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Eco-efficiency
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. "Eco-efficiency" has been proposed as one of the main tools to promote a transformation from unsustainable development to one of sustainable development. It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution. "It is measured as the ratio between the (added) value of what has been produced (e.g. GDP) and the (added) environment impacts of the product or service (e.g. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eco-costs Value Ratio
The EVR model is a life cycle assessment based method to analyse consumption patterns, business strategies and design options in terms of eco-efficient value creation. Next to this it is used to compare products and service systems (e.g. benchmarking). The eco-costs/value ratio (EVR) is an indicator to reveal sustainable and unsustainable consumption patterns of people. The eco-costs is an indicator for the environmental pollution of the products people buy, the value is the price they pay for it in our free market economy. Example: When somebody spends 1000 euro per month on housing (in Europe: EVR approx. 0,3) it is less harmful for the environment than when 1000 euro is spent on diesel (in Europe: EVR approx. 1,0). See section 3.1. The EVR is also relevant for business strategies, because companies are facing the slow but inevitable internalization of environmental costs. At the moment the costs of products don't take into account the environmental damage caused by these produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainability Strategies
Sustainability strategies are mechanisms that contribute to achieving sustainability and are well-established in the field of sustainability science. Originally, the term centered on a triad introduced by Joseph Huber, encompassing sufficiency, efficiency, and consistency.Huber, J. 2000a. Nachhaltige Entwicklung: Strategien für Eine Ökologische und Soziale Erdpolitik. Sigma. Each of these strategies has since developed its own school of thought, emphasizing different merits and contributions to sustainability. In recent debates, further strategies are discussed, culminating in a recent framework by Eric Hartmann, which describes a total of ten sustainability strategies.Hartmann, E. 2025. "Sustainability Strategies: What's in a Name? A Conceptual Restatement of Fundamental Mechanisms Toward Sustainability". Sustainable Development, article sd.3443. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3443 Sufficiency focuses on reducing consumption and production levels without threatening human needs. Fol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eco-sufficiency
Ecological sufficiency, or simply sufficiency, refers to the concept or strategy to reduce the environmental footprint of societies through moderating the need for energy, carbon and material-based services and products. The term was popularised by authors such as Thomas Princen, a professor at MIT, in his 2005 book ''The Logic of Sufficiency''. As a goal, sufficiency is about ensuring that all humans can live a good life within planetary boundaries, meaning without overshooting the ecological limits of the Earth and thus limiting resource use and pollution. Princen argues that "seeking enough when more is possible is both intuitive and rational – personally, organizationally and ecologically. And under global ecological constraint, it is ethical." In order to operationalise sufficiency, principles and ideas of concrete actions and policies have been proposed by various authors. Sufficiency may be approached at the individual level as a personal attitude or life philosophy (such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Business Council For Sustainable Development
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led organization of over 225 international companies. The council is also connected to 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations. Its origins date back to the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992, when Stephan Schmidheiny, a Swiss business entrepreneur, was appointed chief adviser for business and industry to the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). He created a forum called "Business Council for Sustainable Development", which went on to become ''Changing Course'', a book that coined the concept of eco-efficiency. The WBCSD was created in 1995 as a merger of the Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Industry Council for the Environment and is based at the Maison de la paix in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in New York and New Delhi. Operations The council works on a variety of issues related to susta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goods And Services
Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens or Apple, apples. Services are activities provided by other people, such as teachers or barbers. Taken together, it is the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and Service (economics), services which underpins all economic activity and trade. According to Economics, economic theory, consumption of goods and services is assumed to provide utility (satisfaction) to the consumer or end-user, although businesses also Distribution (marketing)#Channels and intermediaries, consume goods and services in the course of producing their own. History Physiocracy, Physiocratic economists categorized production into productive labour and unproductive labour. Adam Smith expanded this thought by arguing that any economic activities directly related to material products (goods) were productive, and those activities which involved no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quality Of Life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns". Standard indicators of the quality of life include wealth, employment, the environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, social belonging, religious beliefs, safety, security and freedom. QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. Health related QOL (HRQOL) is an evaluation of QOL and its relationship with health. Engaged theory One approach, called the engaged theory, outlined in the journal of ''Applied Research in the Quality of Life'', posits four domains in assessing quality of life: ecology, economics, politics and culture. In the domain of culture, for example, it includes the following subd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I = PAT
''I = (PAT)'' is the mathematical notation of a formula put forward to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. :''I = P × A × T'' The expression equates human impact on the environment to a function of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T). It is similar in form to the Kaya identity, which applies specifically to emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The validity of expressing environmental impact as a simple product of independent factors, and the factors that should be included and their comparative importance, have been the subject of debate among environmentalists. In particular, some have drawn attention to potential inter-relationships among the three factors; and others have wished to stress other factors not included in the formula, such as political and social structures, and the scope for beneficial, as well as harmful, environmental actions. History The equation was developed in 1970 during the course of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Impact On The Environment
Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic environmental impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the needs of society (as in the built environment) is causing severe effects including global warming, environmental degradation (such as ocean acidification), mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse. Some human activities that cause damage (either directly or indirectly) to the environment on a global scale include population growth, neoliberal economic policies and rapid economic growth, overconsumption, overexploitation, pollution, and deforestation. Some of the problems, including global warming and biodiversity loss, have been proposed as representing catastrophic risks to the survival of the human species. The term ''anthropogenic'' designates an effect or object resulting from h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephan Schmidheiny
Stephan Ernst Schmidheiny (born 29 October 1947) is a Swiss billionaire businessman, industrialist, philanthropist and criminal twice-convicted (2019 and 2023) on multiple counts of manslaughter for his family-owned conglomerate's Italian asbestos operations. Early life and education Stephan Ernst Schmidheiny was born 29 October 1947 in Balgach, Switzerland to Max Schmidheiny and Adda Schmidheiny (née Scherrer; d. 1997). He is a fourth generation member of one of the key industrial families in Switzerland. Schmidheiny completed his Law studies with a PhD at the University of Zurich in 1972. Career Eternit / Exit from Asbestos, Reflection and Legal Disputes In 1972, Stephan Schmidheiny started his business career at Eternit. In 1976, at the age of 29, he was named CEO of the Swiss Eternit Group. According to his brother Thomas Schmidheiny, their father Max Schmidheiny decided to divide his industrial empire into two halves: asbestos for Stephan, cement for Thomas. As a result o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrying Capacity
The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration). Carrying capacity of the environment implies that the resources extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resources and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment. The effect of carrying capacity on population dynamics is modelled with a logistic function. Carrying capacity is applied to the maximum population an environment can support in ecology, agriculture and fisheries. The term carrying capacity had been applied to a few different processes in the past before finally being appl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Impact
Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot recover in the present situation, and catastrophic if the ecosystem is projected to certainly collapse. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on the individual, organizational or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the environment and humans. Environmentalism is a social and environmental movement that addresses environmental issues through advocacy, legislation education, and activism. Environment destruction caused by humans is a global, ongoing problem. Water pollution also cause problems to marine life. Some scholars believe that the projected peak global population of roughly 9-10 billion people could live sustainably within the earth's ecosystems if humans worked to live sustainably w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resource Intensity
Resource intensity is a measure of the resources (e.g. water, energy, materials) needed for the production, processing and disposal of a unit of good or service, or for the completion of a process or activity; it is therefore a measure of the efficiency of resource use. It is often expressed as the quantity of resource embodied in unit cost e.g. litres of water per $1 spent on product. In national economic and sustainability accounting it can be calculated as units of resource expended per unit of GDP. When applied to a single person it is expressed as the resource use of that person per unit of consumption. Relatively high resource intensities indicate a high price or environmental cost of converting resource into GDP; low resource intensity indicates a lower price or environmental cost of converting resource into GDP.Lorentzen, J. (ed) 2008. ''Resource intensity, knowledge and development: insights from Africa and South America.'' HSRC Press, South Africa. Resource productivit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
