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Factor Five

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Factor Five

Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity

Earthscan,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

How to balance economic growth with resource sustainability by reducing energy use by a factor of five

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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

Recycling garbage, turning off lights, taking shorter showers: All these actions contribute to the reduction of energy consumption. Written as a joint project by Ernst von Weizsäcker, the author of Factor Four, and by four experts from The Natural Edge Project, an environmental research group, this call to action argues for a “whole-system approach” that unites engineers, designers, scientists and builders to create new products, processes, buildings, homes, factories and stores to reduce energy consumption by 80%, diminishing it to one-fifth of current usage, by 2050. A mountain of research, statistics, case studies and examples provide a strong, documented case that achieving “sustainable consumption” without forgoing prosperity not only is possible but necessary. getAbstract recommends this work to policy makers, executives, engineers, designers and all those who want to know why they should keep separating their plastic from their glass.

Summary

“Factor Five”

The whirlwind pace of human development, accelerated by the past century’s technological progress, finally has matched the Earth’s ability to sustain such growth. “The truth...is that we are damaging our planet to the point that it may not be able to maintain the conditions we have come to take for granted.” Depleting natural resources and handling the detritus of human existence – pollution, waste and greenhouse gas emissions – stresses the environment. In the 21st century, such stresses will exceed the planet’s limits to withstand them. Unless mankind modifies the ways it relates to and uses the Earth’s resources, “the environment will change how it interacts with its inhabitants.” Climate change will grossly alter living conditions for future generations. Mankind’s “ecological footprint” – the land and resources individuals need to support their lifestyles – already has surpassed the Earth’s “biocapacity.” By 2005, “humanity’s demand...exceeded the regenerative capacity of the planet by about 30%.”

To address these issues, nations have agreed to work to reduce environmental stresses by 80%, or by a factor of five, by 2050. “Factor Five” means an 80...

About the Authors

Ernst von Weizsäcker, lead author of Factor Four, is co-chairman of the UNEP International Panel on Sustainable Resource Management. Karlson Hargroves, Michael H. Smith, Cheryl Desha and Peter Stasinopoulos are members of The Natural Edge Project (TNEP).

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