Human societies face a threatening future of resource scarcity and environmental damages. This book addresses the challenge of turning these risks into opportunities and policies. It is a collection of high level contributions from experts of sustainable growth and sustainable resource management. Focussing on economics, sustainability, technology and policy, the book highlights system innovation, leapfrogging strategies of emerging economies, possible rebound effects and international market development. It puts natural resources centre stage and will make an important contribution to achieving the goal of a 21st century Green Economy.

This book provides a factual analysis of material flows and resource productivity in OECD countries in a global context.

This book outlines the principles of eco-efficiency and presents case studies of their application from a number of international companies, including 3M and the Dow Chemical Company. The term "eco-efficiency" describes business activities that create economic value while reducing ecological impact and resource use. This book outlines the principles of eco-efficiency and presents case studies of their application from a number of international companies, including 3M and the Dow Chemical Company. It also discusses the value of partnerships--with other companies, business associations, communities, regulators, and environmental and other nongovernmental groups. In the conclusion, the authors argue that business must become more eco-efficient and that governments need to change the conditions under which business operates, including tax and regulatory regimes, to make them more conducive to eco-efficiency.

This book describes and analyses necessities for a more resource-efficient world. It discusses solutions for a more sustainable use of natural resources, addressing decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry, academia, civil society, and the media. The book presents strategies, concrete ways and examples of achieving more sustainable resource use in practice. Following on from two previous titles published on Factor X by the Umweltbundesamt (German Environment Agency), entitled “Factor X: Policy, Strategies and Instruments for a Sustainable Resource Use” (2013) and “Factor X: Re-source – Designing the Recycling Society” (2014), this book further investigates how savings in natural resources and resource efficiency improvements could be achieved, focusing on good practice examples that cover different resource categories, pursue different efficiency strategies and come from different sectors, e.g. innovative products or services, technology, man agement approaches, systemic approaches, etc. The background against which this work is done has a highly comprehensive span, from the first Declaration of the Factor X Club in the nineties, to the European Commission’s Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe that was published in September 2011, through to the German Federal government’s German Resource Efficiency Programme (ProgRess I and II) in 2012 and 2016, the G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency, and most recently the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. Circular economy (CE) is important towards sustainable development, resources circulation and conservation, involving closing of material loops and cascading used resources, to prevent waste occurrence, and transforming the resulting residual streams into new (secondary) resources. Strategies and legislative framework for waste management are important steps for development of a more CE where resource efficiency becomes the key driver for both economic growth and environmental protections. A few countries achieved good results implementing CE as a replacement of the linear economy. Resource managers and planners should thoroughly identify factors to implement CE for societal benefits. This book presents how resource consumption is minimized with rational use based on 3Rs, legislative framework and government supports towards implementing CE initiatives, example of best practices, future plans and targets in different countries those are helpful for researchers, planners and implementers.

A program for building a global clean energy economy while expanding job opportunities and economic well-being. In order to control climate change, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that greenhouse gas emissions will need to fall by about forty percent by 2030. Achieving the target goals will be highly challenging. Yet in Greening the Global Economy, economist Robert Pollin shows that they are attainable through steady, large-scale investments—totaling about 1.5 percent of global GDP on an annual basis—in both energy efficiency and clean renewable energy sources. Not only that: Pollin argues that with the right investments, these efforts will expand employment and drive economic growth. Drawing on years of research, Pollin explores all aspects of the problem: how much energy will be needed in a range of industrialized and developing economies; what efficiency targets should be; and what kinds of industrial policy will maximize investment and support private and public partnerships in green growth so that a clean energy transformation can unfold without broad subsidies. All too frequently, inaction on climate change is blamed on its potential harm to the economy. Pollin shows greening the economy is not only possible but necessary: global economic growth depends on it.

This report presents global projections of materials use and their environmental consequences, providing a quantitative outlook to 2060 at the global, sectoral and regional levels for 61 different materials (biomass resources, fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals). It explains the ...