| Using resources more efficiently |
| McKinsey Classics | January 2018 |
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| The resource revolution |
| Debates about natural resources seem to swing between two positions: either we must get more resources to satisfy our needs or make do with less to protect the Earth. Yet other alternatives are possible, too. McKinsey’s 2011 report on global resources offered a choice of two scenarios for the future. One, at a cost of $3.0 trillion a year, focused on increasing the supply of resources and, secondarily, on using them more productively, though only along the lines of current policy. |
| The other, requiring investments of $3.2 trillion a year, also called for increasing supply but included a wider range of productivity-enhancing opportunities—70 percent of which would have an internal rate of return of more than 10 percent. In addition, the opportunities in this scenario could not only meet almost 30 percent of global demand for water, energy, land, and steel but also cut carbon emissions significantly. Both scenarios rely on existing technologies. |
| Read our 2012 classic “Mobilizing for a resource revolution” and the underlying McKinsey report for additional information. For a more recent take, see our 2016 article “The future is now: How to win the resource revolution,” which shows that opportunities to increase resource efficiency are even greater today. |
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