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This book describes and analyses necessities for a more resource-efficient world. It discusses solutions for a more sustainable use of natural resources, addressing decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry, academia, civil society, and the media. The book presents strategies, concrete ways and examples of achieving more sustainable resource use in practice. Following on from two previous titles published on Factor X by the Umweltbundesamt (German Environment Agency), entitled “Factor X: Policy, Strategies and Instruments for a Sustainable Resource Use” (2013) and “Factor X: Re-source – Designing the Recycling Society” (2014), this book further investigates how savings in natural resources and resource efficiency improvements could be achieved, focusing on good practice examples that cover different resource categories, pursue different efficiency strategies and come from different sectors, e.g. innovative products or serv ices, technology, management approaches, systemic approaches, etc. The background against which this work is done has a highly comprehensive span, from the first Declaration of the Factor X Club in the nineties, to the European Commission’s Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe that was published in September 2011, through to the German Federal government’s German Resource Efficiency Programme (ProgRess I and II) in 2012 and 2016, the G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency, and most recently the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Environment. --- Sustainable development. --- Economic growth. --- Environmental economics. --- Sustainable Development. --- Political Economy/Economic Policy. --- Environmental Economics. --- Economic Growth. --- Natural resources. --- Development, Sustainable --- Ecologically sustainable development --- Economic development, Sustainable --- Economic sustainability --- ESD (Ecologically sustainable development) --- Smart growth --- Sustainable development --- Sustainable economic development --- Economic development --- Environmental aspects --- National resources --- Natural resources --- Resources, Natural --- Resource-based communities --- Resource curse --- Economic aspects --- Economic policy. --- Economic Policy. --- Development, Economic --- Economic growth --- Growth, Economic --- Economic policy --- Economics --- Statics and dynamics (Social sciences) --- Development economics --- Environmental quality --- Economic nationalism --- Economic planning --- National planning --- State planning --- Planning --- National security --- Social policy

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The fifth Factor X publication from the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), The Impossibilities of the Circular Economy provides an overview of the limits to the circular economy, emphasising the relationship between integrated resource use and more systemic leadership-management approaches.On a European level, the book ties into the recent European Green Deal and aims to empower actors across sectors and EU member countries to transition from existing linear models of value capture and expression to more systemic-circular solutions of value capture and expression. The volume provides a hands-on contribution towards building the knowledge and skill sets of current and future decision-makers who face these complex-systemic crises in their day-to-day business. The book further provides access to best practices from cutting-edge research and development findings, which will empower decision-makers to develop a more sustainable and equitable economy.Providing solutions for a more sustainable economy, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of natural resource use, sustainable business, environmental economics and sustainable development, as well as decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry and civil society.

Economics. --- Economic theory --- Political economy --- Social sciences --- Economic man --- Development economics and emerging economies;Business and the environment- ‘green’ approaches to business;Environmental economics;Applied ecology;Central / national / federal government policies;Environmental policy and protocols

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As currently projected, global population growth will place increasing pressures on the environment and on Earth’s resources.  Growth will be concentrated in developing countries, leading to leaps in demand for goods and services, and a paradox: although there are initiatives  to decouple resource use and economic growth in mature economies, their effects could be more than offset by rapid economic growth in developing countries like China and India. Others will follow, claiming their equal right to material well- being. This will even more increase the challenge facing the industrialized countries to reduce their resource use.   The editors of Factor X explore and analyze this trajectory, predicting scarcities of non-renewable materials such as metals, limited availability of ecological capacities and shortages arising from geographic concentrations of materials. They argue that what is needed is a radical change in the ways we use nature’s resources to produce goods and services and generate well-being. The goal of saving our ecosystem demands a prompt and decisive reduction of man-induced material flows. Before 2050, they assert, we must achieve a significant decrease in consumption of resources, in the line with the idea of a factor 10 reduction target. EU-wide and country specific targets must be set, and enforced using strict, accurate measurement of consumption of materials. Their arguments are drawn from empirical evidence and observations, as well as theoretical considerations based on economic modeling and on natural science.   Factor X holds that these fundamental principles should underpin future Resources Strategies: the consumption of a resource should not exceed its regeneration and recycling rate or the rate at which all functions can be substituted; the long-term release of substances should not exceed the tolerance limit of environmental media and their capacity for assimilation; hazards and unreasonable risks for humankind and the environment due to anthropogenic influences must be avoided; the time scale of anthropogenic interference with the environment must be in a balanced relation to the response time needed by the environment in order to stabilize itself.   The book concludes by offering proposals and ideas for new national and regional policies on reducing demand and shifting toward sustainability, and concrete actions and instruments for implementing them. The editors have created a useful map on our transformation path towards a “Factor X” society.

Conservation of natural resources. --- Globalization --- Natural resources --- Sustainable development --- Environmental aspects. --- Management. --- International cooperation. --- Resource management (Natural resources) --- Resources management (Natural resources) --- Conservation of resources --- Natural resources conservation --- Resources conservation, Natural --- Conservation --- Environment. --- Business. --- Management science. --- Sustainable development. --- Economic policy. --- Economic growth. --- Environmental economics. --- Sustainable Development. --- Environment, general. --- Economic Policy. --- Environmental Economics. --- Economic Growth. --- Business and Management, general. --- Environmental protection --- Natural resources conservation areas --- Environmental sciences. --- Trade --- Economics --- Management --- Commerce --- Industrial management --- Development, Economic --- Economic growth --- Growth, Economic --- Economic policy --- Statics and dynamics (Social sciences) --- Development economics --- Resource curse --- Environmental quality --- Economic nationalism --- Economic planning --- National planning --- State planning --- Planning --- National security --- Social policy --- Environmental science --- Science --- Development, Sustainable --- Ecologically sustainable development --- Economic development, Sustainable --- Economic sustainability --- ESD (Ecologically sustainable development) --- Smart growth --- Sustainable economic development --- Economic development --- Environmental aspects --- Economic aspects --- Quantitative business analysis --- Problem solving --- Operations research --- Statistical decision --- Balance of nature --- Biology --- Bionomics --- Ecological processes --- Ecological science --- Ecological sciences --- Environment --- Environmental biology --- Oecology --- Environmental sciences --- Population biology --- Ecology