ABSTRACT
HISTORICALLY, business growth has been driven by increased resource use. The faster a company grows, the more resources it needs; in many cases growth happens with little attention paid to resource efficiency and reuse. The ability of companies to grow through the inefficient use of resources is becoming more limited due to increased competition for these resources and increased prices. Instead, we are seeing companies decouple business growth from resource use. This decoupling is an important start in meeting global needs for energy, water and food within our resource constraints. While this chapter is focused on decoupling in the private sector, the issue is also critical for the public sector – how to grow countries, regions and states in a sustainable way.
