Less is more, waste prevention and resource optimisation across a life cycle

Less is More

The economic crisis of 2007 was a car crash in slow-motion; frustrating because nobody warned us and the banks danced to the speculative tune. Now economists can calculate a much more dangerous event that is being greeted with even less concern: our world is rapidly reaching a crisis in resource availability – of water, energy, metals, phosphorous and food.

The Industrial Revolution allowed us to make technological progress in delivering resources. The average price of thirty-three commodities (equally weighted) declined by 70 per cent (after inflation) between 1900 and 2002. Then, abruptly and without any particular crisis, prices reversed and in ten years the average commodity tripled to give back the advantage of the previous 100 years. It is perhaps the most important “phase” change of modern times, yet it attracted, remarkably, little attention or concern.