tainties and disruptions — rather than prosperity. Against this backdrop, the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) has recognized this global challenge and formed an Alliance on Resource Efficiency in response. The alliance publicly recognizes that improving resource efficiency and managing materials sustainably throughout their lifecycles are important elements of delivering environmental and climate protection, employment, social benefits, and sustainable, green growth. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency, states, and other stakeholders have adopted sustainable materials management to address the challenge of advancing sustainable use of materials within society. The premise is simple: use materials productively while minimizing the amount of materials and all associated environmental impacts. SMM uses lifecycle analysis and systems thinking as a way to identify adverse environmental and other effects — and then to reduce them. It takes into account the entire lifecycle of material resources flowing through the economy, from extraction or harvest of materials and food (e.g., mining, forestry, and agriculture), to production and transport of goods, provision of services, reuse of materials, and, if necessary, disposal. SMM casts a far broader net than approaches based on traditional end-of-life waste management and pollution management. SMM allows for T he term circular economy is becoming commonplace as we seek to create economic prosperity without compromising human health and the environment. We simultaneously are striving to find a balance between society’s needs and the planet’s capacity to provide. All this is a complicated task, especially when one considers the numerous distinct but interlinking facets of our economy. Despite the difficulties, we need action now if we are to achieve sustainability in the future. Domestically and globally, there is a growing consensus that economic expansion and raw materials need to be decoupled. Data from Accenture indicate that, during the 20th century, global raw material use rose at about twice the rate of population growth, and that for every 1 percent increase in GDP, raw material use has risen by 0.4 percent. Furthermore, much of the raw material used by industrial economies is returned to the environment as waste within one year. Although there has been some attempt at decoupling economic growth and natural resource use, it is insufficient to overcome the even higher demands we face with a projected world population of more than 9 billion people by 2050, not to mention the rapid industrialization in the world’s emerging economies. Ironically, the unsustainable consumption of natural resources and concomitant environmental degradation translates into increased business risks — through higher material costs and supply uncerMathy Stanislaus is the assistant administrator in

中文翻译：

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良性循环

污点和破坏——而不是繁荣。在此背景下，七国集团（加拿大、法国、德国、意大利、日本、英国和美国）认识到这一全球性挑战，并成立了资源效率联盟来应对。该联盟公开承认，在材料的整个生命周期中提高资源效率和可持续管理材料是实现环境和气候保护、就业、社会效益以及可持续绿色增长的重要因素。在美国，环境保护署、各州和其他利益相关者已采用可持续材料管理来应对推动社会可持续使用材料的挑战。前提很简单：有效地使用材料，同时最大限度地减少材料用量和所有相关的环境影响。SMM 使用生命周期分析和系统思维来识别不利的环境和其他影响，然后减少它们。它考虑了流经经济的物质资源的整个生命周期，从材料和食物的提取或收获（例如，采矿、林业和农业），到货物的生产和运输、服务的提供、材料的再利用，以及，如有必要，处置。与基于传统报废废物管理和污染管理的方法相比，SMM 的范围更广。SMM 允许循环经济一词变得司空见惯，因为我们寻求在不损害人类健康和环境的情况下创造经济繁荣。我们同时努力在社会需求和地球提供能力之间找到平衡。所有这些都是一项复杂的任务，尤其是考虑到我们经济中众多不同但又相互关联的方面。尽管困难重重，但如果我们要在未来实现可持续性，我们现在就需要采取行动。在国内和全球，越来越多的人认为经济扩张和原材料需要脱钩。埃森哲的数据显示，20 世纪，全球原材料使用量的增长速度约为人口增长率的两倍，GDP 每增加 1%，原材料使用量就增加 0.4%。此外，工业经济使用的大部分原材料在一年内作为废物返回环境。尽管在经济增长和自然资源使用脱钩方面进行了一些尝试，但还不足以克服我们面临的更高需求，预计到 2050 年世界人口将超过 90 亿，更不用说世界新兴经济体的快速工业化了。经济体。具有讽刺意味的是，自然资源的不可持续消耗和随之而来的环境退化转化为更高的商业风险——通过更高的材料成本和供应 uncerMathy Stanislaus 是