Definition
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), who has been instrumental in increasing the awareness of the eco-efficiency concept, has defined eco-efficiency as:
Creating more value with less environmental impact
In terms of a definition of the concept of eco-efficiency, two equivalent definitions of eco-efficiency are provided: the ratio of value to environmental impact (WBCSD 2000), as in the definition above, and the inversed ratio of environmental impact to value (UN 2003).
Theory and Application
Depending on the application that is studied, the value and impact terms in the eco-efficiency definition can be different entities. The created value can be, e.g., a provided supply, a fulfilled function, a satisfied demand, or an added value. The environmental impact can be some measure of a specific type of impact...
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References
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Moltesen, A., Hauschild, M. (2018). Eco-efficiency. In: The International Academy for Production (eds) CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35950-7_6637-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35950-7_6637-3
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