Abstract

Efficiency forms the bedrock of policy, planning and business approaches to sustainable development. But what do ecological economists mean by efficiency? In the resource use context, efficiency has a wide range of potential interpretations, from the ratio of work output/energy inputs to Pareto efficiency. Despite the potential richness of the efficiency concept, in practice, efficiency is often narrowly conceived within disciplinary boundaries. This appears to be the case even in ecological economics, which purports to be ‘transdisciplinary’ and pluralistic. Such narrow disciplinary perspectives essentially waste the richness of the efficiency concept. This wasting could mean ecological economists and decision-makers are destined to Sisyphean toil in the pursuit of sustainable development.

This paper explores the efficiency concept and its interpretation. It then reviews ecological economic literature to find that there is much room for improvement in the way ecological economists apply efficiency. Finally, the paper presents a framework within which a truly ecological economic approach to efficiency can emerge. Armed with this framework, policy makers and planners should be better prepared to make decisions leading to sustainable development.

Keywords: Efficiency; Policy analysis; Ecological economics; Ecological efficiency; Thermodynamic efficiency

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. The origins and meaning of efficiency

3. Efficiency in disciplinary contexts

4. Ecological economic approaches to efficiency

4.1. The role of efficiency in Ecological Economics

4.2. Current usage of the efficiency concept in Ecological Economics

4.3. Daly's “overall ecological economic efficiency” concept

5. Towards an ecological economics framework for efficiency

5.1. A three-tiered framework

5.1.1. The first tier: biophysical context

5.1.2. The second tier: the decision space

5.1.3. The third tier: the efficiency space

6. Conclusions

References