Resource productivity is the quantity of good or service (outcome) that is obtained through the expenditure of unit

resource Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon thei ...

.Weizsäcker, E, and Jesinghaus, J. 1992. ''Ecological Tax Reform, Chapter 2: Increasing the Productivity of Natural Resources and Energy''. Zed, London

/ref> This can be expressed in monetary terms as the monetary yield per unit resource. For example, when applied to

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

it is the yield of crop obtained through use of a given volume of irrigation

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

, the “crop per drop”, which could also be expressed as monetary return from product per use of unit irrigation water. Resource productivity and resource intensity are key concepts used in

sustainability measurement Sustainability measurement are tools and methods that attempt to measure the degree of sustainability of processes, products, services, businesses and so forth. Sustainability is difficult to quantify, perhaps even immeasurable. The metrics used to ...

as they attempt to decouple the direct connection between resource use and

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...

. Their strength is that they can be used as a metric for both

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

and

environmental cost Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical o ...

. Although these concepts are two sides of the same coin, in practice they involve very different approaches and can be viewed as reflecting, on the one hand, the efficiency of resource production as outcome per unit of resource use (resource productivity) and, on the other hand, the efficiency of

resource consumption Resource consumption is about the consumption of non-renewable, or less often, renewable resources. Specifically, it may refer to: * water consumption * energy consumption ** electric energy consumption ** world energy consumption * natural gas c ...

as resource use per unit outcome (resource intensity). The sustainability objective is to maximize resource productivity while minimizing resource intensity. Scientific and political debates on resource productivity are regularly held at, among others, the World Resources Forum conferences.

References

{{Sustainability Sustainability metrics and indices Natural resource management Resource economics Thermodynamics Energy economics

See also

References