Better – But is it Good Enough? On the Need to Consider Both Eco-efficiency and Eco-effectiveness to Gauge Industrial Sustainability

Abstract Sustainability is gaining prominence among the priorities of large companies, and engineers have taken on the eco-efficiency challenge, optimizing the functionality and minimizing the negative environmental impacts of our products and technologies. Although impressive improvements in efficiency can be demonstrated in many local cases, increases in population, affluence and consumption create an opposite trend that we need to factor in when we address sustainability of our technological developments in an absolute sense. The paper discusses absolute boundaries for environmental sustainability, metrics for gauging our solutions against these boundaries and the need and possibilities of expanding our focus from efficiency to effectiveness.

[1]  Alexis Laurent,et al.  Carbon footprint as environmental performance indicator for the manufacturing industry , 2010 .

[2]  A. Maslow.  Motivation and Personality , 1954 .

[3]  Anders Bjørn,et al.  Cradle to Cradle and LCA – is there a Conflict? , 2011 .

[4]  M. Braungart,et al.  Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions - a strategy for eco-effective product and system design , 2007 .

[5]  Alex,et al.  Towards the Circular Economy: Waste Contracting , 2015 .

[6]  Michael Zwicky Hauschild,et al.  Design for Environment — Do We Get the Focus Right? , 2004 .

[7]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[8]  E. Hertwich.  Consumption and the Rebound Effect: An Industrial Ecology Perspective , 2005 .

[9]  Anders Bjørn,et al.  Introducing carrying capacity-based normalisation in LCA: framework and development of references at midpoint level , 2015, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[10]  A. A. Jensen,et al.  Life Cycle Management: A Business Guide to Sustainability , 2007 .

[11]  J. Last.  Our common future. , 1987, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[12]  L. Reijnders.  The Factor X Debate: Setting Targets for Eco‐Efficiency , 1998 .

[13]  Reinout Heijungs,et al.  Identifying best existing practice for characterization modeling in life cycle impact assessment , 2012, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[14]  Margni Manuele,et al.  Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the European context - based on existing environmental impact assessment models and factors (International Reference Life Cycle Data System - ILCD handbook) , 2011 .

[15]  Björn Nykvist,et al.  National Environmental Performance on Planetary Boundaries , 2013 .

[16]  F. Schmidt‐bleek,et al.  Factor 10: The future of stuff , 2008 .

[17]  David Pennington,et al.  Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment. , 2009, Journal of environmental management.

[18]  M. Hauschild.  Assessing environmental impacts in a life-cycle perspective. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[19]  Sami Kara,et al.  Predicting the total environmental impact of product technologies , 2014 .

[20]  B Commoner,et al.  The environmental cost of economic growth. , 1972, Chemistry in Britain.

[21]  Christoph Herrmann,et al.  Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing , 2011 .

[22]  M. Hauschild,et al.  Methodology, tools and case studies in product development , 2000 .

[23]  Other.  Life cycle management: a business guide to sustainability , 2009 .

[24]  Michael Zwicky Hauschild,et al.  Implementing life cycle assessment in product development , 2003 .

[25]  Timothy G. Gutowski,et al.  Manufacturing and the Science of Sustainability , 2011 .

[26]  Sami Kara,et al.  Towards Energy and Resource Efficient Manufacturing: A Processes and Systems Approach , 2012 .

[27]  J. Houghton,et al.  Climate Change 2013 - The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2014 .

[28]  Hans-Jürgen Dr. Klüppel,et al.  The Revision of ISO Standards 14040-3 - ISO 14040: Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and framework - ISO 14044: Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Requirements and guidelines , 2005 .

[29]  William McDonough,et al.  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things , 2002 .

[30]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Eco‐efficiency and Its xsTerminology , 2005 .

[31]  P. Ehrlich,et al.  IMPACT OF POPULATION GROWTH , 1971, Science.

[32]  M. Hauschild,et al.  Absolute versus Relative Environmental Sustainability , 2013 .

[33]  Cesare Marchetti,et al.  Elektron: Electrical systems in retrospect and prospect , 1996 .

[34]  F. Chapin,et al.  A safe operating space for humanity , 2009, Nature.

[35]  M. Hauschild,et al.  Environmental assessment of products , 1997 .

[36]  Michael E. Coltrin,et al.  Solid-state lighting: an energy-economics perspective , 2010 .

[37]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[38]  Alexis Laurent,et al.  Limitations of carbon footprint as indicator of environmental sustainability. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.