Responsible Use of Resources
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Resources are getting scarcer and scarcer on this planet and global population is still growing – by more than 2 billion people by 2050.
Efficient use of resources is of utmost importance in order to keep pace with the needs of a continuously growing global population. Investments into innovation are crucial to drive innovation and increase efficiency performance. In many value chains in food and non-food businesses, manufacturing and processing companies have to cope with increasing raw material costs. Resource efficiency directly leads to a reduction of production costs, which gives an incentive to invest.
But can research and development solve this problem alone? In addition to improving resource efficiency, the avoidance of resource consumption is also necessary. Avoidance strategies can be manifold and in parts are also technology based. Sustainable product design helps to avoid use of scarce resources (e.g. the cradle to cradle approach is one example). Investments in already existing post-harvest and food processing technologies and their transfer from the rich to the poor countries significantly help to avoid losses in plant nutrients, energy and water in developing countries. The urgent question is: How to upscale technology innovations and transfer in times of empty public funds, in particular for those who are not in the position to invest in state of the art technology?
The session will present some best practices. It will also enter into discussion on how to organize knowledge transfer more efficiently, in a more timely fashion and in a manner that is affordable for technology applying companies and organizations. In the context of knowledge transfer to the poorer countries the questions of how to install technologies in an appropriate and long lasting structure arises. In developing countries very often low-tech solutions show good results, but entrepreneurs with a focus on social improvements are needed also to establish solutions successfully.
Last, but not least, governments are asked to contribute to more responsible uses of resources by:
- Developing mandatory mechanisms for assessing products and services until banning products and services with far above average consumption of resources
- Spending more money on research and development as well as on the transfer of technologies.
- Setting tax incentives for innovative companies where market prices cannot ensure sustainable business models.
- Facilitating the transfer of technologies instead of charging high import taxes for low-tech solutions.