How to Measure Resource Efficiency

Even though resource efficiency is a considered factor in every branch of industry and has become a term regularly used in the media, so far there did not exist a common definition of what resource efficiency actually is. It was thus almost impossible to measure the resource efficiency of a product, a process, service or even a company. The new standard VDI 4800 Blatt 1 offers a method to assess resource efficiency and therefore goes beyond the classical environmental management by illustrating vast resource efficiency potentials. To do so, products and product-service-systems are reviewed corporate strategically throughout their whole life cycle. Additionally, the new standard offers 36 examples of resource efficiency measures relevant to a product or product process, thereby enriching the theoretical assessment concept.

Wuppertal Institute's Holger Rohn has been contributing to the development of the standard. VDI 4800 Blatt 1 "Resource efficiency - Methodical principles and strategies" was edited by the VDI-Gesellschaft Energie und Umwelt and published by the Beuth-Verlag.

You find further information either in the VDI's (German) press release or in the standard's abstract.