Tag Archives: Decoupling

Circular Economy, Cascade Use and Efficiency as Pillars of a Factor Five World

Here are the slides of my talk on “Circular Economy, Cascade Use and Efficiency as Pillars of a Factor Five World“ at the LCM 2011 – Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management, on August 28–31 at the dahlem cube in Berlin. more…

Complexity, Interdisciplinarity and Overview: Virtues of 21st Century Universities

There is one unchallenged parameter for quality rankings of universities: publications in peer-reviewed journals. The same holds for quality measurements of candidates applying for professors’ chairs at ambitious research universities. Peer-reviewed publications typically have a rather narrow disciplinary scope. more…

The Ecological Mindset, Current and Future

Dinner Speech — Bren School Corporate Partners Summit — May 11, 2006 Tomorrow, we shall discuss the science, management and economics of catastrophes. After Katrina, this is one of the hot debates in this country and the world. I seem to observe some kind of a new mindset setting in and do hope that the Bren […] more…

Are We Any Closer to Saving the Planet Than Ten Years Ago?

The answer to this question should be yes and no. Yes, we are closer than ten years ago. During all of he 1990s, an irritatingly optimistic mindset was dominating the world. The very expression of ‘saving the planet’ would not have been politically correct in these days, because it sounds ‘pessimistic’. more…

Making Prices Work for the Environment

Let me at the outset distinguish two different tasks of environmental policy. One is pollution control which is predominantly a local and a national activity. The other task of environmental policy relates to global and long-term challenges such as climate change, biodiversity losses and unsustainable lifestyles. Prices can work for the environment in both arenas.  more…