1. * The Economic Imperative of Resource Efficiency
Exploring the Scale of Waste and Sustainable Development *
John A. “Skip” Laitner In Conversation with RANEPA Colleagues on SDSN Efforts in Russia Moscow, Russia January 18, 2018
* In the spirit and tradition of Nobel Laureate and former Caltech physicist Richard Feynman, in his 1959 visionary talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” See,

2. “We shape the world by the questions we ask”
Physicist John Wheeler

3. Yes, we certainly recognize the importance of Sustainable Development Goals

4. Thinking About SDG in Context of the Larger Physical Environment*
Incredible Waste of Resources
Equity in Income Distribution
Our Larger Well-Being
Intrusion into Ecosystems and Habitats
* Not at all drawn to scale

5. Thinking About SDG in Context of the Larger Physical Environment*
Incredible Waste of Resources
Equity in Income Distribution
Our Larger Well-Being
Intrusion into Ecosystems and Habitats
* Not at all drawn to scale

6. But a further question:
Do we fully understand and appreciate the physical reality that underpins the hopeful success of these goals?

7. Five Questions to Loosen Up Our Thinking…
How much CO2 have we dumped globally since 1750?
What is €20 trillion in lost energy savings?
What is the automobile’s social rate of speed?
What is the Bekenstein Bound?
What is the record fuel economy for a research vehicle?
The weight of ~13 trillion refrigerators.
My estimate of global energy expenditures that might have been saved since 1992 Rio Summit.
Perhaps ~10 kilometers per hour. . .
A 1972 calculation that suggests we may be able to store 1055 times more data on our storage devices than we now do.
About 12,665 MPG (~0.02 L/100 km).

8. Exploring the Scale of Waste in the U.S.
If we focus only on municipal solid waste, the U.S. generates about 2 kg of waste per capita each day.
Yet, if we add to that waste, all the air pollution dumped each year, all of the carbon dioxide emissions, and the fecal matter from humans, cows and pigs, that waste grows to ~60 kg per person.
That is about ~0.5 kg per dollar of personal income in the United States.
Which does not include soil and water losses, mining tailings and many other forms of wastes.
So the question, are we living more by waste than ingenuity?

9. Link Between Energy Productivity and Per Capita GDP for Key Regions (1996-2015)
One insight? The intercept might be the result of market structure and scale of infrastructure!
United States
With the slope impacted by the inefficient use of capital, energy and other resources!
Russia
World
Source: Calculations by Skip Laitner using data from the International Energy Agency (2017).

10. One Immediate Conclusion?
The inefficient use of available energy and other resources creates a fiscal burden that weakens our social and our economic well-being, even as it also creates a very big climate problem.

11. At the Same Time We Should Note:
If we create the policies, programs and new business (regulatory) models that move—at scale and in China time, and that also greatly increase the more productive use of available capital, energy and other resources, we are more likely to ensure a robust and sustainable economy, even as we meet all SDG goals.
With this example of a new business model within the energy and utility industries. . .

12. Rather than Commodity (kWh) Sales, Deriving Revenues from Value-Added Services that Are Provided
Investment Expenditures Year X
Initial Total Energy Sales plus Social, Economic, Health, and Environmental Costs
Policy and Program Expenses Year X
Reduced Total Cost of Energy Services
Year X
Energy Expenditures (currency)
Might we imagine a business model in which returns are pulled from these expenditures and savings rather than merely from commodity sales such as kilowatt-hours?
Reference
Case Cost of
Energy Services
Costs in Year X
Remaining Costs of Energy Services
Year X
The combination of energy efficiency and new energy resources must be able to reduce the real cost of energy services each year, and in whatever year!

13. With One Specific Research Recommendation for SDSN-Russia
Even as Dmitri Mendeleev pioneered development of the Periodic Table of Elements,
So Russia might develop a full inventory of waste generation from production and consumption wastes, air pollution, water, soil losses and other categories.
And then, in place of data like atomic weights, develop linkages of economic impacts, but also opportunities for an emerging circular economy.
With clear connections of how these waste channels can enable achievement of SDG targets.

14. Perhaps Our Ultimate Economic and Energy Efficiency Resource?
Recalling the comment of early Twentieth Century UK essayist, Lionel Strachey, who remarked: “[Too many people] guess because they are in too great a hurry to think.”
Jerry Hirschberg, founder and former CEO of Nissan Design, who noted that: “Creativity is not an escape from disciplined thinking. It is an escape with disciplined thinking."
And Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.”

15. The difficulty lies not with the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones. . .
John Maynard Keynes

16. Contact Information
John A. “Skip” Laitner
Principal Economist and Consultant
Economic and Human Dimensions Research Associates
Senior Research Economist
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and
Public Administration (RANEPA)
Tucson, Arizona 85750
c: (571)