Design for Resource Efficiency

There are already several approaches for Design for Environment or Design for Recycling and recently also the topic of resource efficiency received increasing interest. While procedurally existing ecodesign concepts might be also applicable for Design for Resource Efficiency, the main issue is to define relevant yet practicable indicators to measure resource efficiency. Depending on the definition, it can comprise raw material consumption only or the consumption and pollution of natural resources. Consequently, there is a variety of indicators available. However, resources are not only an environmental concern. Raw material availability is a critical issue for many industrial sectors which finally leads to a new area of protection, the economic material availability. Therefore, amongst others, new characterization factors are proposed by taking into account anthropogenic material stocks in addition to the lithospheric stocks.