Produce Differently
Increasing efficiency and reusing materials will play important roles in achieving sustainable development. Eco-efficient companies and industries must deliver competitively priced goods and services that improve peoples' quality of life, while reducing ecological impacts and resource-use intensity to a level within the Earth's carrying capacity. 1
How much more efficient do we need to become? Globally, the goal is to quadruple resource productivity so that wealth is doubled, and resource use is halved (this concept is known as Factor Four). However, because OECD countries are responsible for material flows five times as high as developing countries, and world population continues to rise, it will be necessary for OECD countries to reduce their per capita material use by a factor of ten. 2
Implementing Factor Four and Factor Ten strategies will require us to think about the cradle-to-grave impact of all goods and services to make wise choices. It will also require a reorientation of industrial economies - reducing the scale of polluting activities and creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The new generation of small, medium and micro-enterprises that operate within a sustainable development framework will expand our understanding of appropriate technologies and their contribution to creating sustainable livelihoods. In developing countries, achieving sustainable development will require overall national income growth of around 5 to 6 per cent a year. 3 For this to occur, however, without further degrading the environment and society, growth must be qualitatively different than in the past. Capital-intensive production systems may be unattainable and undesirable in many situations. Creating 12 million old-style industrial jobs in India, for example, would require an investment of four to six times that of its GNP. 4 Alternative types of systems must be found that provide for high levels of productivity and meaningful work.
1. World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), "Definitions," (http://www.wbcsd.ch/aboutdfn.htm) (23 September 1999).
2. Ernst von Weizsäcker, Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins. Factor four: Doubling wealth - Halving resource use, London: Earthscan Publications, Ltd., 1997. p. 244.
3. World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. p. 50. Note: In light of the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the figure may be higher today.
4. Ashok Khosla. "Mini enterprises: The missing link." Development Alternatives Newsletter (November 1998). Also http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/devalt/livelihoods/1198k.htm |
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