Abstract
Progress in improving resource efficiency is a precondition for a sustainable development on the national and global scale. At the same time, it is a key factor for competitiveness and welfare in the next decades. A proactive policy is therefore strongly needed to establish and strengthen markets for resource efficient products and services, not only for ecological but also for economic reasons. This paper gives an overview of strategies and instruments that can contribute to meet this challenge effectively. It is based on an analysis of the obstacles on the micro- and macroeconomic level hindering the increase of resource efficiency and shows that coherent, long-term and comprehensive strategies are necessary combining long-term efficiency targets as guardrails for investors and consumers with a reform of the general economic framework, institutional reforms and market specific instruments. The strategies must tackle demand side constraints as well as supply side constraints and promote the development and market diffusion of innovations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
These numbers reflect the share of material and resource costs from the perspective of the enterprises. It should be noted that the material costs themselves include labour costs in cases where the material takes the form of semi-finished and finished products used for production. Therefore, the share of material and resource costs is essentially lower from a macroeconomic point of view.
- 2.
These jobs “…are mainly for the renovation of the building stock, the uptake of products covered by eco-design and labeling measures (e.g. electric motors and drivers, refrigerators and freezers, circulators), and the improvement of energy efficiency in the manufacturing sector.” (COM 2012a, b, p. 8).
- 3.
Therefore some countries (e.g. Austria and Germany) already adopted a national resource program and the European Commission developed a roadmap to raise significantly the resource efficiency up to 2020.
- 4.
(UBA 2010) Schrode, A., Burger A. et al: Environmental Harmful Subsidies in Germany – Update 2010, page 40f.
- 5.
In Germany, for example, the KfW Bankengruppe has taken over the function of a green investment bank. In 2010 every third euro of KfW’s promotional program flowed to climate and environmental protection – a total of EUR 25.3 billion. KfW invested EUR 8.8 billion for the energy rehabilitation of nearly 430,000 homes in 2010 alone. http://www.kfw.de/kfw/en/KfW_Group/About_KfW/thematic_dossier/Energy_turnaround_in_numbers.jsp
- 6.
The valley of death is a metaphor to describe a critical stage in the innovation process when on the one hand public funding for R&D ends and on the other hand companies are confronted with high financial risks if they decide to commercialise the innovation.
- 7.
Examples for the practical application of such a strategy are tax concessions on the motor vehicle tax for cars which exceed the mandatory European emission standards or low-interest loans for the construction of new energy-efficient homes and the energy-efficient refurbishment of older residential buildings.
- 8.
The Netherlands e.g. already established the goal of 100 % Green Public Procurement for Federal Government and Government Agencies by 2010 (COM 2010).
References
Adelphi (2009) EMAS in der Praxis – Ergebnisse einer Umfrage. Studie im Auftrag des BMU
Bio Intelligence Service (2011) Implementing EU waste legislation for green growth. Final report prepared for the European Commission DG ENV
BMU (2009) Green Tech made in Germany 2.0. Environmental Technology Atlas for Germany, Munich
BMU (2012) GreenTech made in Germany 3.0. Environmental Technology Atlas for Germany. www.bmu.de/N49124-1/
Cedefop (2010) Skills for green jobs. European synthesis report. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
COM (2005) Commission communication, Implementing the Community Lisbon Programme: a policy framework to strengthen EU manufacturing – towards a more integrated approach for industrial policy, COM (2005) 474 final
COM (2009) European Commission, Directorate General Environment, Bridging the Valley of Death: public support for commercialisation of eco-innovation, Executive Summary
COM (2010) European Commission, National GPP Action Plans (policies and guidelines)
COM (2011) European Commission, Energy Efficiency Plan 2011. Available at: http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0109:FIN:EN:PDF
COM (2012a) European Commission, EU environment policy priorities for 2020: towards the seventh EU Environment Action Programme, Consultation document
COM (2012b) European Commission, Exploiting the employment potential of green growth, Commission Staff Working Document, Strasbourg
Distelkamp M, Meyer B, Meyer M (2010) Quantitative und qualitative Analyse der ökonomischen Effekte einer forcierten Ressourceneffizienzstrategie. Ressourceneffizienz Papier 5.5., MaRessProjekt, Wuppertal
ECORYS (2011) The role of market-based instruments in achieving a resource efficient economy, Rotterdam, October 2011
EEA (2012) European Environment Agency. http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/growth-in-the-productivity-of-1
Federal Statistical Office (2010) Statistisches Jahrbuch 2010 für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Friends of Earth (2010) More jobs, less waste – potential for job creation thorough higher rates of recycling in the UK and EU, London
GWS (2011) Macroeconomic modelling of sustainable development and the links between the economy and the environment, Report for the European Commission, DG Environment, Osnabrück. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/enveco/studies_modelling/pdf/report_macroeconomic.pdf
International Energy Agency (IEA) (2011)World Energy Outlook 2011, Fact Sheets. http://www.iea.org/publications/worldenergyoutlook/resources/factsheets/
Kristof K, Hennicke P (2010a) Final report on the material efficiency and resource conservation (MaRess) Project, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Resource Efficiency Paper 0.4., Wuppertal
Kristof K, Hennicke P (2010b) Core strategies for a successful resource policy and the instruments proposed for their effective implementation. Executive summary of the policy recommendations of the MaRess Project, Wuppertal, October 2010
Maibach M, Sieber N, Bertenrath R, Ewringmann D, Koch L, Thöne M, Bickel P (2007) Praktische Anwendung der Methodenkonvention: Möglichkeiten der Berücksichtigung externer Umweltkosten bei Wirtschaftlichkeitsrechnungen von öffentlichen Investitionen, Umweltbundesamt
Mohaupt F, Konrad W, Kress M, Rebmann K, Schlömer T (2011) Employment effects and needs for vocational training and qualification in the field of energy-saving building refurbishment, Environment, Innovation, Employment Nr. 1/2011. Published by the German Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2011. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/uba-info-medien-e/4148.html
Porter M, van der Linde C (1995) Toward a new conception of the environment-competitiveness relationship. J Econ Perspect 9(4):97–118
Rennings K (2000) Redefinig innovation – eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics. Ecol Econ 32:319–332
Rennings K, Cleff TH (2011) First and second mover strategy options for pioneering countries on environmental markets – from national lead market to combined lead market and lead supplier strategies, Working paper no. 3 within the project: Lead Markets, funded under the BMBF Programme “WIN 2”
Schade W et al (2009) Gesamtwirtschaftliche Wirkungen von Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen in den Bereichen Gebäude, Unternehmen und Verkehr, Umweltbundesamt, Climate change nr. 08/2009
Schmitt M, Schneider M (2010) Kosteneinsparungen durch Ressourceneffizienz in produzierenden Unternehmen. In: UmweltWirtschaftsForum
SEC (2011) Impact assessment accompanying the energy efficiency plan, Brussels
Strietska-Ilina O, Hofmann C, Haro MD, Jeon S (2011) Skills for green jobs: a global view. Published by the International Labour Organisation and Cedefop. http://www.ilo.org/skills/projects/WCMS_115959/lang--en/index.htm
Sumaila UR, Khan A, Dyck A, Watson R, Munro G, Tyedmers P, Pauly D (2010) A bottom up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies. J Bioecon 12:201–225
The Association of Sciences in Asia (2011) Towards a sustainable Asia: green transition and innovation. Science Press/Springer, Beijing/Heidelberg
UBA (2010) Federal Environment Agency, Environmentally harmful subsidies in Germany – update 2010. http://www.uba.de/uba-info-medien/4123.html
UBA BMU (2011) Report on the environmental economy 2011. Published by the German Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
UBA/BMU (2011) Report on the environmental economy 2011. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/uba-info-medien-e/4339.html
UNEP (2011) Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. A report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel. http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/Decoupling/tabid/56048/Default.aspx
UNEP-FI (2009) United Nations environment programme financial initiative, fiduciary responsibility legal and practical aspects of integrating environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment. Report by the Asset Management Working Group of the UNEP Finance Initiative, New York, Nairobi
Waltz R, Krail M, Köhler J, Marscheider-Weidemann F (2011) Towards modeling lead markets in environmental technologies – indicators and modeling approach. Working paper no. 5 within the project: Lead Markets Funded under the BMBF Program “WIN 2”
WBGU (2012) Financing the global energy-system transformation, Policy paper nr. 7, Berlin. http://www.wbgu.de/en/policypaper/policypaper-7/
WEF (2011) The future of long-term investing. A World Economic Forum Report in Collaboration with Oliver Wyman, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burger, A. (2014). Establishing and Strengthening Markets for Resource Efficient Products and Services. In: Angrick, M., Burger, A., Lehmann, H. (eds) Factor X. Eco-Efficiency in Industry and Science, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5706-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5706-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5705-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5706-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)