The WRF Expert Committee met in St. Gallen, 14-15 June 2010, and discussed lessons learnt from WRF09, as well as the tentative program for WRF11. Five ‘hot topics’ for a call for papers emerged. The beautiful setting of the Swiss Alpes helped to get a far reaching vision.
The clusters which emerged from plenary and working group discussions are:
1.Security of Supply Peak minerals, Scarcity of metals and minerals, Environmental and social burden of resource extraction, Resource extraction and socio-political conflicts, Recycling of important material flows, Secondary resources
2.Growth, Innovation, Decoupling, Efficiency and Sufficiency Supply chain management, Regional and global material flows, Efficiency of processes and manufacturing, Dematerialization, Low Carbon Society, Green economy, Circular economy, Resources and greenhouse gas emissions, Best practice examples and case studies
3.Assessment Methods, Resource Use Indicators and Targets Life cycle analysis, Ecological footprint, Grey energy, Carbon footprint, other Greenhouse-gas-related indicators, Water footprint, Soil-related indicators, Material flow indicators and (per-capita) targets, Standards
4.The Social Dimension of Resources Welfare of countries, New economic approaches beyond growth, Values and lifestyles, Consumer behavior, Social LCA, Sustainability assessment, Sustainable consumption, North/South context, Industrializing countries
5.Communication and Education Information systems, Product information, Youth involvement, Awareness for resource limits and sustainable resource management, Workplace training, Outreach
The next meeting of the Expert Committee will be held early 2011.
