Resource Efficiency Atlas - Publication Server of the Wuppertal ...

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Chapter 1: Developing resource efficient technologies and products – a global challenge
growth rate of eight percent (Bundesministerium für Um-
welt 2007).
There are relatively simple optimization methods for
businesses promising cost saving potentials of more than
ten percent (Baron et al. 2005; Bundesministerium für
Umwelt 2007). After all, material costs on average correspond
to approximately 47.5 percent of the gross production
costs in the German manufacturing sector. Thus, they
represent the largest part of total costs before personnel
costs with around 17.8 percent and energy costs with approximately
2.1 percent (Destatis 2010, 377). Consequently,
material consumption reduction promises major cost saving
potentials (Baron et al. 2005). However, one should not
only pay attention to single processes. In an integrated
optimisation all upstream and downstream processes
from raw material mining up to product disposal should
be considered. This is a major challenge because complex
and globalised lifecycle value chains make it difficult to
transparently track and influence all upstream products.
Key decisions influencing the future resource efficiency
of products are not only made during the production process,
but especially in the early stages of the product innovation
process (generation of ideas, design, R&D) (Bullinger
2006). This represents a vast array of relatively simple options
for a sustainable design of processes, products and
services (Geibler / Rohn 2009).
Within the framework of the national project “Material
Efficiency and Resource Conservation” (MaRess) in Germany,
the resource efficiency potentials of approximately
1,000 applications were estimated in a qualitative study
supported by experts. Subsequently, the resource efficiency
potentials of 22 applications were calculated and, hence,
great potentials determined (Rohn et al. 2010). The areas
showing great potential for efficiency improvements are
summarised in table 1.
Ressourceneffizienzatlas
Resource Efficiency Atlas
The key areas of action with potential to
increase resource efficiency
Technologies Cross-sectional technologies and „enablingtechnologies“:
door openers for resource
efficient applications
Renewable energy enables enormous resource
savings
The growing market of information and
communication technologies requires diligent
resource management
Products Food – requires an analysis of production and
consumption
Transportation – infrastructure has more efficiency
potential than engine-driven systems
Strategies Product development needs to be aligned
with resource efficiency goals
Business models have to follow resource
efficiency goals: product-service-systems (PSS)
require revision
Table 1: The key areas of action with potential to increase resource
efficiency (Rohn et al. 2010)
Different obstacles might prevent the examination of re-
source efficiency potentials (Baron et al. 2005):
There is insufficient knowledge about new materials
and processes providing higher resource efficiency.
Risks are perceived associated with switching from existing
production processes to more material efficient
production processes.
Resource efficiency gains can often be realised only
by looking at the entire value chain. However, this demands
a new kind of intense cooperation of multiple
actors involved.
There are wrong or missing financial incentives (e.g.
by focussing on partial costs) and only short-term
operation options.
The publication at hand aims at contributing to overcoming
these constraints by concentrating on the problem of
lack of knowledge about resource efficiency as a major
challenge for achieving resource efficiency.