The Increasing importance of energy, material and resource efficiency in the manufacturing sector

The increase of material and resource efficiency is needed in the face of shortages in the commodity markets, not only from an economic but also from a business perspective. The Ifo Institute has therefore been commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency, to ask the Ifo Business Survey participants about the role that energy, material and resource efficiency has played in the past three years. According to the majority of survey participants, the economic importance of energy efficiency has increased both in terms of their own production as well as from the perspective of their customers. In the design of products and for the suppliers, the importance of energy efficiency is mainly seen as constant. The importance of material and resource efficiency was assessed uniformly: the majority of companies surveyed see an increase of importance in all four areas: production, product design, with suppliers and with customers.