ABSTRACT
The economics of less input per output generates series of tugs-of-war rather than a coordinated impact reduction effort. The basic idea is to provide a given amount of service or utility with less: Fewer products, less product use, less material, or less energy. The advantage of ‘less’, relative to ‘different’ and ‘again’, is that the environmental impact reduction is much more directly built into the pollution prevention strategy. Using less of an input, all other things being equal, decreases environmental impact and also reduces economic cost. If the cost of the input is significant, companies have an economic incentive to use less. The strategy of ‘less physical input per physical output’ has several serious shortcomings, which all limit its importance going forward. First, physical production processes have minimum requirements for material and energy input. Next, ‘less physical input per physical output’ is an eco-efficiency strategy and is thus subject to all the perils involved in relying on eco-efficiency alone.
