World Resources Institute Research Articles

Materials Flow Analysis of the Italian Economy

SummaryThis article analyzes the mass of the materials that flowed through the Italian economy during 1994 and compares the results with a similar analysis of Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States published by a collaboration headed by the World Resources Institute. In order to perform this comparison, we have evaluated the mass of the materials produced within the country and the mass of the imported materials and commodities. For the domestic production, imports and exports, we have also evaluated the mass of the materials that accompany—as “hidden flows”—each physical flow.Our analysis indicates that, in 1994, Italy experienced total material requirements (TMR) of 1,609 million metric tons (Mt), of which 727 Mt was used as direct material input (DMI). A comparison with other developed countries shows that the TMR and DMI flows, measured in mass per person and in mass per GDP unit, are, in Italy, lower than the corresponding figures evaluated for the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. An interpretation of these results is presented. The analysis may give information useful for environmental considerations, although the limits of such an approach are made clear.

Adding It All Up The Sense and Non‐Sense of Bulk‐MFA

Journal of Industrial EcologyVolume 4, Issue 2 p. 7-8 Adding It All Up The Sense and Non-Sense of Bulk-MFA René Kleijn, Corresponding Author René Kleijn Center of Environmental Science Leiden University Leiden, the Netherlands Center of Environmental Science (CML) Leiden University Einsteinweg 2, Box 9518 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Kleijn@cml.leidenuniv.nlSearch for more papers by this author René Kleijn, Corresponding Author René Kleijn Center of Environmental Science Leiden University Leiden, the Netherlands Center of Environmental Science (CML) Leiden University Einsteinweg 2, Box 9518 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Kleijn@cml.leidenuniv.nlSearch for more papers by this author First published: 08 February 2008 https://doi.org/10.1162/108819800569762Citations: 25AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume4, Issue2April 2000Pages 7-8 Translations 《产业生态学报》中文摘要 (JIE Chinese Abstracts) Resúmenes en Español de la Revista de Ecología Industrial (JIE Spanish Abstracts) RelatedInformation

Green accounting: from theory to practice

A decade has passed since Wasting Assets, a study of Indonesia by Robert Repetto and colleagues at the World Resources Institute, drew widespread attention to the potential divergence between gross and net measures of national income. This was by no means the first ‘green accounting’ study. Martin Weitzman, John Hartwick, and Partha Dasgupta and Geoffrey Heal had all conducted seminal theoretical work in the 1970s. But the World Resources Institute study demonstrated that data were adequate even in a developing country to estimate adjustments for the depletion of some important forms of natural capital and that the adjustments could be large relative to conventional, gross measures of national product and investment. The adjusted, net measures suggested that a substantial portion of Indonesia's rapid economic growth during the 1970s and 1980s was simply the unsustainable ‘cashing in’ of the country's natural wealth.

Environmentalism and the Disaster Strategy

I. INTRODUCTION Thinking about the third generation of international environmental law means trying to forecast the future. Many assume that this is an impossible task and that the rule prophecy, especially for the is to be strictly observed.(1) But it is an activity which many groups love: economists, political scientists, and social researchers on the one hand; environmentalists and environmental lawyers, on the other. However there is a difference between the two groups. For the expert of the first group, the future is not necessarily worse than the present: it could even be better. On the contrary, environmentalists and environmental lawyers constantly imagine the future ranging from bad to very bad. This attitude is not a new development. It is deeply rooted in environmental thinking. Beginning with the prediction of Malthus in 1798 that starvation in Great Britain was imminent, there has been an endless chain of predictions of catastrophe concerning irreversible environmental damage and unavoidable scarcity of food, minerals, water and other natural resources. A few examples are sufficient. In 1865 Stanley Jevons predicted the end of coal in Great Britain in a few years. In 1914, the United States Bureau of Mines reported that oil reserves would last no more than ten years. According to official reports of the US Department of Interior published in 1939 -- and again in 1951 -- oil reserves would last slightly more than one decade. In 1972 a world famous book, The Limits of Growth, predicted a coming shortage of world reserves of oil, natural gas, silver, tin, uranium, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc and many other resources. All these predictions were completely incorrect.(2) Then in 1973 the World Watch Institute started its yearly forecasts of scarcity of food production. Year-by-year, predictions go on, almost always later proven inaccurate. Since 1961 the world population has doubled. And food demand has increased rapidly: every year there are 90 million more human beings to feed in the developing countries alone. Demand also increases because people in developing countries are wealthier: they have developed a taste for meat; and to fatten livestock it takes a considerable amount of grain.(3) But food production has more than doubled. Although the greater increase of production occurred in developed countries, while the population increases mainly occurred in underdeveloped ones (this makes evident that the problem is not so much of production, but of redistribution of the resources and of protectionism measures adopted and strictly implemented by rich countries against poor ones),(4) the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPI) and the World Resources Institute are persuaded that agriculture can cope with a growing population(5) for many decades to come. A similar history can be traced for pollution. During the Seventies the enemy was nuclear energy; during the Eighties, chemicals and acid rain. Chemicals were considered the principal cause of the increased incidence of cancer. However, recent medical statistics agree that the rate of mortality from cancer not related to smoking has actually declined since 1950.(6) The decline of the forests in Germany and in the U.S., confidently attributed in the past to acid rain and considered irreversible, reverted its trend years ago. FAO reports that forest cover in Europe (excluding the Former Soviet Union) increased by more than four percent between 1980 and 1994 and grew in the first half of the Nineties by three percent; in the same period growth in the United States was two percent.(7) Few today attribute the previous decline to acid rain. With cautious terms, the problem is now described as follows: Over the years, scientists, foresters, and others have watched some forests grow more slowly without knowing why. The trees in these forests do not grow as quickly as usual. …

An analytical tool for managing environmental risks strategically

In this article, Dr. Robert Repetto and Duncan Austin of the World Resources Institute present an approach for analyzing and communicating the financial implications of a company's environmental exposures through an empirical application to companies in the U.S. pulp and paper industry. The methodology is based on a sequence of steps: A) identifying salient impending environmental issues; B) developing multiple scenarios for each issues; C) assessing the company (or facility's) exposure under each scenario; D) estimating scenario-specific financial impacts; E) constructing overall risk measures; and F) analyzing options to minimize risks or maximize advantages. Within the pulp and paper industry there are varying levels of exposure and associated risk from environmental issues. For some companies, environmental issues will have little or no impact on financial performance, while for others, they could be a source of increased value. For others, environmental issues may entail costs that approach fifteen percent of a company's current valuation. In environmentally sensitive industries, the approach presented can help companies to benchmark themselves against rivals, identify major sources of environmental risk and opportunity, assign financial values to risk-mitigating options, and communicate their environmental strategies to the investment community and other stakeholders.

Inequality, Resource Depletion, and Welfare Accounting: Applications to Indonesia and Costa Rica

Ahluwalia and Chenery noted that the standard measures of GDP growth imply distributional weights that place greater weight on the income of richer income groups, and proposed distribution-neutral and pro-poor alternatives. More recently, pilot studies by the World Resources Institute (WRI) have questioned the sustainability of GDP growth and have introduced natural resource modifications to national income accounting. To date, no studies have undertaken both revisions concurrently, creating a revised measure based on GDP but corrected for both distributional bias and resource depletion. Such a measure is derived in this paper, and its impact illustrated with data from Indonesia and Costa Rica, the countries studied by the WRI.

Assessing and monitoring forest biodiversity: A suggested framework and indicators

Enlightened forest management requires reliable information on the status and condition of each forest – interpreted from a broad context – and of change in forest conditions over time. The process of forest planning must begin with a clear statement of goals, from which detailed objectives and management plans follow. Goals and objectives for forest management should reflect the conservation value of a forest relative to other forests of the same general type. This paper reviews some recent assessments (with emphasis on North America), presents a framework for forest assessment and monitoring, and suggests some indicators of biodiversity in forests. Among the broad assessments of forest status and conservation value are a global `forest frontiers' assessment by the World Resources Institute, gap analysis projects that assess the level of representation of forests and other communities in protected areas, and ecoregion-based conservation assessments conducted by the World Wildlife Fund. Also important is information on change in forest area and condition over time. Among the common changes in forests over the past two centuries are loss of old forests, simplification of forest structure, decreasing size of forest patches, increasing isolation of patches, disruption of natural fire regimes, and increased road building, all of which have had negative effects on native biodiversity. These trends can be reversed, or at least slowed, through better management. Progress toward forest recovery can be measured through the use of ecological indicators that correspond to the specific conditions and trends of concern. Although there is a wealth of indicators to choose from, most have been poorly tested and require rigorous validation in order to be interpreted with confidence.

Seven Guideposts for Tropical Rain Forest Education

T ROPICAL rain forests are spectacular displays of biological exuberance. Multitudes of photosynthetic organisms support and conceal an intricate web of life. With only 7% of the land area of our planet, tropical rain forests contain an astonishing 50% to 90% of its species. Yet, these warehouses of life are in peril. According to recent study by the World Resource Institute, the annual deforestation of rain forests is equivalent in area to the state of Washington or the country of Syria (Terborgh 1992). When rain forests fall, strands in the web of life break-with negative consequences for other organisms and for humans. Many people possess fragmented knowledge of tropical rain forests. Actual visits to rain forests are wonderful learning experiences (Verderber 1993) that unfortunately evade most Americans. Without firsthand experiences, deep understanding is a challenge. Spectacular aspects of rain forests, such as vertical stratification, may be the sole focus of study. To use a useful, albeit worn, metaphor, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. Effective tropical rain forest education helps students understand keystone aspects and see the big picture. To achieve this goal, this article presents seven guideposts for tropical rain forest education (see Figure 1). These guideposts enable teachers to find, structure and create educative experiences that promote more complete understandings of tropical rain forests.

Environmental leadership in business education: Where's the innovation and how should we support it?

General managers have the power to shape environmental performance through the strategic decisions they make about products, markets and investments. Yet, often times managers fail to fully recognize the link between improved environmental performance and business performance. Over the past ten years, many business schools have added environmental content to their classes and research to help future business leaders recognize and act on these links. Ironically, although business leaders articulate ambitious environmental goals, corporate recruiting demands have not kept pace with the growing supply of these graduates. The following recap of the World Resources Institute's recent study, Grey Pinstripes with Green Ties: MBA Programs Where the Environment Matters, helps identify information barriers firms encounter in seeking new managers with a combination of business training and technical competence.

Companies agree on climate-change actions

Believing that proactive leaders there are major business opportunities in meeting the climate challenge, if the policy environment is right, British Petroleum, General Motors, and Monsanto have joined with the World Resources Institute—a Washington, D.C.-based center for environmental policy research-in a broad scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After 18 months of negotiation, the coalition, which is calling itself Safe Climate, Sound Business, has come up with plans for reduction and sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions and increased support for climate-change research. The coalition says it has reached three conclusions: Climate change is a concern, and action is justified now; business can contribute to climate protection in substantial positive ways; and flexible and market-oriented climate policies are needed to address the long-term issue of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The emphasis is on durable policy pathways that maximize environmental protection and economi...

An Integrated Approach Towards Sustainable Development

Abstract Traditionally, industry has approached economics and resources from an esoteric, pragmatic point of view, defining "economics" in terms of profit, and "resources" as the elements required to produce that profit. Environmental regulation was once considered to be a bureaucratic fiscal annoyance, and some companies avoided expenditure on environmental issues to protect their "bottom line." Currently, the scope of environmental planning of most companies is limited to minimal compliance with environmental protection regulations. In the future, energy producers that successfully integrate economic, social, and environmental factors into their planning and management will probably dominate their business sector. World socio-economic factors, public opinion, and wellresearched predictions of future human welfare have made resolution of environmental issues an integral part of corporate decisionmaking. The recent Kyoto agreement, although viewed by many as unrealistic, is indicative of the future challenges and opportunities for which the energy sector must prepare. Industry associations and progressive companies have realized that a proactive, and even an interactive, approach to environmental decision making can translate into a competitive edge in the market place. The economy and the environment are like twins conjoined at the heart. Corporate economic and public policies, and the development of new petroleum technologies, must therefore not only address, but embrace environmental conservation and protection issues. While a comprehensive analysis of these issues is not practical within the space of a single article, a few concepts are presented herein outlining how a more holistic and integrated view of industry, profit-making, society and the environment can contribute to sustainable development. The Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." They concluded unanimously that our common future depends on more sustainable forms of development. To this end, prudent and well-informed energy producers are increasingly devoting effort and budget to going beyond mere regulatory compliance and investing in comprehensive environmental impact assessments and risk management. Some companies have been concerned that working towards sustainability might prevent them from being competitive in the present world market. While government subsidies may help offset some of the costs involved in developing sustainability, it represents a short-term answer, based on false economics. In general, however, cost-benefit analyses of sustainable developments improve when the long-term perspective, involving perhaps decades, is considered. Exploitation of Renewable Resources The exploitation of renewable resources and its incorporation into the business plan of a company is an investment in sustainability. In a 1997 news release, the World Resources Institute(1) shared the findings of a joint American, German, Dutch and Japanese investigation into all four economies and their use of natural resources. The study noted that we tend to measure consumption in dollars, rather than in natural resources. It concluded that world industry has depended on dwindling non-renewable energy sources for so long, that they may be exhausted within our children's lifetime. While this statement may be somewhat alarmist and debatable, the urgency of developing renewable sources of energy is nevertheless evident.

A critique of the World Resources Institute's report "Pesticides and the immune system: the public health risks".

A recent World Resources Institute (WRI) report concluded that pesticides are a likely cause of immune suppression for millions of people throughout the world. The gravity of this conclusion motivated us to review the scientific evidence cited in the report. The predominant human evidence came from cross-sectional studies conducted in the former Soviet Union. These studies were difficult to evaluate due to incomplete reporting and had obvious limitations in terms of subject selection, exposure assessment,lack of quality control, statistical analysis, adequacy of the comparison group, and confounding. The toxicologic evidence was comprised mainly of acute high-dose studies in which the exposure conditions resulted in systemic toxicity. The relevance of these studies to effects at typical human exposure levels is questionable. We did not find consistent, credible evidence to support the conclusion of widespread pesticide-related immune suppression. Nonetheless, the WRI report is an important document because it focuses attention on a potentially important issue for future research and brings a substantial literature of foreign language studies to the attention of Western scientists.

A Critique of the World Resources Institute's Report "Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks"

A recent World Resources Institute (WRI) report concluded that pesticides are a likely cause of immune suppression for millions of people throughout the world. The gravity of this conclusion motivated us to review the scientific evidence cited in the report. The predominant human evidence came from cross-sectional studies conducted in the former Soviet Union.These studies were difficult to evaluate due to incomplete reporting and had obvious limitations in terms of subject selection, exposure assessment,lack of quality control, statistical analysis, adequacy of the comparison group, and confounding. The toxicologic evidence was comprised mainly of acute high-dose studies in which the exposure conditions resulted in systemic toxicity. The relevance of these studies to effects at typical human exposure levels is questionable. We did not find consistent, credible evidence to support the conclusion of widespread pesticide-related immune suppression. Nonetheless, the WRI report is an important document because it focuses attention on a potentially important issue for future research and brings a substantial literature of foreign language studies to the attention of Western scientists.

Estimates of Coastal Populations

The excellent article by Peter M. Vitousek et al . ([25 July, p. 495][1]) states: “The human population is concentrated near coasts—about 60% within 100 km [kilometers]… .” This assertion comes from a recent World Resources Institute report ([1][2], p. 254): “An estimated 60 percent of the global population lives within roughly 100 kilometers of the shore.” This statement comes from a 1990 book ([2][3], p. 7): “Probably 60 percent of humanity, or nearly 3 billion people, live on or within 100 km of a sea coast.” The author of the latter book, Don Hinrichsen, an environmental journalist, informed one of us (J.E.C.) ([3][4]) that this statement was his “own assessment based on extensive back-of-the-envelope estimates using the best available data at the time.” More recently, Hinrichsen reported ([4][5], p. 39): “Nearly two-thirds of the world's people make their homes within 150 kilometers of the shore.” To our knowledge, the first public digital map of the world's human population appeared in 1995 ([5][6]). The data are freely available on the World Wide Web ([6][7]). These data make it possible to obtain more precise estimates of coastal populations as of 1994. As part of larger research programs, two groups with interests in the interactions between the earth sciences and the social sciences have independently co-registered the global digital population map on digital maps of coastlines. Using the digital World Vector Shoreline ([7][8]), two of us (C.S. and J.E.C.) estimate that approximately 37% (2.07 billion) of the 1994 population (5.62 billion) lived within 100 km of a coastline, and approximately 44% (2.45 billion) within 150 km of a coastline. These percentages are lower than those of Hinrichsen. In addition, C.S. and J.E.C. estimate that 49% of the 1994 population lived within 200 km of a coastline, and 66% within 400 km. Using the boundaries (compounded from various sources) provided by the gridded population of the world ([6][7]) and a different algorithm for computing distance to coastline, three of us (A.M., J.G., and J.S.) estimate that 37% lived within 100 km of a coastline. This estimate agrees with that of C.S. and J.E.C. Both groups anticipate that these estimates could be refined by the use of better data and methods. While our estimates of coastal population size are considerably smaller than Hinrichsen's, we agree that very large numbers of people affect and are affected by coastal zones. 1. [↵][9]World Resources Institute, World Bank, World Resources 1996-97 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1996). 2. [↵][10]D. Hinrichsen, Our Common Seas: Coasts in Crisis (Earthscan, London, and Nairobi, Kenya, 1990). 3. [↵][11]\___|, personal communication. 4. [↵][12]\___|, Issues Sci. Technol. 12 (no. 4), 39 (1996). 5. [↵][13]W. Tobler, U. Deichmann, J. Gottsegen, K. Maloy, “The global demography project” (Technical Report 95-6, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 1995). 6. [↵][14]CIESIN, “Gridded population of the world,” 7. [↵][15]National Imagery and Mapping Agency, “World Vector Shoreline,” # {#article-title-2} Response: We thank Cohen et al . for their analysis, which should become the standard statement on coastal populations. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.277.5325.494 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #ref-3 [5]: #ref-4 [6]: #ref-5 [7]: #ref-6 [8]: #ref-7 [9]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [10]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [11]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [12]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [13]: #xref-ref-5-1 View reference 5 in text [14]: #xref-ref-6-1 View reference 6 in text [15]: #xref-ref-7-1 View reference 7 in text

Strategies for Conserving Biodiversity

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsWalter V. ReidWaller V. Reid is vice president for program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. He may be reached at the World Resources Institute, 1709 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 (telephone: 202-638-6300).

MEB's university‐community partnerships foster new environmental leaders for business

AbstractAs our society's environmental concerns have grown over the past 20 years, U.S. firms have struggled to find effective and inexpensive ways to meet their mushrooming environmental obligations. Many firms, recognizing the competitive advantages to be won through adroit environmental management, have begun to seek managers trained to deal with these issues. The corporate response has been hobbled by business schools'general failure to train managers to deal with crossfunctional issues, and by a specific failure to address environmental management in their curricula. In this article, the Management Institute for Environment and Business, a program of the World Resources Institute (WRI), describes its innovative University‐Community Partnerships (UCP) project to address these shortcomings. Bringing new approaches and new thinking to management curricula, MEB and several like‐minded organizations are breathing new life into the old MBA programs.

'Provocative' Report Issued on Use of Pesticides

THE WORLD Resources Institute has just issued a report warning that exposure to pesticides poses serious risks to the public health, specifically by depressing the immune system. These risks are not being adequately addressed, it says, and they warrant efforts to reduce exposure and expand research into the ways that pesticides affect the immune system. Although the report,<i>Pesticides and the Immune System: the Public Health Risks</i>, draws on new data regarding worldwide pesticide use and the effects of exposure to it on wildlife and cites epidemiologic studies in human populations, the central focus is on the effects of pesticides on the immune system. The World Resources Institute, in Washington, DC, is an independent think tank that examines globally significant environmental problems. Although the group has conducted studies on sustainable agriculture and addressed some pesticide issues, this is the first report on a new program it recently began on health

Immune System Suppression Linked To Widely Used Pesticides

Considerable evidence exists that exposure to widely used pesticides may suppress the immune system, making people significantly more vulnerable to infectious diseases and certain cancers. But the problem is being ignored, according to a report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) titled Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks. WRI is an independent center for policy research on global environmental issues. The problem of immune suppression from pesticides may be particularly significant in developing countries, the report says, where infectious diseases cause nearly half of all deaths. A large fraction of the population of these countries is involved in agriculture, with a concomitant widespread and increasing exposure to pesticides. However, farmers and workers lack the knowledge and equipment to heed safety precautions even when using products that are banned or severely restricted in industrialized countries, says WRI Vice President Robert Repetto, a former associate professor at...

Air pollution in developing and developed nations: A pooled cross‐sectional time series regression analysis

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to test a few explanations of environmental pollution. In particular the focus is on carbon dioxide emissions as an indicator of environmental pollution. A number of explanations such as the Malthusian are presented. Data are collected on carbon dioxide emissions and a number of social and economic determinants from the World Resource Institute Data Base. Using pooled cross‐sectional time series regression analysis, models of pollution for developing and developed nations are tested separately. Results of the analysis suggest that the processes of pollution are dissimilar across developing and developed nations. Policy implications of the findings are also presented.

Full Accounting For Environmental Costs Offers Benefits To Companies

The chemical industry spends more than $4 billion per year on pollution abatement and control. In 1994, pollution control operating costs were 2.7% of chemical industry sales and related capital expenditures were 2.1% of sales, according to a Chemical Manufacturers Association survey. In 10 years, total spending is projected to rise to about $11 billion, largely as a result of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments. As significant as these expenditures are, they represent the most obvious, and therefore most easily measured, of environmentally related costs. Hidden environmental costs actually may be greater than expenditures for pollution abatement and control, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI), a policy research organization in Washington, D.C. The report, Green Ledgers: Case Studies in Corporate Environmental Accounting, funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency, says that uncovering these hidden costs can provide significant opportunities for decision-making i...