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The business climate of the 21st century will be characterized by increasing globalization, revolutions in information technology, rapid process and product innovations and chaotic marketplace demand. The marketplace will also be profoundly changed by a predicted population increase of four billion by the year 2040.
All this will take place on a planet that is, in the minds of many decision-makers, already reaching ecological limits in critical areas such as ozone layer depletion, loss of biodiversity, water quality and management, and climate change.
Too often in recent decades, the two big "e" words -- ecology and economy -- have been used as though they represented opposing concerns. But this separation or opposition has come to look like a massive mistake. The Earth itself is what ultimately controls economic activity because it is the source of the materials upon which economic activity works. That is why economy and ecology cannot be separated. To seek to have economy without ecology is to try to manage an environment with no knowledge or concern about how it works in itself - to try to formulate human laws in abstraction from or ignorance of the laws of nature.
The challenge, for industry, governments and individuals will be to ensure that continued economic development and social well-being are compatible with ecological support systems. Achieving this objective requires a dramatic improvement in resource productivity. These changes are resulting in a rethinking of business strategies to focus on how companies deliver higher value products and services to their customers and how they can increase resource productivity. This shift will involve the development of materials, products and industrial processes and services that are more eco-efficient. Eco-efficiency has become one of the buzzwords of our time. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) created the term "eco-efficiency" in 1992. It was first introduced in the organization's publication "Changing Course”. Eco-efficiency is management philosophy that aims at minimizing ecological damage while maximizing efficiency of the firm's production processes, such as through the lesser use of energy, material, and water, more recycling, and elimination of hazardous emissions of by-products.
Eco-efficiency is increasingly becoming a key requirement for success in business. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) describes eco-efficiency as a management strategy of doing more with less. In practice, eco-efficiency is achieved through the pursuit of three core objectives:
1. Increasing product or service value;
2. Optimizing the use of resources; and,
3. Reducing environmental impact
The main stakeholders of eco-efficiency are businesses, business associations, industry, research organisations and government. Other stakeholders are consumers, suppliers, non-government organisations and shareholders.
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