FACTOR FOUR - Frequently Asked Questions

Questions and answers on FACTOR FOUR


1. What is FACTOR FOUR?
The idea behind FACTOR FOUR is that natural resources can be used more efficiently in all domains of daily life, either by generating more products, services and quality of life from the available resources, or by using less resources to maintain the same standard. This idea was first put forward in the book "Factor Four: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use" (Ernst Ulrich v. Weizsäcker, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, Earthscan Publications Ltd., London, 1997 [¹1995]). The book contains 50 examples of novel or improved technologies that increase resource efficiency.


2. Is FACTOR FOUR a Utopian ideal, a goal or a system of indicators?
FACTOR FOUR as a decision-making tool draws attention to resource efficiency. The factor "4" is not meant as a fixed numerical value. A new technology may only be three times as efficient as the one previously in use. Where several technologies and processes are combined, in turn, a much higher efficiency factor may be achieved. But FACTOR FOUR is normative in setting up the target value of halving resource use.


3. What do the concepts "ecological rucksack", material intensity and "ecological footprint" stand for?
These concepts illustrate the different ways humans use natural resources. The ecological footprint refers to land use, to the space that a country’s citizens need for erecting houses, growing/raising food on fields and pastures, building traffic links, etc. Reducing this value to the individual yields the size of the ecological footprint. It varies with different individual and local lifestyles, which use up more or less land. The basic issue is Earth’s ecological carrying capacity. How many people can live on the available habitable land? How much raw material can be extracted from a piece of land, how much waste can it absorb without suffering serious harm?
The ecological rucksack describes the ecological impact of an individual product or process, while material intensity refers to the weight of all materials moved for a certain purpose (e.g. building materials, excavated earth moved on construction sites, or energy sources). Ecological rucksacks contain the leftovers of a process (e.g. excavated earth). They are mostly "filled" in developing countries, and can be calculated to express the environmental impacts of individual products, economies, or human beings.
The idea refers to material flows, which affect the environment directly (e.g. resource extraction) or indirectly (energy consumption for transport). Both the ecological rucksack and footprint help assess the environmental effects of ways of living, working and producing.


4. Are FACTOR FOUR-products and technologies more expensive than conventional technologies? – Do they make a good bargain?
Be it in entertainment electronics or computer hardware, initial prices are often high. That holds true for all new technologies. But prices tumble once a technology is established on the market and mass production sets in. With FACTOR FOUR technologies, an additional bonus is that potentially high up-front costs are balanced by low running costs as resources like energy, e.g. power or petrol, are saved. So in the end they do make a good bargain.
Some technologies only start paying their way when prices for raw materials and energy reflect the ecological cost of generation and consumption, i.e. when prices tell the ecological truth. Since new technologies consume much less energy, their running costs do not rise dramatically. And finally, many FACTOR FOUR products are pretty cool.


5. How can I support the FACTOR-FOUR idea?
Not just companies but all of us can support FACTOR FOUR. FACTOR FOUR is not an organisation of which you can become a member or for which you can donate. But we can all seek ways and means of saving resources and energy in our own working and private lives. Even slight changes in our habits can have huge effects. More and more often, you will find new or improved technologies, especially for the home. The Wuppertal Institute’s web site helps you find the details for the products and producers you are interested in.


6. Is there a testing authority for FACTOR FOUR technologies? Or a reliable certificate?
The Wuppertal Institute’s web portal creates a platform to aid the distribution of resource-efficient technologies. Information provided by the inventors and producers describes the technologies presented here according to criteria determined by the Wuppertal Institute. There is no official certificate. External experts, e.g. the German testing authority TÜV, can be consulted where necessary and are invited to contact producers on their own initiative.
The FACTOR FOUR portal also enables users to share their experiences with new technologies. This will create a communication platform linking producers, experts and the interested public in an effort to enhance the quality of FACTOR FOUR solutions.


7. An eco-analysis has just been conducted at our company. Isn't that enough?
The eco-analysis has determined your company’s resource use, and you are probably planning or have initiated measures for saving raw materials and energy. FACTOR FOUR technologies help you realise them. Or you develop your own efficient technologies, first for streamlining processes in your company, later as a saleable product. FACTOR FOUR has a place both in production- as well as in product-oriented environmental protection. FACTOR FOUR technologies can have a positive impact both on your costs and your turnover and increase profits. If you want to go a step farther, FACTOR FOUR is the right solution for you.


8. Does FACTOR FOUR only work in "rich" countries? How does the idea benefit the so-called developing countries?
In industrialised countries FACTOR FOUR opportunities can help prevent adverse effects on nature by reducing resource use without impairing the standard of living. In so-called developing countries they can help improve the standard of living without over-exploiting nature. Countries on the brink of economic take-off discover short-cuts to wealth that circumvent adverse effects on the environment.
FACTOR FOUR technologies are no one-way-street for export articles from industrialised to developing countries. Traditional skills from poor countries (e.g. for cooling spaces during the hot season) can contribute to saving raw materials and energy in richer countries (e.g. by reducing the demand for air conditioning in private homes and office buildings).
FACTOR FOUR technologies can equally benefit poor and rich countries and all social strata. The challenge is to find attractive, institutionally and culturally adapted solutions for the different target groups.


9. Does FACTOR FOUR stand for unlimited technological progress and against ideas of the simple life?
No, FACTOR FOUR is open to many lifestyles. The unlimited possibilities of FACTOR FOUR encourage change, and technological progress is part of social change.