Green development as green new deal
More of Joie de Vivre with less Resource use
Friedrich Hinterberger
Introductory Speech at the International Workshop „Green Development“Bologna, May 14 2014
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Today Overconsumption?
Tomorrow Joie de Vivre?
To get there You can‘t manage what you can‘t measure
Peak Oil
Oil production in a ‚deep historical perspective‘ (millions of barrels per year)
Source: Douthwaite, 2006
Global environmental problems
…caused by extensive resource use related to production and use of products.
Mitigate environmental problems by reducing resource use in absolute terms.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Water
Abiotic materials (incl. fossil fuels)
Biotic materials
Resource use categories
Land area
Our economy is the instution we created to produce what we want to have
a good life!
The „good economy“ should serve „the good life“! E.Phelps (Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2006)
Back to the roots of Sustainable Development
“Sustainable development is a development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs“
- What are needs?- What is their link to well-being, capabilities,
values, quality of life, …?- How can they be addressed in our work?
Consumption and Quality of Life (I)
Consumption serves our needs and increases ourmaterial and immaterial quality of life
Material well-being enables consumption
The “good life” is defined in material termsby most people
Consumption Quality of Life
• directly: addiction, trheadmills• Indirectly: resource used endangeres
eco-systems
BUT: quality of life can even decrease withincreasing consumption
Consumption Quality of Life
Consumption and Quality of Life (II)
Key challenge for sustainable development
• No country in the world has so far achieved a combination of high resource productivity, high levels of social & human development, and low per capita consumption!
• Early industrialized economies arethe most resource efficient countries in the world (excluding indirect flows)
• BUT: high p.c. material consumption not environmentally sustainable.
• AND: exploiting the rest of the world with severe impacts on QoL there
Sustainable strategies – high QoL
Slow food• Movement coming from Italy; 80.000 members in 100 countries• Philosophy of enjoying• Counter movement to uniform, globalised fast food• With pleasure – aware – regional – saisonal –
organic
Simple living• LOVOS: lifestyle of voluntary simplicity• Lifestyle as alternative to consumption oriented affluent society• Criticizing materialism and fast living• Bewusste reduction of consumption: for higher quality of life
and less resource reduction• Outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich!• Book by Tiki Küstenmacher: Simplify your life
The concept of ecological rucksacks/footprints (=resource consumption)
traces back resource consumption, emissions, environmental impacts over the whole chain of production or value chain.
Carbon footprint
Water footprint
Abiotic material footprint
Biotic footprint
Resource use categories
Land footprint
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Oceania North America Europe Latin America World average Asia Africa
tonn
es p
er ca
pita
Resource consumption per capita
Raw Material Consumption (RMC) / capita
Source: SERI and Friends of the Earth, 2009
Why is measuring important?
Clear communication in an understandable way is key to reach target audiences.
Targets can only be defined based on clear measurement systems and robust indicators.
Policy makers demand solid information to design appropriate policy responses.
(Self-) evaluation and (cyclical) re-design of policies
-> scoping, visioning and learing! (www.matisse-project.net)
INPUTS and OUTPUTS over the whole value chain
INPUT: material, water, land
OUTPUT: emissions, waste, dangerous substance, etc.
Infrastruktur VerarbeitungAnbau Distribution Einzelhandel VerwendungRecycling/ Entsorgung
GDP and well-being
G D P an d L ife Satis faction 1973 - 2002
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
180%
200%
1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001
L ife S atis fac tio n
G D P
Source: Layard
• materials: light, small „rucksack“, separable, close to natural cycles
• use: durable, robust, long-time fashionablerecyclible, degradible
• design: functional, timeless, adaptable,modular, originale (artisan)
• technology: re-newable, repairable, upgradable(in technical, organisational and economic terms)
• regional cycles for materials, products and services
• markets: for products and services, first and second (third, fourth…) hand
Principles for sustainable products
31
MaterialInput
(resources, water, land, carbon...)
per
unit of Service
(eg 1 person travels 1 km or lives on 1 m2)
The goal: reducing resource use by a factor X (by 75, 80, 90%) !
MIPS
Business: provide products and services that increase QoL with much less resources.
Citizens:question their own patterns of consumption and provide examples for others
Policy:
creats the framework and gets the prices right.Research:
develops the concepts, measures the effect andspreads the news
We all can/must contribute!
Future of (resource) consumptionand quality of life
Vision
(Res
ou
rce)
co
nsu
mp
tio
n
Quality of life