THEME.

Socioeconomic development has always been characterized by cycles which reflect the interaction between, on the one hand, social needs and on the other ”families” of inventions that have tended to appear whenever the energy-and material resources changed. The global need to limit the mining of water, the utilization of fossil fuels, environmental degra-dation and the loss of biodiversity reflect such changes. However, local conditions make the needs appear at a different speed in different countries, so the timing for the introduction of the needed inventions varies. This often means that the inventor may have to accept that the level of novelty is rarely enough. Consequently, he must learn to foster much perseverance.

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In the early 90ies the World Business Council for Sustainable Development coined Ecoefficiency as a viable business strategy for combining economy, ecology and sociology. It highlights the need for Entrepreneurs who focus on innovations oriented towards functions rather than products. This makes them responsive to the employment opportunities which are offered by a growing service sector. It often also makes them interested in a production sector which is based on Life Cycle Analysis and various Equilibrium Technologies that are characterized by transdisciplinarity and systems thinking (recycling, process integration and renewable energy sources). Scale-factor benefits then often come in conflicts with the vulnerability of large complex systems (transport, energy etc.), which then may have to combine ”just-in-time” delivery with ”just-in-case”-planning.