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

today: Overconsumption ?

Biodiversity Loss

Desertification

Danger to freshwater reserves

Climate Change

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.

to reduce the overall resource use caused by products

Carbon is not enough!

Overall objective

Greenhouse gas emissions

Water

Abiotic materials (incl. fossil fuels)

Biotic materials

Resource use categories

Land area

Tomorrow: Joie de Vivre ?

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

To get there: you can’t manage what you can’t measure

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

Ecological rucksacks: a sense of justice

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

Source: Water Footprint Network, 2009

Example: water footprint of 1 espresso : 140 litres

Economic Income (GDP)

Quality of life

Total material consumption

„Frontpage indicators“: the

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

Eco-efficiency

more quality of life…

… .... less resoruce use!

29

• 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

Thank you very much / millegrazie!

www.seri.at/FH/