n. The ability to manufacture goods efficiently and with as little effect on the environment as possible.
2001
McDonough and Alston contend it is not enough for the corporate world to embrace 'eco-efficiency' — a business buzzword coined in the early 1990s.
1992
J. Hugh Faulkner, executive director of Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, who developed the concept of 'eco-efficiency' said sustainable development was 'good politics and good economics.'
1992 (earliest)
Eco-efficiency is achieved by the delivery of competitively-priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrying capacity.