City-Level Decoupling-Full Report

5.3.1. Improve resource efficiency

• Fitting new buildings with high-tech computer-controlled lighting and temperature control systems to minimise energy wastage in Songdo, Republic of Korea; • Improving the energy efficiency of buildings to reduce CO 2 emissions in Finnish municipalities; • Retrofitting government housing with low- energy light bulbs and ceiling insulation in Cape Town, South Africa; • Replacing street lighting with LED lights connected via a smart network to reduce energy use in San Jose, California;

Improvements in resource efficiency are often considered to be a first step towards sustainable resource management. 79 This means achieving more material output with less material inputs, and investments in improving productivity are easy to justify by their economic rationale. Typically, this involves engineering and/or institutional solutions to fine-tune the components of existing systems to reduce the amount of water, electricity or fuel wasted in meeting human needs. However, achieving resource sustainability needs a 'whole system' design perspective that can facilitate more radical system changes. Indeed, sometimes- substantial savings can be generated by simply operating existing technologies in far more efficient ways.

The approaches to improving resource efficiency cover a range of technical complexities and scales. While improving resource efficiency can be interpreted as a demand- side management measure, it can also influence the manner in which certain services are supplied. Electricity interventions typically focus more on reducing demand from end users by encouraging efficient lighting and appliances, and reducing the need to use electricity for heating by insulating buildings and making use of waste heat. In the case of potable water, demand and supply-side measures can be

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• Reducing per capita water usage through water efficiency improvements and leakage prevention programmes in Singapore; and • Shifting commuters from private cars to shared public buses on Lagos' BRT-Lite, and to trains in Bangkok, Thailand. Building on the earlier work on 'Factor 4' improvements in resource productivity that result in the same or increased output while using 80% less resources, von Weizsäcker et al. now

effective; in particular the maintenance of water delivery systems to repair leaks and reduce unaccounted water losses. Similarly, reducing fossil fuel use per capita in transport infrastructure often requires the provision of cycling paths and shared modes of transport as alternatives to private vehicles, and can extend to the planning of cities to reduce commuting distances.

Examples of resource productivity improvements from the case studies include:

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