16.3.2011 von Bio.

THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS THE 2010 DECLARATION

OF THE INTERNATIONAL FACTOR 10 CLUB

WITH EXPANATORY NOTES OF ITS FOUNDING PRESIDENT

F. Schmidt-Bleek

1. Good living, prosperous economies, high levels of employment and peace require a healthy environment, including an agreeable climate and rich biodiversity. Today, all are threatened: urgent action to change course and reduce the overuse of fossil fuels, water and material resources is of paramount importance. To this end, the Factor 10 Club in 1994 called on governments to achieve within a generation a ten-fold increase in the efficiency with which their economies use energy, natural resources and other materials. The technologies required for a four-fold increase exist and, with appropriate policy reforms, a tenfold increase could be achieved.  > more

Geschrieben in Factor 10 Club, Ressourceneffizienz, ökologischer Rucksack, MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »

16.3.2011 von Bio.

EINE KOALITION WILLIGER LÄNDER WIRD GEBRAUCHT

FÜR DIE ZEHNFACHE ERHÖHUNG

DER ENERGIE- UND MATERIALEFFIZIENZ

1. Erfülltes Leben, Frieden, leistungsfähige Wirtschaften, und hohes Beschäftigungsniveau erfordern eine gesunde Umwelt, stabiles Klima, sauberes Wasser und eine Vielfalt von Arten. Heute sind sie alle in Gefahr. Es ist dringend, dies zu ändern. An erster Stelle dabei steht die Reduzierung des noch immer ungehemmten Verbrauches an Fossilen Brennstoffen und anderer materieller Ressourcen der Erde. Der Factor 10 Club hat bereits 1994 die Regierungen aufgerufen, die Effizienz der Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen im Laufe einer Generation um das Zehnfache zu verbessern. Im Prinzip existiert schon heute Technik, den Faktor 4 zu verwirklichen. Mit entsprechenden politischen Reformen kann Faktor 10 verwirklicht werden. mehr 

Geschrieben in Factor 10 Club, Ressourceneffizienz, ökologischer Rucksack, MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »

15.3.2011 von Bio.

POSITIONSAPIER

Einsichten

Arthur Koestler sagte einmal: „About feelings of gloom and warnings of doom. These two attitudes must not be confused…. A warning serves a preventive, a positive purpose. A warning must be life-affirming. The geese on the Capitol were not gloomy, Cassandra was. So the geese succeeded with their warning, and Cassandra did not”.

Jahrzehnte lang wurden Menschen, die um den Zustand der Umwelt bangten, für Cassandras gehalten. Sie scheinen jetzt zunehmend als Gänse wahrgenommen zu werden, obgleich sie bei einigen der erfolgreichsten Macher der Nachkriegszeit noch immer als unverbesserliche Phantasten oder gar als Brandstifter und Kommunisten gelten. Daran ist nichts Neues. Die Geschichte der Menschheit ist voll solcher Situationen. Sie treten vorhersagbar stets kurz vor Paradigmenwechseln auf. Hernach gibt es zum Ausgleich immer 1000 Väter des Neuen, das wiederum neuen Machern neue Chancen bietet.

mehr 

Geschrieben in ökologischer Rucksack, MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »

15.3.2011 von Bio.

• suited for the approach to ecological and economic sustainability in englisch 

• Geeignet für den Bereich Dematerialisierung in german

Geschrieben in MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »

15.3.2011 von Bio.

You have before you the English translation of the first extensive account of the Factor Concept. And here is a bit of history how Factor 10 came about:

It was in 1989 when I realized that our approach to environmental protection could not getus to sustainability. Progress demanded that we had to re-consider getting involved in solving one isolated problem after the after. Our attention had to be switched from the emission side of the economy to the input of natural resources. Only in so doing could we control the outputs and make the right decisions before the damage was done and payments for it became due. And what about energy? Shouldn’t we begin to worry about its material intensity, rather than limiting our focus on the associated emissions, like SO2 and CO2?

It was a difficult and exciting time. Hardly anybody believed that maintaining a stable ecosphere would require dramatically reducing the use of resources. Factor 10 I said was the average reduction goal for rich countries! What I claimed was that we should measure environmental stress potentials of goods and services with a balance rather than - or at least in addition to - with a gas chromatograph or a mass spectrometer. Megatons, so I declared, were our big problem, not nano-grams. And the ecological rucksack was to be the new yardstick for the production of goods, and its big brother MIPS for assessing the whole life-cycle of things.

Ernst von Weizsäcker gave me a chance to solidify my model at the newly created Wuppertal Institut. To some degree he even believed my ideas. As is well known: he

reached out for factor 4 later when began writing about resources and energy. When you ask him about that, he will tell you that a tenfold improvement has to be reached in the long term. His earlier finding that prices do not speak the ecological truth is as true today as ever. And as long as this is the case, sustainability is but a dream.

In my endeavors at Wuppertal I got selfless help from young colleagues who had the guts to stand up to doubts, ridicule and even abuse from inside and outside the institute. Without being able to name them all, here are those who made vital contributions early: Stefan Bringezu, Friedrich Hinterberger, Harry Lehmann, Christa Liedtke, Christopher Manstein, Helmut Schütz, Joachim Spangenberg, Hartmut Stiller, Ursula Tischner, und Jola Welfens. I am grateful for their help in bringing my model to life. Without them a large basket of publications would not have appeared, convincing the world slowly that resource productivity of goods and services play a decisive role if a future with a future is to be gained.

Lately, industry and the ministers of economy have begun to worry seriously about the continued availability of natural resources. Welcome to the debate on a limited planet earth! One can only hope that nations will not apply economic power ruthlessly in the struggles ahead. The poor people would be again the ones to pay the price. And ecologically as well as economically we would continue to move away even further from sustainable conditions. During the past 20 years we have shown in many enterprises that a radical reduction of resource use for goods and services must not lead to a loss in end-use satisfaction.

But the big question stubbornly remains: what does it take for finally breaking away from the old ways and move toward a new economic reality?

more

Geschrieben in Literatur, MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »

13.10.2009 von Bio.

Kann die CO₂-Emission pro Einheit Output das ökologische (negativ-)Mass aller Dinge, sein? Hätten wir bei der vollständigen Vermeidung von CO₂ Emissionen aus der Wirtschaft die ökologische Nachhaltigkeit erreicht? Bei weitem nicht! Insofern greifen auch politische Maßnahmen, Anlagen, Meßmethoden, F&E Projekte etc. zu kurz, die sich ausschliesslich oder vorwiegend mit Energie/CO₂ befassen.

Das oekologische Mass aller Dinge ist der lebenszyklusweite Verbrauch von natürlichen Ressourcen pro Einheit Output (Dienstleistung, Nutzen) = MIPS und FIPS. MI ist der Material + Energieverbrauch in kg Masse, FI ist die beanspruchte Fläche in m².

MIPS ist das in kg gemessene Mass fuer die Entkoppelung der Wirtschaft vom Naturverbrauch.

Geschrieben in MIPS, Factor 10 Institute | Keine Kommentare »