Resource intensity is a measure of the

resource Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their ...

s (e.g.

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

material Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologi ...

s) needed for the production, processing and disposal of a unit of

good In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

or service, or for the completion of a process or activity; it is therefore a measure of the efficiency of resource use. It is often expressed as the

quantity Quantity or amount is a property that can exist as a Counting, multitude or Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude, which illustrate discontinuity (mathematics), discontinuity and continuum (theory), continuity. Quantities can be compared in terms o ...

of resource embodied in unit cost e.g. litres of water per $1 spent on product. In national economic and

sustainability accounting Sustainability accounting (also known as social accounting, social and environmental accounting, corporate social reporting, corporate social responsibility reporting, or non-financial reporting) was originated about 20 years ago and is considered ...

it can be calculated as units of resource expended per unit of

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

. When applied to a single person it is expressed as the resource use of that person per unit of consumption. Relatively high resource intensities indicate a high price or environmental cost of converting resource into GDP; low resource intensity indicates a lower price or environmental cost of converting resource into GDP.Lorentzen, J. (ed) 2008. ''Resource intensity, knowledge and development: insights from Africa and South America.'' HSRC Press, South Africa.

Resource productivity Resource productivity is the quantity of good or service (outcome) that is obtained through the expenditure of unit resource.Weizsäcker, E, and Jesinghaus, J. 1992. ''Ecological Tax Reform, Chapter 2: Increasing the Productivity of Natural Resource ...

and resource intensity are key concepts used in

sustainability measurement Sustainability measurement are tools and methods that attempt to measure the degree of sustainability of processes, products, services, businesses and so forth. Sustainability is difficult to quantify, perhaps even immeasurable. The metrics used to ...

as they measure attempts to decouple the connection between resource use and

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

. Their strength is that they can be used as a metric for both economic and environmental cost. Although these concepts are two sides of the same coin, in practice they involve very different approaches and can be viewed as reflecting, on the one hand, the efficiency of resource production as outcome per unit of resource use (resource productivity) and, on the other hand, the efficiency of

resource consumption Resource consumption is about the consumption of non-renewable, or less often, renewable resources. Specifically, it may refer to: * water consumption * energy consumption ** electric energy consumption ** world energy consumption * natural gas c ...

as resource use per unit outcome (resource intensity). The sustainability objective is to maximize resource productivity while minimizing resource intensity.

References

{{Sustainability Sustainability metrics and indices Natural resource management Resource economics Thermodynamics Energy economics

See also

References