Sustainable Principles of Ecoefficiency Biomimicry and Service Discussion

Threaded Discussion Question: Describe the sustainable principles of ecoefficiency, biomimicry, and service.

Please respond to the question with a minimum of 200-250 words.

Please reply to two of your classmates postings with a minimum of 150 words. Make sure your reply is substantial. Don’t just say, “I like what you said and I agree with you.” If you do agree, explain why

reply#1

According to Hartman et al (2014), eco-efficiency, biomimicry, and service are the three principles of sustainable business. First, eco-efficiency advocates for doing more with less as an environmental guideline. Energy and materials efficiency can be significantly improved with efforts from businesses, which increases productivity and profitability for the businesses at the same time. Second, biomimicry, also known as “closed-loop” production, aims at turning waste from production back into a productive resource. This is to eliminate waste instead of decreasing it. This principle was adopted from the biological processes and is applied to the context of business. Cradle-to-cradle responsibility further holds businesses to be responsible for bringing back wastes that it generates during its production into the production cycle. Lastly, service-based economy emphasizes the needs from customers regarding certain services. It can be professional services that requires certain expertise or experience and services that needs economy of scale to be more affordable. To illustrate, the services include cleaning, transportation, entertainment, analysis, and so forth. From another perspective, sustainability impacts the core of human nature assuming that humans can learn to value being over possessing (Senge et al., 2001). There are more and more companies that are realizing the business opportunities entailed by a focus on sustainability creates.

These three principles are mainly targeted on helping the environment, through increasing efficiency, reduce waste, and turn to service instead of product, the business can save natural resources and protect environment in another way. Eco-efficiency refers to the efficiency in using natural resources, if we could use limited resource to make more product, that could make our resource last longer. Especially for those natural resource consuming industry, like thermal power generation, increasing efficiency means saving tone of coal. Biomimicry means recycling the waste back into the production, from that process, there will be less waste produced. For example, garbage recycling industry is such a process. Those plastic bottles or aluminum cans could hurt the environment, but if we can recycle them that would be less harm. The last one is service, this principle advocate shifting business model from products to services. Any product would have to go through production process, and it will consume natural resources. But service do not have that process, it consumes no resources and also helps people. Shifting from product to service is a good way to protect the environment. Meanwhile a lot of research indicate that the more developed country the more service involved in the economy. Overall, they are all good ways to make our planet a better place to live.