Eco-efficiency refers to the delivery of goods and services to meet human needs and improve quality of life while progressively reducing their environmental impacts of goods and resource intensity during their life-cycle. Together with consistency and eco-sufficiency, it is well-established in sustainability science as a fundamental sustainability strategy.
Terminology
As countries and regions around the world began to develop, it slowly became evident that industrialization and economic growth come hand in hand with environmental degradation. but it wasn't until 1992, when the term was formally coined and widely publicized by Stephan Schmidheiny in Changing Course.
- A reduction in the material intensity of goods or services;
- A reduction in the energy intensity of goods or services;
- Reduced dispersion of toxic materials;
- Improved recyclability;
- Maximum use of renewable resources;
- Greater durability of products;
- Increased service intensity of goods and services.
Strategies that have been linked to eco-efficiency include "Factor 4" and "Factor 10", which call for specific reductions in resource use, "natural capitalism", which incorporates eco-efficiency as part of a broader strategy, and the "cradle-to-cradle" movement, which claims to go beyond eco-efficiency in abolishing the very idea of waste. According to Boulanger, all versions of eco-efficiency share four key characteristics:
- Confidence in technological innovation as the main solution to un-sustainability;
- Reliance on business as the principal actor of transformation. The emphasis is on firms designing new products, shifting to new production processes, and investing in R&D, etc., more than on the retailer or the consumer, let alone the citizen.
- Trust in markets (if they are functioning well);
- "Growthphilia": the idea that there is nothing wrong with growth as such.
The view that improvements in eco-efficiency are sufficient for achieving sustainability has been challenged by Huesemann and Huesemann, who demonstrate using extensive historical evidence that increases in technological efficiency have not reduced overall resource use and pollution. Moreover, with "cradle-to-cradle", growth is conducive to sustainability per se. This broader concept is called Sustainable Production and Consumption (SPC). "This concept involves changes in production and consumption patterns that lead to sustainable use of natural resources;" It has been proven to heighten market values for firms,
Eco-efficiency is also implemented in more non-traditional ways, such as the integration of environmental criteria into the credit approval process; looking at "eco-integrated economic risks of a customer".
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