Factor Four - Best Practices

"Factor Four - Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use" is the title of a book published by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Amory und Hunter Lovins in 1995. Factor Four stands for cutting-edge and fascinating best practices. To find answers to frequently asked questions please go to the Factor Four FAQs.

Factor Four plays an important role within applied sustainability research, especially within material flows and resource management. We regard Factor Four as a normative guideline for decision making that points out ways of relieving environmental burdens. Factor Four signalises appreciable environmental relief, particularly in the field of resource productivity. To cite an example given by Amory Lovins: To improve a pipe system, straighten the pipe and enlarge its diameter. That will reduce the energy necessary to pump fluid through the system by more than half. Keep it simple and straight!

The research bases on the following assumptions: Factor Four relates to absolute consumption of Nature and is appraised by physical input factors (energy, material, water, land) as well as a number of qualitative factors. In order to identify Factor Four best practices we developed a Factor Four appraisal emphasising a given innovation's particular Factor Four effects. For communication purposes simple measuring methods are sufficient, basing on information from manufacturers and short plausibility checks, without carrying out a complete investigation.

Work on the ethics of Factor Four regards the concept, which was originally unrelated to ethics, from an ethical and moral perspective.

Factor Four is neither a master plan nor a blueprint, but rather a rule of thumb for innovation processes involving a multitude of different players. Eco-pioneers get the opportunity to present their innovation to a broad public by using the registration sheet for new best practices. Resourceful entrepreneurs, creative and socially responsible people are the individual basis of socio-economic change!

You will find the website "Factor Four - Best Practices" at www.faktor4.org.