Resource economy

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Resource management in a broader sense describes forms of economic dealing with resources . Although different, also (im-) material forms (such as technologies, material cycles , human capital or special knowledge (“know-how”)) can be captured in terms of resource management , as the economic resource-based view shows, resource management is often a narrower one , on first natural resources (such as e.g. soil, water, air, natural diversity) and secondly raw materials in general as well as the energy sources to be found under them in particular. The term raw materials management is used in a narrower sense. The added value through the extraction, conversion, storage, transport, distribution, use and recycling of such resources is considered. Here, in addition to being economic , the ecological and technical efficiency ( resource efficiency , energy efficiency , cycle efficiency ) into account. Based on this, a practice-oriented and a theory-oriented understanding of the term can be distinguished.

economy

From a business (practice) perspective, the term includes companies and markets that focus on the economic handling / trade / transport of resources. In the sense of the above-mentioned narrower understanding of the term, resources are mainly understood as natural resources as well as raw materials and corresponding energy carriers. Important representatives of this branch of industry are mining and supply companies , as well as companies from the areas of raw material processing and renewable energies . The resource economy defined in this way has grown in importance in recent years, as the availability of, access to and handling of scarce resources on world markets have become an increasingly critical competitive factor: The demand for resources is increasing worldwide. At the same time, classic resources that are required as raw materials for industrial production or as energy sources are limited. This applies above all to non-renewable natural resources / mineral resources , as is particularly clear from the appropriately designated “ rare earths ”. Although this should result in incentives to use resources as efficiently as possible, many resources have so far been used comparatively inefficiently. This is especially true when considering the often considerable side effects ( external effects ) of resource management. The extent of overexploitation and (often irreparable) environmental damage, which is tolerated due to the high demand for resources, can be seen less in the (often resource-poor) industrialized nations than in the resource-rich regions of the emerging and developing countries , where some problems of resource extraction have been relocated are. Sustainable use of resources is therefore required in order to effectively and efficiently meet the long-term increasing needs of the steadily growing world population . The sustainability (of the management) of resources can only be achieved by those involved in resource management through “sustainable action in the here and now”, i.e. H. through a balanced consideration of ecological compatibility ( environment ), social justice (social) and economic performance ( economics ). The resulting high demands are increasingly being taken up by institutions of (further) education, which could also help to remedy the existing shortage of specialists in the longer term.

science

Resource management refers to a sub-discipline of economics . It is the part of research and teaching that scientifically deals with the companies and markets of resource management. This sub-discipline can only be found in an institutionalized form at some of the German universities. At the highest, namely university level, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg points in Germany as “The Resource University . Since 1765. ”their resource focus already in the name, which is reflected analogously in the orientation of their economics faculty . In addition, there are resource management orientations in German universities primarily in the area of ​​individual chairs / professorships as well as the courses offered by the faculties / departments.

Ernst Friedrich Schumacher , for example, is one of the economists who dealt with the subject relatively early on . In the 1970s, he criticized the fact that “the world's supplies of non-renewable fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - are extremely unevenly distributed around the globe and limited in quantity, making it clear that their increasingly rapid exploitation is an act of violence against nature which must inevitably lead to the use of force among people. ”Similar statements can also be found in the book The Limits to Growth , in which various model calculations for resource consumption were presented.

Chairs / professorships with a resource management orientation

Degree programs with a focus on resource economics

In addition, the growing importance of the resource (resource economy) has recently led to the emergence of new scientific institutions. A World Forum of Universities of Resources on Sustainability was founded on the initiative of the two oldest resource universities in the world ( Mining University St. Petersburg , TU Bergakademie Freiberg ).

See also

literature

  • Meadows among other things: The limits of growth - Report of the Club of Rome on the situation of mankind , translation by Hans-Dieter Heck, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-421-02633-5
  • Ernst Friedrich Schumacher: Small is Beautiful: (A Study of) Economics as if People Mattered. 1973
  • Joachim Hamberger (Ed.): Hans Carl von Carlowitz Sylvicultura oeconomica or Haußwirthliche message and natural instructions for wild tree cultivation , oekom Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86581-411-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kristof, Kora: Change begins in the mind: sustainable resource management , in: Politische Ökologie, Vol. 27, No. 115/116, 2009, p. 51
  2. ↑ Hamberger, Joachim (2013), foreword p. 9
  3. ↑ Book review on the new edition of Schumacher's "small is beautiful"
  4. ↑ Meadows et al .: The Limits to Growth. P. 113 fig. 35, p. 114 fig. 36
  5. ↑ Holdinghausen, Heike (2012): Old stuff, rediscovered - networking of resource universities , in: TAZ of June 29, 2012