Introduction

Part I of this book clearly contains the core of the Factor Five message – that 80 per cent improvements in resource productivity are possible and that some leaders are already demonstrating that it can be done. The Sector Studies describe lots of very exciting opportunities, mostly for entire branches of our economies, to become dramatically more resource efficient than is the case today. A somewhat similar message, albeit focused mostly on leading examples of isolated technologies, was also the core of Factor Four. There, we had offered 50 examples of a fourfold, or better, increase of energy or resource productivity. In Factor Four, we, meaning Ernst von Weizsäcker, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins, were hoping and expecting that all this was going to become broadly used and applied. Amory Lovins' ingenious innovation of a car capable of doing 150 miles on a gallon of petrol (about 1.5 litres per 100 kilometres) sounded like an automatic success story for a world wanting more motorization under conditions of dwindling oil resources, and increasing concerns with global warming. But what happened? In America it was the time of the avid expansion of that new fleet of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and Hummers needing much more fuel than their compact predecessors. Similarly, logistics of produce transport, as highlighted in Factor Four through the ‘Strawberry Yoghurt’ case study, was hoped to become less intensive by a factor of four; however, in reality, the mileage increased. Water-saving devices, the leasing instead of selling of solvents, and the re-use of package containers still remain insignificant niche businesses. And all in all, energy and resource consumption has relentlessly been on the rise during the last 15 years following the first publication of Factor Four.