Ecological modernization

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Template:Cleanup-date Template:Wikify-date Template:Unsourced Ecological modernization is an optimistic environmental discourse. It says that it is possible and desirable to both develop economically / socially and at the same time conserve the environment. This can be achieved by technological advances that help to reduce the consumption of resources by increasing efficiency (i.e. pollution prevention), typically through the use of externalities in one technological process as being made into the inputs of another technological process, instead of creating wastes. (See also the more familiar expression 'sustainable development' ) Another phrase increasingly used is 'cradle to cradle' manufacturing, counteropposed with the typical 'crade to grave' forms of manufacturing where wastes are left unintegrated into the next product cycle.

As a strategy of change, it is promoted by many business interests because, the free market principles are not questioned. This contrasts with many environmental movement strategies that regard free trade and its connected business self-regulation policies as part of the problem and even origin of environmental degradation. The state is either seen as the enabler for the markets that help produce the technological advances through competition, or as the regulation medium through which corporations are forced to 'take back' their wastes and learn to integrate them in some manner, as with several car corporations in Germany that are required to accept their junked cars they manufacture.

Critics argue that ecological modernization will fail to conserve the environment. It is questioned whether technological advances alone can achieve conservation and protection, particluarly if left to business self-regulation. For instance, many technological improvements are currently feasible but not in use due to such business self-regulation economic reasons: the variant most friendly to the environment--or the economy--is not always the one automatically chosen by self-regulating corporations.