Factor Four: Doubling Wealth - Halving Resource Use : the New Report to the Club of RomeSince the industrial revolution, progress has meant an increase in labour productivity. Factor Four describes a new form of progress, resource productivity, a form which meets the overriding imperative for the future (sustainability). It shows how at least four times as much wealth can be extracted from the resources we use. As the authors put it, the book is about doing more with less, but this is not the same as doing less, doing worse or doing without. In 1972, the Club of Rome published Limits to Growth, which sent shock waves around the world by arguing that we were rapidly running out of essential resources. This Report to the Club of Rome offers a solution. It lies in using resources more efficiently, in ways which can already be achieved, not at a cost, but at a profit. The book contains a wealth of examples of revolutionizing productivity, in the use of energy; from hypercars to low-energy beef; materials, from sub-surface drip irrigation to electronic books, transport, video conferencing to CyberTran, and demonstrating how much more could be generated from much less today. It explains how markets can be organized and taxes re-based to eliminate perverse incentives and reward efficiency, so wealth can grow while consumption does not. The benefits are enormous: profits will increase, pollution and waste will decrease and the quality of life will improve. Moreover, the benefits will be shared: progress will no longer depend on making ever fewer people more productive. Instead, more people and fewer resources can be employed. While for many developing countries the efficiency revolution may offer the only realistic chance of prosperity within a reasonable time span. The practical promise held out in this book is huge, but the authors show how it is up to each of us, as well as to businesses and governments, to make it happen. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 42
... AVALANCHES OF MATTER : THE FORGOTTEN AGENDA The Waste Problem is Only the Tail End 238 The Gold Ring on Your Finger Weighs Three Tonnes 242 The Factor Ten Club 244 CHAPTER 10 : UNSATISFACTORY PART - SOLUTIONS Costly Pollution Control.
... Pollution Control : Steering From the Wrong End High - Tech Fantasies and the Neo - cornucopian Irony Ecological Audits - Costly but Possibly Enlightening CHAPTER 11 : WE MAY HAVE FIFTY YEARS LEFT TO CLOSE THE GAPS Beyond the Limits ...
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Contents
FIFTY EXAMPLES OF QUADRUPLING RESOURCE PRODUCTIVITY | 3 |
The Rocky Mountain Institute Headquarters | 10 |
The Darmstadt Passivhaus | 19 |
Renovating Masonry RowHouses | 25 |
Lighting | 32 |
Office Equipment | 41 |
Renewables in a Cold Climate | 48 |
The Frontiers of AirConditioning | 58 |
REWARD WHAT WE WANT NOT THE OPPOSITE | 177 |
29 | 179 |
Responsibility Requires Responsiveness to Feedback | 183 |
Making Prices Tell the Truth | 189 |
ECOLOGICAL TAX REFORM | 198 |
Much Scope for International Harmonisation | 206 |
THE CHALLENGE FROM | 213 |
The Greenhouse Effect and the Climate Convention | 222 |
Quadrupling Energy Productivity in Five Small Steps | 64 |
Durable Office Furniture | 70 |
Electronic Books and Catalogues | 76 |
Water Efficiency in Manufacturing | 82 |
Cotton Production with Less Water | 88 |
Perennial Polyculture | 94 |
Efficiency | 101 |
WideSpan HeavyDuty Wood Construction | 108 |
24 | 110 |
Strawberry Yoghurt | 117 |
The Soft Options for Rapid Trains | 123 |
CarFree Mobility | 130 |
Getting the Village Feeling in the City | 132 |
IF MARKETS CREATE THE PROBLEM | 143 |
Market Theory versus Practice | 150 |
Utility Regulatory Reform | 158 |
Making Negawatt Markets And Beyond | 164 |
Species Extinction and the Biodiversity Convention | 230 |
AVALANCHES OF MATTER THE FORGOTTEN AGENDA | 237 |
33 | 241 |
The Factor Ten Club | 244 |
Steering From the Wrong End | 246 |
Ecological Audits Costly but Possibly Enlightening | 254 |
36 | 258 |
Population Dynamics | 261 |
A BRIGHTER CIVILISATION | 271 |
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT | 278 |
46 | 279 |
A Role for Factor Four in Trade and the Environment | 286 |
Insatiable Consumption May Outpace the Efficiency | 292 |
300 | |
308 | |
311 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
References to this book
Sustainability Assessment: Criteria and Processes Robert B. Gibson,Selma Hassan No preview available - 2005 |