Dematerialization
Dematerialization is a strategy with the aim of greatly reducing the material flows caused by human activity, especially economic activity. For this purpose, the material and energy consumption of the socio-economic system should be greatly reduced. The aim behind this is to satisfy human needs while at the same time reducing environmental pollution in absolute terms.
Need for dematerialization
Dematerialization advocates justify the need to reduce material flows with two considerations:
- So far, around 20% of the world's population have used 80% of the resources and the associated material flows. For a long time, 20% of the material flows were available for 80% of the population. Due to the strong economic growth of some emerging countries in the course of catching up development , the material flows have been increasing sharply globally for several years.
- The ecological consequences of these extensive and increasing material flows are either negative (e.g. ozone hole , climate change , desertification ) or unknown. Therefore, the precautionary principle calls for a reduction in material flow in order to avoid overloading the ecological systems (e.g. groundwater , soil ).
Dematerialization means a paradigm shift for environmental policy because it shifts the focus from the output side of the economy ( emissions and waste and their environmental impacts) to the input side ( production factors ).
The concept of dematerialization was first concretized in the 1990s by Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek . Schmidt-Bleek advocates dematerialization by a factor of 10: From a global perspective, material flows would have to be reduced by around half in order to return to a sustainable level. For industrialized countries like Germany this means a reduction by a factor of 10, i.e. to around 10% of the current material flows. To evaluate and implement dematerialization projects, Schmidt-Bleek and others developed the MIPS concept from 1992 onwards .
Individual evidence
- ^ Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI): Integrating Policies
- ↑ Factor 10 Institute: Terms: Dematerialization. 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2014
- ↑ Lexicon of Sustainability: Dematerialization. SERI / Aachen Foundation , April 10, 2014. Accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek: How much environment do people need . Factor 10 - the measure for ecological management. dtv, Munich 1997, ISBN 978-3-423-30580-8 .
- ↑ Factor 10 Institute: Terms: Factor 10. 2008. Accessed July 2, 2014