A Framework of Indicators for Associating Material Stocks and Flows to Service Provisioning: Application for Japan 1990–2015

National accounts for material stocks and flows are reported regularly by an increasing number of countries to promote a sustainable use of our natural resources. In this research we build upon the work of Herman Daly and Donella Meadows and propose a framework that links material stocks and flows to a conceptual hierarchy of ends and means which are societal benefit and natural capital. We introduce a set of six indicators that link together to quantitatively relate material consumption and societal benefits: material productivity, primary material use rate, stock retention time, stock productivity, service productivity, and service utilization. We apply this analytical framework to accounts of the material stocks and flows of Japan for the period 1990 to 2015. We find that Japan’s material flow productivity doubled from 1.6 US$/kg to 3.2 US$/kg. This improvement can be primarily attributed to improvements in stock retention rates and circular material use, but has been offset by decreasing productivity of Japan’s material stocks from 0.2 US$/kg to 0.14 US$/kg. We discuss the future potential of our indicator framework to include additional indicators for specific sectors and argue for the need for proper measurements of societal services and human wellbeing to enhance the policy implications of the indicator framework.