Negawatts, feebates and food-miles

The last three decades have seen environmentalism emerge as the most pervasive social movement of the post-1945 period.

Among those at the leading edge of this movement are Friends of the Earth Netherlands, Miliendefensie. They have attempted to calculate what share of the world's natural resources would be available to each European citizen by the year 2010, assuming an equitable and sustainable distribution of resources. The changes in lifestyle that would be necessary include cutting carbon dioxide emissions from 12 tonnes per capita to 4, reducing household fresh water use from 130 litres per capita to 80, cutting aluminium consumption by 80%, timber usage by over 60% and meat consumption by 60 to 80%.

In the UK, the perceived quality of life deteriorated substantially between 1975 and 1990. Over the period, a New Economics Foundation study found that despite a 230% increase in GNP, the costs of commuting, pollution, policing and cumulative environmental damage all rose significantly.

As a result of such pressures, we would bet that by the end of the century one or more high profile international corporations will have appointed a new type of stakeholder to their boards: representatives of future generations.

Denmark's Novo Nordisk - the enzymes-to-insulin company - has introduced an Eco-Productivity Index in its environmental reporting. 'Our aim', says Chief Executive Mads Øvlisen, 'is to continue improving our performance against the Index.' It relates the company's turnover to its consumption of such inputs as raw materials, energy and water. If the Index rises, it shows the company is producing more value per unit of input, and vice versa. Should not more companies, more industries and more economies be reporting on this basis?

And new Green industries will blossom - based on 'biomimetic' materials (duplicating the extraordinary properties of natural materials), 'virtual' meeting rooms that will save people (and the environment) the wear and tear of travel, and custom-designed organisms that help in environmental restoration.

By the age of 18, the average teenager will have seen 150,000 television ads. Advertising agencies will need to start arguing for reduced consumption. As Ingebrigt Steen Jensen of the Norwegian ad agency, JBR, puts it: 'We want to inform the people of the rich countries that they can't go on consuming like today - and to motivate them to support an historic change leading to reduction in wealth and consumption.'

At the US Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory Lovins talks of the challenge of generating both negawatts of electricity and negabarrels of oil.

A negawattt could either be a watt of energy which is available for other uses because of energy efficiency measures in one area, or a watt of energy which does not have to be generated - for the same reasons - so that new generating capacity does not have to be provided.

There will also be 'feebates' - involving charging fees on inefficient, polluting cars and rebating the proceeds to efficient, clean cars; and 'food-mile' taxes on the distance that products travel to markets.

Over the next decade, as companies struggle to 'do more with less' they need to pay attention to a range of resource efficiency requirements, the '7 R's': Reduce materials consumption; Reduce energy consumption; Reduce packaging; Promote Re-use; promote Recycling; promote Repair; Resource review.