The aim of this chapter is to analyze the extent to which resource efficiency can be considered an economic opportunity to businesses, and to discuss the benefits and limitations of resource efficiency as perceived by companies. Based on established methodology, the authors performed literature review on benefits and limitations of improving resource efficiency, and opportunities resource efficiency could bring to businesses, and carried out interviews with six SMEs entrepreneurs. Results suggest the need to innovate in production and consumption and call for a more rigorous, science-based approach in decision making, especially when it comes to natural resources. International cooperation is seen as a means to making a transformation to resource-efficient future. The interviews also show that components most appreciated in promoting the efficient use of resources are (actual) financial aid and tax benefits, as well as education for sustainability and resource efficiency.
TopIntroduction
Technological advances have shrunken the world to a system in which everything and everyone is interconnected. Nowadays, it is within seconds that one can get the latest news from the other side of the globe and learn about a specific subject even if in a geographically distant location. This is how people now know they share and are drawn, together, by the serious problems they face: a widening gulf between rich and poor, food insecurity (Eurostat, 2022), infectious diseases, military conflicts, climate change (European Commission [EC], 2018; United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2020; European Commission, 2011; European Commission, 2010), (un)sustainability, and several other pressing issues that are increasingly threatening global security and stability (EC, 2018).
Among these subjects, extraction of resources and progressive environmental degradation have become of particular interest over the past century. Currently, it is generally acknowledged that the access to natural resources is already in jeopardy what creates genuine concerns about the world’s future economy, society and environment (EC, 2011).
When discussing the access to and the use of resources, one of the biggest issues under debate is the pace at which renewable resources are being exploited, not giving the planet enough time to regenerate (EC, 2005). For instance, as reported by the European Union [EU] (2011), each person living in the EU territory consumes 16 tons of materials every year but ends up wasting 6 of a total of 16. In total, people in the EU throw away 2.7 billion tons of waste, 98 million tons of which is hazardous. On average, only 40% of solid waste is re-used or recycled (EC, 2011). Even if Europe is dependent on resources coming from outside, the negative impact of resource scarcity is being experienced around the world, with economies such as Brazil using their natural resources very quickly (EC, 2005).
It seems consensual that the environmental degradation is mainly caused by human activity what implies that people urgently need to change the traditional patterns of decision making and behavior (Chatzistamoulou & Tyllianakis, 2022; EC, 2018; Garrido-Prada et al., 2021) to adjust this tendency. If the society continues to follow the regular pattern of consumption, it is estimated that the global usage of resources will quadruple within the next two decades (EC, 2005). On the bright side, the analysis of material and waste streams in the EU suggests that even if the total consumption per capita remains the same, economy has grown by 50% over the last 20 years, which means that Europe has managed to enhance material efficiency over time (EC, 2005).
In response to the challenges of responsible and sustainable resource use, new concepts of business venturing have been proposed and tested. It is argued that balancing business goals with sustainably oriented management can provide the necessary means to minimize negative impacts of human activity on the environment without compromising business objectives. As resources and ecosystems are finite, the involved stakeholders need to be on the same page when it comes to values and decisions. It becomes essential to understand how environmental concerns impact business strategies and how they affect primary and support activities, and supply chain activities in particular.
The aim of this chapter is to examine and discuss if and how resource efficiency (RE) could be an economic opportunity for business, more specifically, for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, the authors first present the basic concepts used in the chapter, and then conduct six semi-structured interviews with SMEs entrepreneurs, followed by the discussion of the results and conclusions. The focus on SMEs in this chapter can be explained by the role they play in most economies given their share in businesses and their contribution to the national GDP (European Investment Bank [EIB], 2022).