple recipes imply. Now two separate teams of researchers have explored two different aspects of executing a flawless dish. In one study, Phillip Toultchinski and Thomas Vilgis of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, studied whether perfectly al dente spaghetti could be prepared in a more energy-efficient way [1]. In a second study, Matteo Ciarchi and Daniel Busiello of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany, Giacomo Bartolucci of the University of Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues developed a recipe for making perfect cacio e pepe, a three-ingredient cheese sauce that is surprisingly easy to mess up [2]. “It is very difficult to make this sauce,” says Busiello. “You are almost always doomed to fail.”

Read more.

[penthesilia]

There's another thing people do where their analysis of social attitudes is comparable to how economists are characterised as positioning themselves as observers of natural phenomena which are apolitical in nature. You often see this when people try to attribute social attitudes to some quirk of human nature "climate change is just too abstract for our tiny little minds to ever comprehend" (tell that to the flooding in Bangladesh lmfaoo) "people are hardwired to be alarmist about things that are inconsequential to those in power" "no one remembers scandals from years past because the human mind was not built to process so much information" "we're all innately programmed to undervalue public services until they're gone" and of course "people just don't like foreigners"...

[moonsinkfoxgirl]

look at my daughter! I have woven her from a fabric made of thunderous song and then fed her my blood to give her life!

[kyliafanfiction]

I guess ultimately, my issue with the way some people emphasize that the Jedi code works and that the Jedi were doing really good and that they really didn't fail Anakin in any way (or at least not any way that can really lie in their fault), and the way the Order does things in the Prequels era is excellent and good overall is that -

In the Prequels, the Republic is broken. Republics don't collapse out of nowhere. Institutions don't just implode like the Republic's did for no reason. The Republic's fall was the result of generations of complacency, corruption, stultification, ossification, cutting short term deals, overreach, underaction - there's a reason so many people were onboard with the idea of an Empire at first, and it wasn't all just bribery, xenophobia and fear.

And I guess - I just can't accept that the Jedi were just humming along fine this whole time, without also turning inward too much, without also ossifying and becoming complacent. Because the Jedi were too bound up with the Republic for that to not be the case.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

marxists take alienation seriously challenge

[raffaellopalandri]

Dream Home - Part 2

Today I want to continue the description of the ideal home my partner and I envision. I copy here again what I said about it in the first part of this post, here. In that first part, I shared with you our idea for the home itself, while today I am going to speak about its sustainability, a topic that deeply resonates with us. Photo by Emre Can Acer on Pexels.com Part 1 – The House Here is a…

[nirvanabuilders]

How to Identify and Prioritize Your Needs in a Kitchen Remodeling Project

When planning a kitchen remodel, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities. From sleek finishes to high-end appliances, the options can quickly add up. However, the key to a successful remodel is knowing what you really need versus what you want. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you prioritize your needs and ensure your remodeling plan stays on track.

1. Start with Functionality

Before focusing on design, assess how your current kitchen functions. What aspects make daily tasks harder or more frustrating? Maybe it’s a lack of counter space or insufficient storage. Prioritize upgrades that will improve the efficiency and flow of your kitchen. Functionality should always come first in a remodeling plan, as it directly impacts your daily use.

2. Focus on Your Lifestyle

Consider how you use your kitchen. Do you cook large meals regularly? Is your kitchen a gathering space for family and friends? Tailor your remodel to fit your lifestyle. For example, if you love to entertain, investing in an open layout or extra seating may be a priority. If you’re a passionate home cook, prioritize high-quality appliances and more prep space.

3. List Your Must-Have Features

Identify the must-haves for your new kitchen. These are the elements that will transform how your kitchen works and feels. It could be adding a kitchen island for more prep space, upgrading old cabinets for better storage, or improving the lighting to make cooking easier. Keep this list short and focused on the essentials.

4. Balance Aesthetics with Practicality

While it’s tempting to splurge on stylish finishes, remember that practical features will have a more lasting impact. Balance your aesthetic choices with practicality. For example, while marble countertops may look stunning, consider if they’ll hold up to your cooking habits. Durable, easy-to-maintain materials can be a smarter investment.

5. Create a Phased Plan if Necessary

If your budget or timeline doesn’t allow for everything on your list, consider a phased remodeling approach. Prioritize the most essential upgrades first and save the non-essentials for later. This allows you to improve your kitchen’s functionality while keeping costs under control and still having the option to add more over time.

6. Stay Flexible

It’s important to stay flexible during your remodeling project. Unexpected challenges or costs may arise, forcing you to reconsider some of your priorities. Be prepared to adjust your plan without losing sight of your most important needs.

By prioritizing functionality, lifestyle, and must-have features, you'll ensure that your kitchen remodeling project delivers the most value to your home and everyday life.