Terms
A
Areal Input per Unit of Service or Utility, Flächeninput pro Einheit Nutzen – FIPS
A robust and directionally safe indicator for the comparison of functionally equivalent goods with respect to their surface coverage/use. A quantitative measure for the “use of natural surface” per unit service, per unit utility or per unit extractable value. The ecological “surface price” for utility.
C
Cost Per Unit Service – COPS
Costs in monetary terms for obtaining a unit of service, either on a person-to-person basis or by employing one or more machines.
D
Dematerialization
The diminution in use of natural resources for generating material wealth by technical means.
E
Eco-Industry
That part of industry which is pro-actively and measurably involved in eco-innovation on the micro-, meso- or macro-level, including firms and enterprises offering novel solutions for meeting legally required standards.
Eco-efficiency
“The delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity, through the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrier capacity”
(Business Council for Sustainable Development, Frank Bosshardt, 1991).
Eco-Innovation
Eco-Innovation means the creation of novel and competitively priced goods, processes, systems, services, and procedures that can satisfy human needs and bring quality of life to all people with a life-cycle-wide minimal use of natural resources (material including energy, and surface area) per unit output, and a minimal release of toxic substances.
EU Eco-Innovation Panel
Eco-intensity
An indicator for the “consumption of nature” (Material, Energy, Surface) per unit of output or per unit of extractable value. Any absolute decrease in eco-intensity contributes toward reaching sustainability.
Eco-intelligent Consumption
The utilization of eco-intelligent products and services.
Eco-intelligent Economy = Customized Economy = Sustainable Economy
From an ecological point of view, a sustainable economy is a market economy that makes a maximum of high quality customized services available to all people within the guard rails of at least a Factor 10.
Eco-intelligent Processes
Technical procedures that function at competitive prices by utilizing eco-intelligent products and equipment and a minimum input of natural resources with the smallest possible output of waste and toxic substances.
Eco-intelligent Production
Organizational, managerial and technical processes for producing goods and services at competitive prices that utilize eco-intelligent products and equipment and a minimum input of natural resources with the smallest possible output of waste and toxic substances.
Eco-intelligent Products
Nontoxic utensils, objects, foodstuffs, machines, vehicles, buildings, infrastructures etc. that produce a maximum number of high quality service units at competitive prices with a minimum of natural materials and land use.
Eco-intelligent Service
Meeting of a defined and socially acceptable demand – or a bundle of demands - at a competitive price by means of eco-intelligent products (“service delivery machines”) and the smallest possible input of natural resources.
Eco-intelligent Service Economy
In a service economy that operates according to the MIPS- and Factor 10 concepts, mainly eco-intelligent services are being traded, paid for in COPS (costs per unit service). In most cases, customers procure such services directly. In cases where this is not advantages, the customer acquires the appropriate eco-intelligent product that are priced according of the guaranteed number of service units available from that product.
Ecological Rucksack of a Product
The total amount of natural material input (Total MI) for manufacturing a product, minus the weight of the product itself (see also MI-Factor below). Ecological rucksacks are counted separately for abiotic (non-renewable) and biotic materials, moved soil, water and air.
Ecologically Sustainable Economy
Service-oriented customized economy that operates with at least a Factor 10 less natural material resources per capita (including rucksacks) than were consumed in the US economy in 1995. Note, this is a necessary condition even though it may not be a sufficient one.
F
Factor 10
The goal to dematerialize the economies of the industrialized countries tenfold on the average within 30 to 50 years for the purpose of approaching sustainability. Equivalent to increasing the resource productivity tenfold on the average during the same time period.
FIPS (Flächeninput pro Einheit Service)
A robust and directionally safe indicator for the comparison of functionally equivalent goods with respect to their surface coverage/use. A quantitative measure for the “use of natural surface” per unit service, per unit utility or per unit extractable value. The ecological “surface price” for utility.
M
Material Input – MI
The totality of natural materials that are moved by technical means from their natural places in order to manufacture a product or produce a service. MI includes all natural materials that are needed to make the necessary energy available. MI is measured in tons or kg.
Material Input per Unit Service, per Unit Utility, or per Unit extracted Value - MIPS
A robust and directionally safe indicator for the comparison of functionally equivalent products with respect to their material intensity. A quantitative measure for the use of natural materials per unit service, per unit utility or per unit extracted value. The “material price for utility”.
MI-Factor (Rucksack-Factor)
An intensity factor that gives the total quantity of natural material (including the material for making the necessary energy available) for all technical input materials (such as wood, metals, cement, plastics, or chemicals), measured in kg/kg. The sum of multiplying each constituent material content of a good with its specitic MI-factor yields the total MI of the good. Subtracting the weight of the good from the total MI yields the ecological rucksack of the good.
S
Service (man-made)
The purpose-oriented generation of utility by employing technical means. All man-made services require the use of technology. Services can be rendered either by humans or by machines.
Services of nature (of the ecosphere)
Services of nature (of the ecosphere) are the essential and costfree support for all life on earth. They include for instance the availability of clean water and air, edible plants and animals, the propagative power of seeds and sperms, and a multitude of different elements and materials. They include the formation and maintenance of productive soil, a rich biodiversity, fitting climatic conditions with appropriate seasonal changes and temperature ranges, all linked to the water cycles, and they also include the protection from dangerous radiation from outer space.
Services of nature cannot be generated by technology on any noticeable scale. Services of nature are indivisible and cost-free available to all humans around the globe. If they could be traded on the market, they would obviously carry an infinitely high price.
Services of nature are vulnerable to human economic activities. The root cause for these changes is the indiscriminate use of natural resources. Already today, consequences thereof can be observed, e.g. massive soil erosion, water shortages, desertification, loss of species, and climatic changes, including increasing catastrophic events like hurricanes and floods.
While the change of natural services can be caused by some members of the human race, all people around the globe have to suffer the consequences.
Sustainability
Sustainability requires disturbing the natural evolution of the ecosphere as little as possible by human activities. Only if humankind manages the use of the ecosphere accordingly, can future generations be expected being able to meet their needs.
T
Technosphere (Anthroposphere)
Man-made environment.
Total Material Flow – TMF, or Total Material Requirement – TMR
Economic indicator for measuring (tons/year) the yearly quantity of natural material – including their rucksacks – needed for sustaining an economy or branch within defined geographical or political boundaries.