Why We Need a Resource Revolution
“…without a step change in resource productivity and a technology-enhanced expansion of supply, the world could be entering an era of high and volatile resource prices. Nothing less than a resource revolution is needed.”
–McKinsey Quarterly.
Think about it:
- From 1980 to 2009, the global middle class grew from 1.1 billion to 1.8 billion people
- Over the next 20 years, the global middle class is projected to grow to nearly 5 billion people – that’s an additional 3 billion people.
- China and India are doubling real per capita incomes at about 10 times the pace England achieved during the Industrial Revolution and at around 200 times the scale.
That adds up to one thing: “In all likelihood, the expansion of the global middle class will continue the acceleration in demand for resources—energy, food, materials, water—that has taken place since 2000.”
An excellent new article by McKinsey Quarterly dives into the data, then analyzes how it’s possible to meet the resource challenge through an expansion in supply and base-case productivity-improvement rates.
I particularly like their “resource strategy checklist,” which recommends internal efficiencies based on systemic sustainability, as well as what they recommend as 15 areas of opportunity, including:
- Energy efficiency in buildings.
- Large-scale farm yields.
- Food waste
- Municipal-water leakage
- Urban densification
- Iron and steel energy efficiency
- Smallholder farm yields
- Transport efficiency
- Electric and hybrid vehicles
- Land degradation
- End-use steel efficiency
- Oil and coal recovery
- Irrigation
- Road freight shift
- Power plant efficiency
What opportunities do you think have the most potential? How do you think we can win the resource revolution?