GLOSSARY OF TERMS
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Eco-Efficiency
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Eco-efficiency is a combination of economic and ecological efficiency, and is basically about 'doing more with less'. Eco-efficiency means producing more goods and services with less energy and fewer natural resources. Eco-efficient businesses get more value out of their raw materials as well as producing less waste and less pollution. Eco-efficiency is achievable by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout a product's life cycle to a level at least in line with the Earth's estimated carrying capacity. Eco-efficiency is not the same as sustainability as it incorporates only the environmental and economic aspects of sustainability, not the social aspect. Cleaner production can be a part of eco-efficiency.
(Adapted from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Australian Government and Ecosteps websites)
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