Abstrait

General understanding of eco-efficiency.

Enrico Drioli*, Zuoyong Zhou

Eco-efficiency is a concept that measures the added value of a product or service relative to its environment impacts. It was conceptualized in 1992 by the World Bank's Doing Business Council. The concept was then endorsed by the private sector in the 1992 Earth Summit. Eco-efficiency is a concept that measures the added value of a product or service relative to its environment impacts. It was conceptualized in 1992 by the World Bank's Doing Business Council. The concept was then endorsed by the private sector in the 1992 Earth Summit. Although eco-efficiency is a rather new method, the idea is not. In the early 1970s Paul R. Ehrlich and John Holdren developed the lettering formula I=PAT to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. Furthermore, the concept of eco-efficiency was first described by McIntyre and Thornton in 1978, but it wasn't until 1992, when the term was formally coined and widely publicized by Stephan Schmidheiny in Changing Course.