Resource efficiency

Resource efficiency is defined as the ratio of a certain benefit to the required use of natural resources . The benefit can be provided in the form of a product or a service . The lower the input of natural resources required for this or the greater the benefit of the product or service, the higher the resource efficiency.

If resource efficiency relates to products, it can be improved along the life cycle with the help of suitable measures. Examples are lightweight construction and miniaturization already in the product design, savings in raw materials during production, reduction of consumables in the usage phase and the possibility of pure separation and recycling of the materials in the technical or natural cycles .

Approaches to measuring resource efficiency on an economic level

The indicator raw material productivity (the quotient of GDP and raw material input) is often used at the economic level . In the German sustainability strategy, the use of raw materials is measured using the DMI (Direct Material Input) indicator . The DMI is measured in tons (t) and indicates the sum of the abiotic, domestically extracted raw materials and the imported raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods. The Domestic Material Consumption ( DMC) indicator is also common at the European level . A major point of criticism of the use of these indicators is that they misrepresent the relocation of resources abroad as progress. Because the primary material costs associated with the manufacture of imported semi-finished and finished goods are not taken into account.

Increasing resource efficiency as a political goal

Ever since the 1972 study The Limits to Growth , it has been known that the massive exploitation of resources - especially against the background of the affluent society - has considerable effects on the biosphere and ultimately on humans. Several studies on global environmental changes that have been made to date confirm this statement.

The need to increase resource efficiency with the aim of decoupling economic performance from environmental consumption was formulated by scientists in the early 1990s. For example, Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek suggested a factor of 10 for the long-term reduction of resource consumption for industrialized countries and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker a factor of 4 for increasing resource productivity .

The goal of decoupling economic output from the use of resources was subsequently also anchored in political strategies. In its national sustainability strategy , the German federal government has committed itself, among other things, to increasing raw material productivity, i. H. the overall economic use of abiotic primary materials in relation to GDP to double by 2020 compared to 1994. In addition, the strategy contains further indicators on the use and condition of natural resources in Germany, including energy productivity, land use and biodiversity. In February 2012, the German government passed the German Resource Efficiency Program (ProgRess). This focuses on the efficient use of abiotic raw materials that are not used for energy. In ProgRess the intention has been announced to take into account both the indirect material costs of imports and the unused extraction of primary material at home and abroad when calculating raw material productivity.

At the European level, the Thematic Strategy for the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources presented in 2005 as well as the Flagship Initiative for a Resource- Efficient Europe and the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe aim to increase resource efficiency and resource conservation. The European Commission uses a broad definition of resources that also includes ecosystem services, the environmental media of water, soil, air and biodiversity.

The reasons for increasing resource efficiency are:

Avoidance of supply bottlenecks (technical-economic availability of certain raw materials);
the raising of market potential and competitive advantages for resource efficiency technologies in the sense of an ecological modernization of the economy;
the reduction of negative environmental effects that result from the extraction and processing of raw materials, the manufacture of semi-finished and finished goods, the use of the products made from them and their disposal, and thus
compliance with planetary carrying capacity limits and
the preservation of natural resources for future generations.

criticism

The increase in resource productivity does not necessarily lead to an absolute reduction in the use of resources. If economic output increases faster than the efficiency increases in the use of resources, there is an absolute increase in the consumption of resources. The absolute reduction in resource consumption is necessary, however, because this is the only way to ensure fair participation in the use of natural resources for all people worldwide and for future generations . Such a limitation should be achieved through sufficiency policy .

literature

Schmidt-Bleek, Friedrich: How much environment do people need. Factor 10 - the measure for ecological management. Dtv, Munich 1997.
Federal Statistical Office 2012: Environmental Use and Economy - Report on the Environmental Economic Accounts - 2012 .
Federal Environment Agency 2012: Glossary on resource protection.
UNEP International Resource Panel 2011: Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth (PDF). A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel. Paris.
Ernst-Ulrich Weizsäcker: Factor four: double prosperity - halved natural consumption; the new report to the Club of Rome (together with Amory B. and L. Hunter Lovins), Droemer Knaur, Munich 1995.