The Outweighed Efficiency Gain – 13 Rebound Effects in Detail
December 12, 2012 5 CommentsAccording to Tilman Santarius, one essential concept is missing in all the scenarios that lead toward a green economy. It is, so he wrote, that expectations for reduced energy consumption from efficiency gains need to be lowered by 50 percent because not all the energy that could be will actually be saved. How come? The story is called rebound effect and Santarius has researched it profoundly, as ...
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Why Environmental Regulation Is Not Scaring Off Industry – On Dec ...
October 8, 2012Some say strict environmental regulations in individual countries are useless, especially from a global perspective. The thought behind this view is that the actual benefit to the environment resulting from strict regulations is minor because the more polluting an industry, the more likely it will migrate to places with lower regulation. Is that true? Location Choice Depends on Many Factors The common belief that industries always move to the location with the lowest environmental restrictions is what economists and environmental scientists call pollution haven theory. Whether that theory is...
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Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aqu ...
September 11, 2012 1 CommentLast week, in part one of this article, we ended with the tragedy of the commons and the question of whether overfishing is a logical consequence of human nature. Luckily, not all things are as bad as they seem. Let's get back to our effort to increase comprehension and scroll to page 18 of Frank Asche's report (Green Growth in Fisheries and Aquaculture Production and Trade). He seems quite confident there. [T]here is no doubt that aquaculture can be carried out in a sustainable manner, independent of the level of intensity. Therefore, the real issue with aquaculture and sustainability is whe...
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Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aqu ...
September 5, 2012 1 CommentShrimp farms destroy sensitive mangrove forest ecosystems, salmon escape from designated aquaculture spots and spread parasites, fish trawlers leave nothing but empty seas behind and even organic fish farming could be unsustainable due to dependence on fish meal from wild catch. When it comes to seafood, the message transmitted across mainstream media channels is devastating: there is simply nothing left we can eat responsibly, be it from the wild or aquaculture. Does that mean we all have to go vegetarian? Well, in many cases, the good news is that fish performs better than meat, when it come...
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Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Compani ...
August 29, 2012 7 CommentsIn the last 150 years, three major trends have changed the way humanity consumes. First, industrialization shifted production from self-sufficiency to consumerism. Second, ongoing economic development allowed local economies to expand across entire countries, which was followed by globalization and worldwide markets. Globalization started with colonial powers trading goods between continents and has not yet achieved its peak, even if it has been more than 30 years now since China opened its markets. The third important development marking a substantial shift in the way we consume is telephone ...
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More Than Ecosystem Dynamics - Understanding the Different Concep ...
June 11, 2012 1 CommentThere are these technical terms - complicated words with Latin origins - that experts have used for ages without any outsider noticing. All of a sudden one of these terms magically manages to escape the academic ivory tower. Enjoying newly found freedom, the term slowly makes its way into the mainstream. But the road is long and hard, the poor term runs the risk of being misused. Resilience is one of these terms, a tricky little word with many meanings and different connotations. Resilience is now on the verge of making it to the masses. Well, maybe not the masses, but to a broader community o...
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Social Media Users Willing to Pay More when Company is Responsibl ...
September 8, 2011 1 CommentSocial media users are more ethically and environmentally aware, in relation to their pattern of consumption. This is the conclusion we can draw from a global poll among 28.000 people. The globescan survey reveals that regular users of social media are more willing to reward or punish companies for their being or not being ethically responsible: In particular, the survey found that while 24 per cent of non-social media users said they had rewarded a socially responsible company, the figure was significantly higher – 31 per cent – among regular social media users. Reward for Responsible Compa...
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Energy Efficiency, Policy Problem Child No.1
August 31, 201120% reduction of greenhouse gases until 2020 - We're on the right track. 20% renewable energy - Almost there. More than likely, the two first of the three 20-20-20 EU objectives will be achieved. But there is a third one. 20% reduction of energy consumption - Ouch! Accomplishing 20-20-20 Objectives by 2/3 In reference to the year 1990, all of the 27 EU member states want to reduce their energy consumption by 20% until 2020. But the current trend for 2020 promises a reduction of only 10%. Well, let's begin with the facts, the good facts first. We can expect an overall GHG reduction of 20...
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Waste Prevention vs. Recycling - Analyzing Material Flow Accounts
August 30, 2011 3 CommentsWhy should we even bother about recycling, when we could prevent waste in the first place? Well, according to the following study, published in May 2011, forget that question. Turn it around. We shouldn't even bother about waste prevention. Seeking a European Resource Efficiency Framework In an attempt to estimate the impact of policy efforts, the European Comission ordered several studies, aiming at the development of a frameweork contract for resource efficieny. The most interesting of all these studies is the analysis of the Key Contributions to Resource Efficiency. Three parties were inv...
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Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Compani ...
August 29, 2012 7 Comments -
Only 16.7% of Global Energy Consumption Is Renewable – Ways for I ...
June 26, 2012 6 Comments -
Biomass Lagging Behind Prospering Wind and Solar Markets
September 1, 2011 6 Comments -
How Sustainable are Europe's 5 Million E-Cars in 2020? New LCA Gu ...
February 5, 2013 5 Comments -
10 Appropriate Indicators to Measure Green Growth in Industry
December 17, 2012 5 Comments
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5 Clear-Cut Economic Benefits of Sustainability Reporting
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How to Recycle Phosphorus, the Most Least-Known Scarce Resource
May 6, 2013 1 Comment -
ISO 14051-Based Material Flow Cost Accounting in a Nutshell
May 1, 2013 1 Comment -
Who's Happier – The Proactive Lohas or the Spontaneous Hedonist? ...
April 9, 2013 -
The Truth About the Dragon: China's Future is Inevitably Green
April 3, 2013 1 Comment
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Here's another noteworthy "MDPI Sustainability"-article asse ...
May 20, 2013 -
Thanks Moritz for the interesting blog post. Recently ARTE T ...
May 8, 2013 -
A very nice blog explaining the basic idea as well as the be ...
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[...] valued the universal guidelines for all sorts of envi ...
May 1, 2013 -
[...] 5-Fold Increase in Efficiency – Not Delusional at All ...
April 22, 2013
