“The Contribution of Eco-compatible Technologies to Resource Conservation and Upgrading”

Eco-compatible technologies can be considered a new way of providing for human needs with minor or without ecosystem degradation and damage. Following a previous research in which we outlined and discussed several parameters that permit us to assess this new category of production techniques, we have now focused our attention on the importance of natural resource conservation and upgrading, and how this goal can be achieved through the application of cleaner technologies. Resource conservation and upgrading represent critical issues in pursuing compatibility between environmental and economic goals, or the so-called sustainable development, as they mainly involve a decreased relative contribution of natural resources to the wealth produced. Among the several actions which can be undertaken to fully exploit the potential of resource conservation and upgrading we have tried to identify and investigate the most meaningful ones. Increased physical durability of virgin resources may be pursued through different sets of actions, including the prolongation of the useful life of products by actions at the design stage and improved maintenance, and the extension of the life span of materials beyond the life-cycle of the originally manufactured product. These can be achieved by means of increased materials recovery, reconditioning, reuse and recycling. In addition, much effort has to be directed at increasing the efficiency of resource conversion, that is the reduction of the resource content per physical product unit. Another way of contributing to resource conservation and upgrading is the production of high value-added products, that is those products in which the relative contribution of technology and nonmaterial inputs (know-how, software and other forms of intellectual labour) to the overall product value is higher. The role of the above factors is largely illustrated here, also drawing from several case-studies in different fields of activity.