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The imperative of resource efficiency for long run economic and social development is not new. An OECD Council Recommendation issued in 20081 encouraged member countries to ‘take appropriate actions to improve resource productivity and reduce negative environmental impacts of materials and product use’. In the same year, G8 environment ministers signed the Kobe 3R Action Plan, in which countries agreed to prioritise implementation of 3Rs2 policy in order to improve resource productivity. More recent developments signal an increasing level of ambition on resource efficiency. The establishment of the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency at Schloss Elmau in 2015 was a significant landmark. The subsequent adoption of the Toyama Framework on Material Cycles, in which G7 countries committed to taking ambitious action on resource efficiency, provides additional momentum. THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF RESOURCE EFFICIENCYDecoupling economic growth from natural resource extraction is not just about ensuring a high quality natural resource base for future generations. It is equally clear that resource efficiency can be a powerful tool for improving our quality of life today. Activities that prolong the lifetime of materials in our economic system, or which increase the supply of secondary recycled materials, could become significant drivers of re-industrialisation and job creation while, at the same time, reducing national exposure to geo-political commodity supply risks. In practice, decoupling economic growth from the use of natural resources will require the continued emergence of business models that are founded on the preservation, rather than exploitation, of resources. The ongoing substitution of renewable resources for their non-renewable equivalents is just one example; the transition to a low-carbon energy system has already created opportunities in the electricity sector, and also further upstream in advanced manufacturing. In a similar way, increased substitution of secondary recycled materials for their primary equivalents will require an expanded network of material capture, sorting, and reprocessing facilities. Opportunities will also arise for firms undertaking repair and remanufacturing, activities that are labour intensive and that will be central to keeping products in circulation for longer. Finally, the rapidly emerging sharing economy, with its potential to improve the utilisation rates of under-used assets, represents potential value for the owners of things such as housing, vehicles and office space. THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF RESOURCE EFFICIENCYResource efficiency also represents a promising means of easing the pressures that our economic system places on the environment. Waste is a ubiquitous by-product of almost all production and consumption activities and, once produced, accumulates in our soils, rivers, and oceans. By slowing the introduction of virgin resources into our economic system, and by capturing and reprocessing the waste materials that emerge from it, resource efficiency can produce real improvements in environmental quality, ecosystem health, and our climate system. One prominent example relates to climate change. It is becoming increasingly apparent that material management, whether involving extraction, transport, processing, or manufacturing, can be highly energy intensive. For instance, the mining and metal industry accounted for 7.5 per cent of global energy consumption in 2014, with the vast majority of this originating in coal or other fossil energy sources3. The mitigation opportunity provided by resource efficiency is clear; finished metals produced from recycled scrap are highly substitutable for their primary equivalents, and also require considerably less energy to produce (Figure 1). Pictured: Angel GurríaRESOURCE EFFICIENCY 071