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Inside the Book Resource Revolution
This briefing describes the concepts presented in the book 'Resource Revolution' by Stefan Heck and Matt Rogers, which argues that companies can spark a new industrial revolution by dramatically improving resource productivity through five specific strategic approaches.
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Document type: Briefing
Lovins GreenHome 1.0
This case study examines 'Lovins GreenHome 1.0', a residence and headquarters for the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) completed in 1984 in Snowmass, Colorado. The home serves as a demonstration of 'Factor Ten Engineering' (10xE), an integrative design approach that prioritizes functional goals and passive systems over conventional HVAC installations to achieve radical resource efficiency.
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Document type: Case study
Identifying resource productivity for five key economic sectors in the South West region
This research paper, published by the Stockholm Environment Institute in 2008, provides an environmental scoping study of five key economic sectors in the South West region of England. Using the Triple Bottom Line (BL3) software tool, the study estimates the carbon and ecological footprints of these sectors, benchmarking their resource productivity against UK national averages to inform regional debates on environmental limits.
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Document type: Research paper
The New Business Climate
The New Business Climate is a 2002 guide by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) designed to help corporations and institutions reduce carbon emissions while improving business performance. It argues that climate change presents both risks to asset values and opportunities for innovation, advocating for a transition from incremental thinking to radical resource efficiency and the use of emerging carbon markets to manage costs.
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Document type: Guide
Grappling with Growth: Building a Strong Economy and Great Place to Live
This research paper by Michael Kinsley addresses communities conflicted over local growth and development, proposing a distinction between 'development' (improvements) and 'expansion' (size increase) to better inform community planning.
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Document type: Research paper
The Greening of Human Settlements
The document argues that a new industrial revolution is emerging, driven by 'natural capitalism' and integrative design, which aims to increase resource productivity by 10- to 100-fold. The author posits that market-driven green design in human settlements—characterized by high density, pedestrian-centric transport, and resource-efficient buildings—can align commercial profitability with environmental restoration, potentially making traditional government spatial planning obsolete.
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Document type: Report
Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet
The report introduces 'natural capitalism,' a business framework that argues the current economic model is deficient because it liquidates natural capital and ecosystem services. The authors propose four principles—increasing resource productivity, eliminating waste, shifting to service-and-flow models, and investing in natural capital—to align corporate profit with planetary health.
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Document type: Report
NATURAL CAPITALISM
The document introduces 'natural capitalism,' a proposed new industrial paradigm that values natural and human capital alongside financial and manufactured capital. It argues that conventional industrial capitalism is unsustainable because it treats nature as a free, infinite resource, leading to the rapid depletion of living systems and ecosystem services. To avert ecological and social disaster, the text proposes four interrelated strategies: radical resource productivity, biomimicry, a service-and-flow economy, and direct investment in natural capital.
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Document type: Report
NATURAL CAPITALISM
This report chapter argues that while market economies are powerful tools for resource allocation, they are frequently dysfunctional due to theoretical misconceptions, capital misallocation, and organizational or regulatory failures. It proposes 'natural capitalism' as a framework to extend market principles to all forms of material value, including natural capital, by identifying and turning market imperfections into business opportunities for resource efficiency.
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Document type: Report
NATURAL CAPITALISM
This document, a chapter from 'Natural Capitalism', argues for a fundamental shift in business and economic models to prioritize resource productivity and the preservation of natural and social capital. It critiques the polarized nature of environmental debates and proposes a 'whole-system' approach that integrates diverse worldviews to ensure long-term economic and ecological viability.
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Document type: Report
Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels
This report chapter outlines the 'Hypercar' concept—an ultralight, hybrid-electric vehicle designed to drastically reduce resource consumption and environmental impact. It argues that by combining carbon-fiber composites, aerodynamic streamlining, and hydrogen fuel cells, the automotive industry can move beyond the 'Iron Age' of steel-based manufacturing. The text further asserts that technological efficiency must be paired with urban planning and land-use reforms to reduce overall dependence on driving and mitigate social costs like congestion and sprawl.
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Document type: Report
Natural Capitalism—Chapter 3: Waste Not
This report chapter examines the 'industrial metabolism' of the United States, arguing that the current industrial system is characterized by massive waste of natural resources, human potential, and financial capital. It contends that conventional economic measures like GDP are misleading because they count the costs of waste and social decay as economic growth, masking a decline in actual quality of life and the depletion of natural capital.
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Document type: Report
MAKING THE WORLD
This report chapter explores how industrial production can transition from a linear 'depletion to pollution' model to a circular system based on biological principles. It argues that significant reductions in energy and material use are possible through a combination of smarter design, new technologies, distributed controls, corporate culture shifts, and the adoption of remanufacturing and recycling.
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Document type: Report