The Principles of Resource Efficiency - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 484

Reflection 4: Energy must come from carefully considered renewable technolo-
gies, especially if as shown in Chap. 1, they depend on the availability of strategic
materials which are at risk of scarcity due to global distribution issues, supply
disruptions, and/or lack of substitutes. Therefore renewable energies should be de-
veloped with regard not only for energy but also materials. The label “renewables”
should not only be linked to energy generation per se but should also encompass
those materials used to produce that energy so they themselves are “renewed”. Fur-
thermore, biomimicry should be applied to the production of renewable systems.
Principle 9: Product durability and life extension
Society must design things to last and extend their life through careful use, mainte-
nance and upgrades.
Corollary 1: Internalise Life Cycle thinking and slow cycling 16 .
Corollary 2: Upgrade systems through replacing obsolete components, instead
of replacing the system in its entirety.
Corollary 3: Resources e ciency is related to processes, whereas durability
links to products. Both are needed and complementary.
Corollary 4: Slow down consumption and enhance the longevity of goods by
providing careful maintenance 17 .
Corollary 5: Personalise possessions, as in doing so they will endure 18 .
Reflection 1: Consumers tend to underestimate and even prefer to ignore the re-
source costs embodied into products whilst also overestimating repair costs. As raw
materials and energy are relatively cheap, intensive-resource consuming machines
coupled with low wages in the developing world means that the production of new
goods is often cheaper than the process of repair. This is because, as Söderholm
and Tilton (2012) warn, there are negative connotations associated with the terms
“recycled” or “used”. Something made all the more di cult by planned obsolescence
and fashion stimulated by advertisement. The only way to feed this system is by
ever decreasing the life of products and stimulating an attitude of replace rather
than repair. The promoters for planned obsolescence allege di culties in supplying
spare parts in the speed of rapid innovation and product diversification (Cooper,
2004).
Ashby (2009) describes the different reasons why consumers dispose of products.
First, replacement occurs at the end of an object's physical life i.e. when it becomes
cheaper to replace it than repair it. Second, it can occur at the end of functional
16 See Heiskanen (2002) for more details.
17 See Cooper (2005) for more details.
18 See van Hinte (1997) for more details.