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WBCSD learning tool helps companies to adopt, implement and integrate eco-efficiency
Inside the eco-efficiency module The eco-efficiency module ( The module contains a background briefing paper designed to give a
comprehensive overview of eco-efficiency and a resources section with case
studies, quotes and references. In addition there are three learning units – The understanding unit introduces the concept of eco-efficiency through a range of basic exercises around definitions, drivers and trends. In the exploring section, participants can understand eco-efficiency and seek to deepen their skills and knowledge through dilemmas and case exercises, applying different approaches and solutions. Implementing will teach participants how to take stock of current performance and to integrate eco-efficient decisions into an organisation. About eco-efficiency Eco-efficiency is a management philosophy that encourages business to search for environmental improvements that yield parallel economic benefits. It focuses on business opportunities and allows companies to become more environmentally responsible and more profitable. It is a key business contribution to sustainable societies.
Eco-efficiency in practice There have been great advances in the application of eco-efficiency principles to the real world. Industry, for example, has had considerable success in reducing pollution and emissions, and eliminating hazardous materials from production processes. In the past, business viewed the environment and sustainable development as problems and risk factors. Today, they are also seen as opportunities – sources of efficiency improvement and growth. Eco-efficiency is very much a part of this picture. Basically, it is about doing more with less: delivering more value while using fewer resources. If you save energy, for example, you cut your costs while also reducing unwelcome outputs such as emissions. Eco-efficiency is not limited simply to making incremental efficiency improvements in existing practices and habits. It should stimulate creativity and innovation in the search for new ways of doing things. Nor is eco-efficiency limited to areas within a company’s boundaries, such as in manufacturing and plant management. It is also valid for activities upstream and downstream of a manufacturer’s plant and involves the supply and product value chains. Consequently, it can be a great challenge to development engineers, purchasers, product portfolio managers, marketing specialists and even finance and control. Companies can use eco-efficiency as an integral cultural element in their policy or mission statements. They can also set eco-efficiency objectives for their environmental or integrated management systems. And it is a useful tool for monitoring and reporting performance, and for helping the firm’s communication and dialogue with its stakeholders.
Eco-efficiency opportunities can emerge at any point in the entire life-cycle of a product. This means employees need to understand what eco-efficiency is, the value it can bring to a company and how to make it happen. This in turn requires building skills and understanding in order to integrate eco-efficiency across business operations, sectors, countries and issues, and allowing space for innovation and creativity. A panacea? The concept has moved from preventing pollution in manufacturing industries to becoming a driver for innovation and competitiveness. Companies implement eco-efficiency to optimize their processes, turn their wastes into resources for other industries, and drive innovation that leads to products with new functionalities. Eco-efficiency is a practical approach but not a panacea. And it will never work as an add-on to a business – it has to be an integral part of a strategy. Such a strategy will have a strong focus on technological and social innovation, accountability and transparency, as well as on cooperation with other parts of society with a view to achieving the set objectives. Eco-efficiency can help companies develop and successfully implement a business strategy toward sustainability only if it’s in the hearts and minds of employees. Demonstrating the value of an eco-efficient approach will help employees recognize why it is important for the company to implement and motivate towards action. Eco-efficiency has been demonstrated, through hundreds of case examples, to work for companies of all sizes, in all industrial sectors and in all regions. It is critical to draw on the range of tools, strategies and examples that already exist within the leaders in this field. Eco-efficiency also requires a range of skills and capabilities from understanding definitions and dilemmas, analyzing stakeholder perspectives to undertaking a life-cycle assessment, integrating thinking across business operations, cooperating and negotiating with external partners, and measuring and evaluating impact. Eco-efficiency is, in fact, work in progress and will continue to be so because it is in essence a dynamic rather than a static process. The purpose of the module is therefore to help companies advocate and educate the eco-efficiency story so far:
Eco-efficiency is not sufficient by itself because it integrates only two of sustainability’s three elements, economics and ecology, while leaving the third, social progress, outside its embrace. By advocating and educating eco-efficiency, employees can better understand the impacts of the company and its relationship with society. This will enable business to look beyond eco-efficiency in order to earn its licence to operate, innovate and grow. Download
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2 MB) is a compilation of learning materials and exercises,
from which the user may pick-and-choose, to raise awareness and foster
implementation at different levels within their organization. There is
a choice of activities, all of which are flexible enough to suit a wide range of
audiences, to be delivered by people from a variety of functions and to be
2 MB)
