Promoting Resource Efficiency in Small & Medium size ... - UNEP

Use of
nature
Economic
growth
Global imperative for reversing the linear
dependency of economic growth and
resource consumption
Quality
of life
Economic
growth
Quality of
life
Use of
nature
Figure 4: Increase in quality of life has come at the expense of nature 4
Figure 7: The answer is decoupling the increase in quality of life from the use
of nature
Declining
resources and ecosystem services
Production
Consumption
Recycling
Increasing
demand for resources and ecosystem
services
Time
Resources
Earth
Waste
Figure 5: The Funnel Metaphor
Figure 8: Resource Efficiency managing materials and energy flows to
minimize waste and emissions from production, use and disposal of resources
WWF concluded that we are now living in severe ecological overshoot:
global society is consuming 25% more than the regenerative capacity
of the planet. Global society lives on “ecological credit“, but the longer
we over-use this service, the greater the likelihood that the regenerative
capacity of the planet’s ecosystem will be irreversibly degraded.
Strategic actions like Resource Efficiency in SMEs can open up the
funnel and lead to a sustainable future.
1900 2002 2050 2100
Figure 6: Mankind is overusing the carrying capacity of our planet. By 2050 a
100% overuse is predicted.
Decoupling economic growth from resource use and environmental
impacts (Figure 7) means reducing the energy, land, water and materials
needed for our growing economies, in a way that reduces the risk to
climate change, loss of biodiversity and impacts on human health 5 . For
business it will involve changes to desgin, production and marketing
activities that will improve profits in the long run, while reducing the
resources used and emissions produced.
Decoupling is seen as a strategy to increase Reource Efficiency, and
therefore increase productivity and reduce the impacts on the environment.
Resource Efficiency is mainly about managing raw materials, energy and
water along the value chain in order to minimize waste and detrimental
impacts on the ecosystems throughout the entire lifecycle of production.
Being resource efficient will reduce the cost of production (Figure 8).
4) WWF One Planet Business – Creating Value within Planetary Limits. 2007 First
Edition
5) The International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, 2010
11