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This Interactive Library aims to facilitate information exchange between stakeholders interested in resource efficiency. A solid and comprehensive information base is needed to create the required integrated policy approach.
Stakeholders are invited to share their resource efficiency related views, findings and reports and/or to browse through the Library.
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<Report> Changing Tack: Extending Corporate Leadership on Sustainable Development
Globescan and SustainAbility, June 2013
The final output of The Regeneration Roadmap, Changing Tack offers the private sector a prescription for piloting the unfamiliar seas of sustainable development that lie ahead.
Changing Tack holds that choices made on sustainable development now through 2020 will shape success or failure through mid-century, and demands that business leaders commit to doing more, even in the face of uncertainty, to guarantee that present and future societies and ecosystems thrive.
Link to 'Changing Tack: Extending Corporate Leadership on Sustainable Development'
<Report> Global market survey – Forest Stewardship Council
Forest Stewardship Council, June 2013
Each year, FSC conducts a market survey to examine market trends and gain insights into how FSC certification benefits our customers and different industries and regions. In 2012, more than 4,000 FSC certificate holders participated in the survey.
The FSC Global Market Survey Report 2012 shows that the distribution of FSC certified products has grown significantly in recent years and continues to grow every day as consumers choose products from well-managed forests. Having this information on the impacts of growth in the global FSC market is important for FSC and our stakeholders. The insights about market developments and future trends also show where FSC certification makes a difference for certified businesses and forests and where they can improve their efforts.
<Report> Eco-innovation: greener business through smart solutions
European Commission, May 2013
Launched in 2008, the Eco-innovation initiative is part of the EU’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP), set up to support innovation among SMEs and to improve their competitiveness. It is included in the EIP’s annual work programmes. This brochure presents a collection of projects that have successfully managed to change the way we consume, produce, build and recycle: from using CO2 to grow algae to convert into vital nutrients to turning old TVs into hardwearing, decorative tiles.
Link to 'Eco-innovation: greener business through smart solutions'
<Report> Living within our means: water and resource efficiency in the EU
The Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), June 2013
This paper sets out the European policy context for water efficiency, it explores a number of areas where the key challenges and opportunities lie. It first looks at the balance between efficiency and environmental limits. Second, it considers targets and indicators for water efficiency. Third, it looks at water pricing policy, discusses how to upgrade technology and reduce leakage. Finally, it takes a sectoral perspective, looking at water efficiency in the industrial, energy and agricultural sectors, before finally drawing conclusions about whether resource efficiency is the right paradigm for delivering sustainable water use.
Link to 'Living within our means: water and resource efficiency in the EU'
<Report> Going for growth: a practical route to a circular economy
Environmental Services Association, June 2013
The global economy has followed a linear pattern of production and consumption for the past 150 years and in that time has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But this model has reached its limits as ever greater pressure is put on the Earth’s resources. A linear economy simply can no longer provide the growth to sustain rising living standards across a global population which continues to expand apace. A circular economy, where the UK increasingly re-uses and recycles the resources it already has, could help generate 50,000 new jobs with £10 billion investment, boosting GDP by £3 billion. The circular economy is the best long-run approach to return the UK to sustainable growth. The waste and resources industry can deliver this new economy. It is the means through which materials and energy can be returned into other productive parts of the economy. Its expertise can help redesign the UK’s supply chains to maximise material recovery and the economy’s resilience to the resource crunch of the future.
This report explains the waste and resources industry’s role at the heart of the circular economy. It highlights some of the barriers preventing the take up of greater circularity and offers solutions along the supply chain.
Link to 'Going for growth: a practical route to a circular economy'
<Report> Heat Roadmap Europe: cheaper comfort, faster decarbonisation, better energy
Aalborg University, Halmstad University, Ecofys Germany BmbH, PlanEnergi, May 2013
Heat Roadmap Europe3 is the first study on the EU27 scale which combines geographical mapping of energy demand and supply in unprecedented detail with detailed energy system modelling. Heat Roadmap Europe identifies the potential for using local resources across Europe, and subsequently applies this in the EU27 energy system. The results are recommendations for a redesign of the European heat supply.
In 2009 the European Council made the objective for the EU to decarbonise its energy system to at least 80% below the 1990 level by 2050, without affecting general economic growth. A number of measures and technologies could contribute to these goals. A scenario which achieves these goals is the Energy Efficiency scenario in the Energy Roadmap 2050 report4 by the European Commission. The Heat Roadmap Europe scenario proposed here achieves these same CO2 reduction, but at a lower cost. Lowering the energy consumption in buildings is essential. However here we combine heat savings in the buildings with higher energy efficiency by expanding district heating in the future heat supply in the EU27. Local conditions are considered using geographical information systems (GIS) and combined with hour-by-hour energy system analyses for the EU27, which enables us to find a robust strategy to increase competitiveness, integrate more renewables and reduce the risks in the energy supply. By analysing heat savings and energy efficiency, by investigating local conditions, and by making energy system analyses we are able to identify a balance between heat savings and key infrastructural changes in the energy supply.
Link to 'Heat Roadmap Europe: cheaper comfort, faster decarbonisation, better energy'
<Online Book> Putting green growth at the heart of development
OECD, 2013
This report addresses the question: what type of growth can generate both wealth and well-being for all citizens of current and future generations, whilst at the same time respecting the environment?
It proposes a twin-track approach to guide national and international action to support green growth in developing countries. It aims to assist governments interested in pursuing green growth in their own countries, or supporting it in others. It draws on extensive consultations with developing countries and international stakeholders, which provided a forum for discussing questions and concerns around the concept of green growth. The examples and cases described in the publication present a clear and hopeful message: the pursuit of green growth by developing countries is vital for their future and can lead to large economic and social benefits over time, including the poorest citizens.
<Video> Renewable energy targets in Europe for 2030
viEUws.eu - the EU Policy Broadcaster, June 2013
Josche Muth, the Secretary-General of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) discusses the environment priorities for 2030, particularly covering the renewable energy market, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and decarbonisation.
<Report> Environment and human health
EEA & JRC, May 2013
Human health and well‑being are intimately linked to environmental quality. This has been recognised for decades amongst policymakers in Europe, and most recently appears as a cornerstone in the European Commission’s proposal for the 7th Environment Action Programme. This report, produced jointly by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), outlines a number of environmental issues with a direct influence on people’s health and well-being and is a follow-up and update to the 2005 EEA/JRC report.
<Executive Summary> Results of the Competitiveness and Innovation Eco-innovation Initiative
European Commission, May 2013
The Competitiveness and Innovation (CIP) Eco-innovation Initiative is a grant scheme funded by the EU which aims to support commercially oriented eco-innovation projects of European enterprises. The Initiative was launched in 2008, as part of the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). It is managed by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission.
The funding is offered for the commercialisation of new market-ready products, processes or systems that have positive environmental benefits; and focuses on innovative solutions that can be replicated by other companies across the EU. The funding thus contributes not only to protecting the environment but also to improving the overall competitiveness of European business. Applications for funding are invited each year under specified thematic priorities:
■ Materials and Process Recycling
■ Buildings
■ Food and Drink
■ Greening Business
■ Water efficiency, treatment and distribution (since 2011)
This report provides a summary of the main results from the projects funded in the first three years’ of the Initiative. In this time, 126 projects received total funding of €86.8 million from the EU, matching investment provided by the projects. These projects are typically transnational cooperation projects. Around 70% of the projects involve partners from more than one country; projects comprise on average 4 partners, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) forming the large majority of the partners. Partners operate in the manufacturing sector (37%), the environmental services sector (34%) and scientific and technical activities (25%). 43% of the projects based on the main partner, are located in Spain and Italy, with the remaining projects mainly from UK, Netherlands, Austria, France and Germany.
The study confirms that the programme in the first 3 years offers good value for money based on the projected environmental, economic and employment benefits which far exceed the public resources spent on supporting the projects.
Link to 'Results of the Competitiveness and Innovation Eco-innovation Initiative'
