Eco-efficiency and Its xsTerminology

Summary Eco‐efficiency has been defined as a general goal of creating value while decreasing environmental impact. Leaving out the normative part of this concept, the empirical part refers to a ratio between environmental impact and economic cost or value. Two basic choices must be made in defining...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of industrial ecology Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 43 - 46
Main Authors Huppes, Gjalt, Ishikawa, Masanobu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 238 Main St., Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-1046 USA MIT Press 01.10.2005
Subjects
environmental cost-effectiveness industrial ecology
environmental improvement cost
environmental intensity
environmental productivity
lexicon
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Summary Eco‐efficiency has been defined as a general goal of creating value while decreasing environmental impact. Leaving out the normative part of this concept, the empirical part refers to a ratio between environmental impact and economic cost or value. Two basic choices must be made in defining practical eco‐efficiency: which variable is in the denominator and which is in the numerator; and whether to specify environmental impact or improvement and value created or cost. Distinguishing between two situations, the general one of value creation and the specific one of environmental improvement efforts, and leaving the numerator‐denominator choice to the user, as diverging practices have developed, four basic types of ecoefficiency result: environmental intensity and environmental productivity in the realm of value creation; and environmental improvement cost and environmental cost‐effectiveness in the realm of environmental improvement measures.
Bibliography:ArticleID:JIEC43
ark:/67375/WNG-JH65D2WT-H
istex:A765ECA775BF72CB9B966A90521C362E349B783E
Head of the Industrial Ecology Department and associate professor of environmental system sciences at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands. He is the editors of the special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on eco‐efficiency.
Professor of Environmental and Economic Systems Analysis at the Graduate School of Economics at Kobe University in Kobe, Japan. He is the editors of the special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on eco‐efficiency.
ISSN:1088-1980
1530-9290
DOI:10.1162/108819805775247891