The Principles of Resource Efficiency - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 478

Corollary 3: The industry and urban system must be part of the natural system.
The connections must be multiple and ongoing, not discrete, aggressive and/or
ill-considered.
Corollary 4: Pay attention to emergent behaviour 11 in which even a detailed
knowledge of one level (state) of a system is insu cient to predict the behaviour
at a different level.
Reflection: Practice Material Flow Analysis (MFA) in order to better evaluate
flow quantity and quality. Exergy analysis converts these flows into energy units
and allows quantification of absolute losses.
Also encourage and take steps towards industrial symbiosis so that all processes
are not only integrated with Nature but serve to mimic natural behaviour: taking
advantage of all inputs, whilst serving to minimise waste. In other words and
as explained in Principle 8, turn waste residuals into useful streams that provide
industrial benefits whilst serving sustainable objectives and development practices.
Principle 6: Zidane 12 and the Rebound Effect
If something goes wrong it will make everything go worse (6a), but on the other hand
if something goes right it does not necessarily mean everything will go well (6b).
That is, if 6a represents a systemic malfunction of one of the subsystems, it will
be at the detriment to not only that subsystem but the functioning of the whole,
given that the whole must adapt to the perturbation. So there is in effect, twice the
loss. Contrarily, if 6b represents a localised improvement, it could have an indirect,
negative or even a counterproductive effect. This is because any improvement is
not an improvement until it has been irrefutably checked and shown to be as such
(this is in essence the Jevons paradox or rebound effect).
Corollary 1: To make systems reliable, concentrate on and especially improve
any weaknesses found in the productive chain.
Corollary 2: Undertake intelligent preventive maintenance.
Corollary 3: Design flexible and resilient systems.
Corollary 4: Diversity provides strength and survival.
Corollary 5: An increase in resource e ciency does not necessarily induce a
resource saving (rebound effect).
11 Emergent behaviour is unanticipated behaviour shown by a system. See for instance Graedel
and van der Voet (2010a). For more information on system's theory, see Bunge (2003).
12 Zidane, acclaimed French-Algerian football player who in the final match between France and
Italy of 2006 Fifa World Cup, Berlin, was sent-off in the 110th minute of the game after headbutting
the Italian player Materazzi in his chest. The loss of the leader perturbed the whole team and
France lost the Cup in the penalty shootout.