From a Public Lecture

Factor Five—Towards Global Sustainability
through Doing Much More with Much Less
Cheryl DeshaThis is a revised text of the third lecture of the 2014 public lecture
series, “The Path Toward a Global Civilization” hosted by the Instituteof Oriental Philosophy on October 2 in Tokyo. Dr. Desha is researchprincipal of the Australian team at the Natural Edge Project which
published Factor 5: Transforming the Global Economy through 80%
Increase in Resource Productivity (2009) in collaboration with Dr. Ernst
Ulrich von Weizsäcker.

Introduction and Acknowledgements‘Y

OROSHIKU-ONEGAISHIMASU’! (Japanese greeting) Goodevening, I am honored to be here talking to you about such an
exciting topic. I am inspired by the title of this year’s IOP’s lecture
series “The Path Toward a Global Civilization”, which stresses theimportance of directed action in a whole of globe approach.
(While showing the picture of the blue earth) This photo is one of myfavourites, taken in 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 mission to themoon—this is our common home, it contains our common past, and ourcommon future. When people ask me where I am from, I tell them
‘Planet Earth’—My father is Indian by blood, born in Mauritius; mymother is English by blood, born in Wales; my sister and I were born in
Mauritius, and our family migrated to Australia when I was five years
old. I have lived in Australia for 33 years, including a one-year exchange
to Japan—in Aomori city—when I was 14. There I lived with a family
who owned a farm in Hirosaki, and celebrated the seasons and food of
this beautiful country.
I chose my life and career direction when I was still in primaryschool, experiencing environmental pollution in Mauritius. On New
Year’s Eve in 1987 I was walking with my family on one of the island’s
most beautiful beaches. The following morning we went for the same
walk but the experience was very different. The beach was covered in
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Figure 1. “Understand - a - scope”, courtesy of Mr. Michael Leunig, author of thiscartoonrubbish, from cans to bags and food. There were piles of rubbish next toa few bins that lined the beach, but clearly these were not enough. Straydogs and cats picked through the waste, and the out-going tide carried
this chaos onto the precious reef. In that moment at age 11, I knew thatwhat I was experiencing was not right. People loved their environment
to death through not understanding the impacts of their ways. I studied
environmental engineering at university for my undergraduate degree,then rapid curriculum renewal for my doctoral studies.
This cartoon is one of my favourites also (Figure 1.). It depicts
someone trying to understand what is happening around them, using an“Understand - a - scope”, which is a made up device that looks like atelescope, but provides understanding and insight when you lookthrough it, rather than magnification. It reminds us of the need to use
many different lenses to understand what we are observing.
When I finished my studies at the turn of the century, I joined anengineering consultancy. During this time I met a group of otherengineers and scientists who were also passionate about doing things
differently, and who were struggling to find meaning in their work
places. These new friendships led to the formation of a research groupcalled “The Natural Edge Project”, which has spent the last decadelooking through our own ‘understand-a-scopes’ to publish books on theemerging consensus for sustainable development and what is possible tomainstream such practice globally.
This has included interacting with many ‘legends’ of the field who

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have spent decades developing powerful frameworks and precedents forchange. We have been honored to document such ideas and bring them
together into textbooks that professional practitioners and decision
makers can use to make informed and timely decisions. Our focus onengineering and design stems from our personal training, and therequest of one of our mentors Dr Amory Lovins from the Rocky
Mountain Institute in America, who early on asked us to emulate India’s
Mahatma Gandhi in contributing to the “non-violent overthrow of badengineering”! My interest in Japan continues to span personal andprofessional connections. Indeed, there are amazing examples ofsustainability champions and initiatives in this country that the rest of
the world hears too little about. The team from Japan for Sustainability(JFS) led by Ms Junko Edahiro have made great inroads into translating—in and out—of the country, such stories of opportunity.
This presentation builds on many previous discussions, dialogues andpresentations by Professor Ernst von Weiszäcker, and the publication‘Factor 5’, led by Professor von Weiszäcker, published in 2009. I am
one of the contributing authors to this publication who wrestled withhow to provide a suitable follow-on from Factor 4 which discussed
opportunities to double wealth while halving resource use. We aimed togive the original message further energy and momentum in light ofsignificant world events over the following decade and substantial
advances in information technology.
Our team is grateful to Professor von Weiszäcker for his patience,
mentoring and energy throughout the three-year writing process,including time drafting the structure of the manuscript at the Universityof California’s Santa Barbara campus in 2006. Factor 5 has subsequently been translated into German, Russian, French, Chinese andmost recently this year into Japanese, helping to realize our aims for
global access to this critical conversation. Professor Yoshitsugu Hayashi
of Nagoya University has been kind enough to write a preface for theJapanese translation, for which we are truly thankful.
With this context in mind, tonight’s lecture is not about delivering theaudience facts and figures on what is possible for humanity—they arereadily available when you need to access them, online or in the book!
The rationale for change has been thoroughly and rigorously presented
in a number of recent works by UNEP, OECD, the IPCC, and individual
authors such as Lester Brown, Al Gore, and David Suzuki to name but afew. Neither is this lecture about detailing the ‘doom and gloom’ which
compels us to do much more with much less—you can find that in the
media! In contrast, tonight’s lecture is about detailing a ‘to-do list’ for142factor five—towards global sustainability

our global civilization. It is not the only ‘to-do’ list for humanity, but it
has the potential to make a significant contribution towards a prosperous
existence for all.
So, what is Factor 5? It means ‘doing much more with much less’, inthe order of either: 1) achieving the same result using only one fifth of
the intended resources, or 2) achieving five times more with theintended resources. This means an 80% productivity improvement.
Reflecting on the 2010 IOP address on ‘Global Environmental
Problems and Ethics’, participants were challenged by the need for
immediate, coordinated, wide-ranging, humane efforts to address thecore challenges facing 21st Century humanity. This includes harnessing
opportunities provided by science and technology together witheffecting critical changes in economics and politics. Although our
visions and plans for global sustainability are human-centred, with it wecarry a responsibility for many other organisms and species that rely on
current global environmental conditions. Indeed, our survival relies on
many of these other species surviving—and thriving—in the 21stCentury.
Tonight’s presentation will build on IOP Founder and SGI(Sokagakkai International) President Ikeda, and Professor von
Weizsäcker’s special series “The Challenge of Global Transformation—
Humanity and the Environment”, a dialogue on building a sustainableglobal society published in the Journal of Oriental Studies. It will be inthree parts: firstly outlining a prioritized ‘to-do list’, considering global
challenges for a global civilization, secondly considering how a ‘Factor
5’ approach can drive action in this list, and thirdly highlighting thecritical role for education to create conditions conducive to Factor 5 typesolutions.
By the end of tonight’s lecture I hope to have inspired you in two
ways: firstly to think differently about what is possible, and secondly totake at least one action in your personal or professional lives thatinvolves ‘Factor 5’ type change in doing more with less. So let’s begin!

A Global Challenge for a Global Civilization
Since the industrial revolution, populations have increased dramatically,
and they have moved towards urban environments. By mid-century—inlittle over 30 years time—the United Nations predicts cities willcomprise about 70% of the world’s population of approximately 10
billion people. Indeed, the 21st Century is being referred to as the age ofthe city, with a common global challenge of achieving an affluent lifefactor five—towards global sustainability

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without jeopardizing our planetary air, water and earth systems.
Perhaps, if our planet was three times larger, our conversation regarding
the impacts of such changes would be quite different! As it is, our global
consumption of approximately four times the amount the planet can
provide is unsustainable.
Over the duration of this century, humanity will use its knowledge
and skills to change the way it interacts with the environment, or else
the environment will change the way it interacts with its inhabitants. In
this scenario, it is not the ‘end of the world’, but certainly the end of anera for this beautiful blue planet.
Considering the imperative to act, and thinking with the mindset of a
global civilization, we have a clear priority to-do list to tackle thefollowing complexities:
1. Address population pressures: Deal with the complexities of urbanizing populations, concentrated growth in developing countries, andaging demographics in a number of countries.
2. Address resource constraints: Deal with the complexities of finite
supply, pollution of supply, landfilling of potential resources, andexpanding materialism.
3. Address our impacts on ecosystems: Deal with the complexities ofour human impact on local and global ecosystems, and the impact
on their integrity and services they provide
4. Address food and water allocation: Deal with the complexities ofproviding enough and sufficiently nutritious food, for all, and accessto clean water.
These challenges call for solutions that are interdisciplinary,intercultural, and intergenerational, as highlighted in the United Nations‘Beyond-2015’ development goals. To action this list, we needsophisticated understanding in areas such as physics, chemistry,engineering, biology, commerce, spatial science, business andgovernance to bring to bear on the challenge of dramatically reducing
our pressure on the environment.
At this point there are two diagrams that I would like to introduce, toprovide the foundation for our discussion. The first is called the ‘Wavesof innovation’ diagram (Figure 2), inspired by economists Nikolai
Kondratiev and Joseph Schumpeter who considered the way innovation
unfolds in society. This diagram highlights for us the ability of our
species to adapt to change on grand scales, very quickly. As you can see
from Figure 2, we suggest in Factor 5 that we are at the dawn of a sixth‘wave of innovation’, which has the opportunity to address this priority
to-do list with unprecedented speed and success, if we can direct its

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Figure 2. Waves of Innovation Diagram, courtesy of The Natural Edge Project(Hargroves and Smith, 2005)

enthusiasm. Looking back to Japan’s evolution for example, railway
construction was followed by road construction and the use of the motor
vehicle after World War II. This was followed by the construction oflarge-scale waste disposal facilities and airports. The next wave ofinnovation will be marked by another period of increased innovation andthe kinds of technologies that it brings with it, providing opportunity—
and imperative—to direct efforts towards sustainable development.
The second is called the ‘Decoupling’ diagram (Figure 3), which
illustrates the potential to decouple—or separate—economic growthfrom negative environmental pressure. This refers to continuing thepositive aspects of economic growth (i.e. prosperity), while leaving
associated environmental pressure behind. Furthermore, we see from thebottom line, the opportunity to recouple—or join back together—economic growth with positive environmental pressures, for example
reforestation, aquifer recharge, and soil fertility.
We can look to the past for examples of decoupling led by governments around the world, which demonstrate precedent for action. For
example, democratic states such as Japan, the USA and Canada, and theWest European states overcame initial industry resistance to implement
pollution control legislation, through banning some substances, filtering
exhaust gases, cleaning waste waters, and finally redesigning someprocesses. After just 25 years, industrial agglomerations such as the
Ruhr in Germany, Osaka in Japan, or Pittsburgh in the USA were
performing with vastly reduced pollution levels, and commitments tofactor five—towards global sustainability

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Figure 3. Decoupling Diagram, courtesy of The Natural Edge Project (Smith et al,2010)

cleaner production. These outcomes surprised many who had explained
the cause of the problem to be ‘economic growth’.
Unfortunately, looking ahead, impacts such as climate change,
resource shortages, and biodiversity losses follow very different logic
from pollution control. In reality, it is the “rich and clean” countries thatare the biggest cause of such impacts, with carbon footprints generally
growing with increasing prosperity. The situation gets much worse forthe rich if historical carbon emissions are also counted, and if global
supply chains are considered for the products consumed. Furthermore,
many countries have out-sourced energy and carbon intensive segmentsof the supply chain to countries like China, which grow their carbon
footprints in the service of others.
Considering such complexities and scale of the decoupling challenges
going forward, decoupling from 21st Century pollution requires
different and large-scale approaches. It is not our team’s purpose topoint to capitalism as the ultimate evil, but we join critics of capitalism
to a certain extent. Some features of deregulated financial markets havebeen disastrous and demand careful re-regulation. Furthermore, considering the ecological state of the world, we urgently need regulation toprevent profiting from destructive industries, and value activities that
restore ecosystem services. In the Factor 5 publication, we support
Achim Steiner’s (UNEP’s Executive Director) description of a “Global
Green New Deal” to hasten progress towards addressing the priorities
for our planet. The idea of a Green New Deal is to spend public money
to create jobs for the public good of a sustainable environment. The idea
emulates Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the early 1930s, which

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helped pull the USA out of the deep depression after the 1929 WallStreet financial collapse. A ‘Global’ Green New Deal is meant tocoordinate the most important economies of the world to give the GreenNew Deal sufficient impetus and volume.

Considering the Role of a ‘Factor 5’ Approach
Within this context, we shift our ‘understand-a-scope’ device to now
consider the role of a ‘Factor 5’ approach in addressing the challenges
we have highlighted. In short, it is about ensuring the best use of scienceand technology in contributing to the solution, most of which has
already been discovered or invented but not yet mainstreamed. The great
news is, as Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute states, “If
it exists, it is possible”! Within this context, the concept of ‘Factor 5’ has
several components, which we will now briefly visit.
Doing Much More with Much Less

As we covered at the beginning of this lecture, Factor 5 means ‘doing
much more with much less’, in the order of either: 1) achieving the same
result using only one fifth of the intended resources, or 2) achieving fivetimes more with the intended resources. This means an 80%
productivity improvement.
As an engineer standing before you, the problem statement is straightforward but dual-purpose, spanning anthropogenic and environmental
needs. As citizens of the planet, we must find and follow pathways to:
curb consumption to within that which our planet can provide; andachieve health and wellbeing—for ourselves and the health of thisplanet. This includes dietary practices that are excessive with food waste
in developed countries well-surpassing global food aid programs. It also
includes improving the well-being of individuals who lack sufficientnutrition or quantity of food.
In our writing, we have tried to show how this is possible, with
examples from around the world across many key sectors of society
including residential and commercial buildings, transportation andagriculture. We found that each sector has its own particulartechnological, social and political context for engaging Factor 5 typeapproaches, which require exploring and understanding before progress
can really be made. This is critical to know, as using appropriate
examples and framing conditions are critical in converting case studies
to mainstream practice.

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Resource Productivity rather than Labour Productivity

This refers to the encouragement of economies to use human resources
more while saving resources. In market places and governments where
employment levels are key performance indicators for progress, it makes
sense to make the most of human resources where they are available,saving on physical resources.
For example this could include ‘food sovereignty’, providing land to
those who suffer from food shortages, to grow their own food. Thisechoes Dr E. F. Schumacher’s philosophy of the “TLC” factor (Tender
loving care), which promotes motivation and self-employment toimprove yields and farm health.
President Ikeda and Professor von Weiszäcker have also discussed theneed to achieve both social and environmental justice, ending ‘market
fundamentalism’ and devising alternatives to GDP (gross domestic
product) in measuring wealth. These are admirable objectives andshould be a focus of enquiry and discussion. However, given thetimeframes that I have briefly outlined above, it is clear that in themeantime, we must work within the global market systems that operate
now, with the indicators that governments are using now. Within thisdecade and the next, the task is global in scale, addressing the humandesire to produce and consume beyond what we need.
Towards Sufficiency for All

Professor von Weiszäcker notes the difference between the term
‘productivity’ and just ‘efficiency’—we must think holistically about
achieving such improvements, to avoid unintentionally increasing
production or consumption of resources. Together with ‘productivity’, in
Factor 5 we advocate ‘sufficiency’ (using just enough for what weneed), to ensure that our per-person consumption and resource use arereally being curbed globally.
We need rules of constraint or insights into other forms of satisfaction
than the maximisation of monetary throughput, or GDP. Indeed as
Professor von Weiszäcker reflects, ‘communism collapsed because it
was not allowing prices to tell the economic truth, and that capitalism
may also collapse if it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth’.
Markets steer efficient allocation of resources and stimulating
innovation, but do not provide other services such as public order andlaw, moral standards, basic education, and infrastructures. Neither dothey protect the commons or steer innovation into a long-term sustainable directions.

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Whole System Approach

As the predecessor to Factor 5, in Factor 4, the authors focused on
individual technologies that can be used to improve resource productivity. In Factor 5, we have redefined those technologies as combined
systems to drastically reform society or change the framework ofeducation, politics and economy. For our writing team, the purpose of
Factor 5 was to inspire hope through holistically reforming systems.
Furthermore it was not sufficient to present a highly theoretical pictureof how technology could save the world. We wanted to present practicalexamples of whole systems of technologies, infrastructures, legal rules,
education, and cultural habits interacting to produce economic progress
while conserving a healthy environment. The examples describedadvocate the harmonization of economy with resources, energy,
environment with frameworks that can be readily applied now bynations, companies and households to achieve Factor 5. Spanning topic
areas such as ‘biomimicry’ (innovation inspired by nature) and‘biophilic urbanism’ (nature-loving cities), cleaner production, lean
thinking (lean manufacturing), green development and many others,
opportunities arising from a systems approach to innovation are onlybounded by our imaginations.

Pathways to Factor Five
Now that we have visited the intentions of Factor 5 to address thechallenges of our time, we turn to briefly consider how such intentions
can be realized, drawing on the waves of innovation diagram, and thedecoupling diagram introduced earlier. Achieving a Factor 5 transition is
as much a technical challenge as it is a social one. Renewing education
systems and curricula, fostering sustainable behaviour, developing
policy and mechanisms to allow commerce and economic development,
will all be crucial components.
Indeed in Japan we can see a microcosm of global issues being
played out including a projection that in 2050, seniors over the age of 65
will comprise 40 per cent of the population. Within these challenges wefind some very interesting examples of innovation to create new types ofcities and communities. The Japanese government is developing anenvironment-friendly “FutureCity” Initiative (FCI), now in its third year.
It is being promoted by the Cabinet Office, and 11 cities have beenauthorized as “Future Cities” as of March 2014. The Cabinet Office has
also been promoting the Eco-Model City initiative—and subsequently

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the FutureCity Initiative—to realize low-carbon cities.
Quickly but Smoothly

For our green ‘wave of innovation’ to really take off, we need strong
states and engaged citizens working together to create good legal andmoral frames for the markets. Moreover, citizens, nation states, and theinternational communities of states and of citizens need to act in thosemarkets, as consumers, innovators, workers, guardians against destruction, and for sustainable technological and civilisational progress. In
contrast to the pioneers of the IT revolution who did not really needfavourable framing conditions to make their technological advances acommercial success, this newest wave of innovation will need leadership to create contexts conducive to the type of change we want to see.
The second part of Factor 5 publication addresses the politics,
economics, and psychology of framing conditions to help mainstream
new efficiency and renewable energy technologies that are emergent.
The process of redesigning, as radical as it may be in terms of a new
philosophy, can be a gradual and smooth one within the realm of scienceand technology, encouraged by prudently designed and predictablychanging framing conditions. This does not have to include losing much
physical or financial capital invested, rather avoiding investing newmoney into outdated and destructive operations and technologies.
Committing to Education

Believing in the infinite possibilities of humanity, it is still imperative toprovide access to knowledge and skills to bring about the complex
changes discussed earlier and by others in the field. We are challenged
to keep pace with emergent opportunities and ways of thinking, embedding this within our existing institutions, in addition to the new institutions such as Sokagakkai emergent around the world. We need to embark on a cross-sectoral, inter-generational education agenda, whichempowers our current and future workforce with knowledge and skills
to enact the ideas we have discussed here today.
For a smooth transition, we certainly need an educated workforce,
educated consumers, a new generation of researchers, engineers,marketing people, investors, and politicians. We also need to enable oursenior part of society to “Re-Tire”—using a car metaphor—to put on a
new set of tires and keep going! In these ‘urgent’ and ‘challenging’times, we see the challenge as multi-pronged, to short-circuit the typesof perverse decision-making and actions being taken today, and tocorrect the historic failure of designers, engineers, architects and150

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technicians to take a whole system approach to the identification andimplementation of resource productivity opportunities. This spans the
spectrum of education in our society, including:
1. Continued professional education for existing decision makers andwork force
2. Postgraduate education, spanning coursework, masters, and Ph. D.
3. Undergraduate education
4. High-school education
5. Primary school education
6. Kindergarten and day-care education
Such education should be: grounded in hope and the possibility of a
globally prosperous civilization in harmony with nature; locally contextual to global challenges; encouraging a systems approach to thinking,enquiry and action; and addressing formal (paid) and informal (unpaid)
employment opportunities to make a difference. In Japan I can point tothree initiatives that are leading in their approaches to such capacity
building:– ProSPER.Net is an alliance of leading universities in the AsiaPacific region that are committed to integrating sustainable
development into postgraduate courses and curricula.
– Jonan high school in Fukuoka prefecture is an example of a ‘Super
Science High School Program’ initiated by the Japanese government
to connect high school students with international experts in Universities about any scientific topic including sustainability and environmental science.
– The University of Tokyo’s “Graduate Program in Sustainability
Science—Global leadership Initiative” is an example of a globally
regarded immersive program for university students, considering thecomplexity of challenges and real-world problem solving opportunities.

Conclusion
In arriving at the end of tonight’s lecture, I hope that I havedemonstrated the need to think differently with regard to the role ofscience, and technology in contributing to significant societal change.
As Einstein’s famous words caution, there is no point anticipating a
different result as long as we continue to use the same approaches. The
author team of Factor 5, under the leadership of Professor von
Weiszäcker, has compiled a set of ingredients and a method conducive
to creating something transformational: 80% improvements in the way

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society can go about delivering activities products and services for the
betterment of humanity.
We have a timely opportunity for embarking on such action now,
considering the works of Kondratiev and Schumpeter who highlight thecyclic nature of innovation by our species, particularly since theindustrial revolution, and the potential for the next new cycle—the one
we are living into now—to be green. Furthermore, as President Ikeda
notes in his 2013 dialogue with Professor von Weizsäcker, “to borrow
Dr. Schumacher’s words and express this idea in contemporary terms,
we must devote the utmost tenderness, love and care for theenvironment, and by striving to protect nature and the ecosystem, lead alife in which our own humanity shines its brightest”.
As discussed this evening, the challenges in harnessing this next cycleof innovation for sustainability are multiple and complex, considering:
population growth and aging profiles, consumption patterns, and theimpacts of pollution from past waves of innovation particularly since theindustrial revolution. Fortunately we arrive at this unprecedented
challenge with a similarly unprecedented level of access tocommunication and spatial information about our planet. Decision
making, planning and design can be accelerated, grounded in reality andtransparent, considering a vast range of variables rather than being
estimated or based on the subjective opinions of a few.
In Factor 5 we present many precedents for achieving significant
improvements from around the world, spanning a number of criticalsectors to national economies. Indeed online we have additional casestudies to complement the publication. We also stress the need fortechnological innovation within the context of the need for sufficiency.
There is no point for our long-term viability as a species, to improve theefficiency to which we use our resources, if the end result is that perperson consumption increases for people who already have enough.
In conclusion, enabling a sustainable and prosperous existence for up
to 10-billion human beings on planet Earth is the 21st Century challenge
for humanity. Of course this involves creating an environment conducive
to life, which reaches beyond human needs to substantial improvements
in well-being for many earth systems. Mainstreaming the types ofinnovations discussed in Factor 5 is a critical component of the solutionin addition to timely economic and political leadership.

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Author Bibliography
Cheryl Desha is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Development, and Discipline Leader(Environmental System) in the Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland Universityof Technology, Brisbane, Australia. In 2005, she was selected as the Engineers Australia
Young Professional Engineer of the Year. Dr. Desha was awarded the university teaching
medal for the Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology Faculty in 2010, andthe Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award in 2012. She has been developing initiatives
to rapidly transitioning engineering education to education for sustainability, andpublished more than 70 articles including co-authoring: 6 books, 6 book chapters, 8refereed journal articles, 18 refereed conference papers, 12 industry reports, and otherrecognized publications.