Factor Ten is a social and economic policy program developed by the Factor Ten institute with the stated goal of "provid ngpractical support for achieving significant advances in sustainable value creation, in particular through increases in resource productivity throughout the economy.

History

Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek, from the

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (official German name: ) is a German research institution for sustainability research focusing on impacts and practical application. It explores and develops models, strategies and inst ...

, first proposed the Factor 10 and dematerialization concepts in the early 1990s. He concluded in his studies that 80% of the world's resources are distributed among First World nations, which contribute 20% of the global population, so those nations are promoting an unsustainable system of development. The goal of Factor 10 is to assure that nations do not exceed the planet's carrying capacity but leave sufficient resources for future generations.

Factor 4

Factor 10 evolved from the less dramatic Factor 4 was originally proposed by L. Hunter Lovins and

Amory Lovins Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US Nationa ...

of the

Rocky Mountain Institute RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the United States co-founded by Amory Lovins dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for energy an ...

and

Ernst von Weizsäcker Ernst Heinrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (25 May 1882 – 4 August 1951) was a German naval officer, diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1943, and as its Ambassador to ...

, the founder of the

Wuppertal Institute The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (official German name: ) is a German research institution for sustainability research focusing on impacts and practical application. It explores and develops models, strategies and in ...

for Climate, Environment & Energy. Their book ''Factor 4'' explains how simple it is for nations to achieve Factor 4 results with existing technologies. The concept attempts to reduce resource and energy use by 75% by doubling output and halving input of production.

Goals

Factor 10 requires the creation of new technologies, policies, and manufacturing processes along with sociocultural change to create a global economy that is sustainable for a long period of time. The long-term goal of Factor 10, many governments and firms aspiring toward short term relief have difficulty achieving the massive reductions proposed by factor 10.

Eco-efficiency As countries and regions around the world began to develop, it slowly became evident that industrialization and economic growth come hand in hand with environmental degradation. Eco-efficiency has been proposed as one of the main tools to promote a ...

, environmental purchasing design for environment, policies and environmental taxes have already been used by business and governments implementing the Factor 10 theory. Factor 10 goes farther as a response to the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

call for a tenfold reduction in resource consumption in industrialized countries as a necessary long-term target if adequate resources are to be released for the needs of the

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. With the predicted rise in population and economic growth to maintain the level of

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

we have today, we need to be able to produce the same output for 10% of the impact. Factor 10 concept is the direct way of using metric and various activities that can reduce the throughput of resources and energy in the given process. The essential question is by what factor certain flows can or should be reduced. It is a useful tool to monitor the performance of business in terms of dematerialization.Robert, K.H., Schmidt-Bleek, B., et al. (2002). "Strategic sustainable development, selection, design and synergies of applied tools." '' Journal of Cleaner Production''.

History

Factor 4

Goals

References

Further reading